The health and well-being of meatpacking workers has always been a socioeconomic problem at root,
肉類加工工人的健康和福利一直是社會經濟問題的根源,
says Matthew Wadiak, founder and CEO of Cooks Venture, a small Arkansas-based producer that sells pasture-raised chickens directly to consumers.
養雞企業Cooks Venture公司的創始人兼首席執行官馬修·瓦迪亞克表示,這家總部位于阿肯色州的小型生產商直接向消費者出售牧場飼養的雞。
The company hasn't had a Covid-19 case among the 200 employees at its processing plant in Oklahoma.
該公司在俄克拉荷馬州加工廠的200名員工中,還未發現一例新冠病毒感染病例。
One reason is that from the start of the pandemic,
一個原因是,從疫情流行開始,
Cooks Venture provided lots of protective gear and reconfigured the plant to spread out workers.
Cooks Venture公司就提供了大量的防護裝備,并對工廠進行了重新配置,以分散工人。
But the bigger reason, Wadiak argues, is that the company pays better.
但是,瓦迪亞克認為,更重要的原因是公司支付更多的薪酬。
His entry-level employees earn 20% more than other poultry workers in Oklahoma, enough for them to afford housing that's not overcrowded.
其初級雇員比俄克拉荷馬州其他家禽廠工人多掙20%,足夠他們買得起不擁擠的住房。
When you're jammed into a group house, as so many meat workers are, social distancing is almost impossible.
當你像很多肉食加工廠的工人一樣擠在集體住宅里時,幾乎不可能保持社交距離。
"Americans' desire to buy cheaper and cheaper food has a price in people's lives," Wadiak says.
瓦迪亞克說:“美國人購買越來越便宜的食品的愿望,在人們的生活中是有代價的。
"If we as a country were willing to pay 25 cents to 50 cents more for a pound for meat, wouldn't it be worth it to know a worker can make a living wage?"
如果我們作為一個國家,愿意為一磅肉多付25美分到50美分,那么知道一個工人可以掙到維持生計的工資難道不值得嗎?”
That's not a question usually asked by this industry,
這并不是該行業通常會詢問的問題,

whose workers are injured at twice the rate of other U.S. manufacturing employees and get sick on the job at 15 times the national average.
該行業工人的受傷率是其他美國制造業員工的兩倍,在工作中生病的比例是全國平均水平的15倍。
Meat workers at plants throughout North America say managers treat them like disposable parts.
北美各地工廠的肉類工人表示,經理們把他們當作一次性零件對待。
At Cargill's High River slaughterhouse outside Calgary, where more than 900 of the beef plant's 2,200 workers contracted Covid-19 and one died,
嘉吉公司位于卡爾加里郊外的High River屠宰場中,牛肉工廠里2200名工人中,有900多人感染了新冠病毒,其中一人死亡。
supervisors began trolling the plant in N95 masks and plastic face shields.
監管人員開始佩戴N95口罩和塑料面罩對工廠進行盤查。
Workers say it was weeks before they were given paper and cloth face covers.
工人們說,幾周后他們才得到紙質和布制的面罩。
Cargill spokesman Dan Sullivan says masks were provided to all employees once supplies were procured.
嘉吉公司發言人丹·沙利文說,一旦物資采購完畢,就向所有員工提供口罩。
At JBS-USA's beef plant in the Texas Panhandle town of Cactus,
據3名員工介紹,在位于德克薩斯州潘漢德地區仙人掌鎮的JBS-USA公司牛肉廠中,
the company didn't inform its 3,000 employees that a co-worker had gone home sick with suspected symptoms until nine days later,
有一名員工因疑似癥狀生病回家了,但直到9天后,當新冠病毒檢測結果呈陽性時,
when the test for Covid-19 came back positive, according to three plant employees.
該公司才將此情況通知其3000名員工。
By that time, multiple workers were falling sick, yet for at least a week longer,
此時,已有多名工人生病,但至少在一周多的時間里,
managers continued to deny the plant had a serious outbreak and told sick workers not to discuss their diagnoses.
管理人員繼續否認工廠中發生了嚴重的疫情,還告知生病的工人不要討論他們的診斷。