When coronavirus cases started appearing at the JBS beef-processing facility in Greeley, Colorado, this past March, Stacey was terrified. She works on the plant’s kill floor, removing intestines that weigh between 30 and 50 pounds from hundreds of cattle each hour.
In normal times, the plant’s 6,000 workers stand shoulder to shoulder and carpool to work. Stacey, whom I am calling by a pseudonym because she fears retribution at work, was afraid she would get her family sick. “I had trouble sleeping. I was very nervous. And sometimes I was just irritable,” she said. “Everyone was feeling very nervous.”
Colorado reported its first confirmed case of the virus on March 5. The company decided to require masks on March 19. By March 24, at least one worker was in the hospital.
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