May 12, 2020
Executive Order Purporting to Keep
Processing Plants Open During Pandemic Lacks Meaningful Safety Measures; Will
Result in More Closures and Cost Lives
Carson
City, NV – Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford sent a letter
calling on President Trump to take immediate action to ensure the health and
safety of meat and poultry processing plant employees who have been deemed
essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 28, President Trump
signed an Executive Order invoking the Defense Production Act (DPA) in an
attempt to keep meat and poultry processing plants open despite widespread
outbreaks of COVID-19 in these facilities. Over 10,000 cases have been tied to
the plants and 45 workers have died. The Order purports to force employees to
continue to work without imposing adequate and enforceable mandates to protect
their health and safety. AG Ford is joined by 19 states in this action.
“During this pandemic, lives are on the line,
and no life is more valuable than another,” said AG Ford. “While I
recognize the immediate need for meat and poultry and other essential items,
the Trump Administration should provide protective equipment and encourage
every precaution to keep our workers safe and healthy.”
The incidence of COVID-19 infections among meat
and poultry industry workers is so severe that many plants are reporting
hundreds of workers testing positive for Coronavirus. These clusters of
infections also devastate the surrounding communities. Yet some processing
facilities continue to operate the plants without instituting adequate health
and safety measures. Despite fast-moving disassembly lines requiring workers to
stand shoulder to shoulder for hours, efforts to provide personal protective
equipment (PPE) and enforce social distancing measures have been sporadic and
not subject to strict USDA regulation. Some companies also continue to impose
punitive measures for employees who fall ill and are unable to work. Rather
than slowing line speeds to enable safer working conditions, some plants have
sought, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved, new line
speed waivers that force employees to work faster and closer to one another.
President Trump’s
Executive Order instructs the USDA to ensure processing facilities continue to
operate under voluntary guidelines for promoting safe working conditions, but
does not mandate these protective measures or commit to enforcing them. The attorneys
general filed a letter stating that the Trump Administration must make these
health and safety standards stronger, mandatory, and enforceable. Adequate
measures must include:
- Priority testing for
workers in the processing plants;
- Immediate access to
adequate PPE;
- Suspension of all line
speed waivers and a halt to the approval of any additional waivers;
- Six foot physical and
social distancing where possible, and plexiglass barriers where distancing
cannot be achieved; and,
- Isolation and quarantine
of COVID-19 positive workers with full pay.
The attorneys general explain that without
additional measures to protect these workers, Trump’s Executive Order will
prolong the spread of illness and death and imperil its own goal of keeping the
plants open. Additionally, the Order may compound the harm done by the federal government’s
failure to provide assistance for COVID-19 testing and PPE by attempting to
strip states’ ability to determine when or if these processing plants are safe
to continue operating in order to protect the health and safety of their own
workers.
In addition to Nevada, other states
participating in this letter include: California,
Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
The issued letter
is attached.
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