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Meatpacking plants have become coronavirus hotspots across the U.S. In Virginia, ...
Last edited Mon Apr 27, 2020, 02:41 PM - Edit history (1)
Meatpacking plants have become coronavirus hotspots across the U.S. In Virginia, no one’s giving workers much information.
By Sarah Vogelsong - April 27, 2020
As meatpacking plants across the United States become coronavirus hotspots, some Virginia poultry workers say that cases in the commonwealth’s processing facilities exceed company-provided figures and are not consistently revealed to employees.
“Word of mouth was that we have maybe 10 or more cases up there, but us employees were only told about two cases,” said Kita Davis, a wing packer at Tyson’s Temperanceville plant on the Eastern Shore. “We found out about three cases through Facebook.”
Meatpacking is big business in Virginia. In tallying up the state’s most important agricultural products, August 2019 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service ranked broilers — the term used for chickens raised for meat rather than eggs — No. 1 and cattle and calves No. 2, which together are responsible for more than $1.3 billion in cash receipts.
Not all of that meat ends up at Virginia facilities, but a list provided by the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services includes 122 meat processing plants in the commonwealth that are inspected by the state and federal government.
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By Sarah Vogelsong - April 27, 2020
As meatpacking plants across the United States become coronavirus hotspots, some Virginia poultry workers say that cases in the commonwealth’s processing facilities exceed company-provided figures and are not consistently revealed to employees.
“Word of mouth was that we have maybe 10 or more cases up there, but us employees were only told about two cases,” said Kita Davis, a wing packer at Tyson’s Temperanceville plant on the Eastern Shore. “We found out about three cases through Facebook.”
Meatpacking is big business in Virginia. In tallying up the state’s most important agricultural products, August 2019 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service ranked broilers — the term used for chickens raised for meat rather than eggs — No. 1 and cattle and calves No. 2, which together are responsible for more than $1.3 billion in cash receipts.
Not all of that meat ends up at Virginia facilities, but a list provided by the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services includes 122 meat processing plants in the commonwealth that are inspected by the state and federal government.
{snip}