At a JBS USA plant in Greeley, Colorado, absenteeism is running as high as 30%. Before the pandemic, it was about 13%. The company is paying about 10% of the workforce -- people deemed vulnerable -- to stay home. Others aren’t coming in because they are sick.
So typically absenteeism runs about 13% according to the article and they are paying 10% of it's workforce to stay home due to them being deemed vulnerable by the company itself. So they are seeing about a 7% increase in call outs. That article headline is painting a picture that just isn't there.
Also from the article
The company has had more success at its plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania, which also reopened recently and is running “beyond expectations,” JBS said.
So out of 1500 that tested positive only 150 had symptoms of covid
About 1,500 workers came in for the first day of free testing, with about 10% of them showing symptoms of coronavirus, she said, adding that test results were expected within 48 hours. The plant has about 3,700 employees, and testing will continue for the next several days.
More numbers from the article paint a death rate of .004% which tell us maybe this Virus isn't as bad as we once thought
Conditions at U.S. meat plants contributed to increased risk of infections, and ultimately more than 4,900 workers fell ill, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency cited difficulty maintaining social distancing and adhering to the heightened cleaning and disinfection guidance among the factors that increased risks for workers. There were 20 deaths among employees as the virus spread to 115 meat plants across 19 states, data through late April showed.
So this essentially this article and its title were meant to stoke fear, however I took away some positives from it
