{"id":175819,"date":"2020-11-19T19:46:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T00:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/11\/19\/you-know-how-indian-workers-sometimes-beat-their-bosses-to-death\/"},"modified":"2020-11-19T19:46:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T00:46:00","slug":"you-know-how-indian-workers-sometimes-beat-their-bosses-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/11\/19\/you-know-how-indian-workers-sometimes-beat-their-bosses-to-death\/","title":{"rendered":"You Know How Indian Workers Sometimes Beat Their Bosses to Death?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the American workforce were less compliant, this would be happening at the Tyson pig processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa<\/a>, where managers had a betting pool as to how many employees would get Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Honestly, it probably SHOULD<\/b> be happening<\/span><\/span><\/span>: <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

A wrongful death lawsuit tied to COVID-19 infections in a Waterloo pork processing plant alleges that during the initial stages of the pandemic, Tyson Foods ordered employees to report for work while supervisors privately wagered money on the number of workers who would be sickened by the deadly virus.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the family of the late Isidro Fernandez sued the meatpacking company, alleging Fernandez was exposed to the coronavirus at the Waterloo plant where he worked. The lawsuit alleges Tyson Foods is guilty of a \u201cwillful and wanton disregard for workplace safety.\u201d<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fernandez, who died on April 20, was one of at least five Waterloo plant employees who died of the virus. According to the Black Hawk County Health Department, more than 1,000 workers at the plant \u2014 over a third of the facility\u2019s workforce \u2014 contracted the virus. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges that despite the uncontrolled spread of the virus at the plant, Tyson required its employees to work long hours in cramped conditions without providing the appropriate personal protective equipment and without ensuring workplace-safety measures were followed. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit was recently amended and includes a number of new allegations against the company and plant officials. Among them:
<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • In mid-April, around the time Black Hawk County Sherriff Tony Thompson visited the plant and reported the working conditions there \u201cshook [him] to the core,\u201d plant manager Tom Hart organized a cash-buy-in, winner-take-all, betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many plant employees would test positive for COVID-19. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • John Casey, an upper-level manager at the plant, is alleged to have explicitly directed supervisors to ignore symptoms of COVID-19, telling them to show up to work even if they were exhibiting symptoms of the virus. Casey reportedly referred to COVID-19 as the \u201cglorified flu\u201d and told workers not to worry about it because \u201cit\u2019s not a big deal\u201d and \u201ceveryone is going to get it.\u201d On one occasion, Casey intercepted a sick supervisor who was on his way to be tested and ordered him to get back to work, saying, \u201cWe all have symptoms \u2014 you have a job to do.\u201d After one employee vomited on the production line, managers reportedly allowed the man to continue working and then return to work the next day. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • In late March or early April, as the pandemic spread across Iowa, managers at the Waterloo plant reportedly began avoiding the plant floor for fear of contracting the virus. As a result, they increasingly delegated managerial authority and responsibilities to low-level supervisors who had no management training or experience. The supervisors did not require truck drivers and subcontractors to have their temperatures checked before entering the plant. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • In March and April, plant supervisors falsely denied the existence of any confirmed cases or positive tests for COVID-19 within the plant, and allegedly told workers they had a responsibility to keep working to ensure Americans didn\u2019t go hungry as the result of a shutdown. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • Tyson paid out $500 \u201cthank you bonuses\u201d to employees who turned up for every scheduled shift for three months \u2014 a policy decision that allegedly incentivized sick workers to continue reporting for work. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • Tyson executives allegedly lobbied Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for COVID-19 liability protections that would shield the company from lawsuits, and successfully lobbied the governor to declare that only the state government, not local governments, had the authority to close businesses in response to the pandemic. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

    The lawsuit claims that while Tyson has repeatedly claimed that its operations needed to remain open to feed America, the company increased its exports to China by 600% during the first quarter of 2020.
    <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    They didn’t care, because it wasn’t Wypipo at risk, it was “Mexicans”, and who cares if they die.<\/p>\n

    These people need to go to jail for a long, long time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If the American workforce were less compliant, this would be happening at the Tyson pig processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, where managers had a betting pool as to how many employees would get Covid-19. Honestly, it probably SHOULD be happening: A wrongful death lawsuit tied to COVID-19 infections in a Waterloo pork processing plant alleges …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[525,506,365,368,364,476,572,610],"class_list":["post-175819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-agriculture","tag-bigotry","tag-business","tag-corruption","tag-evil","tag-food","tag-pandemic","tag-wypipo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}