A total of 34 Tyson Foods employees, former employees and family members have filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that it neglected precautions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the lawsuit, filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court in Arkansas, the plaintiffs asserted that Tyson Foods’ treatment of its employees caused “extreme emotional distress, illness and death.”
“Specifically, during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tyson chose not to take adequate precautions to ensure the safety of workers,” the plaintiffs claimed. “Instead, Tyson chose profit over the health and safety of his employees and his families by requiring Tyson employees to work, day in and day out, in conditions that Tyson knew were unsafe and likely to spread COVID-19. 19”.
“Tyson’s decisions to force its employees to work in these conditions caused extreme emotional distress to Tyson workers and their families.”
just food reached out to Tyson Foods, but the meat company declined to comment.
Several of the plaintiffs are relatives of employees who died from Covid-19. All of the plaintiffs are seeking money damages.
The lawsuit states that the plaintiffs are not seeking damages for the death of any workers, but are seeking damages for “severe emotional distress Tyson caused workers by treating them as expendable and expendable for the sake of profit.”
From the early days of the pandemic, meatpacking factories were prone to spreading Covid-19 due in part to a lack of automation compared to other sectors of the food industry. In May 2020, Tyson was linked to 900 reported positive cases of the virus at a single plant.
In May 2022, a US legislative committee accused meatpackers of engaging with Trump Administration political appointees to keep plants open, at great risk of transmitting the virus, during the height of the pandemic. COVID-19.
Former President Donald Trump ordered US meat plants to stay open in April 2020, which Tyson at the time argued was enough authority to stay open during tough times.
