A meat packing question

[dsc]

So with all the outbreaks at these meet packing plants it begs the following question. Why there and not other types of plants?

Is it

a) all other plants have been closed down? I have to say I doubt this is true of all other plants. Plants making paper products for example are likely open.

b) the plants are run in an exceptionally cavalier way which is causing the spread of the virus?

c) the workers are catching COVID from the product?

It seems it would have to be either one or some combination of the three options above.

[rampartc]

1. undocumented labor with an emphasis on production over sanitation

limited breaks for bathroom much less hand washing.

no sick leave

no protective equipment

[Maeve]

2. B is the best answer

Close contact between employees, limited breaks, low pay and minimal sick leave results in people coming in sick

[rurallib]

3. I can try to answer

Meat packing plants are for the most part located near the source of the meat in rural areas. It is highly labor intensive with workers literally standing shoulder to shoulder - no 6 foot distancing.

The cutting rooms (or so I have been told) are cold and wet.

The workers are catching covid from each other, but in those conditions it is easy to spread.

Are they run in a cavalier way? Let us say that in the agricultural states like Iowa the huge packing companies like Tyson and Smithfield have big clout. State officials seldom do anything to packers but thank them for the jobs.

Since the old days of "the Jungle" meat packers have refined the processing to a breakneck speed. I hear that the process could be slowed and spacing between employees could be put in the system, but that would cost great efficiency.

COVID is a respiratory ailment and the critters are killed coming into the plant, so the dead animals can't spread the disease.

Many plants such as paper plants are highly mechanized and thus have relatively few employees who can usually distance themselves. So it would be harder (not impossible) to spread COVID in such an environment

[dsc]

4. thanks

I really have been wondering about this. I was able to see why prisons were problematic but I wasn't able to see why these were, over and above, other places.

[zeusdogmom]

5. All of this focus on meat packing plants may result in some good

Many of us already were already aware of the conditions in which the majority of our meat is processed. The current attention most certainly enables more people to see. Can this help improve conditions now and in the future for the employees?

[ProfessorGAC]

6. The Paper Plant Comparison

A few things make these VERY different than meat packers.
1. These are huge facilities, highly automated, so worker per square foot is much lower than meat plants. Except in a control room, it's easy to stay away from a large % of everyone else working there.
2. In the pulp areas & the paper pressing machines, they use flotation aids, lignin removal additives and sizing chemicals. So when actually near the process line, workers are used to donning PPE. Respirators, dust masks, and hearing protection (those places are VERY LOUD!) are likely a condition of continued employment.
3. There's not a lot of stuff touched by person after person. So, the transmission by contact is probably a way lower probability.
The only major changes might be wearing a mask in the control rooms. With continuous operations, people aren't all taking breaks & lunch at the same time already. So, even those don't require major changes.
Paper, paper products, consumer products, etc. are all very different operations than a meat packing plant.