There have been tons of stories in the national and international media about how Smithfields failed their employees, to many to link, just get out the googles, oh but this one is good.
One of the major perceptions is that since these employees are immigrants they don’t know how to wash their hands and they have been literally living in a one bedroom apartment with eight beds. After you stop tragically laughing from these claims (who I would assume are coming from Smithfields’ management) it is simply hog sh*t! But what makes it even worse is that the mayor of the state’s largest city and the governor are pushing this misinformation campaign.
Even if we recover quickly from this, Paul and Kristi need to be called out about their apparent ignorance or at least pushing this flat out lie. I have talked to several Smithfield employees, they have no doubt the spread happened at the plant, as the CDC pointed out today.
I also want to say that ham, bacon and hot dogs are not essential food. In fact, I would go even farther and say if you stopped eating this crap you would probably live a lot longer. This is another lie they are pushing about being ‘essential’. If Smithfields was selling super food smoothies, I would defend them. I have the super foods list posted on my fridge, and it doesn’t include a pork product, in fact there is NO animal protein on the list except salmon.
There has also been some conflicting remarks about supplying the American food chain, as I understand it, a lot of this food is going to China. I have not been able to nail down the exact percentage, but some of the claims (10% to China) are questionable and need to be investigated.
Also, besides the fact that this plant has had to pay fines due to water and air pollution, they now are putting workers at risk. If we had a Federal government with a conscious, this place would have been closed down years ago.
What makes the Governor’s ignorance (or flat our lies) even more egregious is that she now wants a sales tax bailout from Federal taxpayers. Why? Because taxing goods and services, gambling and FOOD is not real lucrative. Gee I wonder why? When you have a regressive tax system that taxes the poor at a higher rate while giving massive tax breaks and tax havens to high income earners, this was bound to happen. It doesn’t take an economist to figure this out.
It’s time for a corporate and high earner income tax to the wealthy of the state, and eliminate the taxes on hot dogs. Because, you know, hot dogs are ESSENTIAL, and why should I be taxed when buying them?
Freaking Morons!
I just keep thinking about our mayor telling us to not call him about pot holes, then to not call him about what employers were, or were not doing, relevant to COVID-19.
But he was busy setting up an art contest for kids, however, during that time.
Noem? Well, how are the hychroxychloroquine test trials coming along, anyhow?
( and Woodstock adds: “Say VSG, you better be careful, the repetitive cops and the, “that ain’t funny police” are out there”…. “I am just saying, but then again when a problem doesn’t go away, and you keep responding, that doesn’t mean you’re repetitive, is just means you are speaking true to power, and to a power either indifferent or too incompetent to get the job done”… “Plus, who can be funny at a time like this?”… )
Sanford needs to get on the Clorox suppository trials list.
PTH did the art contest to make himself look good. He didn’t like Mark Fonders popularity in the community for doing kids fundraising and backpack contributions.
To be fair, meat packing nationally needs reform. There’s been outbreaks at half a dozen other plants since Smithfield. They got called out first and (likely) worst. It’s taken a pandemic to improve and potentially cure the problem. It’s no excuse that they used processing tactics in order to compete.
Scott,
You should run for mayor. Use an income tax as your platform. See how you do.
I’m curious here what’s your opinion of the city taking bankruptcy. The tax base is from sales. The mall, stores, and restaurants are closed. 3,000 people at Smithfield are unemployed. Avera is laying off. Call centers are slow. Ag still suffers from last years flooding and weak exports. Cars aren’t selling. Bankruptcy is the best way to wipe out Huether bond debt. It’s going to become a popular recourse for cities and states. The sooner you file, the sooner you come away competitively. I’m hoping the city attorney has looked at this option.
Oh, I forgot to ask, what is a cooperate income tax? To funny. I assume it’s a tax that people have to cooperate and pay there fair share?
If it was framed to only apply to incomes over 100k and sales tax went bye bye, and property tax reduction, it would pass by initiative in a heartbeat.
It’s too bad Einstein and Hemingway didn’t have Unstable Genius, I mean “NIQFNR,” to help them. They were known to misspell.
( and Woodstock adds: “Say, isn’t UG, or “NIQFNR,” or whatever, the one who claimed to not be a Alex! shill, because he doesn’t live in S.F.?”…. “Well, since when does it take a residency requirement to be a shill?”…. )
I would anticipate that understanding which parties have liability under which circumstances would go a long way toward understanding the statements being made by the various parties. A read of Smithfield’s statement might lead one to conclude that it was written by an insurance company preparing the defense that the real risk of infection occurred outside work and Smithfield had only a very limited role in the propagation of the virus among its employees. One would need to understand who the primary insurers are under various circumstances and what the reinsurance relationships are. I believe SD law is very generous to insurance companies in that if they can make even a slightly believable claim that someone else contributed to the problem they can get off the hook entirely.
5 days ago someone was lauding the mayor of Worthington on this blog for the work done at a packing plant there. The plant was subsequently closed when the ratio of affected workers was very close to that at Smithfield. Now the number of cases has increased almost eight fold in Nobles county, MN (from 33 to 258)- and continues to go up every day; but Minnesota has a democratic governor so don’t expect criticism of him any time soon ; and lets not forget about dem run New York-both city and state- where the virus has run rampant (cases per 1000 about 3 times as high as Sioux Falls and no real comparison of the death rate- NYCity much,much worse) this virus wasn’t the fault of any politician but we sure want to go after any republican/conservative; do we need another example- look at the talk about the Georgia governor as opposed to the Colorado governor
It’s a good things your emotions don’t run this country. All utter blather
Smithfield is a 9 billion international company with a dozen or so subsidiaries. They’re responsible for local health and economic impact. This looks like 5 years in court with the plant closed permanently.
not long now til Kristi does a PSA showing us all how these clorox martinis work.
The last two words describe you perfectly. Pork is big business in South Dakota as it is across the country. Almost 10% of the nation’s pork is butchered within 100 miles of Sioux Falls. Farmers are killing hogs and chickens, dumping milk and eggs because there is a glut right now with restaurants closed. You may choose the meatless life style but nearly all of your neighbors reject it out of hand. Agriculture is hurting and idiotic remarks like yours don’t do a thing to help out.
This is what happens when you make farms into corporate CAfOs and corporate packing. A total breakdown of the distribution system.