Smithfield Foods to close Sioux Falls plant indefinitely amid COVID-19 outbreak
Article by Mackenzie Huber in "The Sioux Falls Argus Leader":
Smithfield Foods will close its Sioux Falls facility until further notice, the company announced Sunday in a news release.
The
closure comes after the South Dakota Department of Health said 238 of
Minnehaha's 438 COVID-19 cases involve "individuals who work at
Smithfield Foods." The plant was identified as the largest hot spot in
the state with about 38% of the state's cases. Those numbers were last
updated Saturday.
Smithfield will fully shutdown on
Wednesday. The plant will partially be operated through Tuesday to
process inventory, according to the news release.
Smithfield previously announced that it would close for three days for cleaning starting Saturday and continue through Monday.
On Saturday, Gov. Kristi Noem and Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken sent a letter to Smithfield,
asking operations to close for two weeks so the facility could be
cleaned and employees could recover from any suspected illness. The call
to action also requested that Smithfield continue to pay its 3,700
employees during the closure, though the state won't be providing any
financial aid to the company, Noem said on Saturday.
"The
industry, like the country, needs to fight its way through this
situation — and it will — and make adjustments as it changes," said
Maggie Seidel, Noem's senior adviser and policy director, in an emailed
statement Sunday. "As a critical infrastructure industry in our nation's
food supply, the governor is committed to working with them to get
through this."
TenHaken said the decision to call
for closure at Smithfield Foods came after confirmed COVID-19 cases
among planters workers spiked for a third consecutive day.
Protesters at TenHaken's announcement on Saturday demanded a 14-day shutdown. Employees spoke to the Argus Leader last week about conditions at Smithfield,
asking that the company implement more precautions and close for two
weeks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the plant.
“I
am thankful Smithfield is taking the right steps to protect the health
of their employees and our community during this pandemic," TenHaken
said in an emailed statement on Sunday. "When Smithfield is ready to
safely restore its operations, the city is ready to help them further
protect the health of their employees and prevent the spread of
COVID-19.”
While
the plant is making the decision to close indefinitely, President and
CEO Kenneth Sullivan said in the news release that the closure "is
pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat
supply."
"We
have continued to run our facilities for one reason: to sustain our
nation’s food supply during this pandemic," Sullivan said. "We believe
it is our obligation to help feed the country, now more than ever. We
have a stark choice as a nation: we are either going to produce food or
not, even in the face of COVID-19."
The release
said the plant will be shut down until "further direction is received
from local, state and federal officials." Employees will be compensated
for the next two weeks, but there was no mention of payment if the plant
is closed for longer.
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