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 United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 2 announced that 12,000 COVID-19 vaccines have been secured — enough to vaccinate all 9,000 Kansas meatpacking members represented by UFCW Local 2 as well as non-union Kansas meatpacking workers across the state.

UFCW Local 2 President Martin Rosas released the following statement:

“Kansas meatpacking workers are essential not only to keeping our state’s economy strong, but also to ensuring that Kansas families have been able to put food on the table during this crisis. Our brave meatpacking workers have been serving Kansas communities on the frontlines of COVID-19 since the first day of this deadly pandemic, and these vaccines are vital to keeping them safe on the job and preventing the dangerous outbreaks we have seen in the past year.

“UFCW Local 2 is proud to partner with Governor Kelly as well as our state’s public health leaders and the teams at National Beef and Cargill who have been strong allies in helping secure vaccines for these frontline Kansas workers who have sacrificed so much as they serve our communities.

“As part of this campaign, UFCW Local 2 is partnering with National Beef and making every effort to educate Kansas meatpacking workers on the safety and benefits of the vaccine. Here in Kansas and across the country, UFCW is urging all companies in the industry to follow the lead of National Beef and others that are taking steps to ensure that our country’s frontline food workers have access to the vaccine as these men and women continue to keep our food supply secure during the pandemic.”