Investigate Midwest (https://investigatemidwest.org/tag/osha/)
An Office of Inspector General report released Tuesday concluded the two agencies could have done more to ensure the safety of meatpacking plant workers.
The case involves one of the "most important tools" workers have to compel the agency to protect them.
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.
The new federal rule comes after many of the largest meatpacking plants have already vaccinated many of its employees.
At least 65 farmworkers have died from heat-related causes since 2002, according to an Investigate Midwest analysis of OSHA data. The Biden administration has promised to address the dangers of extreme heat in workplaces.
Here are the most important things to know from our investigation into a major pork processing plant.
Since close to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has tracked complaints it's received about the virus by industry. And through May of this year, agriculture — think crop farming, cattle ranching and the like — has had relatively few complaints.
While complaints increased, overall inspections dramatically decreased, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General.
OSHA received its first complaints about meatpacking plants almost a full year ago, on March 17, 2020. At two plants in North Carolina, people were elbow-to-elbow, with no change in operations, according to OSHA data.
OSHA and USDA waited until April of last year — more than three months into the pandemic and after a plant shut down because workers fell ill — to plan a response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases at meatpacking plants, according to emails obtained by Public Citizen.