UTHealth researchers find seafood processors at increased risk during pandemic

Published: November 22, 2024

Shannon Guillot-Wright, associate professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, found seafood processors, who are considered essential workers, were at increased risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study, “When the Bills Keep on Coming: the Experiences of Seafood Processors During the COVID-19 Pandemic”, was published in the Journal of Agromedicine in October.  

Guillot-Wright, the Total Worker Health^® Program Director for the Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (SWCOEH), led a research team that included Lacy Davis, continuing education and outreach director for the SWCOEH. They conducted qualitative research with 44 participants, many of whom are low income or im/migrant workers on H-2B visas. 

“Seafood workers are often hidden from public view, and this was especially true during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Guillot-Wright. “It’s easy to eat our shrimp or oysters without thinking about the people who got it to us.” 

The researchers found that in addition to high occupational health hazards that existed before the pandemic, COVID-19 increased workers’ financial risks, in four general categories: Paid sick leave, mental health, economic duress, and primary care access. Guillot-Wright and her team make three recommendations to the H-2B visa worker program, which will decrease health disparities and increase health equity across seafood worker populations.

“We were amazed at some of the stories workers told us, like not being able to work for over a month or not knowing where to seek medical care. Our research taught us that we must do a better job of providing services to the workers who are putting food on our tables.”

Recommendation one: Employer flexibility 

H-2B visa holders do not have the flexibility to change employers, which may keep workers from demanding guaranteed rights. The ability to change employers will encourage employer accountability and provide an avenue for affordable and quality healthcare access for the workers.

Recommendation two: Provide sick leave

Paid sick leave is not a guaranteed right for workers in the US, either citizens or non-citizens. Overwhelmingly, a lack of access to sick leave created a precarious situation that encouraged employees to work while ill. 

Recommendation three: Reduce work precarity

Precarious employment is the lack of stable, secure employment that produces job insecurity and instability as well as social and economic vulnerability. By guaranteeing contractual workers the same or similar rights as employees, both citizen and non-citizen workers will experience less precarity and greater accountability in the workplace. 

“We don’t want people to stop eating seafood because of what we uncover. Instead, think about where your food comes from, ask your local restaurant if they buy wild caught shrimp, or make it a point to read about and discuss all the industries along our Gulf Coast. Even though our recommendations in the paper are policy-based, we can all do our part locally.”

The SWCOEH provides graduate-level training opportunities for occupational and environmental health professionals through our industrial hygiene, occupational and environmental medicine, occupational epidemiology, and Total Worker Health^® programs.