The number of employees at the Tönnies slaughterhouse who were infected with the coronavirus has continued to increase.
Now that 983 tests have been evaluated, 657 were positive and 326 were negative, according to a spokesman for the Gütersloh district.

In the district of Gütersloh, the situation at the slaughterhouse Tönnies in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, where the company’s headquarters are located, is dramatically deteriorating: Various media report 400 new infections with the coronavirus.

1,000 slaughterhouse employees were tested on Covid-19. Of the 500 tests evaluated, 400 were already positive.
According to the district office, everything is now being done to prevent a shutdown in the district.
To this end, the operation of the Tönnies slaughterhouse should be shut down as far as possible.

In the meantime, everyone who worked on the factory premises would be in quarantine.

7,000 people are affected.
The district administrator also announced that all schools and daycare centers in the district will be closed.

There are no official reports as to whether the slaughterhouse has to close completely.  Tagesschau.de says that the district administration has threatened the company with closure if Tönnies does not get the corona infections under control.

In addition, according to the media, cattle traders can only deliver until 2 p.m. This also indicates restrictions.

But the West German Broadcast reports, several animal transporters with live pigs have now driven off the premises in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, company’s headquarters.

A cattle dealer told the West German Broadcast that the pigs are being taken to a Tönnies slaughterhouse in Emsland. They would still be slaughtered there today.

A company spokesman has assured that no significant quantities of slaughter pigs will build up. Around 140,000 pigs would be slaughtered weekly at the Rheda-Wiedenbrück location.

This amount can be diverted to other Tönnies locations. Other companies would also provide “neighborhood help” (!!!)

The head of corporate communications at Tönnies apologized on behalf of the company for the situation that had arisen. “It is now about protecting employees and the well-being of the district, not about the company.”

Clemens Tönnies in his slaughterhouse

 

Obviously, the Corona crisis is fueling the power struggle at Tönnies

The dispute between Clemens Tönnies and his nephew Robert Tönnies escalates again.
Robert Tönnies demands the resignation of his uncle Clemens Tönnies after the Corona outbreak in the family slaughterhouse.

Robert Tönnies has been accusing the management of the company since 2017 for failing to implement applicable company principles for the abolition of employment contracts.
In the company’s system of factory workers, the nephew sees complicity in the above-average number of infections in the slaughterhouse.
The meat industry in the current corona pandemic has been criticized several times for working and housing conditions.

“The fact that the number of infections in abattoirs, in particular, is far above average is certainly due to the system of work contracts; it forces many workers into unacceptable living conditions that are associated with a high risk of infection and offer little protection if an infection occurs, “ writes Robert Tönnies

“We have to assume that the working conditions and the accommodation of the people have contributed to the fact that the coronavirus was able to spread among the employees of the slaughterhouse in Tönnies,” said the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia.

https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article209790633/Toennies-Die-deutsche-Fleischindustrie-bleibt-der-Corona-Hotspot.html

 

And I mean.. Tönnies is the largest meat producer in Germany, and the tenth worldwide.

30,000 pigs are slaughtered on his farm every day.
He has earned very well with his business model for decades. And the exploitation of agency workers is part of it.
Therefore, it is unlikely that he will change the model “work contracts with workers from the Eastern Bloc”.
If Clemens Tönnies had a problem with that, he would have changed these conditions a long time ago.

There is actually no scandal in which Clemens Tönnies is not involved. But he has good friends in the federal government so that he can continue to exploit people and animals and collect fat millions!

Therefore it is for the meat baron probably unimaginable that his meat empire have to remain empty for a while.
You can call it what you want, but that’s how Germany works, that’s how the EU works – a pure business club to which only selected business oligarchs have access …..

Up to 500 demonstrators demonstrated in Rheda-Wiedenbrück last Friday. They all protested loudly against the Tönnies company. The activists accuse the group, which is one of the ten largest slaughterhouses in the world, of exploiting people and animals.

My proposition: Instead of closing daycare centers and schools, we have to close all slaughterhouses in Germany immediately as they are the real corona hotspots.
Citizens can safely survive a few months without meat and maybe they will get used to a new eating model without animal suffering.

My best regards to all, Venus