The meatpacking industry in the U.S is required to remain open due to Trump’s recently signed executive order, despite workers being considered vulnerable to contracting COVID-19.
However, Donald, an employee at the Tyson Foods facility in Waterloo, Iowa, told CNN he believes people will refuse to come into work.
” All I know is, this is crazy to me because I can’t see all these people going back into work,” he said. “I don’t think people are going to go back in there.”
“I’m still trying to figure out. What is he going to do, force them to stay open? Force people to go to work?” Donald, who is in the recovery stages after testing positive for COVID-19, added.
Trump signed the executive order after companies like Tyson were preparing to shut down the majority of their facilities.
For the past few weeks, major meat distributors announced they were temporarily ceasing operations as employees were becoming sick with COVID-19.
On Tuesday, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said that 20 employees across the meatpacking industry have died due to COVID-19.
However, the meat distribution industry, under the Defense Production Act, is declared essential to the country’s infrastructure and requires plants to remain open, despite the harmful working conditions due to the pandemic.
Trump told reporters Tuesday he believes the executive order” will solve any liability problems” that may come about with employees and their employers.
An anonymous Tyson employee told CNN on Tuesday,” All in all, it can be a good thing if done right. But my faith in this administration has never been strong and is nonexistent currently. I wanna know what these added ‘liability protections’ are going to be. I just don’t know how they’re going to do it when people are dying and getting really sick.”
