08x02 - Meat packing

[bunniefuu]

LAST WEEK TONIGHT
WITH JOHN OLIVER

SEASON VIII
EPISODE 2

Hi there ! Welcome to the show,
still stuck in this blank void,

TV's greatest celebration of white
emptiness since "Emily in Paris."

It's been an unpleasant week,
from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

admitting to withholding information
about Covid deaths in nursing homes,

to the release
of grim unemployment numbers,

to the death of Rush Limbaugh,
so, you know...

But we are gonna start tonight
with this.

Nationwide misery. Nasty weather
pummeling the entire country.

More than 200 million Americans
on alert coast to coast,

snow and ice sending big rigs
out of control on the roads.

In Nashville, home security video

captures a truck sliding sideways
down a residential street.

I know that truck is slow-motion
Tokyo drifting 'cause the road is icy,

but I also like to think that it had
had enough and is peacing out there.

"Don, Sheryl,
you've been perfectly fine owners,

but there has got to be more
to life than this,

so frankly, I'm out of here.
This neighborhood sucks."

Severe winter weather
caused chaos across the country,

and nowhere more so than Texas.

Day five
of the power crisis in Texas.

We could tell you how cold it is,
but these images tell the story better.

Burst pipes caused icicles
on this ceiling fan.

Took, look at this, yep, that's ice
coming out of this bathroom faucet.

And check out
this car wash in Austin.

The person who posted this picture
summed it up pretty well saying,

"Guess I'll wait 'til next week."

Yeah, maybe wait until your car wash
stops looking like a middle school

went over budget
on their production of "Frozen."

You probably shouldn't be driving
into something

that looks like the assh*le
of Sully from "Monsters, Inc."

Texas saw a full-blown
humanitarian crisis this week,

with many losing electricity
and access to clean water,

hospitals having to evacuate patients,
and dozens of deaths.

And if you watched Fox News,
there was one culprit for all of this:

green energy.

Because multiple hosts placed the
blame firmly on frozen wind turbines,

and none more loudly than this guy.

The windmills failed like
the silly fashion accessories they are

and people in Texas died.

Green energy means
a less reliable power grid, period.

It means failures like the ones
we're seeing now in Texas.

That's not a talking point,
it's not a political slogan,

we're not taking money
from ExxonMobil to say it.

Again, that is true.
It's science.

First, we know ExxonMobil
is not paying you. Almost no one is.

Your show's lost so many advertisers,
you're basically being bankrolled

by a man in a sexual relationship
with a pillow.

Second, just 'cause you loudly insist
something "is science"

doesn't make it science,
that's science !

And finally, calling windmills "silly
fashion accessories" is just absurd.

The only time you could
conceivably make that claim

was when
the "Bachelor" contestant Deandra

dressed up as a windmill
for her night one entrance

in a clear allusion to Peter
and Hannah's fantasy suite fuckfest.

And even then,
it's not silly, it's horny.

Those windmill claims
were even repeated

by Texas governor Greg Abbott,
who told Sean Hannity,

"This shows how the Green New Deal
would be a deadly deal."

But he knows that's horseshit.

Texas only relies on wind power
for about 25% of its electricity.

The vast majority
comes from thermal heat sources

like natural gas, coal, and nuclear.

And all of those were utterly
hobbled by the cold this week.

Even if every wind turbine in Texas
had kept spinning,

the state still
would have been in deep shit.

And there were some uniquely
Texan issues at work here

that made this the calamity it was,
starting with this.

Most of Texas runs on its power grid
separate from the rest of the country.

State leaders designed it this way
to avoid federal regulation.

Yeah, it's true !

Texas is the only state in the lower 48
not on the federal power grid.

And sometimes, when you're the only
one doing something, you're a pioneer.

But sometimes,
you might be an idiot.

If you're the only person
trying to set the world record

for being covered in the most bees,
maybe ask yourself,

"What am I trying to prove here ?
Why am I like this ?"

Because that independence
meant that Texas

was limited in its ability to import
energy from neighboring states.

And it also meant that there was
significant pressure on ERCOT,

the company
that manages the state's grid.

ERCOT scrambled
to meet surging demand

and have since admitted that Texas
was "seconds and minutes" away

from catastrophic
month-long blackouts.

Which is a big shift from how
they were talking last weekend,

when they were having fun tweeting out
passive-aggressive energy-saving hints:

"Unplug the fancy new appliances
you bought during the pandemic

and only used once."

And I'm sorry. But a KitchenAid
Artisan Design Series 5

Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer
with glass bowl

is not just a fancy appliance.

It's got 10 speeds and comes with a
beater, dough hook, and a wire whisk.

No one's using that once.

Your children are gonna
be fighting over that when you die.

Also, not to be a total bitch here,
but who took that photo ?

The framing's trash,
you can barely see the plug.

It looks like Martha Stewart's social
media before she hired a food stylist.

We remember those days, Martha.
Your shit was vile back then.

The point is,
ERCOT was not prepared for this storm.

But they also weren't alone in that.

Because while ERCOT
manages the grid,

it doesn't actually manage the power
companies that supply it.

So, it could not compel companies
to winterize facilities

so they wouldn't go down
during a storm.

The state had left that choice
up to power companies,

many of which
opted against the upgrades,

because they were expensive.

And while this storm was unusually
strong, it also wasn't unprecedented.


a storm that paralyzed the state.

After which, federal regulators
warned that their power plants

needed to winterize
to prevent this happening again.

And state officials knew full well
what might happen if they didn't act.

We've got to learn from it and make
sure that when this happens again,

whether it's one year from now,


we do not have this happen again.

There's really no excuse,
in my humble opinion,

that a facility should go off when you
know it's gonna freeze a week out.

That hearing was 10 years
to the day before this storm hit.

So Texas had a decade to prepare,
and it just didn't.

And you can get a lot done
in 10 years !

Look at Beyoncé.
In the last decade,

she announced she was pregnant
in the coolest way possible,

performed at two
Super Bowl halftimes,

watched Solange
kick the shit out of her husband

and then made a whole album
about it,

invented the color yellow and founded
the Coachella Music Festival,

and was in a film
with the world's greatest actor.

She got a lot done.

She probably could've winterized
Texas' power plants as well,

if anyone had just thought to ask her.

So much of the problem this week

stemmed from Texas's state philosophy
of every man for himself.

And that attitude has defined
the response from their officials, too.

One mayor even posted, "No one owes
you are your family anything,

nor is it the local
government's responsibility

to support you during trying
times like this !"

The backlash to that was so ferocious,
he had to resign.

And then, there was the saga
of Ted f*cking Cruz.

He fled the state on Wednesday
and took his family to Cancún.

And when photos of him
on the plane emerged,

he came back the next day, initially
implying that his plan had always been

to drop his family off
and then come back,

a claim that never really rang true,
considering he'd packed this suitcase.

Sure enough, he eventually admitted
that he'd planned to stay the whole time

and blamed his
preteen daughters for the trip,

saying that they had asked him to go,
and I was "trying to be a dad."

Because the first rule
of fatherhood is

"Throw your daughters under the bus
at the first opportunity."

But eventually, we did get the full
story of how the trip happened,

in spectacular fashion,

as Heidi Cruz's group chat
with her friends and neighbors leaked.

Mrs. Cruz telling friends
her house was freezing,

proposing a vacation until Sunday

and inviting others to join the
Cruzes at the Ritz Carlton in Cancún

where they'd stayed before.

She floated a "direct flight"
and "hotels with capacity. Seriously."

That's just incredible.

Ted Cruz, who, remember,
wants to be president,

told the world he was bullied
into international travel by tweens,

then got cyberbullied into
coming home by the internet,

leaving his wife to solo-parent
two kids on vacation

in another country while trying to figure
out who in her mom group doxxed her.

It's all amazing.

But maybe the ultimate example of self
defeating Texan swagger this week

actually came from former governor
and US secretary of energy, Rick Perry.

Perry suggests that Texans
prefer blackouts to federal regulation.

He said, "Texans would be without
electricity for longer than three days

to keep the federal
government out of their business."

Oh f*ck off, Rick Perry !

Far be it from me to question

the wisdom of a man
who failed running for president twice

and who came in 12th
on "Dancing with the Stars",

meaning he lost to Mitt Romney,
Donald Trump, and Vanilla Ice.

But as easy
as it is to venerate sacrifice,

the thing about sacrifice is,
people have to choose to do it.

And the people of Texas didn't choose
to lose power, heat, and water

for days this week.

This mess only happened because
those in charge didn't implement

critical lessons from 10 years ago.

While I would like to think that they
will learn lessons from this week,

remember who you're dealing with here.

And right now, thousands of Texans
are still struggling.

If you want to help, Feeding Texas
is doing great work down there.

And the people of that state
do need help.

They deserve it. Just as they deserve
better than a pat on the back

for their fortitude and independence
as they shiver to death

and representatives who f*ck off
to Mexico at the first sign of danger.

And if you think that's unfair, Ted,
do let me know.

Don't bother calling to tell me. Have
Heidi text it to one of her friends.

I'm sure it'll get back to me
eventually. And now this !

And now...
People Who Went to Harvard.

I don't hold myself out
as some kind of genius,

but I went to Harvard.

I went to Harvard.

I went to Harvard
in the mid-nineties.

I went to Harvard undergraduate.

And I should declare something.
I'm a Harvard graduate.

- I went to Harvard Business School.
- That's right !

I went to Harvard Business School
and worked at Goldman Sachs.

I went to Harvard Business School
and worked at Goldman Sachs.

- I went to Harvard.
- Like I said, I went to Harvard.

- I went to Harvard.
- And I went to Harvard.

I'm trained in economics.
I went to Harvard.

- Who didn't support our troops ?
- At Harvard, I went to Harvard.

I feel like what's interesting about me
is I went to Harvard Law School.

Erica, I went to Harvard Law School.

- I did go to Harvard Law School.
- I went to Harvard Law School.

I went to Harvard Law School
and I believe in numbers and facts.

That number
is from Harvard University.

It's tens of thousands
of Americans a year.

But I went to Harvard University.

Moving on !
For our main story tonight,

we're gonna talk about a product
that is wildly popular in this country.

But instead of telling you what it is,
I'd rather show you an ad for it.

And I promise: if you have
never seen this commercial before,

you will never guess what it's for.

Mom, I think Trippy's
been drinking too much milk.

Somebody help !

Sometimes you don't feel like cooking.
I've come up with new Perdue Entrees.

Fresh, complete entrees ready
in under three minutes.

That took a turn.

And what exactly does Jim Perdue
think he's doing there ?

That family doesn't need one
of your shitty frozen meals !

They need someone to expel the literal
devil from their demented guinea pig.

Perform an exorcism, Jim,
or get the f*ck out of their house !

The point is:
our main story tonight concerns meat.

It's what I technically am to any
animal above me on the food chain,

like a bear, or a tiger,
or, if I'm being totally honest,

a medium aggressive pigeon.

If you're thinking,
"This is gonna be a grim story,"

"about the conditions animals face
in factory farms."

You're actually wrong.

Those conditions are horrific,
but they do get talked about a lot.

This story is gonna be about the grim
conditions humans are facing

working in meatpacking facilities.

If you ate meat today,
it probably went through one of them.

And meatpacking
is a highly consolidated industry.

Roughly 85% of beef production in US
is controlled by these four companies.

And more than half of the chicken
industry is controlled by these four.

Their employees are extremely important
to this country's food supply.

And, to hear companies
like Tyson tell it,

they're important to them
on a personal level, too.

We've got the same end goal in mind:
protect our team members.

They're our most valuable asset,
they are our family.

I said earlier that we're a food
company but we're a family.

And that's genuinely
how I feel and how we operate.

Okay. If Tyson's workers
are their most valuable asset,

then their workers
are, by definition, not family.

Because let's be honest: nobody's
family is their most valuable asset.

If you're gonna rank everything in life
by how much you value it, it goes:

number one: your phone;
number two: food, water, and shelter;

number three: Judi Dench,
she's a f*cking treasure,

and only then; your family.

That's just an empirical fact.

But it's hard to take Tyson's "workers
are our family" talk, given this.

Stunning allegations
made against managers

at this Tyson pork processing plant
in Waterloo, Iowa,

one of the first to shut down when
the coronavirus raged in the spring.

A supervisor allegedly taking bets
on how many would catch the virus.

According to the allegations,

"the Plant Manager
of the Waterloo Facility,

organized a cash buy-in,

winner-take-all betting pool
for supervisors and managers

to wager how many employees
would test positive for Covid-19."

Holy shit !

That betting pool
might be the most disgusting thing

ever created in a Tyson factory,
which is frankly saying something,

given that Tyson also makes
ranch-flavored chicken chips,

a snack one customer
reviewed online with the note,

"DISGUSTING !
I gagged in front of my child."

That review
is on Tyson's actual website.

Tyson fired seven managers
at that plant after that incident.

But it does speak to a larger problem
in this industry.

Because while companies
have put out endless press statements

about the expense they've gone to
to protect their workers,

workers themselves
dispute those claims heavily.

And they've been hit hard.
As of February 18th,

at least 57,000 meatpacking workers
have contracted the virus

and at least 280 have died.

The broader truth is that the treatment
of workers in this industry

has been very bad for a very long time,
so tonight, let's look at them.

And let's start
with how plants operate.

Most feature
a series of long conveyor belts

with workers
packed closely along the line,

chopping, deboning, or trimming fat,
often at breakneck speed.

Maximum allowable line speeds
in poultry have doubled since 1979,

with workers reporting averaging


That is less than two seconds per bird.
That's fast !

In the time it's taken me
to explain line speeds to you,

a plant could have processed
five whole birds !

There's plenty of activities
that should only take two seconds,

checking the time,
clearing your throat,

determining the worth of a stranger
by how much you want to f*ck them.

I get it.

But safely butchering a chicken
probably shouldn't be one of them.

Thanks to this relentless pace,
meatpacking workers have reported

it can be hard to take a break,
even to go to the bathroom.

Which may explain stories like this.

This is security camera video given
to our sister station

from the Smithfield production line
in Virginia.

In the video, you see the employee
in front take off his gloves.

Company officials confirm the man
relieves himself under the line,

then puts his gloves back on
and continues to work.

The worker at the center of all this
has been suspended

pending the outcome
of the investigation.

That is disgusting.

Yeah. It is. The combination
of urine and pork is a bit upsetting.

One of the reasons I have no interest
in seeing Miss Piggy's sex tape.

But it is not just that that man
urinated under the production line.

It's that he was put in a position
where he may have felt like he had to.

That is actually a problem across
the meatpacking industry.

Oxfam released a report

detailing exactly how grim conditions
can be for poultry workers

with one detail in particular that hit
this local Michigan talk show hard.

Poultry industry workers
are put through such extremes

that they're denied bathroom breaks,

many wearing diapers
during their work day.

I know that people need jobs
and they need to be employed.

But to have to stand in your owný
stuff while you're working ?

My mind is racing
while you're sharing those details.

I'm thinking:
"Surely this is not in our country."

I get the shock there, I really do.
But this is totally our country.

We live in a nation

where hundreds of thousands
of homeless sleep on the streets,

people have to launch GoFundMe
campaigns for medical treatment

and where George Zimmerman
can auction off

the g*n he used
to k*ll Trayvon Martin,

a horrific story which, by the way,
your show actually covered

in the segment
directly before that one.

So, you guys have been doing
a pretty good job

of showing
how f*cked up this country can be.

It's not just bathroom break issues,
meatpacking has some

of the highest rates of occupational
injury and illness in the country.

In a three-year period, a worker
in the meat and poultry industry

lost a body part
or was sent to the hospital

for in-patient treatment
about every other day.

And a lot of this is down
to dangerous working conditions.

Plants are so crowded,

a common injury is a cut
from your neighbor's knife.

And those rapid line speeds can
exacerbate other problems,

such as repetitive stress injuries
like carpal tunnel syndrome,

all of which can leave workers
feeling pretty disposable.

You got 2 000 hogs
an hour going through.

You're covered with blood, feces,
urine. It's easy to get hurt there.

You're doing that same movement
for that same piece of the hog.

And it's nonstop, basically
you're treated as a human machine.

That is clearly terrible. Nobody
should be treated like a machine.

Unless, of course, it is a fun machine
like an immersion blender !

I'd love to be treated
like an immersion blender !

You want me to stay in a comfy
drawer most of the day

and then occasionally come out
to robot-f*ck a soup ?

Yes, please ! Look, at this point,
you might be wondering,

how do companies get away
with treating their workers like this ?

Many strategically locate their plants

in areas with few job opportunities
and target vulnerable groups

like former prisoners, refugees
and, especially immigrants, for hiring.


in meatpacking jobs in America.

They may be warier about complaining
to authorities about mistreatment.

So, many workers are already
operating at a deep disadvantage.

On top of which, companies have been
able to minimize accountability

by gaming the system.

They are required
to report serious injuries

to the government's
worker protection agency, OSHA.

There is a simple way around that.
You don't have to report those injuries

if treatment stays
at a first aid level.

What do you think happens ?
As a GAO report found,

plants offer
first aid treatments on site,

rather than refer workers
to a doctor.

The same report found even workers
with severe injuries like fractures

weren't sent to doctors,

with one worker who developed
a musculoskeletal disorder,

making over 90 visits
to the company's nurse

before being referred
to a physician.

And the workers know the game
that is being played here.

There's a nurse, but she doesn't do
anything for you.

For example, when our arms hurt,
all she did

was apply Bengay ointment
and send us on our way.

It's not even worth going.

I needed to see a doctor,
but they refused me.

I told them, well: "Can I go down
to see my own orthopedics,"

"my own specialist,
my own doctor ?"

They said: "If you do,
we're gonna fire you."

There are lots of good reasons
to fire someone: frequent absences,

poor quality of work, because
they get a little racisty on Ambien,

but wanting to see a doctor really
should not be one of them.

And it's worth noting:
if you do have a severe injury,

it can be hard to get relief.

In theory, you could apply
for workers' compensation,

programs under which injured
workers lose their ability to sue,

but in exchange, can get money to
cover medical treatment and lost wages.

Those programs are run
at the state level

and paid into by companies
who've lobbied hard,

both to hollow those benefits out
and make them harder to get.

Just before Texas overhauled
its workers' comp system back in 1989,

one poultry CEO, Bo Pilgrim,

tried to personally influence
proceedings in a pretty blatant way.

Senator Bob Glasgow of Stephenville

says he's never been offered
a blank 10 000 dollars check.

Not until East Texas Chicken
King Bo Pilgrim

strutted onto
the Senate floor Wednesday.

Senator Hugh Parmer
of Fort Worth says

Pilgrim slipped him either a bribe
or an illegal campaign contribution.

I didn't think he was trying
to give me a Christmas present.

Yeah, of course he wasn't.

Because Christmas presents
aren't typically used as bribes.

That is unless
you're a child of divorce.

Here it is, Billy ! A full-sized
motorcycle, just like you asked for !

I think you should have it
and if your mother doesn't,

well, that is on her !
She's a difficult woman, Billy.

A quick word about Bo Pilgrim.

He co-founded a company
called "Pilgrim's Pride"

and blank checks to legislators

aren't even the most shameless thing
he spent money on during his life.

Among other things,
he had this 37-foot bust of his head

installed next to one
of his distribution centers

and added this second
statue underneath it

depicting him reading a Bible
to his pet chicken, Henrietta.

He also built this hellacious mansion,

which locals referred to
as "Cluckingham Palace",

and which included,
among other atrocities,

this absolute nightmare
of a bathroom that, fittingly,

has the exact color scheme
of a raw chicken breast,

and this nauseating foyer featuring
a painting of what appears to be

two peacocks f*cking
above some chickens

while a perverted owl just watches.

It wasn't just Bo Pilgrim
fighting workers' comp laws.

Tyson has taken a lead in pushing
for changes in workers' comp

which have made it harder for workers
hurt on the job to receive payments.

In Texas,
it is now possible for companies

to opt out of paying
into workers' comp entirely,

and write their own rules for how
much workers get for their injuries.

Tyson does exactly that, and when
workers get injured in their plants,

in order to get medical
care from the company,

they must first sign
a document saying

they "voluntarily release, waive
and forever give up" claims

arising from their injuries.

Could you not sign that ? Sure.

But then, your best bet to pay for
medical coverage is to sue the company.

That could take f*cking years.
While Texas does now have a law

giving workers 10 days
to consider signing the waiver,

before then, they could
actually be pressured on the spot.

At another company, an employee
who'd had both of his hands crushed

was persuaded to sign a waiver
with a pen held in his teeth.

I know that this all sounds very bad.
It does imply that companies like Tyson

don't care about the physical
wellbeing of their workers.

But that's actually not true.
Because they do seem to care much

about the physical wellbeing
of some of their workers.

Employees at Tyson Fresh Meats'
corporate offices in Dakota Dunes

are getting out
from behind their desks.

Looks good, guys.

And into a healthy routine.

Every Tuesday and Thursday,

we offer an onsite fitness class
for any employee who wants to come.

We focused on stretching at your desk.
A lot of us sit at a desk a lot,

so just getting up and stretching

just that little bit of movement
throughout the day helps, too.

We had a workshop on meditation
last week and it was pretty good

clearing your mind and relaxing,
stuff you can do at work.

You know what ? It's true !

Meditation is great
for clearing your mind.

You just have to sit still,
focus on your breath,

not to think about the camera crew
that's filming a piece

about your corporate office culture
that will one day be juxtaposed

with how appallingly your company
treats workers in its factories.

Are those thoughts going
to creep in to your mind ? Sure.

But just acknowledge them,
and return to your breath. Namaste.

The contrast between Tyson's corporate
offices and their plants is stark,

almost as stark as the disparity
between their salaried workers,

over 73 percent of whom are white,
and their hourly workers,

over 68 percent of whom are Black,
Asian, or Latino.

It's just a fun fact I'm throwing
in there for no particular reason.

Ideally, you would want the government
to remedy some of what you've seen.

Unfortunately, OSHA
is woefully understaffed.

As of April, its number of inspectors
had dropped to a 45-year low.

At current staffing levels,
it would take OSHA 165 years

to inspect every workplace
under its jurisdiction.

And even on the rare occasions that
inspectors do get to visit the plants,

the limits to what they're allowed
to do in there can be ridiculous.

In the southeast,

where a huge proportion
of the poultry industry resides,

there is actually a lawsuit
that has prevented OSHA inspectors

from doing broader
searches in poultry factories,

even when they know workers
are getting seriously injured.

In one case, an inspector was told
to put a box over her head

so she wouldn't see
any safety hazards in the plant

if she wanted to walk through
the plant to investigate a fire.

Okay. Not to state the obvious here,
but "Put a box on your head"

is not an instruction you give
when everything is up to code.

It's just inherently suspicious.

Right this way, inspector.
Now if you'll also just please

plug your nose and spin around
three times, we can begin the tour.

Even when OSHA finds violations,
their power to do anything is weak.

In 2019, the average fine
for a serious safety violation,

a hazard where there is a substantial
probability of death or serious harm,

was just over 3 700 dollars,

meaning it can genuinely be cheaper
for companies to run an unsafe plant

and occasionally pay those fines

than for them to provide
a safe work environment.

All of this came to a head last year
when the pandemic hit.

Companies' corporate workers
worked from home

because it wasn't safe for them
to be in the office,

but the plants were kept open,
despite the fact, as you have seen,

it's nearly impossible
to socially distance on a line.

And when workers, entirely
predictably, then started dying,

the federal response
was characteristically weak.

After six workers from a JBS plant
in Colorado died from Covid,

the company's total fine
was just 15 000 dollars.

And for the family of Saul Sanchez,
one of those workers,

that understandably didn't sit well.

Saul Sanchez worked for the company
for nearly three decades

and never called in sick
a single time.

He was the first JBS worker
to die of Covid-19

and his family says his funeral costs

more than the fine
this company's now facing.

It's a huge slap on the face.

They bring in
over 50 billion dollars a year

and they get slapped with 15 000.

That's what enables those companies
to not care for their employees.

That fine amounts

to .00003 percent
of JBS's profits last year.

And if you fine a company a fraction
of a percent of their profits,

don't be surprised when they carry on

only giving a fraction of a f*ck
about the welfare of their workers.

Legally I have to tell you:

JBS claims that that fine,
and the government's finding

that they failed to protect their
employees from exposure to Covid,

is entirely without merit.

Not only that, they are even
fighting the claims

for workers' comp survivor benefits
from Saul Sanchez's widow,

and others who've lost loved ones,

their argument being that the Covid
infections were not work-related.

Although, to be honest, that's a hard
argument for them to land,

given that the outbreak got
so bad there, at one point,

they had to shut
the f*cking plant down.

What can we do here ? At least
for the duration of the pandemic,

OSHA should implement a federal
emergency workplace standard,

giving meatpacking workers the right
to social distancing and protections.

Longer-term, that agency needs
to be rebuilt and strengthened.

The USDA should do more
to ensure lines move at safe speeds.

When it comes to workers' comp,

we should be setting a baseline
for what states have to offer,

'cause otherwise, the race
to the bottom will just continue.

All of this has to be done quickly.
Because things are critical now.

Remember that Tyson plant with
the "winner-take-all" betting pool ?

As of mid-December,

more than 1 500 employees
contracted the virus and eight died.

So, if Tyson truly is a family
like they love to claim,

it seems to be a pretty
f*cking dysfunctional one.

And when you take all of this
together, the diapers,

the endless trips to the nursing
station, the injuries and the deaths,

you frankly only need to take a peek
inside the way this industry operates

to draw a simple conclusion.

That is disgusting.

Yeah, it is. It really is.
And now this.

Working Remotely Sucks
for "The People's Court", Too.

We here at "The People's Court"
are practicing social distancing.

So, we will be adjudicating cases
from our very own virtual courtroom.

- Gentleman, can you hear me ?
- Yes.

Mr. Glynn,
there's no smoking in court.

I didn't realize you could see me.

I don't know why...

Can I just ask you: the stuffed
animal that's in your hand ?

I'll put it down.
It belongs to my nephew.

The end table is the one that...

You know I can see you, right ?
When you roll your eyes at me ?

Please bring it very close to me,
so that I can read it.

The battery's going low.

Put a charger. I don't want
to end up losing your testimony.

I can do it, but I would have
to go into the kitchen.

I think I see my dog, hold on.
Do you want to see my dogs ?

No, I just want to see the table.

Is there some problem, gentlemen ?
Can you lift your heads ?

Why don't you leave
your hand at your earphone.

You can't leave both hands

'cause I need one hand to bring that
up to the camera so that I can read it.

That's our show. Thank you.
We'll see you next week, good night.

LAST WEEK TONIGHT
WITH JOHN OLIVER

END OF EPISODE 2,
SEASON VIII