Meat Industry

Tyson Foods faces a wrongful death lawsuit after ordering employees to continue working during the pandemic while supervisors privately wagered money on the number of workers who would contract and test positive for Covid-19.

Dean Banks, Tyson Foods' president and chief executive officer, has stated that they "are extremely upset about the accusations involving some of the leadership at our Waterloo plant. The lawsuit alleges that despite the uncontrolled spread of the virus at the plant, Tyson required its employees to work long hours in cramped conditions without providing the appropriate personal protective equipment and without ensuring workplace-safety measures were followed".

The accused supervisors have been suspended according to Banks.

After several Covid-19 cases became public, a slaughterhouse in Lower Saxony is now resuming operations. The reason for this is the pressure of the farmers and agricultural lobby on politicians. 

Measures to contain the virus have been taken with workers' quarantines. Health and safety organisations criticise these measures.

The Guardian reports that the farm "Estrela do Aripuanã" in Mato Grosso would have used JBS transport services to transfer cattle to another 'clean record' property, which later supplied two company's slaughterhouses. The practice it is known as 'cattle triangulation'.

The investigation, joint initiative by Repórter Brasil, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Guardian, found photographic evidence of the cattle being transported from "Estrela do Aripuanã", already fined by Ibama for illegal deforestation, to another farm.

JBS said in a statement that "The company clarifies that the logistics and transportation service provided and executed, independently, must meet the same sustainability policies as the company, including blocking farms that do not comply with these policies".

German slaughterhouses in various cities have reported multiple Covid-19 infections. Employees of slaughterhouses of the meat processing conglomerate Westfleisch have been tested positive for Covid-19 – 150 in Coesfeld, 33 in Oer-Erkenschwick and over 1000 workers from the slaughterhouse in Hamm have to be tested for a potential infection.