What A Day - Meat The Packers

Episode Date: June 24, 2020

An estimated 25,000 cases of COVID-19 are tied to U.S. meatpacking plants, where employees work in close quarters and enclosed spaces. We speak with a Smithfield Foods employee out of South Dakota about what it's been like at her facility. Dr. Fauci says the US is experiencing a “disturbing surge” of infections after states reopened too quickly. But he’s cautiously optimistic about a vaccine, suggesting that one could be available as soon as the end of this year. And in headlines: federal prosecutors will testify against Bill Barr, Seattle’s CHAZ to be dismantled, and celebrities continue to say sorry for doing blackface.

It's Wednesday, June 24th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What The Day, where we are updating our whiteboard to say it's been zero days since we had a no-drama primary. Yeah, it's honestly just like the CW shows. Like, primaries are just like Riverdale. They are. I have no other references for that, but I'll just say it seems like Jughead. On today's show, we hear from a meat plant worker in South Dakota about going back to work after a COVID-19 outbreak there. Then some headlines. But first, the latest. Plan A, don't go in a crowd. Plan B, if you do, make sure you wear a mask. Dr. Fauci. Remember our old friend, you know, the nation's top infectious disease expert? Right.

So yesterday, he testified to Congress along with other top health officials. He said the U.S. is experiencing a, quote, disturbing surge of infections after states reopened too quickly and without legit plans for testing and contact tracing, and called the situation in the U.S. a, quote, mixed bag with areas like New York doing well while infections spike in other states. He also reiterated that the next two weeks are going to be critical in stopping the spread in places like Florida, Texas, and Arizona, where Trump had that rally yesterday. Good God almighty. And in Texas last night, Governor Abbott told people in his state that the safest place to be is at home. That comes after another record-setting day of new

cases and hospitalizations there. But he didn't impose any new lockdown or statewide mask mandates, so murky stuff. Anything else from Fauci, though? Yeah, just two quick things. So he and other public health officials said that despite what the White House says, Trump has not told them to slow down testing and that they will not do so. On vaccines, Fauci remained cautiously optimistic as he's been all along. He said it's a question of when, not if. Thank goodness. But for the time being, things are so bleak here that reporting suggests the EU might continue restricting travel from the US even as they open up their borders to travelers from other parts of the world in July.

So we're number one in contagious disease and mostly being unwanted. Also lumped in with Brazil and Russia in these restrictions, potentially. So good stuff. And a final decision from the EU on reopening borders is expected next week. All right. So let's take a moment today to zero in on COVID-19 and meatpacking plants. We heard a lot about outbreaks of the virus at these facilities a couple months ago, but the story has since fallen out of the news cycle. But Gideon, you've been looking into this. So where do things stand? Yeah, so as of now, there's an estimated 25,000 plus cases that are tied to these facilities in

the US where workers are in close quarters day to day doing physical, difficult work and in closed spaces where the virus can spread more easily. Now, that's according to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. And that number includes people with whom workers have interacted as well, like family, for instance. And as various outbreaks spread in March and April, with workers having little to no personal protective equipment, many plants were forced to close. Then fast forward to the end of April, President Trump signed an executive order that sought to keep them open as critical infrastructure, having been influenced by some of the major companies that there could be a meat supply shortage. Right. And we talked about this at the time. The CDC then put out guidance for the

facilities to give workers masks and hand sanitizer, check temperatures. There was concern that the rules might not be enforceable or that Trump's executive order would make it harder to hold plants liable. That's right. And there's recent reporting that while companies like Tyson, JBS and Smithfield Foods warned of possible meat shortages in the United States and raised prices as a result, they were also exporting a record amount of pork to China. And that's all while American workers were getting sick. That story is now the subject of an investigation by Democratic senators. Wow. Well, I mean, good.

So plants aren't closing down as much since Trump's order, but cases tied to the plants have more than doubled since then. Other countries, like Germany, also have outbreaks at those kinds of facilities. So how are they dealing with them? Yeah, we're getting a little bit of a window into that right now. There's this recent outbreak in Western Germany where some 1,500 workers have tested positive. In addition to closing down the plant, officials have now imposed a seven-day lockdown on two towns in the area. And it's the first lockdown since the country eased most restrictions last month. And now they're in this rush to test and trace and contain this. Germany had been credited with

an efficient response to the outbreak overall, with nearly 200,000 cases resulting in less than 9,000 deaths. And they and other countries are trying to contain flare-ups like this to prevent a second wave of infections. Yeah, it seems pretty different than what's happening here. Yeah, to say the least. And we wanted to get a sense of what it's actually been like working in these plants in the U.S. over the last few months. I spoke with Sandra Siebert. She's worked at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for 15 years.

She's a butcher and a union steward with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Her plant was the site of one of the first big clusters of COVID-19 earlier this year. It's a massive eight-story building with over 3,000 workers. And she said initially they weren't provided with masks and protective equipment, and then people started getting sick. And by the beginning of April, she herself got sick. Very bad experience. I started getting sick in the line. I started feeling my head like a fever.

I'm feeling like somebody put pressure on my chest. So I go back to my department and I told the supervisor, I don't feel good. Can you find somebody to cover my place, do my job? And then he say, 38 people go home. He say, we don't have no people. 38 people go home. He say, I don't promise you nothing. Yeah. And after almost passing out, she was able to get off work that day and go home to quarantine. About a week later, the plant closed down for a couple of weeks and over 600 cases were tied to it by that point. And this is all happening in South Dakota, which was one of the states where the governor refused to impose a statewide lockdown earlier this year. Right. And since then, the plant has reopened following guidelines from the CDC on things like masks, hand sanitizing stations, putting up plexiglass shields and more.

But when I spoke to Sandra in May after she returned to work, she said she still didn't feel safe, especially in shared spaces like the break rooms and cafeteria, where people don't always follow precautions or simply can't because they need to take off their masks to eat. And people, the supervisors, don't enforce the rules. We are supposed to be wearing masks and shields, but a lot of the times,

it's the supervisors that are breaking the rules. Right, and she said there needs to be wearing masks and shields, but a lot of the times it's the supervisors that are breaking the rules. Right, and she said there needs to be more training then for supervisors on safety and more visits from CDC officials. And she also told me that the plant started to up its safety measures only after a visit from the CDC in April. For me, as an essential worker, it's like the hospital. I feel like I'm going into the hospital when I'm going to work because we have to put on a mask and we have these extra precautions.

It's nice to feel like an essential worker in some respects, but that doesn't mean that an essential worker should risk their life. It's like being in the line of fire. You don't know if you're going to come home healthy or come home sick. It's like being in the line of fire. You don't know if you're going to come home healthy or come home sick. It's like going to war. That's how I feel, like I'm in a war. Just devastating. Yeah, and even though the plant is continuing to operate, many workers are now out on long-term leave because they are high risk for COVID. Others are sick and some have left their jobs. And according to the union, about a third of workers are now absent from the facility.

Smithfield says it will continue paying employees who are quarantined for COVID-19 and is offering a paid leave benefit for high risk workers that cannot come to work. But according to the union, all other time off requests are being denied. Sandra is still working and she said she feels like it's her responsibility to stay and stand up for her colleagues. And that is the latest we have for now. Thanks to producers Sonia Tun and Elisa Gutierrez for their help on this important story. It's Wednesday, WOD Squad, and today we are checking our temps by talking about some classic movies. The National Box Office last week looked like a list of Steven Spielberg's greatest hits. You know, Jurassic Park was at number one and Jaws was at number two, bringing in about a half million each.

Almost all these sales were happening at drive-in theaters, which are excellent places to watch dinosaur and or shark themed movies. So Giddy, have you been to a drive-in and what makes the perfect drive-in movie? To answer the first half of this question, I have not been to a drive-in. I mean, I'm shook, man.

Ever? Ever. Not that I can remember. I've been to the, this is not the same thing, but it has a similar like childhood vibe to me. Those like dollar theaters

where they play movies from, you know, like. I mean, yeah, I guess. It's still a movie theater. It's just cheaper. It's still a movie theater. That's correct. But the perfect drive-in movie,

yeah, there's a reason why I feel like people are vibing to these ones. You know, like, you've probably seen it there are some thrills and scares you might splash some popcorn when the T-Rex is stomping towards you

that's the kind of thing I feel like that you know you don't have to pay like tons of attention to but you also want to have those like jump scares and cool moments yeah like I think you're spot on like the safety that you would feel in a theater like you could reassure yourself like this is fake. Like it kind of melts away when you're like outside and you're watching a movie about dinosaurs outside. You're like, oh, okay.

It's actually kind of terrifying. So I feel that. I think that that's right. And like, you know, it's it seems old timey. So it's like a nostalgic thing anyway. You might as well watch a movie you've already seen before. Yeah. I mean, life finds a way and is life going to find a way to your car and kill you is the question. Um, but besides these, what, what kind of movies are you thinking about at, at drive-ins? What's, what's like the go-to got to see it there. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I will say I have been to a drive-in movie theater before. I like used to go all the time when I was a little kid, but I remember the time that sticks out the most in my memory is a double feature of Big Daddy and Inspector Gadget.

And it was a great high-low. They had Inspector Gadget first, hoping the kids would go to sleep so then the adults could enjoy Big Daddy, but of course that's not how kids work in the summer. And so none of us paid attention to Inspector Gadget. We were just running around outside with each other, and then we all watched Big Daddy. And so none of us paid attention to Inspector Gadget. We were just like running around outside with each other. And then we all watched Big Daddy. And it's great.

It was really wonderful. So I think that that's like the kind of experience. If you're going to see a double feature, you got to go high-low. One has to be like serious or adult or romantic or whatever. And then the other one has to be like a come down from that mood. So, you know, just like a good yin-yang. Yeah, it's like you got to do Schindler's List and you don't mess with the mood so you know just like a good yin yang yeah it's like you gotta do schindler's

list and you don't mess with the zohan as just like oh my god i would i can't imagine seeing schindler's list and drive it like that should be illegal it is it it it should be

illegal and hopefully we can get an ordinance passed to make it illegal that's right okay movie buffs just like that we've checked our timps. We'll check in with you all again tomorrow

and we will see you at the movies. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Aaron Zielinski formerly served on special counsel Robert Mueller's team, which prosecuted Stone for witness tampering, lying and a whole lot more earlier this year. He and the rest of the legal team quit the case in February after the Justice Department said it planned to reduce Stone's recommended sentence. In a letter, Zielinski said his team was told to treat Stone, quote, differently and more leniently because of his friendship with Trump. Zielinski is just one of two Justice Department employees expected to testify against Attorney General William Barr's politically motivated court motions. You know, Roger Stone just never goes away. He's just always around.

Seattle's mayor announced that the city will begin dismantling an area known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ. The tiny community occupied six blocks around an abandoned police precinct and was built following protests against the police killing of George Floyd. For most of its existence, CHAZ was home to community teach-ins and free food. But earlier this week, two shootings were reported near the zone, one resulting in the death of a 19-year-old. Now, it's not clear whether or not the shootings were related to the protests, but Mayor Jenny Durkan says peaceful protests will still be allowed in Chaz,

but police would be returning to their precinct building. That's a disappointment to many community members who hoped that the building would be repurposed. Celebrities continue to say sorry for doing blackface. Yesterday, Jimmy Kimmel apologized for darkening his skin to play basketball player Carl Malone in the 90s. And the day before that, 30 Rock creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock asked streaming services to pull four episodes of their show that featured white actors playing black characters. Jimmy Fallon picked up on this trend way early. He apologized for wearing blackface to play Chris Rock back in May. Guys, so glad you came around.

You know, welcome to the right side of history. But honestly, I'm not sure the news cycle can handle the slow trickle of blackface apologies. So here's my idea. We give celebrities 24 hours where they can say they did blackface. We can blow a big siren to remind them. It'll be like the purge, but, you know, for white people just yelling at themselves. And if they don't do it, then the Internet will find it and we won't stop being mad. Apologies, though, can be made in the

form of TV deals for me and my friends. I think this is a fair and honest proposal and I endorse it. As fair as I can be. The world's number one men's tennis player Novak Djokovic has tested positive for coronavirus after hosting a tournament recently in southeastern Europe that basically laid out the welcome mat for COVID. It featured packed stadiums, little to no social distancing between players, plus a tennis tradition, organized outings to nightclubs where the pros all danced with their shirts off. Djokovic is a noted COVID skeptic. He's called for upcoming Grand Slam events to have full crowds and is openly opposed

to vaccinations. What happened at his Adria tour is COVID's official response to that attitude. Three other tennis pros so far got the virus, along with Djokovic's wife and two of his coaches. Djokovic said, quote, I am extremely sorry for each case of infection. I hope that it will not complicate anyone's health and that everyone will be fine. If we can find a way to inject this man's hope through IV, we might not even need a vaccine. I'll just take the vaccine. It's for the best.

And those are the headlines. Heads up. We're still watching and waiting for Tuesday's primary results to come in. So as we go to record, most races are still too close to call. We're going to have more on the results as they come in in the coming days. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, meet us at the drive-in, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just

notes, app, apologies from celebs like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And stay tuned for the roast of Bill Barr. Looking like the baby from dinosaurs. The weird robotic dinosaur show from the 90s.

It's just a fact and it needs to be talked about more. What a day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.