‘It’s a death sentence’: Trump to force meatpacking plants to stay open amid fears over food supply

President Donald Trump will force meatpacking plants to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic over fears about the stability of the US food supply in months to come.

The president planned to invoke the Defence Production Act by listing the plants as critical infrastructure to the country, which would force companies to remain open instead of shutting down locations.

An executive order would be signed on Tuesday to make it official, Mr Trump announced during a press briefing earlier that day. There will be two parts to the order: forcing plants to remain open and providing liability protections to employers if an employee was to get sick from Covid-19, NBC reported.

Protection for these plant employees has been a huge concern across the US with hundreds of workers testing positive for Covid-19 and some dying.

In Colorado, JBS reopened its pork processing plant on Friday after shutting it down for two weeks. More than 120 workers contracted the virus and five have died.

Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7, criticised JBS for reopening its plant and putting an estimated 6,000 employees at risk.

“I think the workers are being sacrificed,” Ms Cordova told Denver7. “I think that this could potentially be a death sentence.”

The plant reopened with protections in place, including onsite testing for any symptomatic employees, social distancing measures, and all workers wearing face masks.

JBS was not the only company to experience problems when attempting to run day-to-day operations.

Tyson Foods placed a full-page ad in The New York Times, Washington Post, and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday to address plant closures across the US.

“The food supply chain is breaking,” Tyson Chairman John Tyson wrote. The company warned it had a limited supply available to stock grocery stores while some of its facilities were forced to close.

Smithfield Foods, a Virginia-based company, also temporarily closed a plant in South Dakota after more than 300 workers tested positive for the virus.

At least 22 meatpacking plants have closed after workers tested positive, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

The Trump administration ordering plants to remain open could put more workers at risk in an attempt to maintainn food supplies.

The government will provide more protective gear for employees, CNBC reported, but despite these additional measures, union leaders were quick to criticise the administration’s move to keep plants open.

“We only wish that this administration cared as much about the lives of working people as it does about meat, pork and poultry products,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said in a statement.