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14 St. Louis U. J. Health L. & Pol'y 7 (2020-2021)
Meat Processing Workers and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Subrogation of People, Public Health, and Ethics to Profits and a Path Forward

handle is hein.journals/sljhlp14 and id is 10 raw text is: SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW MEAT PROCESSING WORKERS AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: THE SUBROGATION OF PEOPLE, PUBLIC HEALTH, AND ETHICS TO PROFITS AND A PATH FORWARD KELLY K. DINEEN* ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated existing health injustices. People who are Latino/Latinx, Black, Indigenous or members of other minority groups have disproportionately paid with their very lives. The pandemic has also exposed the complex interdependence of worker health and well-being, community health, and economic security. Industries like meat processing facilities with congregate and high-density workplaces staffed by workers who are already disadvantaged by structural discrimination must reckon with decades of subrogation and exploitation of workers. During this pandemic, the industry has pushed that exploitation to a point of no return. Policies to protect workers need a reset to an orientation of solidarity, mutual respect, justice, and equity. It is time for the industry that has so often profited at the expense of worker safety to sacrifice their fair share. The ethical underpinnings here are applicable to other workers' who have been relegated to the sidelines in other essential industries, such as agriculture, retail and public service, and long-term care. Making ethical decisions about workplace protections should account for those heightened risks and existing disadvantages and legal intervention may be necessary to reinforce ethical minimums. * Associate Professor of Law, Director, Health Law Program, Creighton University School of Law. Professor of Medical Humanities, Creighton University School of Medicine. I would like to thank the members of the ethics committee of the Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska, and especially Abbey Lowe, for their thoughtful deliberations on these issues and intellectual collaborations on ethical issues in the treatment of essential workers during a pandemic. 7

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