Huge clusters of workers have become sick with COVID-19 at meat processing plants in
the United States because some of the largest corporate food processors failed to implement
any kind of safety precautions for workers. Joining me to talk about this is Farron Cousins,
editor of the trial lawyer magazine. You know, as I look at this story, worst yet as I look
at the graphics here. I don't want to eat meat. But, you know, this story really, I
think we're going to survive even without meat for awhile. People have alternative protein.
But the thing that bothers me about this is it just got so little attention. You know,
these workers were going in without any protection. They're, they're working four feet apart,
basically no protection at all. The sound is so loud in there that to talk, they have
to get face to face, ear to ear, whatever. It just screamed out for problems, especially
when people started leaving and not coming back because they couldn't come back. They
were sick. Right, and one of the things we're finding
out now too is that the management at many of these plants, Tyson foods, JBS foods, and
Smithfield actually encouraged workers, even if you're sick, you still have to come in.
We're a vital part of the economy, a vital part of the food chain, they said. So even
if you're sick, if you're showing symptoms, we still want you to come in. One employee
described it as unless you were in a casket, they expected you to show up to work the next
day. Yeah. It was their, they call it their work,
their work while sick policy. Right.
They actually had a policy, the work while sick policy. You know, I can't, I can't avoid
the irony here. This is crazy. Smithfield as you know, the biggest meat packer in the,
maybe in the world is owned by the Chinese doing business right here in the United States.
So Smithfield probably had some of the worst policies across the board and Smithfield of
all of them had every reason to know very early something was getting to, getting ready
to happen. But they provided no masks. They provided no gloves. They provided no separation
because they just, I guess they look at these people as being expendable, thousands of these
people working in the same plant. Right, and they do view them as expendable.
I mean, we've seen this, you know, for, for all kinds of different corporations. The workers
come and go, you know, if somebody drops dead on the assembly line, you simply replace that
person. You know, it goes back to the old asbestos memo, if you've had a great life
working in asbestos why not die from it. Yeah.
And that corporate mentality has not changed in over a hundred years at this point. So
what we've had with these workers, in addition to being told, come in sick, we had the, the
businesses themselves, Smithfield, JBS, Tyson told the federal government told OSHA, okay,
we're going to implement these new standards. And the new standards are you have to wear
a mask, you have to do the social distancing and then according to the workers, it took
weeks after they promised OSHA everything was going to be okay before the masks showed
up. It took weeks before they were actually told to distance themselves from one another
at least six feet. So the corporation tries to tell the government, listen, we're doing
everything right. We've made these new policies. But the workers are saying, they may have
told you they made these policies, but they never implemented them until of course it
was too late. They didn't get their masks at many of these plants it told about a week
and a half ago. Yeah. So right now, more than 3000 of them
are sick. The workers are sick. More than 20 are dead. And so the, the point is this,
it's worker's compensation. You see, that's different from being able to sue the corporation.
That worker, their only relief generally is going to be through workers' compensation.
So a, a corporation can make an assessment. How much does this worker compensation, how
much it's going to cost us if we lose Joe over here because he's got coronavirus? They,
you know, they do the, they do the math and when they do the math they say, well we're
going to do a lot better just business as usual. Joe's not going to be that expensive
because it's worker's compensation. No big deal.
Well, and you've got the Trump administration right now and Mitch McConnell, as of yesterday
morning, announced he was going to be working on this as well, trying to come up with some
kind of immunity for corporations so that when they have outbreaks like this, you can't
sue them at all. And what that's gonna lead to is that's going to lead to even fewer safety
precautions. They're going to think, well, we don't have to protect our workers because
we're immune now. It's going to be this horrid slippery slope of mass infection.
Businesses that are suffering from the statewide stay at home orders are quickly learning that
their insurance policies aren't covering the economic slowdown even though they were supposed
to. Joining me to talk about this is Scott Hardy, the president of class, top class actions.
Scott, you know, you have your pulse on exactly what's going on around the country. The first
time we started getting calls at our law firm where you'd have a business an entire chain
business, you know, large chains calling us and saying, we have this business policy and
they're telling us there's no coverage. And then we look at the policy and there's clearly
coverage, clearly coverage. Tell us what business interruption insurance is and what's happening
with this right now during the shutdown. Sure. So business continuity insurance, business
interruption insurance is to cover these businesses if they're shut down due to a natural disaster,
like a hurricane, a fire, or a pandemic. And so when these businesses are shut down, this
insurance is supposed to cover their payroll. It's supposed to actually cover their income,
even pay for their loans, pay for their rent. So from the time that they're shut down to
the time that they open back up, they have money to cover their business and pay everybody.
So that way, you know, they don't go bankrupt. Yeah. Okay. So here's the, here's what we're
seeing already, and tell me if this is consistent with what you're seeing out there. We'll look
at a policy and the policy will say, it'll be, it'll be all coverage policy. There, there'll
be no question. There's, they're not even making exceptions. They're saying this is
an all risk policy. But then they're telling, they're telling the folks that make the demand,
who've been paying outrageous amounts for the insurance companies for decades, they're
telling them, oh no, no, we didn't mean that. It's not what it means. You're going to have
to fight it out. We see that and then we see policies where they say that, well, we're,
there is a clause here that says that we're going to exclude loss for bacteria. We see
that a lot. But they don't put in there bacteria and virus. A virus is a pathogen. It's very
different. The pathogen you should have coverage for and so they have these talking points
that they're telling everybody to discourage them from making these, these types of claims.
Are you seeing that same thing? Yes, we are. Just like you, we've received
thousands of submissions from business owners around the country that are suffering the
exact same problem where they been paying for this insurance. A friend of mine called
me on the day he was shut down and said, Scott, hey, I've been paying for this insurance for
years. I finally say, great. It's finally, I'm going to use it. He calls his insurance
agent says, hey buddy, we've been friends for years, been paying you. I need this to
pay out and his insurance said, oh, sorry, yeah, submit your claim. But we're just denying
everything. Well, Okay. Add to that.
And so, as you said, when you look at these insurance.
Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So when you look at these insurance policies,
it's just like you said, it's, it's very cut and dry from, it's if my business is shut
down due to something beyond my control, like a natural disaster, I should have be covered
for my expenses to be able to pay my payroll and still have that income come in. So once
things are not shut down and things opened back up, I can get paid. But insurance companies
after the SARS outbreak and H1N1 tried to add some clauses in there so they wouldn't
have to pay. Which is what you're talking about there, right?
Yeah, exactly. So what we're seeing is, always make the assumption for, even if you've got
a different issue here, if you're watching this program and you have coverage that they're
denying, understand, there's a couple of issues that you need to be aware of. One of it, one
of them is that the civil authority issue where the civil, where the government has
said, you must shut down because of a public health crisis. That should be something that
you consider when you make your claim. That should work, it should work to your advantage.
The second thing is, is as this, as this litigation develops, you're going to find that there's
going to be interpretations of these policies that are going to be widely varied. You're
going to have some courts that are going to always rule for the insurance companies. Some
that are going to say, look, you know, if I look at this, if I look at this, we just
have to find if we weigh everything, we certainly should weigh in favor of the business's been
paying all this money for coverage. What are you telling, what are the attorneys that,
that you're working with, what are they telling people right now, Scott, about how to proceed?
They're saying, submit those claims. Get those denial letters, send those denial letters,
send your claim policies into the attorneys. They need to review those because just like
you said, there's going to be a lot of different ways that they're attacking this. You know,
and the insurance companies are sitting there and saying, hey, we can't afford to pay out
all these claims. But in 2018 they took in $1.2 trillion in payments and after paying
all their operating expenses, paying on all the claims, these insurance companies still
cleared a $60 billion profit in 2018. So how can they not have money to pay these small
business owners that are trying to get 50,000 bucks, $25,000 just to stay open?
Yeah, yeah. We've got. Right. We have to go. But I'll tell you this, we saw the same thing
with hurricane loss. We saw the same thing with BP loss here on the, on the Gulf coast.
It's the same game they play all the time. Don't give up. If you have a policy, do not
give up. Hire an attorney who knows what they're talking about, who will jump in and fight
for you. Thanks for, thanks for joining me, Scott. Okay.
Thank you for your time, Pap. I appreciate it.
Finally tonight, some good news. A federal court last week ruled that the environmental
protection agency can't continue to ignore toxins being released from paper and pulp
mills when they set emission rules. The EPA is required to review emissions from corporations
every eight years and then to use those set, to set limits on what's acceptable and what's
not. But ever since that rule was established in 2001 the EPA has never factored in emissions
from these pulp mills. These pulp mills are dangerous. They put out dangerous amounts
of toxic chemicals like dioxin and mercury right into the nearby environment and for
nearly 20 years, the federal government's been pretending that these emissions don't
exist at all. But thanks to the last week's ruling, these dangerous toxins must be counted.
Longterm exposure to mercury has been linked to abnormal brain functions and structural
changes to the brain that can lead to permanent disastrous alterations in personality. Exposure
to dioxin, even in low amounts, can severely disrupt the endocrine system, alter hormones
and destroy a person's reproductive system. And these are just a few of the many adverse
effects that these chemicals have on the body. Last week's ruling might be a couple of decades
too late, but it could prevent severe health problems in the future. Maybe that's good
news. Maybe that's the best we can expect these days.
That's all for tonight. Find us on Twitter and at Facebook @facebook.com/rtamericaslawyer.
You can watch all RT America programs on Direct TV, Channel 321 and also stream them live
on YouTube. Be sure to check out RT's new portable app where you can watch all your
shows, anything you want to watch on that app. I'm Mike Papantonio and this is America's
Lawyer, where every week we give you the stories that corporate media is ordered not to tell
because of their political connections like you heard tonight, and because their advertisers
won't let them. Have a great night.