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The poultry plant that supplies about half of California’s chicken remains closed for deep cleaning after at least 8 people died from a COVID-19 outbreak. About 400 others were infected.
To honor the lives lost, the community group the Jakara Movement held a vigil down the street from the Foster Farms plant in Livingston.
“I lost my dad last year, and I cannot imagine the pain that the families are going through that lost their loved one,” said Lety Valencia, who calls herself a child of the Valley.
She lives down the street from the plant, where both her parents once worked.
“Many of our parents here, the young people that you see here, we’re here because this is an issue that matters to us as a broader community, but because it’s deeply personal,” Valencia said.
Merced County declared an outbreak in late June and later found that Foster Farms did not comply with its recommendations, including those on comprehensive testing.
After being ordered to close the plant on Tuesday, Foster Farms said in a statement it would conduct two rounds of deep cleaning and employee testing. Some departments are still being allowed to operate.
Jose Piña Tovar has earned minimum wage on the processing line at Foster Farms for 15 years.
The 67-year-old said he got coronavirus symptoms at the end of June, at about the time the outbreak was first declared.
Tovar said he was given one bandana, once, for protection.
“We’ve witnessed a local tragedy here that seems to have reverberations, really, across the country,” said Deep Singh, Jakara Movement executive director.
Singh told KCBS Radio that more than 40,000 meatpacking workers have been infected across the U.S. and that cleaning the plant is not enough.