37 COVID-19 Positive Confirmed Cases Reported In April At Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods Inc., At Least 503 Employees Tested For Coronavirus, Cluster Of Infections Spiked In 53215 Zipcode Where 60% Reside

60% of the Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods, Inc. Latino employees reside in the 53215 zipcode area in the Southside of Milwaukee.

By H. Nelson Goodson 

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

April 30, 2020

Cudahy,  Wisconsin - At least 503 Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods, Inc. workers were tested for Coronavirus (COVID-19), no results yet and 33 confirmed cases in city were reported by Cudahy Health Officer Katie Lepak on Wednesday, April 29, 2020.

The Cudahy Health Department tested 503 Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods workers for COVID-19 in a five day process from April 24 to April 28, 2020.

The Mayor of Cudahy Thomas Pavlic and the management at Smithfield Foods have failed to publicly confirm how many COVID-19 cases have been connected to the company after employees complained that no PPE including facemasks, gloves and employee distancing was being practiced at work, in which multiple employees became sick of suspected COVID-19 and the company later shut down temporarily.

On April 15, 2020 Smithfield Foods announced that it would partially close some areas at the Patrick Cudahy plant in Wisconsin and the Martin City, Missouri plant for two weeks or more after the Cudahy Health Department confirmed that 37 employees at the Cudahy plant tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Walter Garron, a Community Liasion who released the following agreement between the Union at Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods and management, that the following conditions will be applied during the partial shutdown at Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods, the management agreed to shutdown the following areas: 

• Fresh Sausage (4/15/20) until further notice

• Sausage (4/16 to 4/30/20)

• Refinery (4/17 to 5/4/20)

• Microwave RTE/RTC Bacon (4/18 to 5/4/20)

• Dry Suasage Packaging (4/25 to 5/11/20) 

• Distribution will run during these periods

• Maintance/Waste Water/Refrigeration will run skeleton crews on this time period

• Company also agreed on a non- precedent setting basis to pay employees affected and who will be out, but some employees have confirmed that no pay has been received by employees as of yet.

• At least 60% of the workforce at Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods is Latino/Hispanic and 40% of those employees reside in the 53215 zipcode and the other 20% of those workers reside near the Southside of Milwaukee.

Also both Milwaukee County Supervisors Steven Shea and Sylvia Ortiz-Velez released a press release on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, seeking to learn how many employees from Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods have tested positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Supervisor Shea represents Cudahy and Supervisor Ortiz-Velez believes many of the employees from Smithfield Foods live in the 12th Supervisor District that she represents and the zipcode 53215 where more than 160 positive cases of COVID-19 were reported in recent weeks is located within her district.

On Friday, April 30, 2020, Alderman José G. Pérez, Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa and Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic released the following joint statement, "There are no walls that separate the communities of Milwaukee County from one another. Even if there were, the COVID-19 virus wouldn’t pay any attention to them...This is what makes the slow reaction and continued silence from both Patrick Cudahy/Smithfield Foods and the City of Cudahy about the outbreak at the former’s meat processing plant so troubling...The urgency is critical because many of these employees live on the near south side of Milwaukee, in the 53215 ZIP code which is home to one of the most diverse areas in the great state of Wisconsin and one of the recent COVID-19 hotspots in the city. With so many calling for a broad, coordinated response to this problem, it is disappointing to see what appear to be parochial concerns standing in the way of an appropriate response in the interest of public health..."

Update: On May 1, 2020,  the Cudahy Health Department confirmed that a preliminary report of results from those 503 workers tested, at least 83 tested positive including those previously tested and additional positive results expected. There are more than 1,000 employees at Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods. The Cudahy Health Department released the following, "The Cudahy Health Department worked in partnership with the City of Cudahy, the Wisconsin National Guard, Smithfield Foods, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1473 Union, Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, to offer free COVID-19 testing to all employees at the Smithfield Foods facility in Cudahy, Wisconsin." 

"Between April 24-28, testing for COVID-19 was provided for 503 Smithfield employees on-site at the Smithfield meat-processing facility. These efforts led to 22 new positive COVID-19 diagnoses among employees. 31 test results are pending. Among the approximately 1000 employees who work at this location, a total 85 have tested positive to date. On April 15, Smithfield announced a temporary and voluntary closure the Cudahy facility."

It seems that the management and the UFCW Local 1474 Union at Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods were negligent to implement safety and sanitizing practices including providing PPE equipment for employees in early March when employees began to learn that some employees had gotten sick from the COVID-19 and they began to request information from management and the Union about who got sick in order to take precautions to no avail and no efforts were being made by management to contain the possible spread of COVID-19 among other employees. It wasn't until March 28, 2020 that Walter Garron, a Community Liasion and former Union UFCW representative began to reach out to media outlets and exposed the alleged negligence by the company management to deal with employees concerns about the spread of the virus among co-workers at various operations and processing areas. Numerous employees contacted Garron after the Union failed their members to address the issues that were raised concerning the virus spread at the Patrick Cudahy Smithfield Foods.

Employees were demanding from management PPE supplies and to be informed which employees at work were ill and in which areas they worked to take precautions. The company management had claimed that employees illnesses and information was confidential and no information was released to the concerned employees.

It wasn't until after March 28, the COVID-19 spread and growing infection among employees reached its peak and management and the Union began to act and 30 days later 83 employees out of more than 503 tested positive for COVID-19.

According to the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, the COVID-19 spiked results in three zipcodes were reported, total cases per zipcode affected: 

• April 7, 2020 - 53110, 10 cases; 53204, 61; 53215, 82

• April 14, 2020 - 53110, 18; 53204, 81; 53215, 150

• April 21, 2020 - 53110, 24; 53204, 108; 53215, 209

• April 29, 2020 - 53110, 32; 53204, 161; 53215, 322 cases