Thirty-four employees, former employees and family members of Tyson Foods have sued the company, alleging that it did not take proper precautions at its meatpacking plants in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Pulaski County District Court, the plaintiffs said Tyson’s negligence and neglect of its workers resulted in emotional distress, illness and death. Several of the plaintiffs are spouses or children of Tyson workers who died after contracting covid-19.

A message asking for comment was left to Tyson from Springdale.

Meatpacking plants were the first epicenters of the epidemic in the US, and employees worked closely together on the production line. At least 59,000 meat workers have contracted Covid-19 and 269 workers have died in 2020, according to a US House of Representatives report released in 2021.

The lawsuit alleges that Tyson knew about the covid as early as January 2020, when the virus was spreading through his facilities in China. The lawsuit stated that on March 13 of that year, Tyson suspended all business travel and ordered all non-critical employees in his corporate office to work remotely.

But at the five Arkansas factories where the plaintiffs or their family members worked, Tyson did not provide masks or allow work to be modified to allow for social distancing until the end of April 2020, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit says the company also failed to conduct contact tracing or isolate infected workers.

The plaintiffs seek monetary damages.

Content Source