Class Action Lawsuits Claiming Tyson Foods Supervisors Made Bets on How Many Plant Workers Would Contract COVID-19 is in Limbo Between State and Federal Court

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Tyson Foods Wrongful Death Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who:  Relatives of deceased Tyson Foods workers filed a class action lawsuit against the company. 
• Why: Plaintiffs claim Tyson failed to protect its employees from COVID-19, while higher-ups even made bets on how many workers would catch the virus.
• Where: The class action lawsuits were filed in Iowa federal court and are currently in the Eighth Circuit.

The Eighth Circuit is deciding where the proper venue should be for wrongful death class action lawsuits filed against Tyson Foods that alleged supervisors in an Iowa plant bet money on how many workers would contract COVID-19. 

The appeals court is set to determine next week whether a state or a federal court should adjudicate the class action lawsuits filed on behalf of Tyson employees who worked at the company’s Waterloo plant. 

The Waterloo plant employs around 2,800 workers and is the largest pork producer in the nation, processing some 19,500 pigs every day, according to the class action lawsuits. 

Plaintiffs in the class action lawsuits allege Tyson failed to protect, and knowingly risked the health of its workers during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 1,000 infections of COVID-19 occurred at the Tyson facility, with at least five deaths attributed to the virus. 

The plaintiffs claim that despite the sheriff of Blackhawk County and local officials imploring Tyson to close its plant in April 2020, the site remained open and the betting pool, led by the plant’s manager and co-defendant Tom Hart, commenced. 

The class action lawsuits were originally filed in state court by relatives of four of the deceased workers, according to Law360. Tyson had the complaints removed to federal court, however a federal judge in Iowa ordered the class action lawsuits be remanded back to state court, which led to Tyson’s appeal. 

Tyson claims it was acting appropriately and in accordance with an executive order signed in April 2020 by then-President Donald Trump, declaring meatpacking plants were a critical part of infrastructure and thus did not need to close. 

Tyson says since the executive was made under the federal Defense Production Act, the company had effectively been made a federal officer and can thus invoke the Federal Officer Removal Statute to get the class action lawsuits removed to a federal court. 

Plaintiffs, meanwhile, have gotten the backing of the federal government, including 19 attorney generals from 18 different states and the District of Columbia, who claim Tyson was not acting under any directive but simply going about its normal business, reports Law360. 

A similar class action lawsuit was filed earlier this month against the New York state government by grieving families of loved ones who lost their lives to COVID-19 while living in state nursing homes. 

Do you believe Tyson Foods put the health of its workers at risk by its initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Thomas P. Frerichs of Frerichs Law Office PC, Adam R. Pulver and Scott L. Nelson of Public Citizen, John J. Rausch of Rausch Law Firm PLLC, and Mel C. Orchard III, G. Bryan Ulmer III and Gabriel Phillips of The Spence Law Firm LLC. 

The Tyson Foods Worker Conditions Class Action Lawsuits are Sedika Buljic, et al. v. Tyson Foods Inc., et al., Case No. 6:20-cv-02055, and Oscar Fernandez v. Tyson Foods Inc., et al., Case No. 6:20-cv-02079, both in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

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