Latest Meat Processing Headlines
All the headlines from our Meat Processing Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Tyson Foods to Close Iowa Meat Plant as More Workers Catch COVID-19
May 28 2020 // Tyson Foods Inc. said on Thursday it will temporarily close an Iowa pork plant due to the coronavirus pandemic, a month after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered slaughterhouses to stay open to protect the country’s...
North Carolina Tyson Foods Poultry Plant Reports 570 COVID-19 Cases
May 26 2020 // Meat producer Tyson Foods is reporting 570 cases of COVID-19 at a poultry processing complex in North Carolina. Tyson said in a news release that it tested more than 2,000 staff members and contractors who work at its...
Workers Worry Over Enforcement of Meatpacking Plant Safety Recommendations
May 22 2020 // Federal recommendations meant to keep meatpacking workers safe as they return to plants that were shuttered by the coronavirus have little enforcement muscle behind them, fueling anxiety that working conditions could put...
Kentucky Requests DOJ Investigation of Meatpacking Industry
May 19 2020 // Kentucky officials on Friday asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the meatpacking industry after local cattle farmers complained the price they are paid for their animals is continuing to drop at the same...
Workers Protest Virus Outbreak at Minnesota Poultry Plant
May 13 2020 // Workers have protested what they consider dangerous working conditions at the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant in the central Minnesota town of Cold Spring, site of one of the largest COVID-19 workplace...
Workers at West Virginia Poultry Processing Plant to be Tested for Virus
May 12 2020 // The West Virginia National Guard will assist in conducting tests for the coronavirus starting Monday at a poultry processing plant in a small county where cases have increased, authorities said. Testing at the...
Meat Giant Sued for Worker’s Covid-19 Death in Philadelphia
May 11 2020 // The family of a beef plant worker who died because of the coronavirus has brought a wrongful death lawsuit in a Philadelphia court against JBS SA, the world’s biggest meat company. Ferdinand Benjamin filed the suit...
11 Midwestern AGs Seek Federal Probe of Meatpacking Industry
May 7 2020 // The attorneys general for 11 Midwestern states are urging the Justice Department to pursue a federal investigation into market concentration and potential price fixing by meatpackers in the cattle industry during the...
Lawsuit Over Worker Safety at Smithfield’s Missouri Pork Plant Dismissed
May 7 2020 // A U.S. federal judge has dismissed a worker advocacy group’s lawsuit accusing Smithfield Foods Inc., the world’s largest pork processor, of failing to adequately protect employees from the novel coronavirus at...
At Least 116 Oklahoma Meat Plant Workers, 240 in Texas Test Positive for Virus
May 6 2020 // At least 116 employees at an Oklahoma pork processing plant have tested positive for coronavirus, Seaboard Foods spokesman David Eahart said in a statement on May 4. Meanwhile, a surge of coronavirus cases in the Texas...
Meat Workers Taking Leave, Quitting as Plants Reopen Amid Coronavirus Scare
May 6 2020 // America’s meat-processing plants are starting to reopen but not all workers are showing up. Some still fear they’ll get sick after coronavirus outbreaks shut more than a dozen facilities last month. Employees...
Midwest Meatpackers Cautiously Reopen Plants After Coronavirus Shutdown
May 5 2020 // A South Dakota pork processing plant took its first steps toward reopening on May 4 after being shuttered for over two weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak that infected more than 800 employees. As two departments...
Coronavirus Cases Surge in Reopened Colorado Beef Plant, Worker Dies
May 1 2020 // COVID-19 cases at a JBS meatpacking plant in Colorado have more than doubled “in a number of days” and a sixth employee died of the virus, a union official said on Thursday, underscoring the risks of U.S. meat...
Unions Push Back on Trump Plan to Order Meat Processing Plants to Stay Open
Apr 29 2020 // President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered meat-processing plants to stay open to protect the food supply in the United States, despite concerns about coronavirus outbreaks, drawing a backlash from unions that said at-risk...
Smithfield South Dakota Plant Eyes Reopening as U.S. Issues Meatpacking Guidance
Apr 27 2020 // South Dakota’s governor on April 27 said she hopes Smithfield’s Sioux Falls pork processing plant can reopen soon, a day after U.S. labor regulators urged the meat industry to adopt certain measures to prevent...
U.S. Issues New Coronavirus Safety Guidance for Meat, Poultry Plants
Apr 27 2020 // The U.S. Labor Department issued new guidelines on Sunday for U.S. meatpacking and meat-processing plants that have seen a rash of coronavirus outbreaks, saying employees should be spaced at least 6 feet (1.8 m) apart and...
5,000 Meat, Food Plant Workers Exposed to Coronavirus, Union Says
Apr 24 2020 // More than 5,000 U.S. meat and food-processing workers have been infected with or exposed to the new coronavirus, and 13 have died, the country’s largest meatpacking union said on Thursday. The statistics reflect how...
Tyson Foods Halts Work at Large Iowa Pork Plant to Curb Coronavirus Spread
Apr 23 2020 // Tyson Foods Inc. plans to indefinitely suspend operations at its largest pork plant in the United States to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus, the company said on Wednesday. It said the Waterloo, Iowa plant had...
Despite Virus Outbreak, Midwest States Work to Keep Meat Plants Open
Apr 22 2020 // Governors in the Midwest are working to keep large meatpacking plants operating despite coronavirus outbreaks that have sickened hundreds of workers and threaten to disrupt the nation’s supply of pork and beef. In...
Iowa Beef Plant Reopens After 177 Workers Test Positive for Virus
Apr 21 2020 // An Iowa beef processing plant that was idled after a coronavirus outbreak resumed production Monday, one day after the state said 177 workers there have tested positive. The Iowa Premium plant in Tama, owned by National...
