Press Release  AG Healey Urges Trump Administration to Protect Health and Safety of U.S. Meat and Poultry Workers

Boston — Attorney General Maura Healey today joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general in urging President Trump to take immediate action to ensure the health and safety of meat and poultry processing plant employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In a letter sent to President Trump, the attorneys general allege that an executive order signed by the president on April 28 invoking the Defense Production Act to keep meat and poultry processing plants open during the pandemic fails to account for widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 in these facilities. The coalition writes that the order fails to impose adequate measures to protect the health of these workers and urges the Trump Administration to immediately implement mandatory standards to keep these essential workers safe.

“These workers are risking their lives to work throughout this pandemic and keep people fed – we need to do more to keep them safe,” said AG Healey. “We are calling on the Trump Administration to step up and give meat and poultry industry workers access to priority testing, PPE, and other measures to protect them from this virus.”

According to the letter, many meat and poultry plants are reporting hundreds of workers testing positive for COVID-19, yet the industry has continued to operate throughout the crisis without sufficient health and safety measures. Processing plants require workers to stand shoulder to shoulder for hours on fast-moving disassembly lines without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and social distancing measures. Rather than slowing line speeds to enable safer working conditions, plants have sought and secured line speed waivers that force employees to work faster and closer to one another. Some companies even continue to reprimand employees who fall ill and are unable to work. 

Trump’s executive order instructs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure processing facilities continue to operate under voluntary guidelines for promoting safe working conditions, but it fails to mandate these protective measures or commit to enforcing them. The Trump Administration must, the attorneys general contend, make these health and safety standards stronger, mandatory, and enforceable. Adequate measures must include priority testing for workers, access to PPE, suspension of all existing and future line speed waivers, physical distancing and plexiglass barriers where distancing is not possible, and quarantine of COVID-19 positive workers with full pay.

The attorneys general write that without additional measures to protect these workers, Trump’s executive order will prolong the spread of illness and death and imperil its own goal of keeping the plants open.

AG Healey’s Fair Labor Division is responsible for enforcing state laws regulating the payment of wages, including minimum wage, overtime and earned sick time laws. Call the AG’s Fair Labor hotline at 617-727-3465 for more information on the state’s earned sick time laws, or file a complaint online if you think your rights have been violated. Read the AG’s FAQs on employee rights and employer obligations during the COVID-19 emergency and visit the AG’s COVID-19 resource page for information about how the AG’s Office can help during this crisis. 

Joining AG Healey in signing today’s letter are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. 

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