Big white trailers with pictures of juicy roasts and the wholesome slogan Straight from the farmer sit idle on the edge of Coesfeld, their usual pork hauls disrupted by an outbreak of coronavirus at one of Germany's biggest meat processing companies that has put the industry in the spotlight.
At least 260 workers at Westfleisch's slaughterhouse in northwestern Germany have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, causing alarm at a time when the country is trying to slowly relax the restrictions that were imposed to curb the pandemic.
As authorities scrambled to contain the growing outbreak over the weekend, it emerged that many of those infected were Eastern European migrants working for subcontractors who also provide them with accommodation and shuttle buses to work.
If one person is infected then basically everybody else that sits on the bus or lives in the shared houses is infected," said Anne-Monika Spallek, a Green Party representative in Coesfeld who has campaigned against the meat industry's practice of outsourcing much of its back-breaking work to migrants working under precarious conditions.
Among them is Iulian, a trained carpenter from Bacau in Romania's poor northeast who previously worked for a German courier company but recently got a job at Westfleisch that promised several times what he would make back home.
The 48-year-old, who declined to give his last name fearing repercussions, said he was still having to pay his employer rent for the room he shares with a colleague, but doesn't know if his employer will pay him for the time he isn't working. Poor housing conditions have been identified as a possible reason for coronavirus outbreaks at U.S. meatpacking plants.
Standing behind a metal fence erected to stop workers from leaving their shared house about 15 minutes' drive from Coesfeld, Iulian and others inside were waiting Tuesday for the results of the COVID-19 tests they had taken four days earlier.
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Like a jail, he said. Like a lion in a cage. Authorities had stopped the men from going to a nearby supermarket but subsequently groceries had been delivered. Water, food, salami, it's OK for now, Iulian said. As for medical care, so far there is none. If we do have problem, we call," he said hopefully.
Westfleisch declined a request for an interview. But in a statement, the company said it was deeply affected by what had happened in recent days.
We are fully aware of our responsibility, Westfleisch said, adding it now requires workers at facilities that remain open to wear face masks on site, have their temperature taken at the gate and work in clearly separated small groups.
The company said it is also trying to impress upon workers the importance of hygiene and behavior measures in the company and in private settings.
The outbreak at Westfleisch has caused consternation in Berlin, where the country's agriculture minister accused black sheep in the industry of failing to follow the rules.