Workers, advocates say Strauss fired meatpacking workers after COVID-19 safety complaints
Maria Perez
Some meatpacking workers and advocates say meat processing company Strauss Brands fired many of its employees in Franklin after some complained about the lack of COVID-19 safety measures.
Voces de la Frontera, which filed a workplace safety complaint with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in late April, says the company fired 30 employees who had worked for Strauss for 12 to 20 years.
The group says the company used old letters from the Social Security Administration as a reason to fire the workers, though the federal agency explicitly says the letters should not be used to take action against employees.
Some workers said the company told them they weren’t authorized to work in the U.S.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, questioned the timing of the terminations.
“Why did they use these letters when there’s an active investigation of OSHA, which is in the process of interviewing workers?” she said.
Strauss Brands hasn't responded to requests for an interview.
Most fired workers were told they were terminated because the Social Security Administration had informed Strauss that their Social Security numbers and names didn’t match the agency's records, according to the accounts of six workers and the immigration advocacy group.
These "no match" letters expressly say they don’t address the immigration status of employees, and warn companies to not take adverse action against workers based solely on receiving them.
Former employee Deny Alvarado said the company never told him about any no-match letter concerning him until the day he was fired in early July, though he had been working at Strauss for 17 years.
He said he thinks he was fired because he complained about the lack of COVID-19 safety measures to Voces de la Frontera and talked with OSHA about his safety concerns.
In the complaint that Voces de la Frontera filed with OSHA, the group said the company hadn’t provided masks to all workers, hadn’t separated workers by 6 feet in all areas, and hadn’t informed employees when there was a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19. Workers say several employees tested positive.
Neumann-Ortiz said the complaint is still open. The group says that in late July, the company hadn’t yet implemented some COVID-19 safety protections.
'They treated us like we were essential'
Most terminations came in late July.
But a note the company handed to one of the workers seemed to imply the letter from the Social Security Administration had arrived in August 2019 or earlier.
The note said the worker hadn't provided any response as required by Strauss' prior notice dated Aug. 6, 2019, and if the worker was unable to immediately supply documentation proving he was authorized to work in the U.S. or didn't have a reasonable expectation of receiving work authorization documents within 30 days, employment would be terminated that same day, July 23.
Three employees said Strauss let them know about the letter from the Social Security Administration last year or a long time ago, and that they weren't told they were required to fix any paperwork or that they would be fired if they didn't.
Social Security Administration no-match letters alert employers that the agency can't credit workers for amounts paid to the Social Security Administration. They state that mismatches don't mean workers provided wrong information intentionally, and can be due to typographical errors or unreported name changes.
The letters also tell employers to not lay off, suspend, fire, or discriminate against the employees based only on the letter, and that doing so could violate state or federal law.
Five of the six former Strauss workers interviewed by the Journal Sentinel declined to comment about their immigration status. One said he wasn't authorized to stay in the U.S. but was in the process of fixing his situation.
Former employee María Ramírez said she thinks the COVID-19 safety complaints contributed to the terminations. She said she complained to management about the lack of social distancing at the plant.
She tested positive for COVID-19 in late April, she said, and was sick for more than a month. She had bad pains in her body, her eyes burned, her stomach hurt and she had problems breathing. She even coughed blood, she said.
Ramírez told her co-workers that she had COVID-19 and that they had been exposed. She said the company hadn't informed them by then.
She was fired July 23, she said.
She said that when she'd asked to take vacation during the pandemic because she was afraid of getting the virus, the company denied her request because she was an essential worker and they needed her.
Now she feels betrayed.
“I feel like something that you use and you don't want any longer,” she said.
A single mother, Ramírez said her family has lost its only economic support.
Alvarado says he thinks the workers have been treated unfairly.
“During the pandemic they treated us like we were essential workers, that we couldn’t stop working, that the company needed us … and now, overnight, they fire us,” he said.
Unknown how many Strauss workers contracted COVID-19
Workers said that until late July, many employees were working on the line closer than 6 feet away and without dividers installed among them. Dividers were only installed in a few lines, workers said.
Walter Garron, a former union leader who helped organize the workers, said he knows of six Strauss employees who tested positive for COVID-19.
Elizabeth Goodsitt, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, declined to say how many Strauss workers had tested positive.
So did Courtney Day, director of Health and Human Services at the Franklin Health Department. Day said there have been positive cases tied to individuals who work at Strauss Brands, but since none of them live in Franklin, her department doesn’t know if they contracted COVID-19 as a result of working at Strauss Brands or from other sources.
She said they consider it’s up to the business to disclose the number of positive cases to the public or to their staff.
Strauss didn’t provide that number.
Day said that Strauss immediately implemented the guidelines for meatpacking facilities published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late April, and her department believes Strauss is doing all it can to prevent spread of the disease in its facility.
She cited conversations with management, "human resources" and "occupational health" and a review of the company’s COVID-19 safety plan. She didn't respond to questions about whether her department had inspected the plant.
The plant workers' union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1473, said in a press release that it had negotiated a severance agreement with the company for 29 workers.
But Neumann-Ortiz, Garron and some of the workers said the fired employees hadn’t voted to accept it before the union announced it.
Some workers said the company is offering severance of four days per year worked but they are asking for one more day per year in addition to personal days and vacation.
Ramírez said she has a workers’ compensation case pending against the company and fears she may not be able to pursue it further if she signs the agreement. Garron said some of the workers need time to review it.
“We are here to keep exerting pressure,” Garron said during the protest outside the Franklin plant Friday that drew about 70 workers, family members, advocates, supporters and elected officials.
Melanie Bartholf, political director of the local union, didn´t respond to questions and referred the Journal Sentinel to the union's press release posted on Facebook.
The press release said the agreement, which the union described as unprecedented, was worth $264,000 for approximately 29 of the employees fired and that individual workers could choose arbitration instead of receiving the payout.
Maria Perez is an investigative reporter covering issues that affect minority communities and social services. She can be reached at maria.perez@jrn.com. You can follow her at @mariajpsl.