'Don't Look Back': Refugee, plant worker writes of survival
When hundreds of Achut Deng's colleagues at a South Dakota meatpacking plant were sickened by COVID-19, Deng spoke out to tell of the fear gripping the Sioux Falls workforce
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — As Achut Deng lay in her apartment bedroom in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, sickened alongside hundreds of her co-workers at a South Dakota meatpacking plant, she worried she was going to die.
It wasn't the first time she felt the imminent threat of death.
Her childhood, shattered by war in South Sudan, had been filled with it. But as she focused on building a new life for her family — filled with long hours at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant — she kept those traumatic memories to herself.
In the spring of 2020, however, she spoke out to tell of the fear gripping the Sioux Falls workforce, adding to pressure that prodded the plant to implement new safety protocols that helped protect Deng and her colleagues.
