Source: FOOD DIVE, 11/17/20


Back in 1988, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined a meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, owned by John Morrell & Co., $4.3 million for three willful violations of the general duty clause of the OSH Act of 1970 after more than 40% of the 2,000 workers at the facility developed cumulative trauma injuries like tendonitis and carpal tunnel. In a settlement, the fines were later dropped down to $990,000. About 32 years later, the coronavirus has spread in meat plants across the country, including that same plant in Sioux Falls, which is now owned by Smithfield Foods.

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