Amosa and her husband, who are originally from Ethiopia, once saw working at the Sioux Falls plant, where she also had a job until she became pregnant, as key to building their new life in the United States: It was well paid, union employment that gave them a community.
But amid the coronavirus pandemic, the couple found themselves — like many workers whose jobs cannot be done remotely — exposed on two fronts: Both their health and their livelihoods were at risk. The couple agreed to speak to The Associated Press on the condition that Amosa's husband not be named because he feared losing his job.
The plant has attracted a diversifying workforce to the city, where Somali and Vietnamese restaurants have joined diners and craft breweries. But the city remains fairly divided, with many immigrants living in neighborhoods near the plant, which employs 3,700 people in a city of about 180,000.
The diverse makeup of the meat processing plant is not unique to Smithfield's Sioux Falls plant, other major meat processing companies like Tyson are structured similarly.