Multiple lawsuits filed against meat processing giant Tyson Foods by the families of employees who died of COVID-19 have bogged down in a legal wrangling over which courts should hear the cases — and it could take more than a year to resolve the issue before their cases even head to trial.
Six families have filed four lawsuits against Tyson, which operates plants in several Iowa cities. They claim that in the early days of the pandemic, Tyson disregarded worker safety guidelines and even encouraged employees showing symptoms of the illness to come to work, which allowed the disease to rapidly spread through the workforce.