The Cargill Meat Solutions plant is seen, Friday, April 10, 2020, in Hazleton, Pa. At least four meat processing plants in Pennsylvania are shut down, including Cargill outside the hard-hit city of Hazleton, where more than 160 workers have tested positive, according to a union official.
At least four meat processing plants in Pennsylvania are shut down, including one facility outside the hard-hit city of Hazleton, where more than 160 workers have tested positive, according to a union official.
Cargill Meat Solutions, which employs about 900, has been closed since Tuesday. The 230,000-square-foot plant in Luzerne County packages beef and pork products destined for supermarket meat cases.
Also shuttered are JBS’ beef processing facility in Souderton, the largest plant of its kind east of Chicago; Empire Kosher Poultry in Mifflintown; and CTI Foods in King of Prussia, said Wendell W. Young IV, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776. Those plants reported smaller COVID-19 outbreaks.
Young said a beloved shop steward at the JBS plant, Enock Benjamin, succumbed to the virus after spending weeks “doing everything he could to keep everyone safe.”
