Advocates for meatpacking workers lined up Monday in support of a continuing effort by Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha to provide more pandemic-related protections for workers who have been ravaged by COVID-19 during the past year.
A total of 7,072 workers in processing plants in Nebraska have been infected by the virus, Vargas told the Legislature’s Business and Labor Committee during a hearing on his proposal, Legislative Bill 241, to enact a meatpacking employees COVID-19 protection act.
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Some 225 workers have been hospitalized, he said, while 27 have died.
The majority of meatpacking workers are Latino and immigrants, Vargas noted, and many are refugees.
“Their concerns and cries for help are not being addressed,” he said.
The proposal follows an effort that was blocked during the closing days of the 2020 Legislature.
Only this time, spokespeople for the industry showed up to testify against the bill.
Representatives of Smithfield Foods and Lincoln Premium Poultry in Fremont spoke in opposition to the bill, citing its requirement for 6 feet of social distancing — including on production lines — as their primary objection and concern.
Gary Walters of Smithfield — which has plants in Crete, Lincoln and Omaha — said only one employee has tested positive in the past 10 days.
Jessica Kolterman, speaking for Lincoln Premium Poultry, said there are “some areas where we can’t do 6 feet of distancing without dramatically reducing production.”
Kolterman said the plant has only one active case of the virus.
Vargas, whose father died in New York City as a result of COVID-19 in April, represents a district in South Omaha that is heavily Latino.
A parade of advocates for the bill argued that the health and well-being of workers should be the primary concern.
Workers are crowded together in areas throughout the plants even when they are not on the production line, they told the committee. That includes in break rooms and bathrooms, as well as rooms where workers eat side by side, they said.
And they are working “shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow” on the production line, said James Goodard, speaking for Nebraska Appleseed.
“This is a good-faith effort,” said John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union. “There is nothing unreasonable here in terms of workplace safety.”
More than 20,000 meatpacking employees work in Nebraska, Susan Martin of the Nebraska AFL-CIO told the committee.
“We’re just asking for basic protection and enforcement,” she said. “If companies are following these practices, there should be no opposition.”