After Meatpacking Outbreaks, Questions Loom Around Protecting Workers In The Future

In Nebraska, labor advocates are balancing present concerns about worker safety with questions about the future. With more than 7,000 positive tests within Nebraska plants and 28 deaths, many say employees still need safeguards.

That’s what brought Romulo Vega to the state capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska, on a chilly spring morning. Vega and other members of Solidarity With Packing Plant Workers and several other nonprofits greeted senators headed inside to vote on LB241, a bill mandating several policies including free masks, sick leave, and a requirement that companies track their cases.

The bill reminds Vega of his father, who worked in a southeastern Nebraska packing plant for 40 years and retired before the pandemic.

“These are parents. These are family members. These are community members. So to just leave them out — they're so vulnerable without any sort of concrete, tangible protections — is what hurts the most,” he said. “Yes, there were guidelines given, but there was no enforcement mechanism behind those guidelines … it could have been my dad.”