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By John Wojcik
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—Just two days after the coronavirus took the life of a second worker at the Smithfield plant here, the town council on Tuesday unanimously voted to kill a stay-at-home order the city’s mayor, in defiance of the state’s governor, had introduced last week.
The much weaker “no lingering” order currently in place for the town was extended to May 15. It requires that no more than 10 people at a time gather inside any “non-essential” business.
Sioux Falls, in the heart of rural America, actually brings into sharp focus the battle going on now between the nation’s profit-hungry corporations on the one hand and the labor-led people’s forces on the other. It’s a battle between those who will do anything to preserve the interrupted status quo in which the majority of Americans are thoroughly exploited and a new way in which the health and safety of the people come first.
Under pressure from the local labor movement, including the AFL-CIO’s Central Labor Council for Sioux Falls and Local 304A of the UFCW which represents 6,700 workers at the Smithfield plant, Mayor Paul TenHaken had introduced a stay-at-home order into the town council last week. He did this against the will of the state’s right-wing governor, Republican Kristi Noem....
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