After plant closure, workers remain uncompensated; ‘community transmission’ blamed
After plant closure, workers remain uncompensated; ‘community transmission’ blamed
Another corona virus outbreak in Alberta: 500 tested positive, a Filipino worker dies
By Irish Mae Silvestre
The Philippine Reporter
An outbreak and the death of a Filipino worker has highlighted hazardous working conditions at an Alberta meat processing plant. Since January, around 500 reported cases have been linked to Olymel’s Red Deer location. Employee Darwin Doloque, 35, died after testing positive for the virus.
But despite hundreds of active cases among its employees, the company continued its operations. In a February 13 letter addressed to Olymel Plant Manager Rob Ackerdale, UFCW Local 401 President Thomas Hesse urged them to close the plant as employees stated that they were afraid to go to work.
“We cannot let the arrogance of the production imperative override the very valid sentiments of real human beings,” wrote Hess, in a letter posted on the union’s website. “People must be put ahead of pigs. They are risking their jobs and their paycheques to courageously ask for a plant closure without knowing what the consequence might be or what effect this may have on their future.
“This need not be another Cargill,” he added, referring to last year’s outbreak at another meat processing plant.
Workers Left Without Pay
The ongoing situation at Red Deer certainly echoes the incident at the facility in High River, Alberta where some 950 employees tested positive for the disease, resulting in the death of three people. The RCMP is now investigating the death of Cargill employee Benito Quesada, 51, who died due to complications from the virus.
On February 15, Olymel finally closed the plant, leaving employees – some of whom are temporary foreign workers – without pay.
“We’re continuing to make the case that the employer ought to be supporting and compensating them,” said Scott Payne, spokesperson for UFCW Local 401, during a phone interview.
Migrante Alberta Director Marco Luciano said that while employees have been left without security, it’s the temporary foreign workers who are the most vulnerable.
“When things like this happen, they’ll have to make that hard decision to stay undocumented or go back home and find another LMIA,” said Luciano over the phone. “At this point our concern is those whose status in Canada might be in danger. And, of course, when they become undocumented, they won’t have access to anything including healthcare.”
UFCW Local 401 has been urging Olymel to introduce pandemic pay and to apply for the new $1,200 Alberta critical worker benefit for its workers.
Hess said that the company’s decision to lay off workers without pay is “in contravention of our members’ collective agreement with the company.”
“We also believe that the Company could be in breach of employment standards under Alberta law,” said Hess in a statement. “UFCW Local 401 is working to pursue avenues within our legal options as a means of securing the financial support that is owed to our Olymel members from the Company. Union lawyers are reviewing the matter.”
Community Transmission
During a February 16 press conference, Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw addressed the outbreak at Olymel, and stated that “events that were not limited to events directly on that plant site” led to an increase in cases.
“The transmission that happened [was] not necessarily on that plant site but in other locations as well,” said Hinshaw.
She added that Olymel had “no significant transmission events” and had been known as a safe worksite where all protocols were followed.
The implication that the transmissions happened within the community does not consider the fact that the company recently hired hundreds of new workers in an effort to ramp up production. Although the company has been known for maintaining high safety standards, Payne said that they failed to consider what the increased number of workers meant in terms of safety.
“They took their eye off the ball,” he said.
He also added that COVID-19 is an occupational disease and blaming it on community transmission fails to take into account that these incidents are happening in workplaces where most of its workers are ethnic minorities.
“There does seem to be a racial undertone to that, [which] in our estimation is simply unacceptable,” he stated.
However, Luciano pointed out that even if it was a community transmission, the plant failed to take action by allowing employees to go to work and refusing to shut down.
“They knew over a week before Doloque died that there was a growing number of cases but even after a person died, it took them a couple of weeks to shut down,” he said. “That time created more cases in the workplace, which is unacceptable in a community like Red Deer.”
Update: As the story was being written, three more people have died in relation to the outbreak including union member Henry De Leon, 50. A spokesperson for Olymel has confirmed over the phone that the facility has since reopened. In a March 1 open letter posted on the UFCW Local 401 website, Hesse stated that “our Olymel union members do not feel that the Employer has undertaken sufficient measures in order to make the workplace safe for a proposed reopening at this time.”
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