Hearing Exposes Dire Conditions Inside Meatpacking Plants

Washington, D.C. (October 27, 2021) — Today, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, chaired by Rep. James E. Clyburn, held a hearing to assess the impact of the coronavirus on essential workers in America's meatpacking industry during the first year of the pandemic, examine government and private sector missteps that led to avoidable sickness and loss of life, and determine how to protect workers and their families.

Chairman Clyburn said in his opening statement:

"America's essential workers have suffered a terrible toll from the coronavirus pandemic, risking their health and even giving their lives to do the jobs that needed to be done and couldn't be done remotely. Perhaps no essential workers have been struck as hard as those in the meatpacking industry. With long shifts, enclosed workspaces, and crowded conditions, meatpacking plants presented a perfect storm for the coronavirus to spread. It became clear in the first weeks of the pandemic that this critical industry would be hit particularly hard. … Knowing the true scale of these outbreaks is important not just to understand what happened to those working in the plants. Outbreaks in meatpacking plants were also drivers of the spread of the virus in their wider communities, leading to additional infections and deaths among those who never set foot in a facility."

Prior to the hearing, the Select Subcommittee released a staff memorandum showing that the number of coronavirus infections and deaths at the nation's five largest meatpacking conglomerates is nearly three times higher than previously estimated for these five companies, and that company executives prioritized profits and production over worker safety.

Chairman Clyburn added: "Meatpacking companies had a responsibility to do everything they could to keep their workers safe, and these statistics make clear that they fell short."

Today's witnesses testified to the extent of the impact of the coronavirus on the lives of meatpacking workers, their families, and their communities. Witnesses included: Debbie Berkowitz, Practitioner Fellow, Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, Georgetown University; Magaly Licolli, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Venceremos; Martin Rosas, President, District Union Local Two, United Food and Commercial Workers; and Rose Godinez, Interim Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nebraska.

Witnesses shared the following testimony during the hearing:

Outbreaks Could Have Been Prevented if Meatpacking Conglomerates Had Not Prioritized Profits over the Health and Safety of Their Employees

• Ms. Berkowitz testified "[T]he wildfire spread of covid among meat and poultry workers was not inevitable. It was preventable. It was a direct result of the meat industry, unlike almost all other industries in the United States, deciding to prioritize their own profits for a few over the health of their workers and their communities." She continued "[t]he meat industry decided they would not change. The cost to workers and their communities of this decision is staggering."
• In response to a question from Rep. Jamie Raskin about whether the meatpacking industry could have better protected its workers, Mr. Rosas explained "one of the problems that we confronted was where the companies were refusing to slow the production lines, putting profits ahead of workers' safety and well-being."

Meatpacking Conglomerates Pressured Workers to Report for Work Despite Dangerous Conditions

• Mr. Rosas explained why meatpacking workers continued to show up to work despite dangerous conditions: "These workers were living in fear. They did not know whether these companies were willing to protect them. They were also afraid to miss work because they do not have sufficient leave benefits."
• Ms. Licolli described working conditions in meatpacking plants: "[W]orkers continued working in cramped processing rooms, and were only given one mask. When the masks became soiled with blood and sweat, workers were forced to pull them down below their nose or take them off completely so they could breathe. In the windowless cafeteria break rooms dozens of workers squeezed together around tables separated only by thin, flimsy nylon barriers that provided very little protection."
• Ms. Godinez, who is the daughter of two meatpacking workers, explained that workers were "working shoulder to shoulder and across from workers on the line and less than one foot apart in shared spaces like cafeterias, locker rooms, and hallways."

Coronavirus Outbreaks at Meatpacking Plants Had Lasting Effects on Families and Communities

• When asked by Rep. Carolyn Maloney how meatpacking plants impacted coronavirus infection rates in surrounding communities, Ms. Berkowitz explained that the coronavirus "whipped like wildfire among the workers, and then they brought it back home to their family members, who got sick, who infected other people in the community."
• Ms. Godinez testified: "there was a lack of transparency. There was no contract tracing. They didn't know if they had been exposed. They didn't know if they had exposed their children or family members. So they knew they were risking their lives by going into the meatpacking plants, and that was an unnecessary risk."

During the Trump Administration, OSHA Failed to Protect Our Nation's Essential Workers

• Ms. Berkowitz explained the importance of OSHA for essential workers: "All they have to protect their worker safety rights is OSHA, and when OSHA fails, they have nothing."
• In response to a question from Rep. Maxine Waters regarding OSHA's response to the coronavirus, Ms. Berkowitz testified: "OSHA totally abandoned its mission to ensure employers could protect workers in the last administration, and after thousands and thousands of workers got sick in meatpacking and so many died in these plants, OSHA did little more than slap them on the wrist." She added: "OSHA totally abandoned its mission. They went AWOL. They looked the other way. The Secretary of Labor at the time, Eugene Scalia, told OSHA ‘don't respond' to complaints that were coming with inspections."
• Ms. Licolli explained: "OSHA never enforced its own COVID-19 guidelines for meat processing companies. Therefore, workers felt completely abandoned and unprotected, as they were unable to file complaints with OSHA that would result in an inspection once they fell sick and COVID began to rampage through meatpacking plants and communities."

Click here to view the hearing.

Click here to read the Chairman's opening statement.

Read testimonies from Debbie Berkowitz, Magaly Licolli, Martin Rosas, and Rose Godinez.

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