S8 E2: Meatpacking & Texas Blackout: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The Texas Power Crisis

• A severe winter storm caused chaos across the United States, with over 200 million Americans on alert due to snow and ice, and severe weather conditions led to a power crisis in Texas, with many losing electricity and access to clean water (42s).
• The power crisis in Texas led to hospitals evacuating patients, dozens of deaths, and a full-blown humanitarian crisis, with many blaming green energy and frozen wind turbines for the crisis (2m6s).
• However, it was pointed out that Texas only relies on wind power for about 25% of its electricity, with the majority coming from thermal heat sources like natural gas, coal, and nuclear, which were also severely impacted by the cold weather (3m28s).
• Texas Governor Greg Abbott repeated the claim that the green New Deal would be a deadly deal, but it was noted that this claim is unfounded and that the state's power grid issues were more complex (3m19s).
• The majority of Texas's power grid is separate from the rest of the country, designed to avoid federal regulation, which contributed to the severity of the crisis (3m51s).
• Fox News hosts, including one in particular, were criticized for blaming green energy and wind turbines for the crisis, with it being pointed out that their claims were not supported by science (2m12s).
• It was also noted that the crisis in Texas was not solely due to the weather, but also due to uniquely Texan issues, including the state's separate power grid and lack of federal regulation (3m47s).
• Texas's independence limited its ability to import energy from neighboring states, putting significant pressure on UROTCO, the company managing the state's grid, to meet surging demands during a recent storm (4m23s).
• UROTCO scrambled to meet the demands and later admitted that Texas was seconds and minutes away from catastrophic, month-long blackouts, which is a big shift from their initial response of tweeting out passive-aggressive energy-saving hints (4m34s).
• The company's lack of preparedness was partly due to the state's decision to leave the choice of winterizing facilities up to power companies, many of which opted against the upgrades due to their expensiveness (5m38s).
• A decade ago, Texas was hit with a similar storm that paralyzed the state, and federal regulators warned that power plants needed to winterize to prevent such incidents from happening again (5m48s).
• State officials knew about the potential risks but failed to act, and the recent storm highlighted the consequences of their inaction (6m2s).
• The state's philosophy of "every man for himself" has defined the response from officials, with one mayor posting that no one owes anyone anything, and it's not the local government's responsibility to support people during trying times (6m51s).
• The mayor's post sparked a ferocious backlash, leading to his resignation, and there was also controversy surrounding Ted Cruz, who fled the state with his family to Cancun during the storm (6m57s).
• Cruz initially claimed that he had always planned to drop his family off and return, but later admitted that he had planned to stay the whole time and blamed his pre-teen daughters for the trip (7m21s).
• Heidi Cruz organized a vacation to Cancun, Mexico, with her friends and neighbors, inviting them to join her family at the Ritz Carlton, after her house was freezing due to the Texas blackout (7m49s).
• Ted Cruz claimed he was bullied into taking the trip by his daughters, and then cyberbullied into returning home early by the internet, leaving his wife to care for their children alone in Cancun (8m14s).
• Former Governor and US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry suggested that Texans would prefer to go without electricity for longer than three days in order to avoid federal regulation (8m37s).
• Thousands of Texans are still struggling after the blackout, and organizations like Feeding Texas are providing assistance to those in need (9m26s).
• The Texas blackout was caused by a failure to implement critical lessons from a similar event 10 years ago, rather than a deliberate choice by Texans to sacrifice their power and heat (9m7s).

The Meatpacking Industry Crisis

• The main story concerns the grim conditions humans face working in meatpacking facilities, which is a highly consolidated industry with roughly 85% of beef production in America controlled by four companies (12m12s).
• Meatpacking companies, such as Tyson, claim to prioritize their employees' well-being, referring to them as their "most valuable asset" and "family," but this claim is disputed (12m32s).
• Allegations have been made against managers at a Tyson pork processing plant in Iowa, including a supervisor taking bets on how many employees would catch COVID-19, which led to the firing of seven managers (13m22s).
• The incident highlights a larger problem in the industry, where workers dispute companies' claims of prioritizing their safety, and at least 57,000 meatpacking workers have contracted COVID-19, with at least 280 deaths as of February 18th (14m25s).
• The treatment of workers in the meatpacking industry has been poor for a long time, with workers packed closely along conveyor belts, often working at breakneck speeds, and reporting high rates of injury and illness (14m41s).
• Maximum allowable line speeds in poultry have doubled since 1979, with workers reporting averaging 35 to 45 birds per minute, contributing to the hazardous working conditions (14m53s).
• In the US meatpacking industry, line speeds are extremely high, with a plant able to process five whole birds in less than 2 seconds, making it difficult for workers to safely butcher chickens (15m6s).
• Due to the relentless pace, workers have reported struggling to take breaks, even to use the bathroom, which may explain incidents like the one at the Smithfield production line in Virginia, where an employee relieved himself under the production line and then continued working (15m34s).
• The combination of urine and pork is a serious concern, and the incident highlights the problem of workers being put in positions where they feel they have no choice but to compromise their health and safety (15m58s).
• Oxfam released a report detailing grim conditions for poultry workers, including being denied bathroom breaks, with some workers wearing diapers during their shifts (16m16s).
• The US meatpacking industry has some of the highest rates of occupational injury and illness, with a worker losing a body part or being hospitalized about every other day in a recent three-year period (17m21s).
• Plants are often crowded, leading to common injuries such as cuts from neighboring workers' knives, and rapid line speeds can exacerbate problems like repetitive stress injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome (17m33s).
• Workers often feel disposable, with many experiencing injuries and being treated like machines, rather than being valued as human beings (17m46s).
• Companies often strategically locate their plants in areas with few labor protections, allowing them to get away with treating their workers poorly (18m27s).
• Meatpacking companies often hire vulnerable groups, including former prisoners, refugees, and immigrants, with around 175,000 immigrants working in the industry in the US, making them wary of complaining about mistreatment (18m33s).
• Companies minimize accountability by exploiting loopholes in the system, such as not reporting serious injuries to OSHA if treatment remains at a first-aid level (18m59s).
• A GAO report found that plants offer on-site first-aid treatments instead of referring workers to doctors, even for severe injuries like fractures (19m10s).
• Workers with severe injuries may not be sent to doctors, with one worker making over 90 visits to the company's nurse before being referred to a physician (19m24s).
• Workers are aware of the system being gamed and may be discouraged from seeking medical attention, with some being told they would be fired if they saw their own doctor (19m48s).
• Workers' compensation programs, which provide medical treatment and lost wages, are run at the state level and have been influenced by companies to reduce benefits and make them harder to access (20m14s).
• An example of this influence is Bo Pilgrim, a poultry CEO, who attempted to bribe a senator in 1989 to influence the overhaul of Texas' workers' compensation system (20m37s).
• Bo Pilgrim co-founded Pilgrim's Pride and was known for his lavish spending, including a 37-foot bust of his head and a mansion referred to as "Cluckingham Palace" (21m27s).
• Tyson has taken a lead in pushing for changes in workers' compensation laws in various states, making it harder for workers to receive payments for job-related injuries (22m13s).
• In Texas, companies can opt out of paying into workers' compensation entirely and create their own rules for injury payments, which Tyson has done (22m24s).
• To receive medical care from Tyson, injured workers must sign a document releasing the company from claims arising from their injuries, which can be pressured into signing on the spot (22m40s).
• Workers who do not sign the waiver may have to sue the company, which can take years, although Texas law now gives workers 10 days to consider signing the waiver (22m57s).
• Companies like Tyson seem to care about the physical wellbeing of some of their workers, such as those in corporate offices, who are offered on-site fitness classes and workshops on meditation (23m30s).
• There is a stark contrast between the treatment of workers in Tyson's corporate offices and those in their factories, as well as a disparity in the racial demographics of salaried and hourly workers (24m23s).
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is woefully understaffed, with a 45-year low in inspectors, making it difficult for the government to remedy the issues in the meatpacking industry (24m45s).
• Even when OSHA inspectors do visit plants, they may be limited in what they can do, and in some cases, have been prevented from conducting broader searches, even when workers are getting seriously injured (25m3s).
• Meatpacking plants have inherently suspicious conditions, and even when OSHA finds violations, their power to take action is weak, with the average fine for a serious safety violation in 2019 being just over $3,700 (25m59s).
• This fine amount can make it cheaper for companies to run an unsafe plant and pay fines rather than provide a safe work environment (26m14s).
• During the pandemic, corporate workers were able to work from home, but plant workers were kept on the job despite the difficulty of social distancing, leading to predictable deaths (26m31s).
• The federal response to these deaths was weak, with JBS being fined only $115,000 after six workers from one of their plants in Colorado died from COVID-19 (26m47s).
• The fine was particularly egregious given that the funeral costs for one of the workers, Saul Sanchez, exceeded the fine amount, and JBS brings in over $50 billion a year (27m8s).
• The fine amount was equivalent to 0.003% of JBS's profits last year, which is not a sufficient deterrent for companies to prioritize worker safety (27m23s).
• JBS is fighting the claims for workers' comp survivor benefits from Saul Sanchez's widow and others who have lost loved ones, arguing that the COVID infections were not work-related (27m54s).
• To address these issues, OSHA should implement a federal emergency workplace standard giving meatpacking workers the right to social distancing and other protections, and the agency should be rebuilt and strengthened in the long term (28m16s).
• The USDA should also do more to ensure lines move at safe speeds, and a baseline should be set for what states have to offer in terms of workers' comp to prevent a "race to the bottom" (28m28s).
• The situation is critical, with over 1,500 employees contracting the virus and eight dying at a Tyson plant as of mid-December (28m48s).

Court Proceeding with Mr. Glenn

• A court proceeding is taking place, with a witness, Mr. Glenn, being questioned, and there is a mention of no smoking in court (29m37s).
• The witness is holding a stuffed animal that belongs to his nephew and is asked to put it down (29m49s).
• The witness is then asked to bring an end table with a "T" on it closer to the camera so that it can be read, as the picture submitted into evidence is not clear (29m59s).
• The witness's battery is running low, and they are given permission to take a break to charge it, but they are unable to do so because the charger is in the kitchen or the dog room (30m8s).
• The witness is asked to focus on the task at hand and to lift their head and adjust their position to better display the end table (30m23s).
• The witness is instructed on how to hold the end table up to the camera so that it can be read (30m30s).