Tyson Foods Faces COVID-19 Wrongful Death Suit Over Worker Safety Claims

Tyson Foods has been hit with another lawsuit over the death of an employee from COVID-19 by family members who say the company bears responsibility.

Renata Barker, widow of Brian K. Barker of Philadelphia, says Tyson’s policies put her husband in the direct path of the coronavirus at the Original Philly Cheesesteak Co. meat packing plant where he worked until his death in April.

Despite being at high risk for contracting COVID-19 and suffering serious effects from it – he was over 60 years of age and had diabetes and high blood pressure – Barker was assigned to conduct temperature checks on other workers at the plant as a way of screening them for the coronavirus, she says.

Barker was not trained, the equipment was not sanitized, and Barker was not provided with any personal protective equipment at the plant, his widow claims.

Five days after doing the fever screening, Barker himself tested positive for COVID-19 and on April 23 he died of respiratory failure brought on by the virus.

His widow filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Dec. 16.

According to the lawsuit, Tyson Foods forced workers to “use cramped and crowded work areas, break areas, restrooms, and hallways,” failed to provide them an alternative source of safe, potable water to the public fountains and maintained a “work-while-sick” policy.

“Instead of putting safety first, the Defendants increased production at the Original Philly Plant during March and April of 2020, adding more shifts and more workers at the plant to capitalize on increased demand caused by public panic purchases of meat and frozen products,” the lawsuit claims.

Tyson Foods was also sued in June by the families of workers at the company’s plant in Waterloo, Iowa who died after allegedly contracting the coronavirus at work.

In those cases, the families also claimed Tyson failed to provide their loved ones with personal protective equipment and other safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the plant.

What’s more, the families also claimed managers at the plant deferred their duties to low level works on the meatpacking floor so they could avoid contact with them and some participated in a betting pool over how many of the laborers would get the virus.

Those family members are also accusing the plant managers of lying to the language interpreters at the plant to prevent them from telling many of the meatpackers that there was an outbreak of COVID-19 among their coworkers.

Were you or someone you love working at a Tyson Foods facility during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic? Were you, or they, put at risk by working without personal protective equipment? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Barker is represented by Robert J. Mongeluzzi, Steven G. Wigrizer, Jeffrey P. Goodman and Jason S. Weiss of Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky P.C.

The Tyson Foods Wrongful Death Lawsuit is Renata Barker, et al. v. Tyson Foods Inc., Case No. 20070-1751, in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

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