12 votes

As Covid-19 ravaged Waterloo, Iowa, officials discovered meatpacking executives were the ones in charge

Posted by spit-evil-olive-tips
Tags: usa.ia.waterloo, history, food processing, work, employees, management, business, author.michael grabell, author.bernice yeung, source.propublica, long read
https://features.propublica.org/waterloo-meatpacking/as-covid-19-ravaged-this-iowa-city-officials-discovered-meatpacking-executives-were-the-ones-in-charge/

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Authors
Michael Grabell
Published
Dec 21 2020
Word count
9116 words

2 comments

  1. tunneljumper
    Link
    I lived in Waterloo for 8 years and made frequent deliveries to Tyson in the past few years. Kinda surreal seeing this pop up on my rss feed, but I wish I could say I was surprised.

    I lived in Waterloo for 8 years and made frequent deliveries to Tyson in the past few years. Kinda surreal seeing this pop up on my rss feed, but I wish I could say I was surprised.

    6 votes
  2. spit-evil-olive-tips
    Link

    The roots of why this small Midwestern city of about 67,000 was consumed by the virus can be found in its history. Here, over the past century, the entire arc of the meatpacking industry’s story in America, and its complicated relationship with race, have unfolded.

    In Waterloo, race and labor have especially been intertwined, dating back to when Black workers from Mississippi were first recruited to the area as strikebreakers more than 100 years ago.

    2 votes