Fired Tyson boss says COVID office pool was a 'morale boost'

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — One of the Tyson Foods managers fired for betting on how many workers would contract COVID-19 at an Iowa pork plant said the office pool was spontaneous fun and intended to boost morale.

Don Merschbrock, former night manager at the plant in Waterloo, Iowa, said he was speaking in an attempt to show that the seven fired supervisors are “not the evil people” that Tyson has portrayed.

“We really want to clear our names,” he told The Associated Press. “We actually worked very hard and took care of our team members well.”

Tyson announced the terminations of the Waterloo managers Dec. 16, weeks after the betting allegation surfaced in wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of four workers who died of COVID-19.

Tyson said an investigation led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder found sufficient evidence to terminate those involved, saying their actions violated the company's values of respect and integrity. The company had asked Holder's law firm to investigate the allegation after a public backlash threatened to damage its brand and demoralize its workers.

The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, one of the world's largest meat producers, did not release Holder's findings, and fired managers have complained that they were let go without explanation.

Merschbrock released a statement and elaborated in an interview that he was more willing to speak than the other fired managers since he isn't a named defendant in the lawsuits.

He said managers conducted the office pool last spring within minutes following mass testing of the plant's roughly 2,800 workers.

County officials said last May that more than 1,000 workers tested positive for the virus, which hospitalized several and killed at least six. They have blasted Tyson for...