Essentially Unprotected

Abstract

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American public relied on “essential” low-wage workers to provide critical services and keep the public safe. COVID-19 has exposed cracks that lead to serious gaps in workplace protections for low-wage workers. Decades of exploitative employer practices and neglect from the federal government have left frontline low-wage workers essentially unprotected. Many of these workers are people of color and recent immigrants who have been disproportionately impacted by the virus due to structural racism and socio-economic barriers. This is particularly true in the meatpacking industry, where a legacy of poor working conditions, exploitation, and lack of federal oversight resulted in industry-wide COVID outbreaks infecting almost sixty-thousand workers. By applying a critical race theory lens and telling the story of the first worker to die after contracting COVID-19 at one of the world’s largest meatpacking plants, this Article unpacks the practices, policies, and narratives that allow low-wage industries, like U.S. meatpacking plants, to place profits over the lives of Black and Brown workers. This Article concludes by highlighting the lessons learned and providing recommendations to safeguard low-wage workers beyond this critical moment in time.

Keywords: essential workers, low wage, low-wage workers, people of color, COVID-19, narrative, meat packing, meat processing, poultry, OSHA, workplace safety, exploitation, working conditions

JEL Classification: J00