Report by Cynthia Ahmed et al. The Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice.
July 2020.
Across the United States, the COVID-19 outbreak highlighted the significant inequalities already embedded in the fabric of work and labor in America. In the meat and poultry processing industry in particular, more than 16,000 workers were infected with COVID-19 in April and May alone. Furthermore, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 87 percent of those cases were among racial or ethnic minorities. Since May, these cases have certainly increased, with some reports from organizations tracking confirmed cases in meat and poultry processing plants putting the total as of July 17 at around 40,000 workers nationwide.
In order to better understand the landscape of the COVID-19 crisis in the meat and poultry processing industry, we focused on Gainesville, GA, a city recognized as the “Poultry Capital of the World.” Gainesville produces 31 million pounds of chicken and 7 million eggs daily. Gainesville’s poultry plants have also seen some of the highest prevalence of COVID-19 in the state, with workers working and living in close quarters, often without proper personal protective equipment (PPE). Census records report that 40 percent of Gainesville’s residents are Hispanic, and 25 percent of the population is foreign born. Recent Pew data suggests that 12 percent of Gainesville’s total population is made up of undocumented immigrants, the highest in the nation. As of May, 56 percent of total COVID-19 cases in Gainesville were among the Latinx population. Hall County, in which Gainesville is located, has twice the infection rate of neighboring Gwinnet County.
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