The Counter
In April, as meatpacking plants across the country continued to stay open despite emerging Covid-19 outbreaks among their employees, JBS USA made an announcement: It would secure free Covid-19 tests for all of the workers in its Greeley, Colorado plant—one of the largest in the country at 3,000 employees. At the time, just 36 employees at that facility had contracted the virus. In the next six months, another 258 would follow. Six would die.
Now, a former contractor-turned-whistleblower has accused the Colorado facility of charging its uninsured employees $100 in cash for those tests. As first reported by The Greeley Tribune, an affidavit filed by the former contractor said she was hired to conduct Covid-19 screenings on site, and alleged that she was instructed to tell employees who were experiencing coughs to continue working. She also accused the company of neglecting to fix broken temperature-screening devices. In a separate affidavit, a second whistleblower corroborated many of her claims.