JBS - Pilgrim's Pride killing its workers

JBS USA, a subsidiary of the Brazilian meat and poultry processing behemoth with two plants in Minnesota, is killing its workers.

 JBS “ignored federal guidance and put plant workers in the cross hairs of a global pandemic,” a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia earlier this month, alleges.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Enock Benjamin by a Philadelphia law firm, according to a May 7th report in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mr. Benjamin was a seventy year old union steward, in good health, who worked at the 1,400 employee JBS beef processing plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania, according to the newspaper. He  died on Friday, April 3rd from respiratory failure brought on by the pandemic virus, according to the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office.

Knock Benjamin - Thanks WHYY radio

According to the newspaper, the suit, filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, says that JBS failed to protect workers with masks and other safety measures at the meat-processing complex, and instead tacked onto the production schedule a “Saturday kill” program in March to satisfy demand in the “public panic purchases of ground meat.”

“By choosing profits over safety, JBS demonstrated a reckless disregard to the rights and safety of others,” the suit claims.

Mr. Benjamin died while the plant was shutdown to install safety measures.

A month later, in Lufkin Texas, Maria Hernandez died alone in her home. Ms. Hernandez was employed at Pilgrim’s Pride, JBS’s chicken processing company. 

“According to her family, Hernandez became ill around April 25 and began over-the-counter medication,” the CBS affiliate in Dallas Fort Worth reported on May 8th. “She was tested for the coronavirus on May 4 and received her positive diagnosis two days before she was found dead in her home.”

There are no reports regarding the working conditions at the Pilgrim’s Pride - JBS plant in Lufkin. However, conditions at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant in Cold Spring Minnesota are deadly, according to workers and community organizers.

“One Saturday morning a member of our community spoke to me very distressed about her husband,” Ma. Elena Gutierrez, from Asamblea de Derechos Civiles in St. Cloud, wrote  in a May 9th email. “She told me that her husband couldn't breathe and that she had already taken him to the hospital three days ago. I replied that she should immediately take him to the hospital’s emergency room. The patient has been in the hospital for three weeks. Later, this woman shared with me that two of her husband's co-workers who work in the same line stopped going to work before her husband became infected and the company did not notify them of anything. Pilgrim’s Pride poultry processing plant is not following CDC rules. Now, many workers and their families have been infected and some have been at risk of losing their lives.”

“Three weeks ago I started receiving many calls from workers,” Gutierrez said. “They are telling me what is happening. Working at the plant has caused a lot of anguish and fear for these essential workers. They prefer to remain anonymous because they do not want to be retaliated against by the plant.”

A number of workers have conducted work stoppages or simply called in sick in hopes of addressing the dangerous working conditions at Pilgrim’s Pride - JBS in Cold Spring.

While JBS was causing its workers to become ill in Cold Spring it was doing the same thing at its pork plant in Worthington, MN. Workers made repeated requests to install safety measures in the plant. Finally, in response to a COVID 19 out break that has grown to 1,353 positive cases and two deaths, the company finally closed the plant.

JBS plants have caused a wave of COVID out breaks and plant closures across the country starting in March and continuing through today. 

In late March health official in the small city of Grand Island Nebraska begin to see an out break of COVID among numerous workers at the JBS plant there.

“Our message is really that JBS should shut down for 2 weeks and have a solid screening plan before re-opening,”  Dr. Rebecca Steinke, a Grande Island family physician wrote to her clinics senior administrator, according to ProPublica in its May 7th report.

“Under pressure to keep the food supply chain flowing, some of the plant’s 3,500 workers, many hailing from Latin America, Somalia and Sudan, said they were told to report for work regardless,” Michael Grabell wrote for ProPublica. “In a letter to the governor last week, Nebraska Appleseed, a nonprofit advocacy group, said a JBS worker had been told by his supervisor that if he tested positive, he should come to work anyway and “keep it on the DL” or he’d be fired.”

At least one death is directly attributable to the JBS plant in Grand Island.

While JBS was cleaning its Philadelphia area plant and Enock Benjamin was gasping his last tortured breaths, JBS was fighting tooth and nail to keep its Worthington and Grand Island plants open.

The same pattern repeated itself at the JBS plant in Greeley Colorado. There, when JBS refused to take action, the State Health Department shut the plant down. It was repeated again in Plainwell, Michigan.; Green Bay, Wisconsin.; and Cactus, Texas.

JBS and Pilgrim’s Pride have left a long and wide trail of suffering, death, and traumatized families and communities in their effort to protect their profits.

Although President Trump is attempting to protect companies such as JBS - Pilgrim’s Pride from liability, the law firm that brought the law suit on behalf of the family of Enock Benjamin predicts that there will be more law suits as a result of the companies behavior.

Tim

Central Minnesota Political

You can read the ProPublica story here  https://www.propublica.org/article/what-happened-when-health-officials-wanted-to-close-a-meatpacking-plant-but-the-governor-said-no?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature