As Iowa becomes “ground-zero” for a standoff between front-line workers and business leaders clamoring to get back to work, who is benefiting from our governor’s decision to “gradually” reopen our state?
Nowhere are the lines clearer than in our meat-packing plants. Thousands of workers have been sickened and many more will die, forced to work in cramped conditions with scant protections, despite the owners’ forceful claims that they care deeply for “their most valuable assets.”
Who stands to gain from these plants staying open, and workers choosing between making a living and actually living?
Maybe its Gerald Lynch of Lynch Livestock (Fayette County)? Or Eldon Roth of Empirical Foods (formerly “pink slime” BPI)? Maybe Bruce Rastetter, the CEO of Summit Ag? Or gated-community resident Jeff Hansen of Iowa Select?
Could it be that these titans of industry have “donated” (read “invested”) more than $885,000 to the Branstad-Reynolds campaigns in recent years?
Perhaps next Sunday Governor Reynolds’ church, while still meeting online, will examine the meaning of 1 Timothy, 6:10: “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith...”