COVID Corruption: Meat Industry Funnels Money to Republicans to Squash COVID Lawsuits

Approximately 40,000 meat plant workers have tested positive for Covid-19.  At least 168 have died. Rather than investing in measures to protect workers in the future, the companies have donated to Republican legislators and pushed for special immunity from legal liability.  This is corruption.  This is the swamp.

In April... factory farms became some of the first hot spots for the rampant spread of the coronavirus. Nearly 100 workers at a variety of meat-processing plants across the country have died of Covid-19 and several thousand have been infected across the industry, a crisis that has spurred lawsuits alleging that the meat industry has failed to protect workers.

... facing potential legal risks for allegedly failing to protect workers from coronavirus-related risks, are among the many business interests now backing efforts to obtain special immunity from legal liability.

The legal threat could be undone by new liability waiver laws, a legislative priority for Republicans...

For example:

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork processor, and Mountaire Farms, a major poultry producer, have come under fire in recent months for reportedly pressuring employees to crowd into plants with minimal safety precautions... cut campaign checks to the Republican attorneys general seeking civil liability protections for businesses that remained open during the pandemic, and has dispatched company lobbyists to press lawmakers on the issue... made its first significant donation to the Republican Attorneys General Association in over six years two months ago.

Ron Cameron, the billionaire chair of Mountaire Farms, has similarly showered officials backing a broad push for legal immunity for coronavirus-related claims with campaign donations.

The American Farm Bureau Federation, which represents a range of animal agriculture interests, has also pushed Congress to include liability waivers in the next round of legislative relief for the current crisis.

They purposely stayed open and got thousands sick and now want immunity. Hell no.

In April, Trump issued an executive order compelling meatpacking plants to stay open, exacerbating the rapid spread of the virus.

Several major meat companies coerced sick employees to continue working with promises of bonuses, and in many plants workers claimed that they faced hostility when requesting hygiene equipment such as face masks.

 

The centralized nature of the factory farm industry, with massive plants employing workers often huddled shoulder to shoulder, deboning chickens, or packaging beef, along with meager paid sick leave and the declining rates of federal safety inspectors, made the industry an early focal point of the crisis.

Source: https://theintercept.com/2020/07/24/meat-industry-coronavirus-lawsuits/