Dutch slaughterhouses, COVID-19 epicentres

This 12 May 2020 video says about itself:

COVID-19 outbreaks in German slaughterhouses expose grim working conditions in meat industry

Unions say much of the cheap meat on our supermarket shelves is slaughtered by migrant workers who earn low wages, live in cramped shared accommodation and operate in crowded working conditions even in the midst of a pandemic.

Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:

A slaughterhouse of the Dutch group Vion in Groenlo was immediately closed after 45 employees have tested positive for coronavirus.

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) confirms the closure upon inquiry. All employees will be tested. Due to the high number of infections, the NVWA could no longer guarantee the health of the veterinarians and they decided as a precaution that they suspend their work. This means that the slaughterhouse must be closed because no slaughtering is allowed without supervision.

Minister Carola Schouten of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality informed parliament today in a letter that possibly twenty percent of the employees are infected. …

Measures

There have been concerns about the situation in slaughterhouses for some time. Eighty percent of the employees are migrant workers and often live together. Trade unions and whistleblowers also report that there is often not enough distance in the slaughterhouses. The Party for the Animals and D66 called in Nieuwsuur TV show this week for taking measures.

Earlier, 28 employees of a Vion site in Scherpenzeel were tested positive for coronavirus and placed on a ship in isolation. …

In Nederland was er een corona-uitbraak bij werknemers van Vion in Scherpenzeel. Maar er is angst dat de omstandigheden waaronder slachters wonen en werken, ook in ons land tot meer besmettingen gaat leiden. Of al hebben geleid. #Nieuwsuur pic.twitter.com/pNLKP6FyKF

— nieuwsuur (@Nieuwsuur) May 18, 2020

Small vans

Also in Bad Bramstedt, a small town to the north of Hamburg, a slaughterhouse of the Dutch group has come to a standstill because 128 employees had to be quarantined due to a coronavirus infection.

Employees in the meat industry throughout Germany are infected with COVID-19. “It is mainly the housing where several people have to live in one room and the transport with small vans that cause people to get infected quickly,” Marcel Mansouri of the NGG union said in Nieuwsuur on Monday.