With your help, we can change the structure of our food system to protect workers and our food.
John,
I’ve been watchdogging Big Ag for 20 years.
Its system is built for failure. So seeing some of the worst coronavirus hotspots in the U.S. pop up in meat processing plants is not surprising.
The workers at these plants have been designated as essential employees. That means they’re forced to process our food even when they’re sick. As of June 12, at least 86 of them have died and more than 24,000 have contracted COVID-19.
This cruel act of Big Ag is part of a longstanding pattern of disregard for both worker safety and food safety. But while very little has changed since Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, with your help we can overhaul the structure of our food system to protect workers and our food.
The Trump administration and its industry enablers have failed to protect food industry workers during the COVID-19 outbreak, shining a light on those putting the food on our tables and the human rights abuses they’ve endured for decades.
Meatpacking workers suffer among the highest rates of injuries of all workers in all industries. And workers, many of whom are immigrants, fear reprisal if they report injuries or unsafe conditions. Every day they face:
Dangerous machinery and tools that cause limb and finger amputations at high rates because of crowded working conditions.
Frequent falls and back injuries. Animal fat, blood, leaking pipes and poor drainage make floor surfaces in the plants wet and slippery. Meanwhile, workers carry 300-pound carcasses to trucks and rail cars.
Caustic antiseptics and disinfectants that cause skin, eye and respiratory ailments.
For years, Food & Water Action has been fighting the abuses of Big Ag corporations that put profit ahead of the safety of their workers and our food supply. We use every tool we can – in the courts, in the halls of Congress and in the media – to force the government to do its job and hold industrial agriculture accountable to consumers and the workers it relies on.
Right now, we’re:
Fighting to get meat processing workers the personal protective equipment they need during the coronavirus crisis;
Demanding at least the temporary closure of all infected meat processing plants;
Organizing support for the Farm System Reform Act;
Organizing support for H.R. 6559 and S. 3677 that would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to establish enforceable mandatory safety practices in meatpacking facilities during the pandemic; and
Suing the USDA to stop its plan to reduce the number of trained inspectors and increase processing line speeds at meat plants.
We’re determined to keep up the fight. The safety of our food and our families is too important to do anything less.
Make no mistake: COVID-19 spreads in meat plants because of dangerous working conditions. Workers bring the virus home to their families, not the other way around. Trump and his cronies are using workers as scapegoats and blaming them for the spread of the virus. This is bigoted and shameful.
Tony Corbo
Senior Government Affairs Representative
Food & Water Action and Food & Water Watch
Food & Water Action and its affiliated organization, Food & Water Watch, are advocacy groups with a common mission to protect our food, water and climate. This email was sent to [email protected] - and we're glad you got it, because it's one of the most important ways you can reclaim political power, hold elected officials accountable and resist corporate control.
