One of the managers of Tyson Foods fired for betting on how many workers would hire COVID-19 at its pig factory in Iowa says the office pool was spontaneous and intended to boost morale
IOWA CITY, Iowa – One of the managers at Tyson Foods fired for betting on how many workers would hire COVID-19 at a pig factory in Iowa said the office pool was spontaneous fun and meant to boost morale.
Don Merschbrock, a former night manager at the factory in Waterloo, Iowa, said he was speaking in an attempt to show that the seven dismissed supervisors “are not the bad people” that Tyson portrayed.
“We really want to clear our names,” he told the Associated Press. “In fact, we work hard and take good care of our team members.”
Tyson announced the resignations of Waterloo managers on December 16, weeks after the gambling allegation arose in wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of four workers who died of COVID-19.
Tyson said an investigation conducted by former US Attorney General Eric Holder found enough evidence to fire those involved, saying his actions violated the company’s values of respect and integrity. The company asked Holder’s law firm to investigate the allegation after a public reaction threatened to damage its brand and demoralize its employees.
The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, one of the world’s largest meat producers, did not disclose Holder’s findings and the dismissed managers complained that they were dismissed without explanation.
Merschbrock released a statement and elaborated in an interview that he was more willing to speak than the other dismissed managers, since he is not a named defendant in the lawsuits.
He said managers ran the office pool last spring within minutes of mass testing the plant’s nearly 2,800 workers.
County officials said last May that more than 1,000 workers tested positive for the virus, which hospitalized several and killed at least six. They attacked Tyson for not initially providing workers with adequate protective equipment and for leaving the plant idling only after the outbreak hit the city.
Property lawyers for four dead workers portrayed the betting pool as indicative of the company’s cruel attitude towards health and safety. They claimed that managers minimized the severity of the virus, sometimes allowing or encouraging employees to work sick.
Tyson said the plant, the largest for pork and capable of processing 20,000 hogs per day, was designated as a critical infrastructure by the federal government in March and that its leaders worked to “safely continue operations to ensure the national food supply “.
Merschbrock, who has been with Tyson for a decade, said that managers were given the “impossible task” of maintaining production while implementing security precautions against viruses. They worked 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week, he said.
The office pool involved about $ 50 in cash, which went to the winner who chose the correct percentage of workers who tested positive for the virus, said Merschbrock. He added that those involved did not believe that the pool violated company policy and thought that the plant’s positivity rate would be lower than the community rate due to its mitigation efforts.
“It was a group of exhausted supervisors who worked so hard and with so much intelligence to solve many unsolvable problems,” said Merschbrock. “It was just something fun, a kind of boost in morale for making an incredible effort. There was never any malicious intention. It never meant to belittle anyone.”
A Tyson spokesman declined to comment on Merschbrock’s claims.
Mel Orchard, a lawyer representing families of deceased employees, said that protecting workers from the virus was not “an unsolvable problem”. He said the issue was a corporate culture in which executives prioritized production and sales and treated line workers as disposables.
“When listening to the stories of someone who lost a father, brother or wife, it is difficult to have sympathy for the managers who worked overtime and were tired,” he said. “But I understand why and how it could have happened. “
Orchard represents the properties of Sedika Buljic, 58; Reberiano Garcia, 60; Jose Ayala Jr., 44; and Isidro Fernandez. Buljic, Garcia and Fernandez died in April and Ayala died on May 25, after a six-week hospitalization.
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This story corrects the spelling of Don Merschbrock’s surname in a reference.