Workplace safety issues and vulgar office behavior—including masturbation and talk of bestiality—are linked to the company’s facilities in Ohio and Arkansas, according to allegations by former workers.
By Chloe Sorvino, Forbes Staff
The deadly listeria outbreak at a Boar’s Head factory in Jarratt, Virginia, has put America’s largest deli meat brand in peril with talk of criminal prosecution and a Congressional hearing. Several civil cases have already been filed by the families of the 10 people killed and 59 hospitalized. One formerly hospitalized victim of the recall is asking for $11 million in damages and another is seeking $48 million. Boar’s Head has not yet responded to those cases.
But the deli meat giant has been hit with several lawsuits over the past few years that allege sexual harassment as well as racial and disability discrimination at multiple facilities run by the Sarasota, Florida-based company.
At a distribution warehouse for Boar’s Head in Groveport, Ohio, for example, one 2019 lawsuit alleged severe racial discrimination and a culture in which Black employees were frequently passed over for promotions. Another from that year described a workplace where managers routinely yell at their employees and conversations often focus on sex—including where coworkers could have sex in the office, and even sex with animals.
Meanwhile, at a processing plant in Arkansas, two disabled women alleged Boar’s Head fired them while they were recuperating at the hospital, leaving them without health insurance or a way to pay their medical bills.
Boar’s Head calls the claims “unsubstantiated allegations” and in a statement to Forbes said, “At Boar’s Head, our corporate culture and commitment to holding ourselves to high standards of conduct have been core elements that enabled our growth over the decades. When there are employee-related issues, we work to address them appropriately and as quickly as possible.
“The narrative being painted does not reflect our company, our culture, or our practices,” the statement continues. “Our teams will continue building on the standards and values that have driven our company for nearly 120 years, as we support the purveyors and retailers who reach the consumers who love our food.”
Breeden alleged that one of her female managers shared details of seeing a person have sex with an animal, and, according to the complaint, admitted: “Hell yeah I watched it.”
The sexual harassment lawsuit was dismissed, though the judge noted in the decision that “the Court must accept the allegations in the Amended Complaint as true” and called the details “undoubtedly inappropriate and offensive.” (Boar’s Head confirmed that the lawsuit was “later resolved out of court to avoid the cost of an appeal process.”) The racial discrimination and disability discrimination cases were also settled privately. A fourth case alleging negligence is awaiting trial. Out of Boar’s Head’s pool of a few thousand employees, these four cases over the past five years are notable, as the details they allege are particularly disturbing.
Consider the case of LaTisha Breeden, who filed a lawsuit in 2019 alleging sexual harassment and discrimination after working as a customer service representative in Groveport, Ohio at an office for Boar’s Head’s distribution company Frank Brunckhorst Co. from 2016 to 2017. Her case was dismissed in Ohio’s state court in 2020. Boar’s Head says it invests in “a number of policies, procedures and trainings in place, including anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, and anti-retaliation, to support our thousands of employees”— but the detailed claims Breeden put forth about the workplace are startling.
She alleged that constant conversations about her coworkers’ sex lives took place in the office, and that bestiality was often a topic. During one incident in the summer of 2017, Breeden alleged that one of her female managers shared details of seeing a person have sex with an animal, and, according to the complaint, admitted: “Hell yeah I watched it. It was interesting and I wanted to watch, but I would never do it.”
Breeden also claimed that some purveyors who sold Boar’s Head products often made sexual jokes while she attempted to conduct business. According to the complaint, one “would ‘joke’ about Breeden getting naked for his phone call.” Another once asked Breeden if a colleague, who was supposed to be on a call, was off getting a “boob job.” But what Breeden says led to her resigning in December 2017 was even more troubling. She claimed that on December 5, 2019, a purveyor masturbated during their regular call.
According to the complaint, the purveyor “spoke softly and began to moan and grunt.” And during the following week’s phone call, he did it again. When Breeden declined to take his calls anymore, the dismissed and ultimately privately settled lawsuit claimed that management “refused to remedy the situation and said she must continue accepting calls, even from masturbating customers.”
It is nearly impossible to definitively assess whether these sorts of incidents at Boar’s Head are more common than at their competitors. Comprehensive data on harassment and discrimination at government-inspected meatpacking plants is hard to come by, and according to the report from the Equal Employment Commission’s 2016 task force on harassment in the workplace, “approximately 90% of individuals who say they have experienced harassment never take formal action against the harassment, such as filing a charge or a complaint.”
“In an industry like meatpacking, it’s going to be a highly under-reported issue. And so these cases that are on the record are just actually the exception,” says Zoë West, a senior researcher at Cornell University’s The Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “It’s a mistake to assume that the number of cases that are formally reported is the sort of neutral indicator of levels of harassment in that industry.”
Boar’s Head’s distribution operation in Ohio apparently has had its share of other problems, according to allegations by another former employee. In his 2019 lawsuit, warehouse worker Eric Williams, alleged racial discrimination and described a culture in which “Boar’s Head favors non-African Americans in promotions, and an employee’s race has a substantial impact on the decision whether to promote them.”
Despite being “one of the most experienced, longest tenured” workers at the facility, Williams, then 47, claims he was passed over for a promotion six times between 2015 and 2018. A worker the company promoted instead, according to the complaint, made racial jokes and slurs. Often, workers selected over Williams had been in the position for months compared to Williams’ years. In one case, the white person promoted over Williams had worked for the company for 90 days, even though it was Boar’s Head policy that employees cannot be promoted until they have worked for at least six months.
When Williams finally got promoted in 2018, it was only a month before he was demoted back to the warehouse floor. According to the complaint, management said they “needed him because the productivity numbers were too low when he was in the office.” Williams filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2018 and claimed he was fired in retaliation. Williams’ case went into mediation and settled in 2020.
“When we see a place like Boar’s Head with repeated lawsuits, there’s something going on there,” says Jody Early, a professor at University of Washington Bothell, who researches workplace harassment within agriculture. “The average consumer, they might not be tracking or even understanding this is an issue.”
The claims aren’t confined to Boar’s Head operations in Ohio. In a 2020 lawsuit, former workers Sarah Cochran and Tiffany Ward allege that Boar’s Head fired them from a USDA-inspected processing plant in Forrest City, Arkansas, while they were each recuperating in the hospital, violating their rights as disabled women. Both women claim Boar’s Head treated them “with deliberate indifference.”
Then two Boar’s Head employees called him to tell him—for the first time—that he had come into contact with hazardous chemicals.
“They treated them shabbily and heartlessly,” says their attorney B. Michael Easley. “They fight these cases aggressively and it doesn’t do the employees any good to do the right thing because they will punish them anyway.”
According to the complaint, in June 2019, Ward went to the hospital and required surgery after a small bowel obstruction, which was complicated by a hernia and the presence of scar tissue from seven-year old stab wounds. Prior to surgery, which fixed the obstruction, removed scar tissue and also removed her right ovary and fallopian tube entirely, Ward called Boar’s Head to share news of her condition.
When she was discharged from the hospital 16 days later, “a nurse told her that her insurance had been canceled by Boar’s Head, allegedly for not having called in sick.” Ward claims she immediately tried to rectify the situation but felt stonewalled by Boar’s Head management. She left the hospital with no job and no medical insurance to pay her bills.
Sarah Cochran told a similar story in her complaint. In September 2019, she was driving in Bald Knob, Arkansas when a vehicle struck her from behind. The collision left her with immediate pain where she had undergone a spinal fusion earlier in the year. After paralysis in her right arm and leg, she was hospitalized for two days. She claimed to not be aware that Boar’s Head policy requires workers to call each day they must be out of work, but her daughter, in fact, did call one day and wasn’t told about the requirement, according to the claim. Then Boar’s Head canceled Cochran’s health insurance.
“From these two cases alone, it is apparent that Boar’s Head has developed a pattern and practice of unlawful discrimination against disabled employees, and that punitive damages should be assessed against Boar’s Head to deter it and others similarly situated from such conduct in the future,” the complaint reads. The lawsuit was set to go to trial in February 2022 before Boar’s Head settled it at the end of December 2021.
There is also the ongoing case involving Jacob Harris, a plumber from Cross County, Arkansas. In August 2022, the Boar’s Head facility in Forrest City called Harris to repair a clogged drain at its plant. According to the complaint, the drain was located in a 12-foot-by-12-foot pit about two-feet deep, where liquid pooled from employees washing off meat racks. Harris, dressed in jeans and a short sleeve shirt, had to get in the pit to repair it, and was not told that the liquid draining into the pit contained a toxic acid—a mixture of bleach and a heavy-duty acid cleaner known as AFCO 5237. The area had no warning signs for the dangerous substances.
After 20 minutes of work, Harris started to feel a tingling sensation in his legs. He asked then what was in the pit and none of the Boar’s Head employees responded. After 50 minutes, he realized it was not a simple clog and would need more significant repairs. By then, the tingling had gotten worse.
As Harris later told his attorney, on the drive home, he felt like his legs were “on fire.” Then two Boar’s Head employees called him to tell him—for the first time—that he had come into contact with hazardous chemicals. Harris had suffered significant burns “from [the] ankles up to and including his scrotum” as well as on his arms.
These injuries caused Harris to have trouble sleeping, walking, driving and working. The complaint alleges that he was in “significant, continuous pain” for over a month, and some of his burns and pain from the incident are permanent. He also has scarring and disfigurement. His lawsuit, filed in 2023, alleges Boar’s Head was negligent. A Boar’s Head spokesperson said the lawsuit is “pending and the matters referenced are only allegations, and we do not comment on ongoing litigation.” The case is set to go to trial in April 2025.
“From the time Jacob entered the Boar’s Head facility until now, Boar’s Head has not shown any sympathy or concern for Jacob or his injuries. They have attempted to cast blame at Jacob and his employer, and have refused to take any responsibility,” says Harris’s Forrest City, Arkansas-based lawyer Austin Easley. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Boar’s Head has any concern for the safety of folks like Jacob Harris, or any desire to make it right when their actions cause serious harm to others.”
As Boar’s Head prepares to fight Harris’s case in court, its legal woes are only getting larger. In addition to wrongful death cases and lawsuits from hospitalized listeria victims, there are investigations from the Department of Justice, and, just this week, an audit from the USDA’s inspector general.
Yet the family that owns Boar’s Head has remained oddly silent. Ownership of 100% privately held Boar’s Head is split between the extended Brunckhorst and Bischoff families. Robert S. Martin and his son Robert P. Martin run Boar’s Head today, alongside their cousin Eric Brunckhorst III—all descendants (or related by marriage) to the company’s founder, Frank Brunckhorst. According to a legal filing from September 8, Robert S. has served as co-CEO and chairman of the Boar’s Head board, while Robert P. is chief operating officer. Another branch of the family headed up by Eric Bischoff own shares but are not involved in the day-to-day business. They have all declined to comment on the ongoing recall and its deadly impact—so Boar’s Head’s response to the listeria outbreak has remained faceless.
But as Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health says, the owners have the ultimate responsibility. “That’s a reactive culture that says, ‘I’m doing the bare minimum to get by,’” Kowalcyk says. “Usually when someone is doing that it’s because they have prioritized profit over everything else. Positive culture starts at the top. The onus is on the leaders and the owners.”