PRACTICING ETHICS COVID-19 and Essential Workers at America's Meat Processing Plants

Questions:

2. Early reports of the severity of the COVID-19 outbreaks in meat processing plants implied that, as a nation, our choice was either to subject these workers (and their families and communities) to a high risk of infection, with the concomitant risk of death, or to suffer "the specter of mass meat shortages" in grocery stores. For context, by the time the news media reported the gravity of the problem in meat processing plants, it had already alerted the world that the pandemic in Italy was so advanced that China had sent doctors and substantial medical supplies to help combat the outbreak. In your judgment, is it ethical to knowingly impose a substantially heightened risk of grave illness or death on plant workers to keep beef, pork, and chicken in supermarkets? Explain.

4. Most of the COVID-19 standards provided by federal, state, and local governments are identified as guidance only; they do not legally bind businesses to take any action. In that light, what do you think about the statement, "If these meat plants can't be held liable, there is no reason for them to take measures to ensure workers are safe. . . . If these workers are essential, protect them. They are being treated like fungible widgets instead of human beings." Explain.

5. Not surprisingly, COVID-19-related issues most severely impact our most vulnerable populations, including the working poor, who are disproportionately comprised of people of color and immigrants. Is it ethical for the government to issue only non-binding guidance, rather than enforceable standards, in circumstances in which the decision makers who will act on the guidance disproportionately come from advantaged groups? Explain.

6. As described above, OSHA's mission is "to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards." Yet the current standards published by OSHA and the CDC are guidelines only, without the force of law. By issuing guidance instead of enforceable standards and by leaving states or local governments to negotiate with meat processing plants, has OSHA failed in its duty to workers in those plants? Can state and local governments protect these workers as effectively as OSHA could when those governments have concerns they must take into account beyond the protection of workers (such as keeping a major source of jobs and tax revenues in the community)? Explain.