Workers cheered as they enter Smithfield pork plant in South Dakota
Source: Omaha World Herald-AP
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) Employees at a Smithfield pork processing plant in South Dakota where a coronavirus outbreak infected over 800 people were greeted at work Wednesday with thank-you signs, cheers and waves from about a dozen area residents.
They're putting their health at risk just like the hospital workers are to continue on with this work, so I hope they feel appreciated, said Becky Olson, a Sioux Falls resident who held a sign outside Smithfield's entrance.
The plant has instructed many workers to return to work this week as it looks to scale up operations by the end of the month. Masked employees streamed into the factory entrance as trucks carrying pigs rumbled past.
The Smithfield plant, which produces roughly 5% of the nation's pork supply, gave an early warning of how quickly the virus can spread in meatpacking plants that are key to the nation's food supply. Two employees at the plant have died from COVID-19, along with over 20 meat and poultry workers nationwide.
Read more: https://www.omaha.com/money/workers-cheered-as-they-enter-smithfield-pork-plant-in-south-dakota/article_35e60da3-0ef5-5ccc-933f-50d95e84f061.html
FarPoint
(12,466 posts)I just don't see why the community ranks meat workers along side first-line nurses and doctors?
IronLionZion
(45,574 posts)since people have been avoiding the hospitals for fear of catching COVID.
People seem to like meat a lot. There's been a lot of meat hoarding during this quarantine by people who must be having chest freezers.
IronLionZion
(45,574 posts)Tesphay said the plant's closure and safety measures gave him confidence to return. The people who showed up to cheer him on made him feel the community cared, he said.
Good luck with that. I hope it's safe.
FarPoint
(12,466 posts)What happened to workers demanding safety? I imagine these plants do not have Union Representation... This will be an interesting clinical/ sociology paper for someone in the near future.
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)Not that I would anyway. I wonder who paid for the signs, this sure looks orchestrated.
CloudWatcher
(1,851 posts)If you zoom in on the sign in picture, you can barely make out the One Sioux Falls Fund at the bottom.
https://www.sfacf.org/covid-19
I'd like to ask them if they're prepared to provide for the survivors of the workers that inevitably die as a result of reopening too soon.
FarPoint
(12,466 posts)This store is small but is well represented by the local family farms....They did an aggressive COVID-19 Protocol/ Precautions...
richdj25
(164 posts)Bacon as much as the next person but won't rank it as an absolute necessary. If I have to go all out vegan, then so be it.
Those plant workers deserve better than having to risk their lives, so someone can have a BLT.
demmiblue
(36,903 posts)not_the_one
(2,227 posts)Someone went to a lot of trouble to design and produce a generic sign.
If the friends and neighbors did it, they would be custom, and sincere.
The Magistrate
(95,258 posts)You need hand-done signs if you want to appear as a spontaneous community sort of thing. A short line of uniform, professionally designed signs just doesn't cut it. The workers certainly do deserve recognition for the risks they are undergoing, and there may well be a sense of duty and altruism among them, which should be saluted. But this ain't it....
FarPoint
(12,466 posts)I see the wisdom...rationale.
bedazzled
(1,771 posts)Last time i shopped. Undesirable for some reason. Sometimes i am happy to be a veg
Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)Except bacon.
bedazzled
(1,771 posts)Always say to my husband, "how can you people EAT that stuff." Surrounded by unyielding carnivores
Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)bedazzled
(1,771 posts)Shudder! Gave up all kinds of meat a long time ago My husband was an unrepentant meat eater when i met him alas. Pointless to try and change people
LuvLoogie
(7,058 posts)That said I eat me some pork.
tirebiter
(2,539 posts)Use it effectively
Roy Rolling
(6,943 posts)Let the bloodbath begin! Thank you for sacrificing your health for corporate slaughterhouses.
Crowman2009
(2,503 posts)Just hand waving and noise. If you think they want to give these workers higher wages, health benefits, etc.--don't kid yourself!
Crowman2009
(2,503 posts)EarthFirst
(2,905 posts)SunSeeker
(51,746 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,964 posts)Are the workers welcome at the local barber shops, restaurants and such that open?
How about some free haircuts and meals to show appreciation?
rocktivity
(44,581 posts)rocktivity
marble falls
(57,390 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,964 posts)Wisconsin Supreme Court justice: Meatpackers aren't 'regular folks'
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142489043
Conservative Justice.
Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)I don't eat pork, but many people do. Even a perception of food shortages would be harmful to our country.