U.S. meatpacking workers are getting their first new pension plan in nearly 40 years under a contract agreement between one of the world's largest meat companies and an American labor union.

But with the nation's COVID-19 death toll eclipsing 300,000 and the virus spiking in communities that surround the plants, industry and union officials say it may be impossible to keep the virus out of factories. Beef and pork production have both been running just below last year’s levels, Iowa State University agricultural economist Lee Schulz said. Gamble said much of the fear has come from misinformation about workers catching the virus in factories, which is not true. During the spring, more than 1,000 of the plant’s 2,800 workers were infected and at least six died. The company has lined up just-in-time freight to get parts to keep plants running, he said.

FILE - This April 8, 2020 file photo, shows the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. A Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in South Dakota where more than 850 workers tested positive will partially reopen Monday after shuttering for more than two weeks, a union that represents plant workers said Friday. And Arkansas-based Tyson Foods said its Logansport, Indiana, pork processing plant where nearly 900 employees tested positive will also resume “limited production” on Monday. As Trump touted his executive order on Wednesday that requires meat plants to stay open, he suggested it would solve the breakdown in the food supply chain that threatens the availability of meat in grocery stores while farmers face the prospect of euthanizing hundreds of thousands of healthy pigs. The researchers said plant workers may be at risk for a number of reasons, including difficulties with physical distancing and hygiene and crowded living and transportation conditions.