The summary is:
The text is a transcript of a segment from the show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, where he talks about the harsh and unsafe working conditions of meatpacking workers in the US. He criticizes the companies like Tyson and JBS for treating their workers like disposable machines, while providing better benefits and care for their corporate employees. He also exposes the lack of government oversight and regulation, the low fines and penalties for safety violations, and the obstacles for workers to get compensation or medical treatment. He urges for urgent reforms and actions to protect the workers, especially during the pandemic.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Roughly 85% of beef production in America is controlled by four companies.
2. More than half of the chicken industry is controlled by four companies.
3. Meatpacking is a highly consolidated industry.
4. As of February 18th, at least 57,000 meatpacking workers have contracted COVID-19.
5. At least 280 meatpacking workers have died from COVID-19.
6. Meatpacking has some of the highest rates of occupational injury and illness in the country.
7. In a recent three-year period, a worker in the meat and poultry industry lost a body part or was sent to the hospital for inpatient treatment about every other day.
8. Companies like Tyson have been able to minimize accountability by gaming the system.
9. Workers comp programs are run at the state level and paid into by companies, which have lobbied to hollow out benefits.
10. Tyson has taken a lead in pushing for changes in workers comp in state after state, making it harder for workers hurt on the job to receive payments.
11. In Texas, it is now possible for companies to opt out of paying into workers comp entirely and write their own rules for how much workers get for their injuries.
12. Tyson does exactly that and requires workers to sign a document saying they voluntarily release, waive, and forever give up claims arising from their injuries to get medical care from the company.
13. As of last April, OSHA's number of inspectors had dropped to a 45-year low.
14. At current staffing levels, it would take OSHA 165 years to inspect every workplace under its jurisdiction.
15. The limits to what OSHA inspectors are allowed to do once they're in a plant can be genuinely ridiculous.
16. In one case, an inspector was told to put a box over her head so she wouldn't see any safety hazards in the plant.
17. In 2019, the average fine for a serious safety violation was just over $3,700.
18. The fine amounts to 0.000003% of JBS's profits last year.
19. JBS claims that the fine and the government's finding that they failed to protect their employees from exposure to COVID-19 is entirely without merit.
20. JBS is fighting the claims for workers comp survivor benefits from Saul Sanchez's widow and others who've lost loved ones.