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They've had paper towel, kleenex, and napkins the last two times I've gone. It's some housebrand stuff that they never used to carry before so my guess is redirected industrial supply but they've got it. Toilet paper though, haven't seen any of that.
Low quality stuff. And the TP I've been getting is terrible. You have to fold over about ten sheets or you end up...well I won't say it.
Clearly, packing plants have become the next cruise ships in this health crises.
The difference is consumers choose to board cruise ships, for the fun (or whatever) but consumers don't have to work in a packing plant to get meat products for their own table. People have the luxury of purchasing various types of meat products, or not, and don't normally need them to live (there may be some medically based exceptions).
"Meatpacking plants have become incubators for the virus as employees work side-by-side in dangerous conditions. Twenty meatpacking and processing workers have died from coronavirus, and at least 6,500 have been affected, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
At least 22 plants processing meat from pork to chicken have closed at some point after clusters of employees tested positive for Covid-19, according to UFCW."
I am uncertain about this. As long as vegetable and grain products are available no one is going to starve. I don't see why it is necessary to force workers to expose themselves to unsafe conditions. And who is going to take on the legal liability the companies will now face, the US taxpayers? ... so people can have their ground chuck and pork butt and chicken Kiev?
... And packing plants are not closing permanently by any means. The companies have to manage their assets safely and still return some kind of revenue, they need cash flow so they will reopen as soon as possible anyway.
I might be persuaded otherwise with sound arguments but right now I am not seeing this as a completely valid use of the Defense Production Act.
Wow, amazing how many cases at these plants. I think people have the right to go to work or not go to work right? I understand many quit coming to work after the cases were known.
Gov. Pete Ricketts said Monday that more than 2,000 coronavirus test results came back over the weekend. Almost half of those who tested positive lived in either Hall or Dawson County. Officials have warned that cases will naturally rise as more people are tested.
Roughly 237 confirmed cases in the Grand Island area are tied to the JBS plant,
That's about 7% of all the cases in Nebraska at one plant.
If you want to debate this, there is more information out there on the topic but please source your position.
Basically these places will spread something like this like crazy due to the working conditions. I saw a lot of horrible things doing that, and it encouraged me to REALLY focus on my studies and software development work, I saw folks there who had worked their entire lives doing that. I never ever wanted to be one of them.
But slowing down the line, spacing the workers out more widely, and treating them like human beings instead of robots will cause the cost of meat to go up! Cheap hamburger and chicken is a RIGHT! /sarcasm.
Looks like our “cheap” food has a hidden cost we’re only now becoming aware of. This is going to be a real mess to deal with. I feel sorry for the farmers and ranchers who are already being forced to euthanize livestock because there’s simply no way to process it right now.
Looks like it’s time for more smaller, local meatpacking plants, and for tougher regulations to insure worker safety in the event of future infectious disease outbreaks. It will raise meat prices a bit, but it will also help increase our nation’s food security in the long term.
Some people apparently want poor minorities that largely work at those plants to lose their income, their apartments and have to live with their children under a bridge somewhere.
Some have issued and required ppe. Others are just union shakedowns. Must everything be broken down toddler level for you people?
PPE: more than a month after federal guidelines? Shakedown?
Three of the nation’s largest meat processors failed to provide protective gear to all workers, and employees were told to continue working in crowded plants even while sick as the coronavirus spread around the country and turned the facilities into infection hot spots.
Quote:
The actions by three major meat producers — Tyson Foods, JBS USA and Smithfield Foods — continued even after federal guidelines on social distancing and personal protective equipment were publishedMarch 9.
JBS confirmed that it did not give masks to its employees until April 2 and did not mandate their use until April 13. Tyson said it wasn’t until April 15 that it had its workers wear masks.
Smithfield said masks are now universally available to its workers, in compliance with guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the company would not say exactly when they became available. Smithfield workers said it wasn’t until the past week or two..
At a JBS beef processing plant in Colorado, employees were encouraged to report for shifts even when they appeared sick, according to county health officials and company letters and records reviewed by the Washington Post.
At a Tyson pork plant in Iowa, local officials said that some employees were using bandannas and sleep eyewear as facial coverings, while others wore no facial coverings at all.
And at a Smithfield distribution center in Indiana, supervisors told employees — despite the science — that they were lucky to labor in frigid temperatures where the virus could not survive. ETC...….
Coronavirus outbreaks in more than 30 plants run by these companies and others have sickened at least 5,000 workers and killed at least 17.
According to news reports, law enforcement folks, county health reports, public health officials, and plant records, corporate policies contributed to the spread of the virus and COVID19.
Wonder how many of those meat packing workers are even legally in the US? It used to be big number of them were illegal even had billboard signs in Mexico come to the US and work.
Wonder how many of those meat packing workers are even legally in the US? It used to be big number of them were illegal even had billboard signs in Mexico come to the US and work.
A huge percentage are illegal, probably half. (Says the guy who has friends that worked at them.)
PPE: more than a month after federal guidelines? Shakedown?
Three of the nation’s largest meat processors failed to provide protective gear to all workers, and employees were told to continue working in crowded plants even while sick as the coronavirus spread around the country and turned the facilities into infection hot spots.
At a JBS beef processing plant in Colorado, employees were encouraged to report for shifts even when they appeared sick, according to county health officials and company letters and records reviewed by the Washington Post.
At a Tyson pork plant in Iowa, local officials said that some employees were using bandannas and sleep eyewear as facial coverings, while others wore no facial coverings at all.
And at a Smithfield distribution center in Indiana, supervisors told employees — despite the science — that they were lucky to labor in frigid temperatures where the virus could not survive. ETC...….
Coronavirus outbreaks in more than 30 plants run by these companies and others have sickened at least 5,000 workers and killed at least 17.
Some will say this number of deaths is "not a big deal," and that people die on their way to work in car crashes every day anyways, so... keep on churning out the packages.
Quote:
According to news reports, law enforcement folks, county health reports, public health officials, and plant records, corporate policies contributed to the spread of the virus and COVID19.
Oh those "corporate policies.." the never-ending "production line" with only one and one idea in mind - to bring more profits to their executives and share-holders.
(They didn't think about those precautionary measures in the face of the outbreak - did they?)
Oh well.
Looks like the "production line" is crumbling.
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Shakedown? 
