Smithfield Foods Inc. said in federal court that a recent presidential executive order keeping U.S. meat processors open during the pandemic supersedes a worker advocacy group’s efforts to enforce virus-related worker safety measures.
The Rural Community Workers Alliance, which represents Smithfield workers in Missouri, is seeking an order to force the company to comply with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state public health officials, as well as other worker protection requirements, at a Milan, Mo., plant. Nearly eight plant workers already have been forced to stay home because of Covid-19 symptoms.
A court order would ...