The politics of protection: regulatory responses to COVID-19 in the meatpacking sector

During COVID-19, U.S. meatpacking plants were deemed “essential critical infrastructure” under the Defense Production Act of 1950. Workers’ health suffered, due to intersecting variables, including company negligence, limited state intervention, and pre-existing issues associated with corporate consolidation and production. We examine the political-economic roots of harms experienced by meatpacking workers during the pandemic. What institutional, structural, and sociopolitical factors shaped federal meatpacking policymaking and regulatory oversight during COVID-19? Drawing on interview data, content analysis, and critical policy ethnography, we assess intersections between state-facilitated corporate crime and the influence of agribusiness on policymaking processes. We explore barriers that bureaucrats and officials faced in creating and enforcing worker protections during the pandemic, including limited resources, political pressure, and dominant neoliberal norms that prioritized economic growth over regulation. Our findings provide a deeper understanding of how mechanisms related to state policy, corporate practices, and regulatory enforcement structured state-facilitated corporate crime and subsequent harm.