Challenging Tyson and JBS for Racial Discrimination
On July 8, 2020, Rural Community Workers Alliance joined a nationwide coalition of organizations that advocate for meat processing workers to file an administrative civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging that two major meat processing corporations have engaged in racial discrimination prohibited by the Civil Rights Act through their workplace policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The complaint alleges that megacorporations Tyson and JBS have adopted policies that reject critical Centers for Disease Control guidance – social distancing on meat processing lines – to stop the spread of COVID-19 at their processing facilities and that the results of their current operating procedures have a discriminatory impact on the predominantly Black, Latino, and Asian workforce at the companies’ plants.
Because of the federal money that flows to the corporations in the form of federal Farm Bill nutrition program and Trade Mitigation Program contracts, this disparate impact violates federal civil rights law. The complainants ask that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Civil Rights suspend, terminate, and refuse to provide financial assistance to these two companies as a result of this racial discrimination, and to refer the complaint to the Department of Justice for action.
In addition to RCWA, complainants in this administrative complaint are Food Chain Workers Alliance, the HEAL Food Alliance, Forward Latino, American Friends Service Committee – Iowa, and the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils. They are represented by Public Justice, Nichols Kaster PLLP, and Towards Justice.
Read more about the complaint and its impact:
The Associated Press & New York Times: Worker Advocates File Meat Plants Discrimination Complaint
The Green Bay Press-Gazette: Meat-packers coalition names JBS, Tyson in civil rights complaint over COVID-19 working conditions
KCCI Des Moines: Tyson, JBS face discrimination complaint over COVID-19 practices
Fox Business: Tyson, JBS plants targets of coronavirus lawsuits alleging racial discrimination