A civil rights complaint has been filed by advocacy groups, which accuses Tyson and JBS of racial discrimination in the workplace during the pandemic.
The complaint says that the companies had policies that violated part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 basically says that anyone that gets federal assistance can’t engage in racial discrimination. Tyson and JBS both received millions of dollars in assistance this year.
There was a CDC report that said 87% of coronavirus cases in meatpacking plants were those of minorites. The companies say they complied with all safety precautions for all employees. Some of those precautions were social distancing, face masks, shields, and other new procedures put in place for employee safety. The civil rights complaint says different. The complaint says that minorities weren’t as safe at work as others.
Tyson spoke out and said that they’re looking over the complaint now and they wanted to let people know that the health of ALL of their employees is a priority for them. JBS suggested that someone come and look at the practices they put in place. They have nothing to hide.
The resolution of this will all come down to the USDA Ag Secretary, Sonny Perdue. This could end up a couple of different ways. There could be an agreement between the worker groups, the USDA, and the companies in question, or it could go on for years before anything comes of it.
This won’t be over with for a while.
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