Sixth JBS Greeley worker dies amid coronavirus outbreak at beef plant

A sixth local JBS USA employee died Wednesday amid an outbreak of the novel coronavirus at the Greeley beef plant and during a nationwide debate about worker safety in meat processing facilities.

The employee died Wednesday night, Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7, said. Five plant employees and a corporate JBS employee, all of whom worked in Greeley, have died from the novel coronavirus.

Testing has confirmed 245 cases of COVID-19 among employees at the JBS Greeley plant, according to state data, making the outbreak one of the largest confirmed in Colorado. The actual number of infections may be higher than those cases confirmed through lab testing.

The sixth death comes a day after President Donald Trump took executive action to require meat processing plants to stay open, classifying the plants as critical infrastructure due to their key role in the nation’s food supply chain.

Cordova and other unions decried the order, saying that companies have failed to adequately protect workers from the coronavirus inside the plants where employees often work in close quarters for long hours. Cordova and JBS executives have traded shots over conditions in the Greeley plant.

JBS closed its Greeley plant for nine days in April to clean the facility and install additional protections for workers. Company executives told the Denver Post that the plant is closely following federal guidelines for worker protections. Weld County health officials signed off on the plant’s reopening, which happened April 24.

JBS has installed stainless steel shields between workers who can’t keep more than six feet from each other, is screening employees for fever and symptoms outside the plant and is requiring all workers to wear masks at all times to try to keep the virus from spreading.

Coronavirus outbreaks have been reported at several meat and food processing plants in Colorado, including at the Cargill meatpacking plant in Fort Morgan, where 56 employees have confirmed cases and one person has died, and at the Leprino Foods cheese plant in Fort Morgan, where 80 workers have tested positive. The Cargill plant reduced its operating hours to allow for additional disinfection between shifts, and the Leprino plant closed for several days to allow all workers to be tested for the virus.