Cargill plant serves lockout notice

One of Canada’s largest meatpacking companies has served notice it will lock out more than 2,000 workers at its plant in High River, Alta., on Dec. 6 if contract talks are unsuccessful.

Cargill said the deadline is the same as that of a strike notice it received Nov. 10 from the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW) Union Local 401 in Calgary. The two sides are slated to continue their negotiations on Nov. 30, giving them only a few days to resolve the dispute.

“We remain determined and hopeful that we can reach an agreement during this period,” the company said in a statement Nov. 26. The dispute marks a “watershed moment” for the Canadian beef sector, union leader Thomas Hesse said in an earlier interview.

The union is urging farmers and ranchers to “get on the phone and talk to Cargill,” said union labour relations officer Scott Payne. “I’d tell (the company) to make their workers a fair offer so that we can settle this deal.”

More than 1,400 workers voted 98 percent against the company’s latest offer on Nov. 23 and 24, triggering Cargill’s decision to issue the lockout notice on Nov. 25.

Payne said the meatpacking giant has “certainly (raised) the stakes and it’s a pretty aggressive move by the company, and lets our members know that they are certainly not messing around in terms of their position with regard to the dispute.”

Hundreds of workers at the High River plant were infected and two died following an outbreak last year that was the largest in North America, forcing the facility to be closed for two weeks.

Hesse said the employees, many of whom are immigrants, feel they are largely invisible to people in authority at both Cargill and the provincial government. The company ended its extra pandemic pay for workers last year, despite the fact the pandemic has continued and beef prices in grocery stores have soared, he added.

A partnership between researchers at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University and the Calgary-based community advocacy group ActionDignity looked at conditions faced by employees at Alberta’s meatpacking plants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey was conducted from January to May involving 224 of immigrant, migrant and refugee workers, along with 17 qualitative interviews.

An executive summary of the report, “No Safe Place,” said 70 percent of beef sold in Canada comes from Cargill’s plant in High River and JBS Foods’ facility in Brooks, Alta. It added that 67 percent of workers in the province’s meat processing industry are immigrants who “bore the brunt of the outbreaks, infection and fatalities” from COVID-19.

“Industrial meat processing has long been recognized as a dangerous industry in which to work,” said the report. However, such “dangers became more pronounced with the onset of COVID-19 … the nature of this work – crowded industrial settings where workers often work side by side – led to massive COVID-19 outbreaks, resulting in hundreds of workers becoming sick and numerous deaths.”

It said 42 percent of survey participants reported they or people in their households tested positive for COVID-19, rising to 11 out of 17 for the interviewees who said they had personally been infected.

“Participants also described how efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have inadvertently worsened other conditions of work and exacerbated concerns around safety at work.

Other findings include:

• Canada’s temporary labour migration programs exacerbate the vulnerability facing migrant workers in meat processing.
• Refugees to Canada are over-represented in the Alberta meatpacking industry and are uniquely vulnerable to dangerous work conditions and risk of injury and illness.
• Provincial occupational health and safety regimes meant to protect workers do not adequately meet their needs.
• Unless there is significant reform to the industry and regulatory environment in which it takes place, employees will continue to be vulnerable at work.

A request Nov. 26 for Cargill to provide its response to the report was not immediately met. The company said Nov. 12 it had exchanged multiple comprehensive proposals with the union that “included increased wages well beyond the industry standard,” along with enhanced employee benefits and cash bonuses.

“At Cargill, we greatly value our employees and the work they do to feed Canadians … we remain focused on employee safety, ensuring farmers and ranchers have access to markets, and providing meals for families across Canada.”

Payne said he had not read the report and couldn’t comment on its conclusions. However, he added workers on Nov. 4 voted 97 percent in favour of going on strike if their demands aren’t met, although such a move would mean loss of income and economic security.

“We don’t want a strike any more than the ranchers and producers want a strike. And Cargill is going to listen to those ranchers and those producers much more readily than they’re going to listen to us, so help us out and make sure you send the message to Cargill that nobody wants to see a stoppage in production.”