COVID-19 bill gives meat packing plants millions in relief, but worker safety isn’t included
Worker shortages and increased demand for meat during the pandemic are hitting meat processing plants and the livestock producers that supply them.
Now the state is poised to send some financial help to smaller businesses. But they don’t necessarily have to ensure their workers are receiving key virus protections.
As the North Carolina legislature wrapped up its short session last week, it sent the governor a COVID-19 economic relief bill including $10 million in grants for small to medium-sized meat processing plants and livestock producers.
One proposal to help address the pandemic’s impact on the food supply chain passed the state House with $17 million in grants and a requirement for eligible meat processing plants to submit their plans for protecting their employees from the coronavirus. But that bill stalled on the legislature’s last day before adjourning.
Instead, the smaller amount of money was added to a different and larger piece of legislation without any requirements for worker protection.
COVID-19 has infected more than 2,000 employees at processor plants, according to state health officials, and an unknown number of workers’ family members.
While North Carolina doesn’t have the most infected workers, it has the most plant outbreaks in the country, the Food and Environment Reporting Network reported.
Worker safety was discussed as House Bill 1201 moved through committees earlier this month. Rep. John Ager, a Buncombe County Democrat, proposed an amendment that called for two weeks’ pay for infected workers as a requirement for relief funds. But that drew opposition.
“Our concern was that it was going to put a requirement on the grants that was not going to be required of any other processor in the state and what sort of competitive disadvantage that may be,” Paul Sherman, legislative director for the NC Farm Bureau, told The News & Observer.
The House Agriculture Committee voted against Ager’s amendment, with members saying that small plants couldn’t afford to meet all the criteria, the NC Insider reported.
“Legislators opposed to the amendment expressed that it would only put more regulation on mid to small meat processing plants and that their main concern right now is to increase production,” said Ana Figueroa, a lobbyist for Student Action for Farmworkers, in an email. “This actually reduces concern for workers, as they will be pushing more animal production through.”
On the House floor, Charlotte Democratic Rep. Rachel Hunt offered an amendment for sweeping worker protections, saying eligible plants had to ensure social distancing, proper sanitation, personal protective equipment, notification of workers of possible exposure and deep cleanings after infections, in addition to paid leave for sick workers.
Hunt’s amendment failed in a 57-57 vote with a few Republicans joining Democrats in support.
Instead, the House added a provision that said only that a plant must submit “a plan for protecting its employees from COVID-19.”
“All of us are enormously interested in the health and safety of all of our workers and all of our meat production professionals,” said Rep. Jimmy Dixon, a Duplin County Republican who proposed the lighter version.
Dixon said the plants could be trusted more than lawmakers on how to keep those employees safe.
“[The amendment was] better than nothing,” said Clermont Ripley, an attorney at the NC Justice Center, in an email. “But is really very little protection and there will be no way to enforce anything if the plant fails to follow through with their safety plan.”
The NC Justice Center has advocated for adding worker protections to the bill and cited two news articles in a letter to House representatives: the state health department refusing to disclose specific plant outbreak data as cases grew, as reported by a reporting collaborative including The News & Observer, and an N&O story on a dramatic rise in virus cases in ZIP codes near meat plants with outbreaks.
Ripley didn’t know at the time that grants for meat plants had been added to House Bill 1023, the relief bill with $2.1 billion in CARES Act funding that was already likely to be passed by the Senate.
“The result is that it cuts out any opportunity for public input,” Ripley said in an interview.
If she had known sooner, she said, advocates could have made an effort to argue for including worker protections.
“If businesses are going to get this money, we want to make sure that worker protections are included in it,” Ripley said.
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 9:53 AM with the headline "COVID-19 bill gives meat packing plants millions in relief, but worker safety isn’t included."
