Law & Policy Active Updated Sep 25, 2026
Smithfield Foods' worker safety crisis
Where it stands, Sep 25, 2026 More than 100 workers walked off the job at Smithfield Foods' Monmouth, Illinois plant after management ordered production to continue hours after maintenance worker Patou Mpinda, 44, died, the plant's fourth worker death and first caused by a machine.
More than 100 workers walked off the job at Smithfield Foods' Monmouth, Illinois plant after a maintenance worker died, the plant's fourth worker death and first caused by a machine, following repeated OSHA citations in 2021, 2023 and 2025. The fight is whether OSHA or Smithfield impose real accountability for a pattern of fatal workplace hazards at a major meatpacking plant.
The story so far
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Sep 25, 2026 Latest
More than 100 workers walked off the job at Smithfield Foods' Monmouth, Illinois plant after management ordered production to continue hours after maintenance worker Patou Mpinda, 44, died, the plant's fourth worker death and first caused by a machine. OSHA had already fined the plant $9,931.60 in February over amputation hazards, and the plant drew serious OSHA citations in 2021, 2023 and 2025.
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