Front Burner - Inside a slaughterhouse COVID-19 outbreak

Episode Date: May 4, 2021

Today, an inside look at a COVID-19 outbreak that tore through an Alberta slaughterhouse, as seen through the eyes of the plant’s employees — and what their stories reveal about the situation facing essential workers across Canada.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. They always blame the workers. They don't blame themselves. They always blame us.

Yes, they worry about production. Fine, worry about production. But how about us? Without us, you don't get production. Because when they need people to work, they call us. But when they don't need us, they just throw us away like garbage. Hi, I'm Sarah Reeder. I'm Joel Dryden.

We're both CBC reporters based in Calgary. Dryden. We're both CBC reporters based in Calgary. And a couple of months ago, we started reaching out to workers at the Olliemell Slaughterhouse in Red Deer, Alberta, because we saw reports that a COVID-19 outbreak was spreading really quickly through the plant. A year ago, we had done a lot of reporting on the outbreak at the Cargill slaughterhouse in High River, Alberta. It had the biggest outbreak in Canada back in the spring, in the first wave. And it looked like the Olymel outbreak could be following a similar pattern. We are once again this morning tracking major outbreaks of COVID-19 at meatpacking plants in Alberta. Pork producer Olymel, now linked to more than 200 cases. Hey everybody, Jamie here. So our producer Ali has been working with Sarah and Joel over the

past month to bring you a look inside Olimel and how workers inside not only got sick, but ended up feeling blamed for the outbreak. And particularly right now, when there is so much talk about sick days and essential workers and all the ways they've been put in the crosshairs of the virus. We wanted you to hear from those workers themselves. And just to note before we begin, we've changed the names and voices of all the OML workers in this story because they're worried their jobs could be at stake if they speak out publicly. Hi, Sarah and Jewel.

Hi. Hi. So, Jewel, I'm wondering if you can start by telling me about a worker you've been speaking to who we're calling Anna Lynn. Yeah, so Anna Lynn was one of the first workers I got in touch with. She's originally from the Philippines, but she's been living in Alberta for about 20 years. She came to Canada around 2001, and she started to work as a nanny for about five years. After four years, I brought my family here in the year 2005. I got two children and my husband is with us also at the time, but unfortunately we got divorced.

So Annalyn becomes a single mom. She was living in a smaller community, but she ends up moving to Red Deer in Alberta because she needs to make enough to support her kids. It's hard for me to find a little bit decent job at that time. So somebody told me that, you know, I'm going to apply in the meat plant. So that's what I did. She hears that there are decent paying jobs at this Alamo pork slaughterhouse, and she still has to work a second job, but between those, she's able to make ends meet. The first time, it's really hard for me to work there because it's hard labor, and I thought I would be only working there for a year. But I'm working there till now, and that will be 10 years to September.

I'm working there till now, and that will be 10 years to September. Okay, and tell me about the Olamel plant. This is a pork slaughterhouse, right? Yeah, it's a massive pork slaughterhouse. It's owned by this Quebec company, Olamel, and their slogan is feeding the world. You can see it on a big sign outside the plant. And the plant is huge. It's more than 1,800 workers, and a lot of them are immigrants.

People from other countries like China, Vietnam, Ukraine, Philippines. They're from all over the world, but the majority are Filipino. And lots of them have stories really similar to Annalyn's. About 60% of the workers have a second or third job outside of the plant, and she has a second job too. And many of them are sending money home. Because I also have siblings there that I have to help. My parents already passed away. So what have the workers told you about what it's like inside the plant?

Well, the first thing, of course, is you're dealing with a lot of dead animals and animals that are about to die. The trucks will come and they're howling the pigs into the plant and I can hear those crying of the pigs. And I said, oh, poor pigs. It's just like, what can I do? I cannot do anything. I need work too, and I cannot save their lives.

And, you know, actually the other week, a colleague and I went to film outside the plant, and when we were there, a huge transport truck arrived full of pigs. You know, the sounds, the screams that they were making, just is kind of a sound that I'll never forget. Wow. Yeah, and inside the plant, workers have told us about being kind of surrounded by all of these carcasses of these pigs strung up on hooks.

And they also talk about the smells. Yeah, because of the blood and feces and stuff like that. So it's really stinky, of course. And they say it's also really crowded. I mean, again, this is a big plant, and a lot of the workers around these were really packed assembly lines. Another worker we spoke to, who we're calling Gabriela, described it as really hectic. And depends on the area they're in, but most of them is shoulder to shoulder kind of thing. So workers like Annalyn and Gabriella, what kind of jobs are they doing exactly?

So Annalyn, for example, is a trimmer. She's in an assembly line and she's cutting up hunks of meat into smaller cuts with a knife. Like this meat is from the conveyor. It's like this. You have to be faster, too. You're working like a machine. Yeah, and pretty much everyone we talk to, they talk about the speed. Olly Mill's processing up to 45,000 hogs a week, and they have these really intense production

quotas. Workers say when managers want to increase that production, they speed up how fast the meat is coming down the conveyor belt. So you grab your piece and you got to debone it. And let's say you can do it in 10 seconds. But if the line is faster, you'll have to do it in, say, six to eight seconds. So it's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You know, it's just, yeah, it's difficult. Wow. I mean, it sounds like that could be dangerous, no? Like people are having to move so fast here.

Oh, yeah. I mean, when we looked the plant up on occupational health and safety in 2019, you saw an average of nearly one in five full-time employees at that Red Deer plant. They suffered some kind of disabling injury. So that means an injury serious enough to require medical attention. One in five? That sounds really high, no? Oh, yeah, it is high. And I mean, just for reference, you know, that same year at the Cargill plant in High River, they had a disabling injury

rate of about three per 100 full-time employees. Also in Alberta, the JBS Canada Beef Facility, that's located near Brooks, the rate was 6.6 and it was 18 at the Olliemill plant. So it is high. Wow. What kind of injuries are we talking about here? Anna Lynn told me lots of stories about injuries. Some just from the repetitive work, like she's seen lots of co-workers with carpal tunnel syndrome. Yeah, I got one co-worker that even both of his hands got carpal tunnel. So got surgery one after the other. And he only worked there for a year. But some of the injuries were a lot bloodier than that.

Some, like, they cut their fingers because of the machine. Some cut their fingers on the conveyor. Probably the worst one that she told us about was when a new guy was put on a pretty technical job, which was operating the machine that they used to skin the ham. The machine got a little bit stuck in there, and he did it himself and got a hole in his palm. Ugh. Wow.

All of this, it just sounds like it also must take such a mental toll. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I asked Annalyn about that. And she said that, of course, I feel sad of what's going on. But I need a job. And I need a good benefit for my children. And as a single parent, I need to persevere. What has Olimel said about this injury rate in these stories? So we asked Richard Vigneault about this. He's a spokesperson for Olimel, and he told us in an email that the company's goal

is to keep workers as safe as possible. He wrote that, quote, if management or staff do not follow the robust safety programs and training they have received, they could be hurt. He also said the company has brought down its total disabling injuries from 283 in 2019 to 248 in 2020. But those numbers haven't been listed yet in Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Database, so we can't verify them. Okay, so that's a situation before the outbreak happens. And I know the first cases in the plant were in November.

But Sarah, when did things start to get bad? So the company says cases were pretty manageable in those first couple months, but they started to rise a lot around January 20th. They've never actually released a number for how many cases they were seeing at that point. But basically, from all accounts we've heard, that seems to be when it really started to blow up. And I mean, we're talking about January 2021 here. So obviously, at this point, a lot is known about how COVID spreads. I mean, we're talking about January 2021 here. So obviously at this point, a lot is known about how COVID spreads. I mean, like you guys said, you had covered the Cargill outbreak in High River a year before this. This is nothing new.

And you've mentioned the people at Olimel are working in pretty close quarters here. So Sarah, what kinds of precautions was the plant taking? Alimel says it was following really strict COVID protocols, you know, stuff like taking staff's temperatures, installing plexiglass dividers between the workers, and ensuring that everyone on site wore face masks. But Gabriela says some of those protocols weren't always being religiously followed, even sometimes by supervisors. The foreman supervisor not wearing their mask properly, not doing it. Well, why should I be doing it?

And Gabriela also said that their production quotas are so high and they have to move so fast that it can actually be really hard to follow those COVID rules. When I'm the one working on the line and I'm sweating, you know, just think about having your mask and it's really hot. Say you're on an assembly line and your glasses are fogging up. They said, well, you know, if you need to change your mask, if you need to, you know, unfog your glasses, call your foreman, call your trainer. Well, when you're working and you're busy, you don't have time, your other piece is coming. You have no time to fix your... Alimel disputes this, though. They say that they do require workers to wear masks on site at all times.

Right. So, Joel, how were the workers feeling at this point? Yeah, you know, they're feeling scared. There was fear was just spreading throughout the plant. Most of them are worried about the safety of their family, especially those people who got children and their parents living with them. They're really scared, and also about their health sometimes. But when people really got scared was after January the 28th.

That's when Darwin Deloque died. One of the workers here connected to the outbreak has died. 35-year-old Darwin Deloque. Darwin was among the 343 positive cases at the plant. Union officials say they'd been pleading with the company for weeks to shut down. Everything I've heard about him is that he was just this super warm, outgoing, really, really funny guy. He posted a lot of these TikTok videos and YouTube videos, and in them you can see him, like, dancing, lip syncing,

going on these fun trips around the Rockies. Going on these fun trips around the Rockies. He just always seems to be goofing off and making people laugh. Gabriela had gotten to know him a bit at work, too. She describes him as just this really full of life young man. He was a very, very nice young guy with lots of life and just bubbly. He was never in a bad mood. He was always trying to make everybody laugh. But it's sad because I think the company could have done something about it.

I think the company could have done something about it. How many more people are they going to wait to see gone until they do something about it? And they still waited. So that was the hardest part. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections.

Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. So I remember when there was the Cargill outbreak. After the first worker,

when there was the Cargill outbreak. After the first worker, Heat Boy, died, the company temporarily closed the plant. But that didn't happen here, right? No. And Ole Mill workers said that this was the point when people started to get really scared. People are panicking already, like scared, but still have to come to work because of financial issues.

They need to pay their bills and stuff, and companies still want them to go to work. And some also got contracted with the virus. Quite a few co-workers got contracted with the virus in our line. And then it got spread. Even in the other line also got the virus, and even foreman also got the virus. Were there calls to close the plant? Yeah, the union was calling for it to close

and for Ollimell to pay the workers during that time. But management said it was safe to stay open. So COVID was continuing to spread. Like by February 6th, there were 168 cases. It was around that time that I spoke to a worker that we're calling Jacob. We workers, we feel unsecure. We feel unsafe inside the plant. We are hoping that they will close temporarily to

sanitize everything and for isolation. It's really hard for us to work. If the working area is not safe, everyone is afraid to go there. I hear you coughing. Do you have COVID? Yes, ma'am. I got positive started last January. And how are you feeling now? So Jacob had been off work for three or four weeks from COVID.

He's clearly very sick, and he said his whole family caught the virus from him. I really want to go back to work, but I'm afraid because my family got contaminated too. We are all positive, and now we don't have work. So we got a big problem regarding finance too, because we are just renting a house. When I asked him if Alimel was supporting him financially, he said not exactly. They told him that he could apply for federal government relief, which isn't much money. And it was only through the union that he found out that he could apply for workers' compensation. And the union told me that I have to apply in WCB because I got my sickness from my work in Olymel.

And actually, the union told us there were a lot of cases like this. They told us that the company told a number of workers who were sick with COVID to apply for the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit or to use up their vacation days, and that Alimel didn't tell them that they could get workers' comp. So what I did is I asked the union, and they helped me. They helped me about that. That is really hard to listen to Jacob coughing like that. Look, I know Alberta doesn't mandate any paid sick days, but just to be clear here,

was Olamel paying for any sick days for Jacob and these workers who got COVID? No, no sick pay. And one thing that was just so clear to me through this whole conversation with him was that Jacob wasn't just angry with Olly Mel. He was really mad at the Alberta government too. Like he's at home really sick and hearing all of these stories about more and more of his co-workers getting sick. He wanted the government to intervene and temporarily shut the plant down. A lot of the workers got positive, but still they insist us to work. I don't know what to do,

but we are hoping that the government will help us. And what is the Alberta government doing at this point? Have they been looking into closing down the plant? I mean, 168 cases. That's a lot. Not to mention that someone has already died here. So Alberta occupational health and safety officials say they inspected the plant 14 times during the outbreak and decided each time it was safe to continue working. Alberta Health Services was on site offering testing to workers.

And the province's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Dina Hinshaw, also said later in February that the reason they didn't shut the plant down was because Ollimell had been, quote, successful in controlling the spread there for months. It's important to remember this particular plant has had sporadic cases, one or two at a time, for several months. And the processes that have been put in place at the plant site had been very successful in preventing any kind of spread. the plant site had been very successful in preventing any kind of spread. And what did the workers think of that? It sounds like they didn't feel like it was safe. Well, both Annalyn and Gabriela told us, you know,

maybe these inspections needed to be a bit more thorough. If your in-law comes to your house and checks your house, you know, they usually do, you know, they go with the finger and check and stuff. But they can only check so much. They're not there every day. The company is pretty smart or anybody is pretty smart

to put everything inside the closet and cover it up and do this and show you what they want you to see. But not exactly how it is. Alberta Health Services, I think, failed to interview some of the workers so that they will, you know, they can also see the side of the workers. They only went there and observed like, oh, yeah, there's like a barrier for this. Oh, in the cafeteria, there's a barrier for this.

Oh, they're wearing masks. But, you know, they don't really observe the whole scenario of what's going on. They both said, you know, if those inspectors had stuck around longer, they might have seen that in a lot of situations, it's just not possible for workers to follow all the rules like physical distancing. Like, for example, Annalyn said that during shift change, especially if you've got a lot of people working overtime, you could basically have the entire staff in the building at the same time for up to an hour.

It's kind of like really congested. The wash bay, even in the washroom, even in the locker room, it's like elbow to elbow already. So there's no proper distancing there. So I think that's the one that they failed to observe. When they're emptying combos or barrels or cages, there's four or five people around it. We're shoulder to shoulder because we got to transfer that product from one hand to another. And those little moments, obviously, we're not doing that when they come in.

Yeah. I'd say the biggest concern we heard over and over again was about testing. That when workers were being tested, they weren't all being sent home to isolate while they waited for their results. The companies say, well, everybody's getting tested. Yes, it's true. Everybody was getting tested.

But they were getting people tested and putting them back on the line. Now you tell me, how in the world that makes sense to anybody? Yeah, and Annalyn says when she was going to get tested, she asked a company nurse if she should keep coming to work. And she said, yes, because you guys need money. What did you think when she said that to you? Well, I didn't argue anymore with that. Company wants us to come to work, then we'll come to work.

Has Olimel responded to those allegations? Yeah, so Olimel says it's true. A company nurse told an employee it was safe to be at work while waiting for test results, but only because that worker was asymptomatic. And the company says, in hindsight, the nurse agrees their comment was a bit tone deaf. And the company also says the nurse has now undergone, quote, appropriate messaging training. Okay. And what about this allegation that this was pretty widespread, right? That lots of workers were being told that they didn't have to isolate while they waited for results. So the company says workers who, in their words, needed to isolate weren't asked to work and that many staff were tested just as a precaution.

We didn't get a completely clear answer from them, but it sounded like they were saying that people who they said were tested as a precaution were allowed to return to work without isolating while waiting for test results. All right, so these calls continue for the plant to be temporarily shut down. Olamel says it's okay to stay open. The Alberta government also says it's okay to stay open. But then on February 15th, Olamel suddenly does this about face and says actually they will shut down temporarily. And firstly, how bad has it gotten at this point? Like how many cases are we talking about here? So you know how I said on February 6th there were 168 cases? Well now on February 15th, nine days later, 326 people have tested positive. Wow, so almost double. Yeah, I mean I should note here it takes a few days to shut down a plant and the outbreak just kept growing.

Like by the time it finally peaked in early March, there were more than 500 cases. Gabriela actually tested positive too soon after the plant shut down, but luckily her case was mild. And also, two more workers died. First, there was Henry de Leon. He was in his 50s. He was originally from the Dominican Republic, but he had been in Canada for 16 years, and his kids and grandkids are here. He was in his 50s. He was originally from the Dominican Republic, but he had been in Canada for 16 years and his kids and grandkids are here. He died in late February and another worker died in early March, but unfortunately we don't have any details on who that person was. Wow, this is, this is so sad. I mean, especially given the size of the outbreak and, of course, these deaths, I imagine a lot of the workers felt pretty relieved when the plant announced this temporary shutdown, right?

Yeah, I think most people we spoke to felt relieved. we spoke to felt relieved. But you know, they also felt really frustrated because Olimil hadn't agreed to pay them while the plant was closed. We are hoping that Olimil will give what is due for their workers. So I checked in with Jacob again around this time. He'd been home from work for longer than the shutdown, probably close to a month and a half at this point. And he just, he still sounded so sick. They did enforce temporary layoff without pay. But what he seemed really concerned about actually was his co-workers who were all now

out of work. He wanted them to get paid, especially after everything that they had been through. And he said something that really stuck with me. He repurposed that Olimil slogan, feeding the world. What we can do now is just to pray to God that the Holy Meal Company will open their hearts to help their workers. May God enlighten their minds

to follow their vision to feed the world. And then I understand this isn't even the end of the story, right? Because then the workers, they actually start to feel blamed for the outbreak. Yeah. So there were a few things that happened that made workers feel blame. Firstly, Alimo spokesperson Richard Vigneault told media that the company was investigating a potluck that allegedly took place on site. He said the company believed that may have contributed to the spread. Now, we haven't actually been able to confirm if this potluck happened, and Olimil hasn't provided us with an update on what that investigation has turned up. Another thing was Dr. Dina Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health. She also seemed to really downplay the role that the company played in the outbreak.

Unfortunately, I think there were a concurrence of a number of events that were not limited to events directly on that plant site. And therefore, we did see an increase in cases. But then the other thing that happened was this Red Deer Advocate story. The Advocate is a local newspaper, and they had published this article with a photo of workers gathered around a table. And it had the headline, I'll quote the headline, it said, maskless Olimil workers partied as COVID cases at the Red Deer meat plant grew. But workers said that that photo was actually taken last year. So that's, you know, well before this outbreak began when there were no COVID cases at the plant.

So those workers that we spoke to, they really pushed back on this and the advocate deleted the article from their website, but they didn't actually retract it. Did you get to ask the Red Deer advocate about this? No, the Red Deer advocate didn't respond to our requests for comment on that. But, you know, even though it had been deleted, the workers said that really the damage had been done because, you know, there was a really big response to this story on social media from lots of people in Red Deer. And, you know, you can see the comments on these screen grabs. A lot of these commenters were really targeting the immigrant workers

at Olimil, and especially the Filipino community. I'm reticent to ask this question, but what were these comments saying? Well, and I feel gross even repeating this, but one of them said, quote, Filipinos do not respect the social distancing guidelines, and many eat from the same big container of food. And then it continued to say, quote, they caused the virus to spread in the plant. And the other comments told the workers to go back to their home countries. Like, it was just a lot of really discriminatory stuff. I imagine for the workers, this was really, really hurtful.

What did they say about it? Well, yeah, they were hurt, of course, and angry. Well, it felt like it's a discrimination. And those comments on Facebook, lots of them are racist. And they're even telling us, like, we have to go back in our own country, right, and let our burdens work. It's really sad.

They're blaming Filipinos. We're Filipinos, right? So they're blaming us for that. And they shouldn't be, like, doing that because it's not our fault why this virus is spreading. It's too painful in our part. Because when they need people to work, they call us.

But when they don't need us, they just throw us away like garbage from this beloved country. We are paying taxes too. We are doing our best to work, no matter how hard it is. We don't ask too much, but for this COVID situation, we need your understanding, support, and most is your respect and equality in this land. So we mentioned that you guys also did a lot of reporting on the outbreak at the Kerrgill beef packing plant last year. And Sarah, how much similarity do you see between that outbreak

and this one? And Sarah, how much similarity do you see between that outbreak and this one? There are a lot of similarities. So first, the way that workers in the union were calling for Cargill to be shut down for so long before it actually was. And that the Alberta government never ordered it to close. Also, the workers and many of the workers at Cargill are also Filipino. They also got a lot of blame for supposedly causing the outbreak. Like in the case of Cargill, Dr. Dina Hinshaw faced some backlash because she suggested that workers carpooling.

There are things like carpooling that's been identified as a risk. And so not just looking at the plant itself, but looking at how do people get back and forth to work, or their living situations cause the virus to spread rather than pointing to the conditions at the plant itself. Right. And I mean, even if those factors had caused the virus to spread, these really aren't things these workers can control anyways. Like, those are all things that are basically dictated by your financial situation. Yeah, you know, on that note, I recently called this Filipino community activist, Cesar Calas, and he provides a lot of mental health support to the Filipino workers at Cargill.

He was saying to me that in both these plants, the workers are facing just an impossible situation. We have this saying in the Philippines, you're holding on to the two sharp edges of a knife. Like you have no choice, right? So what else can you do but to put yourself in harm's way? It's very heartbreaking sometimes. It's very heartbreaking sometimes. You know, it strikes me that this isn't just a story about these two meat plants in Alberta. I mean, we could talk about the Amazon warehouse in Brampton, or the migrant farm workers in southern Ontario, or the outbreaks we've seen at distribution centers and factories in BC's lower mainland. And we'd be talking about so many of the same issues here, right guys? Like the lack of paid

sick days, low paid racialized employees who can't afford to stay home, huge facilities that this virus can just rip through so fast, the responsibility placed on the workers instead of the workplaces and the government. Like this is the story of so-called essential workers and industrial workplaces all across Canada. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it makes me think about something Jacob said to me once about essential workers. And actually just a note before I tell you that I don't know a ton about how Jacob is doing right now. He's very hard to get a hold of, but I very briefly spoke to him just for a couple of minutes last week and he's still not working, but he was definitely coughing less. I'm glad to hear that at least. Yeah, that's great news.

I've been thinking about this thing that Jacob told me on one of our earlier calls about essential workers. They said we are essential workers too, but we feel not essential with them. It's look like we are just used and now we are nothing to them. Okay. Joel Dryden, Sarah Rieger, I want to thank you both so much for reporting this story, which is so important. And also to our producer, Ali Janes, I know that the three of you have worked so hard on this. So thank you so much. Thank you.

Thanks. So the Olamel plant gradually started reopening on March 4th. Alberta Health says that they've been notified of a total of 542 cases linked to the outbreak at the plant. Of these, seven are currently active. And on April 27th, the Alberta government began allowing all meat plant workers 18 and over to access vaccinations. Olamel also told Sarah that the company is giving workers a $25 bonus per shot if they get vaccinated. And Sarah and Joel asked Olamel about the union's allegation that Olamel told numerous workers who were sick with COVID-19 to apply for CERB or use their vacation days instead of applying for workers' compensation, which is paid for by the company. On Monday night, spokesperson Richard Vigneault responded.

He said that all workers who tested positive were offered Manulife or WCB coverage, and that during the outbreak, Olamel had made special arrangements with WCB to report cases to them directly. So since workers didn't need to fill out application forms, some of them may have been confused. That's all for today. A very special thanks also to Austin Pomeroy and Derek VanderWijk, who both did sound design for this episode. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening to FrontBurner. We'll talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.