The Misadventures of Moscow Mitch: Slate: Giving Corporations a License to Kill
By SEJAL SINGH and LIZ WATSON
By late April, it was clear to meatpacking workers at a Smithfield Foods plant in Missouri that their employer was putting their lives in danger. Smithfield’s workers were forced to come into the cramped plant—even after at least eight workers showed COVID-19 symptoms—where they had no personal protective equipment, faced retaliation if they took sick leave, couldn’t socially distance, and couldn’t even cover their mouths to cough. Workers were forced to go hours without washing their hands and stand nearly shoulder to shoulder. Meanwhile, workers in the plant were hearing alarming reports of outbreaks at other meatpacking plants from Minnesota to Illinois.
Smithfield didn’t institute protective measures until after workers finally sued the meatpacking plant to demand a safe workplace. Those protections may have come too late for some. Thousands of meatpacking plant workers across the country have now tested positive, and at least 63 have died. But Senate Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it nearly impossible to make Smithfield and other companies pay workers damages for knowingly exposing workers.