Union official responds to Camilla COVID-19 deaths

ATLANTA – In response to reports that three RWDSU Southeast Council members have succumbed to COVID-19 at the Tyson poultry processing facility in Camilla, Edgar Fields, president of the Southeast Council of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union issued the following statement:

“We are heartbroken.

“Generation after generation of our members are hidden from public view in smalltown America’s poultry plants. They often work for corporations who feel they have the right to continue to treat them without the dignity, respect and wages that they more than deserve. Let me be clear, RWDSU members are not expendable, they are critical to putting food on America’s dinner tables, and above all else they are hard-working people who didn’t sign up to die on the front lines of a pandemic in this country, and they shouldn’t be dying needlessly. The truth is our members have been terrified to go to work for weeks.

“On April 1, after pleas from across our union to Tyson and other poultry processors to protect our members, we lost our first member to COVID-19. Elose Wills, a proud RWDSU member for 35 years, lost her life because a corporation that makes billions in annual profits acted too slowly to install the proper protections that she and 2,000 of her co-workers at Tyson needed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our eyes haven’t been dry since.

“When we lost Elose Wills, we widely reported what conditions have been like at the Tyson facility in the hopes management would make real changes. Over the past two weeks they have made some, but I am deeply saddened to report that it was precisely what we feared, too little too late.

“We can confirm that we’ve lost three members at Tyson in Camilla. In addition to Elose Willis, we’ve lost Mary Holt, a 27-year member of the RWDSU, and Annie Grant, a 13-year member.

“I want to reiterate, what’s happening in Camilla is a clear example of how not to do things. It’s too little too late here, and I hope sharing our story will help stop other communities from being exploited by corporate America. When I speak to our members, I hear real fear in their voices, and their voices must continue to be heard.”

RWDSU represents 10,000 workers across the southeastern United States, many in food processing and distribution.

Over the past month, the RWDSU has been calling on poultry industry employers to implement critical standards to protect workers’ safety and to secure the food supply chain. The industry’s response for the most part has only been recent, sporadic and limited to a few locations, leaving most workers unprotected — despite monthslong demands from the RWDSU.

For small towns like Albany, Georgia, it’s too little too late. Albany has the second largest outbreak of COVID-19 in Georgia. The town is home to workers from a number of nearby poultry facilities that feed Americans across the country. This community, like much of the South, will face an uphill battle when it comes to protecting its residents from COVID-19. Many suffer from long-term health issues, including respiratory issues, which have proven fatal when the virus is contracted.

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