"They Gambled With Workers' Lives": Tyson Foods Fires Seven Managers Over COVID-19-Related Gambling

Meat-processing company Tyson Foods announced Wednesday that it has laid off seven senior managers at its largest pork plant in the United States, following an independent investigation that confirmed they 

had gambled on how many employees would get COVID-19

.

The company said the investigation led by former Attorney General Eric Holder revealed troubling behavior, resulting in layoffs at the Waterloo, Iowa plant.

A coronavirus outbreak at that facility infected more than 1,000 employees,

at least six of whom died

.

"We value our people and expect all team members, particularly our leaders, to operate with integrity and care in all that we do," Tyson Foods Chief Executive Officer Dean Banks said in a news release.

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Attorneys for the families of four deceased workers at the Waterloo plant allege in the lawsuits that led to the investigation that plant manager

Tom Hart organized a group for supervisors to bet on how many employees would test positive for the coronavirus.

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"The behavior exhibited by these individuals does not represent core values ​​at Tyson, which is why we took appropriate steps to uncover the truth," added Banks, who traveled to the plant Wednesday to address employees.

According to the document, Hart organized the gambling ring at the time the virus began to spread among the facility's employees.

The lawsuit also accused company managers of pressuring employees to keep working, even when they were sick.

An attorney for the relatives of one of the deceased workers, Mel Orchard, said the layoffs confirmed some of the most ghoulish claims in the lawsuit.

"They gambled with the lives of the workers,"

for not taking the virus seriously or implementing adequate security measures.

The drama of the workers in the meat plants

Meatpacking workers, who are on the first line of contagion risk, have been particularly affected during the pandemic.

They are considered essential workers because they help feed the country.

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As of this week,

more than 51,400 employees in this industry had tested positive for COVID-19

, according to the Food & Environment Reporting Network, an independent body that collects this data.

At least

262 workers have died

.

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Many of them have complained that security measures, such as increasing the distance between workstations and installing plastic barriers, were taken too late.

Even with the measures imposed in the spring and summer, thousands of workers have continued to be infected and dozens have died, underscoring the great risk they incur every day.

It is estimated that there are

more than half a million people who work in the industry

producing 100 billion pounds of meat and chicken per year, according to the North American Meat Institute, an association that groups together the main companies in the field.

Tyson has nearly 140,000 employees.