State Issues

May 18, 2020

Naomi McCormick – Profits Cannot Take Priority Over People – Letter to The Editor

I live in Black Hawk County and I’m scared. We have more reported COVID-19 cases than any other Iowa county. Ninety percent of the cases have been attributed or related to the Tyson plant.

Without significant changes, the meatpacking industry is a major danger to public health, particularly the health of people of color and immigrants who are most likely to work in this industry. All Iowa hotspots for COVID-19 infections are associated with large meat-packing plants.

Human beings and public health are more important than corporate expediency. Tyson and its competitors must deep-clean regularly, slow production, separate workers at a safe distance, provide protective equipment, provide regular COVID-19 testing, and guarantee workers and their families both effective health care and the right to seek legal recourse if their safety or health has been endangered by working conditions.

Republicans and Democrats alike are deeply troubled by living in Iowa’s COVID-19 epicenter and remember, we vote.

Naomi McCormick, Cedar Falls, Iowa

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Originally Published in The Des Moines Register on May 7, 2020.