Judge dismisses lawsuit over worker safety at Smithfield pork plant

A federal judge has dismissed a worker advocacy group's lawsuit accusing Smithfield Foods Inc, the world's largest pork processor, of failing to adequately protect employees from the novel coronavirus at a plant in Missouri. Smithfield is already taking many of the steps called for by the Rural Community Workers Alliance, including screening production-line workers for symptoms and installing barriers between them, District Judge Greg Kays in Kansas City, Missouri, said in his ruling on Tuesday. Kays also said that under President Donald Trump's executive order in April requiring meatpacking plants to remain open during the pandemic, the federal government, and not the courts, were responsible for overseeing working conditions...MORE