Six employees at the Smithfield Foods plant in Arnold tested positive for the coronavirus.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 President Wendell Young said four people reported positive tests last week, and two more tested positive as of Monday.
He said those individuals have not been to work for at least several days. UFCW represents 107 workers at the plant.
The plant implemented multiple safety measures to combat the coronavirus prior to the employees testing positive, including rigorous cleaning throughout the day and overnight.
“We have more knowledge every day that goes by,” Young said. “The employer has more knowledge. Going back to the beginning of this, they did implement some common-sense things. At least what we all thought was common sense. … We wish we had better guidance out of the federal government. People didn’t sign up for this kind of duty.”
The company recently shut down its South Dakota pork processing plant in Sioux Falls until further notice after hundreds of employees there tested positive for coronavirus.
Young stopped short of calling for the Arnold plant to close but said more safety measures need to be considered.
“The nature of this work is you have to work in close proximity with other people,” Young said. “For that reason, they need the proper gear. They need proper sanitation protocols and proper hygiene protocols and ability to take frequent hand-wash breaks. Things like that.
“Things we didn’t have to do in the past, at least not to this degree. Everybody needs to do their part, starting with these companies that employ people. If they want to keep these businesses open, they need to run them safely. Here, we have an employer that has implemented a lot of protocols, and we’ll continue to work with them.”
Attempts to reach Smithfield Foods officials were unsuccessful Monday and Tuesday. According to the company website, Smithfield has established a protocol to address covid-19 cases within facilities. Infected individuals are instructed not to report to work and are quarantined with pay. They are asked to identify all co-workers with whom they worked in close proximity. Additionally, the area in which the employee worked, as well as all common areas, are to be sanitized.
As of Tuesday, the company has not called for the Arnold plant to close. Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine also addressed the plant in a news conference.
“We don’t feel there’s a potential danger to the public,” Levine said.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease and critical care physician, said consumers need not be worried about products leaving the Arnold plant, since covid-19 is not a foodborne illness.
“All in all, it really doesn’t represent a major risk to consumers,” Adalja said.
