商业周刊:最后雇佣却先遭解雇(9)（在线收听）

And yet, each time he arrived at work, Benjamin saw a different reality emerging.

然而，本杰明每次上班都会看到一个不同的现实。

A quiet, powerfully built man, he wasn't the sort to open up about his fears,

他是一个安静、体格健壮的人，他不是那种敢于直言不讳的人，

but during daily calls with his three adult children, he confided that he was afraid of getting sick.

但在每天与三个成年子女的通话中，他吐露自己害怕生病。

On March 25 one of his daughters gave him a face mask to wear at the plant,

3月25日，他的一个女儿给了他一个口罩，

where he operated boxing and loading equipment near the entrance and was often the first person to greet arriving co-workers.

让他在工厂门口附近装箱和装载设备时使用，而且他常常是第一个迎接到达的同事的人。

"He was always so respectful," a shiftmate says.

“他总是那么有礼貌，”一个轮班的人说。

Two days later, Benjamin told his kids a supervisor had ordered him to remove the mask because it was creating unnecessary fears among plant employees.

两天后，本杰明告诉他的孩子们，一位主管命令他摘下口罩，因为这会让工厂员工产生不必要的恐惧感。

On Saturday, April 4, Benjamin called in sick.

4月4日周六，本杰明请了病假。

So few workers had shown up the day before that he'd had to do the work of three people, he told his family.

他告诉家人，前一天来上班的工人太少了，他不得不干三个人的活。

By Monday his cough and fever were much worse. The next morning he could barely move. An ambulance took him to the hospital.

到了周一，他的咳嗽和发烧变得严重得多。第二天早上，他几乎无法动弹。救护车把他送到医院。

While he was in the emergency room, Cargill shut down the Hazleton plant to disinfect everything, install barriers between workstations, and give employees time to heal.

他在急诊室时，嘉吉公司关闭了哈兹尔顿工厂，对所有东西进行消毒，在工作站之间安装屏障，并给员工时间进行康复。

Later that week, the union said 164 workers had been infected.

那周晚些时候，工会说有164名工人已经感染病毒。

The local testing center, running low on supplies, was refusing to test most Cargill employees.

当地的测试中心，由于供应不足，拒绝给嘉吉公司的大多数员工进行测试。

If you work at the meatpacking plant, they were told, assume you're positive.

工人们得知，如果在肉类加工厂工作，就假设是阳性。

Benjamin was admitted to the intensive care unit and spent his work anniversary on a ventilator.

本杰明住进了重症监护室，在呼吸机上度过了他的工作周年纪念日。

He died on April 19. The next day the plant reopened after a two-week cleaning.

他于4月19日去世，第二天，工厂在经过两周的清洁后重新开放。

The meat industry's failure to protect its employees from the coronavirus has triggered the most serious threat to U.S. meat supplies since World War II.

肉类行业未能保护员工免受新冠病毒的侵害，引发了二战以来美国肉类供应面临的最严重威胁。

In recent weeks, 115 meat and poultry plants have reported Covid-19 infections in the U.S.,

据美国疾病控制和预防中心的数据，最近几周，美国115家肉禽工厂报告新冠病毒感染病例，

and about 5,000 workers, 1% of the industry's workforce, have been confirmed sick, with 20 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

约5000名工人（占该行业劳动力的1%）已证实患病，其中20人死亡。

Outbreaks were so severe that at least 18 plants shut down.

疫情如此严重，至少有18家工厂关闭。

U.S. beef and pork production capacity shrank 40% in April, says Will Sawyer, lead economist at agricultural lender CoBank.

农业信贷银行CoBank首席经济学家威尔·索耶表示，美国4月份的牛肉和猪肉产量萎缩40%。

U.S. consumers, Sawyer predicts, could see 30% less meat in grocery stores by Memorial Day, at prices 20% higher than last year.

索耶预测，到阵亡将士纪念日，美国消费者在杂货店看到的肉类可能减少30%，价格则比去年上涨20%。