![]() ![]() Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quickly identified multiple outbreaks among meat and poultry processing workers around the country early on in the pandemic. The Central Valley has the most animal-slaughtering and processing industry jobs of any region in California, according to an analysis by the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. “He had a certain loyalty to the company, and it cost him his life,” Singh said. The worker got sick with COVID-19 and spent his last three weeks in an intensive care unit before dying just before New Year’s Eve. His family believed he was infected at the plant because he and the rest of them had avoided going out into the community other than for work or other essential reasons, Singh said. He was close to retirement but continued to work when called up by the company, agreeing to cover for coworkers who had fallen sick. Singh said that one worker who died was employed at the Foster Farms Fresno plant and was of Punjabi descent and in his 60s. With California headed toward fully reopening its economy, there also needs to be an effort “to understand what created so many breakdowns, especially for corporations that did not prioritize their worker safety.” ![]() Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, a Central Valley youth and family nonprofit that works with the Punjabi Sikh community, welcomed Cal/OSHA’s action but also called for more scrutiny by the government - including criminal investigations if applicable - to scrutinize what he called “callous decisions to put profits over people.”įor a company with vast resources, the proposed fine “is a slap on the wrist,” Singh said. Poultry workers at the Foster Farms’ Livingston plant are predominantly Latino and Punjabi Sikh. “We need penalties that would make the deaths of workers a consequence that no company would consider.”Ĭalifornia California postpones decision on relaxing mask and distancing rules for workersįor now, California workers must continue to wear masks and practice physical distancing - either in a room or outside. And many companies also appeal and fight every penalty and violation and get a reduction,” Padilla said. “Many companies can do a simple cost-benefit calculation and find that they profit more by disregarding rules. Padilla also questioned whether issuing the kinds of financial penalties that are ordinarily levied will be enough to change how businesses behave. The people who work in the meat and poultry processing workforce are largely nonwhite and immigrant, and there are issues with workers not knowing their rights and facing language barriers to filing safety complaints, Padilla said. In addition, it’s worth noting “that it took 10 months for Cal/OSHA to issue penalties,” Padilla added, which, “more than anything underscores really the grave need to allocate greater resources or strategies for regulating workplace health and safety.” “This suggests that there is a regional disparity to enforcement with regards to Cal/OSHA complaints and inspections,” Padilla said. Critics say officials have long paid insufficient scrutiny to workplace safety hazards in this part of California.Īlthough the Central Valley has among the highest number of complaints and accidents, workplace safety inspections in this part of California have yielded fewer violations per inspection than other parts of the state, said Ana Padilla, executive director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. financial markets are on notice: the era of evasive communications practices is over," Goldsmith Romero said in a statement.Labor experts and advocates for workers have said the deaths show a need for authorities to pay greater attention to workplace safety in the Central Valley. ![]() In another example, a Nomura trader deleted messages, which included incriminating statements about trading, after the CFTC sent a request to preserve documents, her office said. In one example cited by her office, Bank of America staff used WhatsApp, with one trader writing: "We use WhatsApp all the time but we delete convos regularly." The head of a trading desk routinely directed traders to delete messages on personal devices and to use Signal, including during the CFTC's probe. Wall Street banks have for years struggled to stamp out the use of personal devices at work - often banning them altogether from trading floors - but the problem became acute as bankers and traders worked from home during the pandemic.Īccording to CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, staff used personal apps to evade oversight, sometimes at the direction of senior executives who knew they were violating bank policies but wanted to obfuscate trading communications. ![]()
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