In May 2020, the meat giant Tönnies with its 7,000 employees only had a few corona cases. But in mid-June, the number of infected people skyrocketed. In the end it was 2,100 – these were Tönnies employees, but also their relatives and roommates. It quickly became clear: the virus had spread in Tönnies production. Group boss Clemens Tönnies had to publicly declare: “We are the cause of this issue and we have full responsibility.”
Lockdown in the Gütersloh district
There was a big lockdown in the Gütersloh district. Almost 20,000 people had to be quarantined; many locked up in narrow apartments in the great summer heat. Entire blocks of flats owned by Tönnies employees were fenced in. The mayor of Verl, Michael Esken, was responsible for this. He decided to take this step because some workers wanted to move to Romania despite the quarantine.
Some federal states and some cities sent Gütersloh vacationers and day-trippers back – schools and daycare centers were closed.
District Administrator Adenauer sharply criticized Tönnies
Tönnies was also through with the authorities – one sentence in particular was memorable. The then crisis team leader of the Gütersloh district said in a public press conference: “The trust we have placed in Tönnies is zero!” – and that of all the authority whose boss, District Administrator Sven-Georg Adenauer, had until then been said by critics to be close to the Tönnies Group.
This statement in particular has been quoted a lot – and did not go down well with Tönnies. Group spokesman André Vielstädte: “It was a very emotional blow for everyone. To this day we cannot understand why our trust was withdrawn – because the statement, how it was justified, is wrong for us. ”
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