President Trump will force food plants and supply chain to stay open during COVID-19 outbreak

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US President Donald Trump will force meatpacking plants to remain open during the coronavirus epidemic over fears regarding the stability of the US food supply in months to come. Trump has planned to invoke the Defense Production Act by listing the plants as critical infrastructure to the country. It would force companies to remain open instead of shutting down locations. An executive order would be signed on Tuesday to make it official. Trump announced during a press briefing that there will be 2 parts to the order, forcing plants to remain open and providing liability protections to employers if an employee was to get sick from Covid-19. Protection for these plant employees has been a huge concern across the United States with hundreds of workers testing positive for Covid-19 and some dying.

JBS has reopened its pork processing plant in Colorado, on Friday after shutting it down for 2-weeks. At least 120 workers contracted the virus and 5 of them have died. President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7, Kim Cordova has criticized JBS for reopening its plant and putting an estimated 6,000 employees at risk. Cordova informed Denver7 and said, “I think the workers are being sacrificed. I think that this could potentially be a death sentence.” Point to be noted that the plant reopened with protections in place, including onsite testing for any symptomatic employees, social distancing measures, and all workers wearing face masks.

It is noteworthy that JBS wasn’t the only company to experience problems when attempting to run day-to-day operations. Tyson Foods placed a full-page ad in The New York Times, Washington Post, and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday to address plant closures across the country. Tyson Chairman, John Tyson wrote, “The food supply chain is breaking”. The company warned it had a limited supply available to stock grocery stores while some of its facilities were forced to close. A Virginia-based company, Smithfield Foods also temporarily closed a plant in South Dakota after more than 300 workers tested positive for the virus. At least 22 meatpacking plants have closed after workers tested positive.