The JBS pork plant in
Worthington will reopen Wednesday after being closed for processing for
two weeks, a union representing workers there said in a letter to members. The plant, where nearly 500 workers have tested positive for coronavirus, has not been slaughtering hogs for processing since April 21. But
under President Donald Trump's order requiring meat processors to
remain open during the pandemic, the plant is starting back up. The
plant typically slaughters about 21,000 hogs a day and is a key buyer of
Minnesota hogs. Last Wednesday, the plant opened with a small crew to euthanize hogs that farmers could not afford to keep. Matt
Utecht, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663,
which represents more than 1,800 workers at the plant, said in a letter
to members that the union "has been hard at work ensuring that reopening
the plant involves a commitment to enhanced safety guidelines." JBS USA, the American branch of the Brazilian meat giant JBS S.A., has instituted a long list of safety measures. They include
infrared temperature screening, face masks for everyone, plexiglass
barriers, rearranged locker rooms, face shields for employees who cannot
be 6 feet apart and floor-to-ceiling sanitation by an outside
contractor. As
of Monday, 490 JBS workers at the Worthington plant had tested positive
for COVID-19, up from 239 last Tuesday, according to the Minnesota
Department of Health. Extensive testing of workers has occurred in the
past two weeks. The
plant is the hub of a big outbreak in Nobles County. With 1,011
COVID-19 diagnoses as of Monday, Nobles has by far the most per capita
cases of any Minnesota county and is second only to Hennepin County in
raw numbers.The Smithfield pork plant in Sioux Falls started to reopen Monday, with workers filing into the plant, the Associated Press reported. More than 800 workers at the plant have been infected with the virus, and it was shuttered for over two weeks...MORE
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