Agribusiness  May 14, 2020

JBS, Pilgrim’s Pride earmark $200M for COVID relief

GREELEY — JBS USA and sister company Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (Nasdaq: PPC) say they will donate $200 million to various coronavirus relief efforts in the cities where they operate meatpacking locations, but it’s not clear how much of that will go toward worker safety.

In a statement Wednesday, the two companies said at least $50 million of those funds will be donated to cities that have meat-packing facilities for hunger relief and broader community development efforts.

“We are not perfect and this has not been an easy time for any of us, but we are working tirelessly to keep our team members safe and provide food for the country during this pandemic,” JBS USA CEO Andre Noguiera said. “We are all in this fight together.”

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The $200 million is on top of $100 million that JBS and Pilgrim’s Pride have said they already spent in worker-safety expenditures and $50 million in bonuses to facility workers. Any workers who are at particular risk to the effects of COVID-19 are staying at home with full pay and benefits, the companies said, which amounts to about 10% of its employee count.

However, it’s not clear how exactly JBS and Pilgrim’s Pride will use the funds or how much of it will be seen in Greeley, where JBS maintains a large beef-production operation. JBS and Pilgrim’s Pride operate more than 50 locations across the U.S.

Nor could those funds placate union employees who have derided what they say is working conditions ripe for the spread of covid-19 virus through the Greeley plant’s 3,000 workers and led to its temporary shutdown in mid-April.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, the union at JBS’ locations in Greeley, has said seven of its members have died from coronavirus and more than 245 employees have tested positive as of April 30.

JBS and union representatives did not respond to requests for additional comment Thursday.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control study suggests that almost 5,000 American meatpacking workers have been infected and 20 have died because the plants lack social distancing for long shifts and maintain frigid temperatures in which viruses and other communicable diseases thrive. President Donald Trump used the Defense Production Act in recent weeks to require meatpacking plants to stay open as a matter of national security.

 

GREELEY — JBS USA and sister company Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (Nasdaq: PPC) say they will donate $200 million to various coronavirus relief efforts in the cities where they operate meatpacking locations, but it’s not clear how much of that will go toward worker safety.

In a statement Wednesday, the two companies said at least $50 million of those funds will be donated to cities that have meat-packing facilities for hunger relief and broader community development efforts.

“We are not perfect and this has not been an easy time for any of us, but we are working…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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