Tyson Managers Allegedly Bet on Plant’s Number of Covid Cases

Allegations have been raised that some Tyson supervisors and managers in eastern Iowa had a line of betting going on during the onslaught of the coronavirus breakout.

According to Iowa's News Now, a Tyson plant manager allegedly created a "winner-take-all" betting pool to guess how many of the Tyson employees would eventually catch COVID-19.

The charges are just some of those outlined in a lawsuit against the plant, filed on November 11 by a family member of Mr. Isidro Fernandez, a Waterloo employee who died on April 26 from complications of COVID-19.

There was no joking about the severity of the outbreak last April 12 when over 20 infected workers were sent to the emergency room with the disease. It was just the start of the pandemic madness that followed.

The Black Hawk County Sheriff's Department said they saw poor working conditions at the plant, with no regard to keeping workers a safe distance from each other, and little to no mask usage among workers. Safety and health officials urged the plant to close.

The plant was briefly closed for cleaning and later reopened with stronger guidelines in place. Still, over 1,000 members of the plant's 2,800 workforce were infected.

After learning of the wager, Tyson Foods reportedly suspended several individuals without pay and announced it would conduct an independent investigation into the matter.

To show they're serious, they hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to run the investigation on how to improve working conditions at the plant.

Source: Iowa's News Now