A chicken processing plant in central California that saw a coronavirus The outbreak is expected to provide masks to its workers and follow a series of other anti-COVID-19 health orders, a court ruled on Wednesday.
A Merced County judge granted a temporary restraining order requested by the United Farm Workers of America union against Foster Farms, where a virus outbreak at your Livingston facility – one of the largest chicken plants in the world – killed nine people and made hundreds sick earlier this year. The plant was temporarily ordered to close.
Another outbreak two weeks ago at another processing plant in Fresno forced the plant to close for deep cleaning, although it was reopened later.
California’s highly agricultural San Joaquin Valley saw its COVID-19 infection rate explode. Hospitals have been out of the intensive care unit’s normal beds for days, forcing them to use other provisional areas to treat patients.
Food chain hit hard
Throughout the country, refrigerators are among the places most affected by COVID-19. Workers, many of them immigrants, often work in closed quarters and live in crowded houses. More than 44,000 workers across the country tested positive for the virus and more than 200 died, according to the Food & Environment Reporting Network, an investigative non-profit organization.
The restraining order, which lasts until a hearing on January 29, requires the Livingston factory to provide masks to workers and make sure they wear masks or face shields where social distance is not possible.
Other sanitation and hygiene measures are also needed, including temperature and health tests for visitors and workers before entering the factory, and installation of physical partitions in rest rooms and on production lines where it is difficult for workers to remain socially distant.
The plant must also inform all employees in English, Spanish and Punjabi about the requirements for testing, outbreaks and safety training.
In a statement, Foster Farms said it has worked with Merced County health officials and that some of the measures contained in the injunction are already in place, including testing and mask requirements. The company is also installing special filters in shared areas of its processing units.
The company has conducted more than 25,000 virus tests at Livingston’s facilities since September. Its rate of positivity among workers is well below the rate for Merced County as a whole, the company said.
Foster Farms employs approximately 12,000 people in turkey processing in Turlock and in chicken factories in Livingston, Fresno and Porterville, as well as outside California, Oregon, Washington, Louisiana and Alabama. About 3,750 people work at the Livingston facility.