Virus outbreak at Smithfield plant was worse than known, killed two, Midwest Center reveals via OSHA documents

Milan, in Sullivan County (Wikipedia)

"The Covid-19 outbreak at Smithfield Foods' Milan, Missouri, plant — the focus of a worker safety lawsuit that garnered national attention last year — resulted in two worker deaths and was worse than previously thought," according to newly obtained documents from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Madison McVan reports for the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.

It's been difficult to get clear numbers about infections at the plant. Early on, the Sullivan County Health Department told a local TV station that there were 14 cases, and later a local hospital told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch there were 35 cases tied to the plant, but since then the news media hasn't been given updates, McVan reports. A health-department administrator told the Midwest Center that it doesn't track coronavirus cases by employer. 

OSHA "found the total number of cases was likely more than double what has been previously reported. By the end of May 2020, at least 77 workers were presumed to be positive for the virus, and more than 300 were either suspected to have the virus or had been in close contact with a positive case. Also, at least two workers at the plant died from the virus last year, according to the OSHA inspections obtained by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting," McVan reports. "Smithfield, which employs about 1,100 people at its Milan facility, told OSHA inspectors the company determined that the employees who died had contracted the virus from close contacts outside of work, rather than in the plant."

Smithfield Chief Administrative Officer Keira Lombardo said in a statement that the company has spent more than $800 million to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and has seen a "sustained period of extremely low reported cases across our employee workforce." 

The real case numbers are likely much higher than even the OSHA reports found, said Axel Fuentes, executive director of the Rural Community Workers Alliance. The group advocates for better working conditions for Smithfield employees and has been in contact with Milan plant workers during the pandemic. The group sued Smithfield last spring, claiming the company's pandemic safety measures were inadequate. "The judge dismissed the case, ruling that it was OSHA’s job, not the court’s, to ensure that Smithfield was adequately protecting its employees," McVan reports. "OSHA inspectors found few issues with the virus mitigation measures at the plant during in-person inspections that took place in May and November 2020. OSHA closed the investigations without issuing any penalties."

Some workers told the Midwest Center they thought Smithfield's safety measures didn't go far enough, and said the production line moved so quickly that they couldn't step away to cough or sneeze. But "Smithfield didn’t start distributing masks to its employees in Milan until mid-April 2020, after hundreds of employees at its Sioux Falls plant had already tested positive," McVan reports.

There are no federal emergency standards to protect meatpackers during a pandemic, which Fuentes said makes it harder to hold employers accountable. The day after his inauguration, President Biden ordered OSHA and other federal agencies to come up with emergency standards by March 15, but the agency has yet to publish one. "On April 26, OSHA said in a press release that it had sent a draft of the standard to the White House for review. It’s unclear how long that process could take," McVan reports.

The Midwest Center has done an outstanding job reporting on the meatpacking industry during the pandemic. Click here for a recent package that looks back on how the pandemic has affected workers, what's happening now, and what they predict for the future.