One of the Tyson Foods executives fired for betting on how many employees would contract COVID-19 at their Iowa pig factory says the office pool was spontaneous and meant to boost morale
IOWA CITY, Iowa – One of the executives at Tyson Foods who was fired for betting on how many employees would contract COVID-19 at a pig factory in Iowa, said the office pool was spontaneous fun and meant to boost morale.
Don Merschbrock, former night manager of the Waterloo, Iowa plant, said he was speaking in an attempt to show that the seven lay-off supervisors are “not the bad people” Tyson has portrayed.
“We really want to clear our names,” he told The Associated Press. “We’ve actually worked really hard and looked after our team members well.”
Tyson announced the termination of the Waterloo executives on Dec. 16, weeks after the betting allegation surfaced in wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of four workers who died from COVID-19.
Tyson said an investigation led by former US Attorney General Eric Holder found sufficient evidence to end those involved because their actions violated the company’s values of respect and integrity. The company had asked Holder’s law firm to investigate the accusation after a public response threatened to damage its brand and demoralize its employees.
The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, one of the world’s largest meat producers, has not released Holder’s findings, and fired executives have complained that they were let go without explanation.
Merschbrock released a statement, explaining in an interview that he was more willing to speak than the other fired managers as he is not a named suspect in the lawsuits.
He said managers headed the office pool within minutes last spring after massive testing of the plant’s roughly 2,800 employees.
County officials said last May that more than 1,000 workers tested positive for the virus, admitted several to the hospital and killed at least six. They humiliated Tyson for not initially providing workers with adequate protective equipment and for not allowing the factory to idle until after the outbreak had passed through town.
Lawyers for the estate of four dead workers have portrayed the bet pool as an indication of the company’s heartless attitude to health and safety. They have claimed that managers downplayed the severity of the virus by sometimes allowing or encouraging employees to work sick.
Tyson has said the plant, the largest for pork and capable of processing 20,000 pigs a day, was designated a critical infrastructure by the federal government in March and its leaders were working to “continue operations safely to secure the national food supply. to establish “.
Merschbrock, who had worked at Tyson for a decade, said managers were given the “impossible task” of maintaining production levels while taking virus safety measures. They had worked twelve hours a week, six or seven days a week, he said.
The office pool included about $ 50 in cash, which went to the winner who chose the right percentage of employees who tested positive for the virus, Merschbrock said. He added that those affected did not believe the pool was in violation of company policy and believed that the plant’s positivity rate would be lower than the community rate due to their mitigation efforts.
“It was a group of exhausted supervisors who worked so hard and so smart to solve many unsolvable problems,” said Merschbrock. “It was just a fun thing, kind of a moral boost because you made an incredible effort. There was never any malicious intent. It was never meant to belittle anyone.”
A spokesman for Tyson declined to comment on Merschbrock’s claims.
Mel Orchard, a lawyer representing families of deceased workers, said protecting workers from the virus was not an “unsolvable problem.” He said the problem was a corporate culture in which executives prioritized production and sales and treated line workers as expendable.
“Listening to the stories of those who lost a father, brother or wife, I have a hard time sympathizing with the managers who worked extra hours and were tired,” he said. “But I do understand why and how this could have happened.”
Orchard represents Sedika Buljic’s estates, 58; Reberiano Garcia, 60; Jose Ayala Jr., 44; and Isidro Fernandez. Buljic, Garcia and Fernandez died in April, and Ayala died on May 25 after a six-week hospitalization.
———
This story corrects the spelling of Don Merschbrock’s last name in one reference.