商业周刊:最后雇佣却先遭解雇(12)（在线收听）

The health and well-being of meatpacking workers has always been a socioeconomic problem at root,

肉类加工工人的健康和福利一直是社会经济问题的根源，

says Matthew Wadiak, founder and CEO of Cooks Venture, a small Arkansas-based producer that sells pasture-raised chickens directly to consumers.

养鸡企业Cooks Venture公司的创始人兼首席执行官马修·瓦迪亚克表示，这家总部位于阿肯色州的小型生产商直接向消费者出售牧场饲养的鸡。

The company hasn't had a Covid-19 case among the 200 employees at its processing plant in Oklahoma.

该公司在俄克拉荷马州加工厂的200名员工中，还未发现一例新冠病毒感染病例。

One reason is that from the start of the pandemic,

一个原因是，从疫情流行开始，

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护装备，并对工厂进行了重新配置，以分散工人。

But the bigger reason, Wadiak argues, is that the company pays better.

但是，瓦迪亚克认为，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.

其初级雇员比俄克拉荷马州其他家禽厂工人多挣20%，足够他们买得起不拥挤的住房。

When you're jammed into a group house, as so many meat workers are, social distancing is almost impossible.

当你像很多肉食加工厂的工人一样挤在集体住宅里时，几乎不可能保持社交距离。

"Americans' desire to buy cheaper and cheaper food has a price in people's lives," Wadiak says.

瓦迪亚克说：“美国人购买越来越便宜的食品的愿望，在人们的生活中是有代价的。

"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?"

如果我们作为一个国家，愿意为一磅肉多付25美分到50美分，那么知道一个工人可以挣到维持生计的工资难道不值得吗？”

That's not a question usually asked by this industry,

这并不是该行业通常会询问的问题，

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.

该行业工人的受伤率是其他美国制造业员工的两倍，在工作中生病的比例是全国平均水平的15倍。

Meat workers at plants throughout North America say managers treat them like disposable parts.

北美各地工厂的肉类工人表示，经理们把他们当作一次性零件对待。

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,

嘉吉公司位于卡尔加里郊外的High River屠宰场中，牛肉工厂里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.

监管人员开始佩戴N95口罩和塑料面罩对工厂进行盘查。

Workers say it was weeks before they were given paper and cloth face covers.

工人们说，几周后他们才得到纸质和布制的面罩。

Cargill spokesman Dan Sullivan says masks were provided to all employees once supplies were procured.

嘉吉公司发言人丹·沙利文说，一旦物资采购完毕，就向所有员工提供口罩。

At JBS-USA's beef plant in the Texas Panhandle town of Cactus,

据3名员工介绍，在位于德克萨斯州潘汉德地区仙人掌镇的JBS-USA公司牛肉厂中，

the company didn't inform its 3,000 employees that a co-worker had gone home sick with suspected symptoms until nine days later,

有一名员工因疑似症状生病回家了，但直到9天后，当新冠病毒检测结果呈阳性时，

when the test for Covid-19 came back positive, according to three plant employees.

该公司才将此情况通知其3000名员工。

By that time, multiple workers were falling sick, yet for at least a week longer,

此时，已有多名工人生病，但至少在一周多的时间里，

managers continued to deny the plant had a serious outbreak and told sick workers not to discuss their diagnoses.

管理人员继续否认工厂中发生了严重的疫情，还告知生病的工人不要讨论他们的诊断。