The Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Labor criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for its lax enforcement that might have led to workers’ “unnecessary exposure to the virus.”
Mindy Brashears, the former head of the USDA's agency overseeing meatpacking plants, has been largely quiet about her agency’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, in exclusive interviews, she addresses the criticism the USDA put food production over worker safety.
The Tyson revelation is one finding in a new congressional report that details the myriad ways meat executives and sympathetic government allies influenced federal coronavirus response at the expense of worker safety.
An Office of Inspector General report released Tuesday concluded the two agencies could have done more to ensure the safety of meatpacking plant workers.
In four states with a large meatpacking footprint, production dropped 40% during outbreaks in the pandemic's first year. But overall production ended 2% higher than the year before.
The leaders of pork company Smithfield Foods and chicken producer Perdue Farms were in regular contact with government officials as the coronavirus began sweeping through their plants.
