The site of one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in California has been a Foster Farms poultry factory in the Central Valley. And now officials want the processing plant shut down.
Eight workers at the Foster Farms Livingston Facility have died – representing 18% of the COVID-19 death toll in Merced County among people under the age of 65. At least 358 employees have tested positive, Merced County health officials said in a statement.
Other facilities for Foster Farms in multiple counties are also experiencing outbreaks, Drs. Erica Pan, the acting health care officer.
“In view of increasing deaths and uncontrolled COVID-19 cases, the decision was made to order the Livingston Plant within the Foster Farms Livingston Complex closed until acceptable safety measures are in place,” said Drs. Salvador Sandoval, the health care officer of Merced County, said in a statement late Thursday.
“Our charge is to protect the health of the public, not even in the face of difficult decisions.”
Despite the public statement by Merced County officials, employees of Foster Farms received emails late Thursday informing them of the work ahead of the Thursday night shift Friday as they planned.
“All employees of active status must report to work for their regular shift tonight or tomorrow as planned. The plant and all other facilities at the Livingston complex are operating safely,” the letter, which was reviewed by The Times, said. “Please continue to wear your face mask and follow other safe practices at work and outside of work.”
Later Thursday night, Mike County, a spokesman for Merced County, said enforcement of the shutdown order was delayed by 48 hours after the county received a call from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s secretary of state for food safety.
The delay, North said in an email, will “logistically help facilitate any necessary closure.”
Efforts to reach representatives of Foster Farms, based in Livingston, California, were unsuccessful on Thursday. Foster Farms has described itself as the leading producer of plumage from the West Coast.
The workers at the Livingston factory are mainly Latino and Punjabi Sikh, said Deep Singh, director of the Jakara Movement, a nonprofit for youth and family members in Central Valley targeting the Punjabi Sikh community. Many of the members of his group work at the Foster Farms plant. Singh said he was disappointed by the decision to instruct workers to return to work, despite the provincial order to close.
“I’m very disappointed that Foster Farms will continue with last night’s shift. That puts workers at risk and at risk of infection, despite the expert medical opinions provided by public health and other professionals, ‘Singh said.
He recounted what one worker said to him: “They call us essential, but they treat us as if we are to be spent.”
The province’s decision to order the closure of the expanded facility comes two months after an outbreak there was first identified. In a statement released publicly, Merced County Public Health officials said they advised Foster Farms and later authorized them to conduct widespread testing among their employees.
But the tests ordered by the province have not been completed, county officials said, and deaths continue to climb and cases are increasing.
“The closure of this plant is the only way to get the outbreak at Foster Farms under control quickly. Our heart goes out to the eight families who have lost a loved one, ‘Sandoval, of Merced County Health Care, said in a statement.
Of plant workers confirmed infected, 2.2% have died, according to the province. This is significantly higher than the lethal rate among people infected with the coronavirus in the general population of Merced County, which is 1.3%.
Provincial officials said they worked with the Attorney General’s Office and the California Department of Public Health to reach an agreement with the company to prevent a final closure of the production facility, but could not do so.
“If we are to keep food on our tables during this pandemic, we must do a better job of protecting the essential workers who place it there. That means standing up for the people in our bird facilities, agricultural fields, meat processing plants, restaurants, groceries and more, ”says Atty. General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
“The plumber operation of Foster Farms in Livingston … has experienced an alarming spread of COVID-19 among its workers.”
Pan, the state’s state health care officer, wrote in a letter to a lawyer representing Foster Farms that “by not complying with county guidelines, Foster Farms not only protects the health of permanent, temporary and voluntary “endangers workers and their families, but also increases the risk of transfer from communities in Merced County and surrounding counties, which are already experiencing very high levels of transfer.”
While the onset of the California coronavirus pandemic first hit the Bay Area and then Los Angeles County, the summer days of outbreaks have increasingly affected the state’s rural areas, infecting low – income essential workers. it produces the food that feeds the land.
A Times analysis found that of California’s counties with the 12 lowest rates per capita over the past two weeks, eight of them are in the eight-county San Joaquin Valley. Merced County has one of the lowest rates in the entire state, reporting 565 cases per 100,000 residents in the last 14 days. Conversely, LA County has about 209 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; San Francisco, 141 cases per 100.00 residents; and San Diego County, 116 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Merced County also has one of the worst death rates among all counties in the last two weeks, reporting 38 deaths. On a per capita basis, that works out to 14 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants; LA and Orange counties reported 5.5 deaths per 100,000 residents, and San Diego County and San Francisco, less than two deaths per 100,000 residents.
The Central Valley has the most animal slaughter and processing industries than any other region in California, according to an analysis by the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.
The region also has higher rates of investigations caused by accidents or complaints, according to the analysis of the data center provided by the U.S. Department of Labor. Between mid-2015 and mid-2020, the Central Valley was home to 65% of unplanned surveys of slaughterhouses and animal processing facilities in California, the UC Merced analysis found.
The center has called on officials to set health and safety standards in the workplace for the Central Valley animal slaughter and processing staff. The other major outbreaks in the Central Valley have affected Central Valley Meat Co. in Kings County and Ruiz Foods, a frozen food package in Tulare County.
Meat packers in California are particularly vulnerable during the pandemic era – workers have a low income and live in tight knit environments, said Edward Flores, a sociology professor with the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. Research by Flores and Ana Padilla, the center’s executive director, found that California counties with a larger share of low-wage and full-fledged households were more likely to be hit hard by the pandemic.
Meatpacking workers in California are largely Latino, and Latinos have been disproportionately hard hit by COVID-19 in California. Across the state, Latinos account for 60% of cases and 48% of COVID-19 deaths, despite 39% of the population.
Latinos account for 56% of low-wage workers in California, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, many of whom work in essential jobs in which they have to leave home to work, which increases their risk of infection.
Times staff writer Leila Miller contributed to this report.
