HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Seven employees at the Heinz plant in Holland, at 431 W. 16th St. are quarantined at home, after a COVID-19 mini-outbreak at the world’s largest pickle plant.
KraftHeinz now owns the plant, which Henry John Heinz founded in Holland in 1897 as part of a company expansion.
The Holland plant is one of three West Michigan food producers, including the Plainwell-based JBS meat-packing plant and Boar’s Head, 284 Roost Ave. in Holland Township.
KraftHeinz spokesman Michael Mullen told WHTC in an email two employees were diagnosed with the virus, then contact tracing inside the plant identified five more people who had been exposed.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we closed the plant on Sunday to deep clean the facility and reopened it on Monday,” Mullen wrote WHTC.
Asked what changes have been made in the plant to address the risks, he wrote “As always, the health and safety of our employees is our top priority.”
Officials of the union representing the workers disagreed, in a statement emailed to media this week.
“Our members are putting their own lives on the line to keep us safe and fed. They deserve more than just our thanks and gratitude in these challenging times – they are essential workers and deserve essential pay,” said Michael Flanery, vice president and regional director of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). “They are shouldering extra burdens, taking extra risks and experiencing incredible stress – none of which were supposed to be part of their jobs. Not only should they be compensated for this critical essential work they are providing our country right now, but our members shouldn’t be expected to use their vacation days when they have to be quarantined because they have been in contact while at work with someone who has the virus. That’s just wrong.”
Mullen said at the start of the outbreak, all employees were encouraged to stay home if they felt unwell, and seek medical care if necessary.
At this point, he wrote, KraftHeinz “is now not requiring employees to take vacation days if they are in self quarantine or need to stay home for COVID-19 related reasons.”
He said since new CDC directives on April 3, 2020, the company plans to supply all employees at all U.S. manufacturing facilities with face masks. The first shipment of masks is expected to arrive in the next day or so, he said.
Starting this week, employees will have their temperatures checked before entering the plant on Holland’s west side, Mullen wrote.
“We ask employees to monitor their own health each day for potential COVID-19 symptoms. We have contingency plans in place to keep our plants operating if employees need to stay home because they are sick,” Mullen wrote. “We disinfect and sanitize all employee touch points within the facility every four hours.”
He said education posters and digital screens are now in U.S. manufacturing facilities, emphasizing social distancing and other guidelines to minimize spreading the virus.
Company officials have redesigned employee breakrooms and staggered break and lunch times, Mullen said, adding, “We also remind our employees to practice social distancing even when away from work to keep themselves and their communities healthy and safe.”
Flanery’s statement indicated RWDSU Local 705 officials were told that the local plant could not offer any pay or benefits above what the company issued in their national COVID-19 letter for members at the Holland facility.
Initially, Flanery said, a letter from dictated the terms under which they would operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not only too little too late, but plainly it provides insufficient protections, quarantine procedures, and necessary essential pay for our members,” Flanery said, going on to express outrage that workers in Holland and beyond “still don’t have the proper PPE they need. Weeks ago workers were promised masks, and they’re still yet to arrive, despite promises from management day after day that they would.”
““Kraft Heinz, the nation’s leading food processor, can and must do better for its workers. Our union and our members won’t stand to be treated as disposable at a time when they have never been more critical and essential,” Flanery said.
Among the union’s demands:
- Immediately repeal any and all essential pay requirements tied to attendance.
- Provide proper PPE to workers, including masks, as soon as possible.
- Pay workers fully for needed quarantine time.
“Some workers remain on quarantine and are scared waiting for test results, and workers who contracted the virus at work are scared for their families, yet our members continue to provide essential food for Americans,” Flanery said.
