CHICAGO (Reuters) – North America’s largest meatpacking union said on Friday it has agreed to support Tyson Foods Inc’s requirement that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 and also secured paid sick leave for workers in negotiations over the matter.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents Tyson plant workers, said the deal is the first national U.S. agreement to provide paid sick leave to meatpacking workers.
Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat company by sales, on Aug. 3 mandated that all U.S. employees be vaccinated by Nov. 1, though the requirement for unionized plant workers was subject to negotiations with labor unions.
The UFCW initially expressed concerns about the requirement and said it needed to be negotiated.
The UFCW and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union have now agreed to support the requirement, according to Tyson. The unions represent more than 80% of the 31,000 Tyson workers in the United States who are unionized.
“Paid sick leave is critical to ensuring workers can get vaccinated without losing a paycheck,” UFCW International President Marc Perrone said.
Tyson said more than 30,000 of its U.S. employees have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine since the mandate was announced last month.
A growing list of U.S. companies are changing their vaccination and masking policies as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is driving an increase in U.S. cases.
Tyson said it is implementing the same benefits at all U.S. facilities for unionized and non-unionized employees.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
