How one small Iowa town continues to deal with the effects of a major COVID outbreak
STORM LAKE, Ia. — Emilia Marroquin has experienced firsthand just how much Storm Lake, Iowa, has changed over the past two decades. On a driving tour of the town, she points to a building out the window of her car. “The only Mexican restaurant that was in town was on this corner, [and] there were […]
Meatpacking jobs are attractive to immigrants. COVID made the work even riskier
PERRY, Ia. — Amner Martinez still doesn’t know all the details from when his 74-year-old father Concepcion got dangerously sick with COVID-19 near the beginning of the pandemic. Martinez’s father works at the Tyson Foods plant in Perry, Iowa, the site of an outbreak in spring 2020 that affected 730 workers. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2021/12/se-workers-mixweb.mp3 Listen to this […]
Latino Leaders In Meatpacking Towns Fight To Overcome Myths And Hesitancy About COVID-19 Vaccine
LIBERAL, Kansas — One woman thinks the COVID-19 pandemic was planned, man-made. A man won’t get inoculated because he suspects other countries are using…
DOL Watchdog: OSHA’s Virtual Inspections During Pandemic Likely Led To Dangerous Workplaces
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s decision during the COVID-19 pandemic to conduct many inspections virtually — instead of onsite — risked worker safety, the U.S. Department of Labor’s inspector general concluded in an audit report released Tuesday. The report does not specifically mention OSHA’s enforcement at meatpacking plants, which quickly became COVID-19 hotspots last year, but […]