Those OSHA fines for not protecting employees from the coronavirus are getting blow-back from both the industry and the unio.

The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) issued a statement after Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, SD, and JBS USA in Greeley, CO, were hit with fines totaling about $29,000. Both Smithfield and JBS are appealing those fines, which local chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) believe are low enough that they might lead to bad behavior by the companies. JBS USA is known as Swift.

Mark Lauritsen, UFCW’s vice president, claims the OSHA fines for Smithfield and JBS are merely about politics, enough to cover themselves politically. He says until now, OSHA had turned a blind eye to the issue. UFCW’s local unios have also spoken out.

Kim Cordova who heads the local at the Greeley beef plant says “tiny fines” are  “an incentive to make these workers work faster and harder in the most unsafe working conditions imaginable,”  Sandra Sibert, a unio representative at the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, says. In March thousands of employees were packed on processing lines like “tuna in a can” without masks or hand sanitizers. She was infected with the virus, took several weeks to cover, and the warnings she issued resulted only in an email message saying her concerns were appreciated.

Four employees at the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls died from the virus among 1,294 who tested positive. At the Greeley beef plant, 290 employees were infected and six died.

Outside of hospital and medical services, meat and poultry processing are one of the larger “essential” industries that have continued production during the pandemic.  The nonprofit Food Environmental Reporting Network reports 42,534 meat and poultry employees have tested positive for COVID-19 at the nation’s 494 meatpacking and processing plants. Among those, 203 or 0.47 percent died.

NAMI says OSHA’s Sept. 10 citation from its Sioux Falls office in Region 8 makes the sole allegation against Smithfield Foods that employees “were working in close proximity.”  And on Friday, Sept. 11, OSHA’s Denver office, also in Region 8, issued a citation to JBS USA with the same allegation of “proximity.”

The timeline below shows, according to NAMI, both national and international confusion over which measures were effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

“Not until April 3 did the CDC reverse its guidance and tell people to wear masks. Early in the pandemic, PPE and testing were difficult to obtain and some states, including South Dakota, were not issuing lockdown instructions to residents.” NAMI’S statement says. “And not until April 26 did CDC/OSHA release their joint guidance specific to the meat and poultry industry.”

But, it says OSHA’s citation faults Smithfield and JBS beginning back on March 22 and March 25, respectively, prior to CDC recommendations to wear a mask, but most important, prior to issuing their own guidelines for the industry.

Moreover, NAMI points out that Sioux Falls was shut down for 29 days within this time period and Greely was closed for 11. “If your head is spinning, we understand,” NAMI adds. “Equally confusing is that OSHA’s own citations in the abatement notes say the following regarding six feet between workers: ‘wher feasible.’

“That acknowledgment also is found in abatement note 2, which begins, ‘When workers are unable to socially distance at least six feet’ and goes on to discuss the use of face shields or coverings, the use of barriers, etc. – all of which the companies have done and did for all or most of the time covered by the citation.

“The citation’s sole allegation is employees worked in close proximity but the CDC/OSHA guidance acknowledged being six feet apart is not always possible and the abatement notes in the citation itself also acknowledge that fact and offer solutions — which already have been implemented. OSHA stated that companies that adhere to the Guidance need not fear citation, yet this citation exists. Perhaps Region 8 ought to contact the home office, ” it says.

NAMI also points to the Food and Environmental Reporting Network’s continued tracking of COVID-19 associated with meat and poultry workers, which is on the decline.

“But it takes vigilance to maintain that trend and meat and poultry companies will do everything to ensure this trend continues,” it says.

NAMI is the leading voice for the meat and poultry industry. Its members process the vast majority of U.S. beef, pork, lamb, and poultry, as well as manufacture the equipment and ingredients needed to produce the safest and highest quality meat and poultry products. The 1.3 million-member UFCW represents employees involved in grocery, retail, chemical, packing, and processing industries.