Every Single Worker On One Tennessee Farm Has Tested Positive For COVID-19

[riversedge]

Source: Crooks and Liars




5/30/20 9:10am

Advocates are sounding an alarm bell—it's going to get worse as the harvest around the country ramps up.
By Joan McCarter


"Every Single Worker Has Covid at One U.S. Farm on Eve of Harvest." Read that headline one more time: "Every Single Worker Has Covid at One U.S. Farm on Eve of Harvest." That farm is in Tennessee. A farm in New Jersey has more than 50 workers with the virus, and in a neighboring county nearly 60 more on another farm have been ill. An Oneida, New York greenhouse operation growing tomatoes and strawberries reported nearly 170 infected workers.

These are among the most vulnerable essential workers in the U.S. Essential because they're providing our food. Vulnerable because so many are noncitizen immigrants who don't have access the medical care and live, work, and travel in cramped, crowded situations. Advocates are sounding an alarm bell—it's going to get worse as the harvest around the country ramps up. "We're watching very, very nervously—the agricultural harvest season is only starting now," Michael Dale, executive director of the Northwest Workers' Justice Project in Portland, Oregon, told Bloomberg. "I don't think we're ready. I don't think we're prepared."


"There is woefully inadequate surveillance of what's happening with Covid-19 and farm workers," echoed Erik Nicholson, an official with the United Farm Workers. "There is no central reporting, which is crazy because these are essential businesses." Henderson Farms in Evansville, Tennessee—where every worker has the virus—said they tested the workers out of an "abundance of caution," and now all of them are in isolation on the farm. Most are asymptomatic. "We take our responsibility to protect the essential workers feeding the nation through the pandemic seriously," Henderson Farms Co. said in a statement to Bloomberg. "In addition to continuing our policy of providing free healthcare, we have implemented additional measures to support workers directly impacted by Covid-19, including those in isolation as per the latest public health guidelines. We are working closely with public health officials in Rhea County, Tennessee, to ensure we can continue to deliver our high standard of care as we support our workers and our community through these unprecedented times."
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The only action the Trump administration has taken has been to waive interview requirements for guest workers coming into the U.S. and to exempt farmworkers from the temporary immigration ban it has imposed. There are not specific protections in place for the migrant farmworkers. Last week, Rep. Jimmy Panetta, a California Democrat, and 71 of his colleagues wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, urging that protections for them be included in the next response bill. They want free testing for all farmworkers, training and education in every applicable language, personal protective equipment including masks for every worker, and hand-washing stations. .....................................................

Read more: https://crooksandliars.com/2020/05/every-single-worker-one-tennessee-farm-has

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Every Single Worker On One Tennessee Farm Has Tested Positive For COVID-19 Image from: Flickr

[SunSeeker]

1. They have no access to medical care. They must be terrified.

[redstateblues]

2. Where in Tennessee? It's a pretty big state

[KY_EnviroGuy]

3. Evansville, TN in east Tennessee.....

a tiny town about half way between Knoxville and Chattanooga. Near Dayton, TN, Watts Bar Dam and interstate I-75.


Beautiful country there......

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. Good, hard-working people sick and dying from laissez-faire capitalism.

It's obvious these farms are not enforcing CDC workplace recommendations or training the workers. Just like factories that disregard OSHA rules, it's OK if it's inside the corporate fence.


KY...........

[BumRushDaShow]

5. They have been talking about this here in Philly

notably the farms in Jersey. Jersey has blueberries, cranberries, and eventually tomatoes and corn and most harvesting those are seasonal migrant workers who are housed in small crowded barracks-type buildings, sheds, trailers, converted warehouses, and even converted barns.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/blueberry-farm-new-jersey-violations-migrant-workers-water-pollution-fire-code-20190827.html

There's little or no way to "social distance" them.

I know there were many DUers who are vegan or vegetarian who were pointing at the infections that were exploding in the meat-processing plants assuming that somehow, vegetable harvesting was immune. But as is often said - this virus "doesn't discriminate". It can impact ANY place where people are packed together and that means ANY processing/packing plant - whether meat or poultry, vegetables/fruit/nuts, car parts and assembly lines, or mail order warehouses!

[Judi Lynn]

6. There has to be a reckoning, at some point. Bless these people born without protection from poverty.

As any sane person knows it has always been merely a matter of chance.

Being lucky doesn't mean you deserve it.

[rocktivity]

7. But there isn't any where to test them BEFOREHAND

especially in New Jersey?

https://yourhhrsnews.com/nj-mass-covid-test


rocktivity