The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Monday launched an investigation into widespread COVID-19 infections and deaths in US meatpacking plants. Representative James Clyburn, Chairman of the Subcommittee, sent letters to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and JBS USA.
The letter to OSHA claims that under the Trump administration OSHA “failed to adequately carry out its responsibility for enforcing worker safety laws at meatpacking plants across the country, resulting in preventable infections and deaths.” Since April, “54,000 workers at 569 meatpacking plants in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least 270 have died.”
