Why is Trump insisting that meat-packing plants stay open despite risks? | Art Cullen
Written by Art Cullen
The president said he is protecting companies from liability – but employees are afraid of sick leave and filing for workers’ comp or unemployment
Thousands of workers stream in single file, at dawn and mid-afternoon, to suit up in masks and chain gloves and put their lives on the line so you can put cheap sausage on your biscuit.
They are accustomed to living in fear – of starvation from drought in Guatemala, or death squads in El Salvador or drug cartels in Mexico. Of being hunted and caged, whether documented or not. And now, of meeting their fate over a pork chop.
Related: Trump is marching meatpacking workers off to their deaths | Steven Greenhouse
Art Cullen is editor of the Storm Lake Times in north-west Iowa, where he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial writing. He is a Guardian US columnist and author of the book Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope in America’s Heartland (Penguin)
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