Meatpacking Workers Are Focus of Virus Rule Petition to OSHA

A worker organization and a food safety group have petitioned OSHA to enact an emergency temporary rule protecting meat and poultry processing workers from coronavirus infections.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s “current regulation and oversight of worker safety at meat and poultry processing plants fails to provide ‘safe and healthful working conditions,’” the Center for Food Safety and the Food Chain Workers Alliance said in the petition.

A study the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released May 1 found that among meat- and poultry-plant workers there were 4,913 infection cases and 20 deaths at 115 plants as of ...