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Union warns of food shortages as more meatpacking workers get COVID-19

'America's food supply depends on these workers. They feed America.'

SMITHFIELD, Va. — Whether you're barbequing chicken this weekend, putting a pork roast in the oven or grilling steaks, meatpackers are the people who put the food on your table. 

On Thursday came a warning from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union: if its workers can't stay healthy in processing plants across the country, there could be food shortages. 

"America's food supply depends on these workers. They feed America," Marc Perrone, the union's president told us.

A handful of packing plants across the country already have closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, including a Smithfield Plant in South Dakota. The union that represents more than 250,000 meatpackers says it's simple: their people need more protections from the virus to stay on the job. Already more than 5,000 workers are either sick or have been exposed to the virus. 

"In every state, they've been deemed essential, but they haven't been given essential protections that they desperately need," Perrone added.

RELATED: CDC tells South Dakota pork plant how to operate more safely

The union announced Thursday it will ask the White House for more PPE and more testing, claiming the work is too dangerous. While many plants have taken additional steps to try and keep workers safe, the union says more needs to be done. 

"Almost every person who works there who's near someone less than six feet, there's a shield up," said Tony Adams, who works for a packing plant in Georgia. 

Itzel Goytia, a line worker in Dodge City, Kansas, is new to the job and worried about the future. 

"Right now it's hard to focus on the future when every day more and more there are more possible cases in our plant. Days ago there were 19 in Dodge, today there are 288," she said.

With concerns COVID-19 could return this fall, union reps say now is the time to act. 

"The issue isn't just whether we have enough beef, pork, and chicken. It is for these workers' life and death," the union told us.

There also are concerns about "line speeds" in the plants. A worker at a beef packing plant in Texas says they process 300 cattle an hour, which leads to accidents and people working too close to one another.

RELATED: For meat plant workers, coronavirus makes a hard job perilous

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