Front Burner - Workers could shut down one of Canada’s biggest beef plants

Episode Date: December 1, 2021

In the spring of 2020, the Cargill meat-packing plant in southern Alberta became the site of the largest COVID-19 outbreak tied to a single facility in all of North America. Approximately 950 workers were infected, and three died. A year and a half later, COVID-19 appears to be under control at the slaughterhouse. But workers say the underlying working conditions that were laid bare by the pandemic are still there. And now, they’re demanding changes. Workers are currently negotiating a new contract with management, and if their demands aren’t met by Dec. 6, they’re prepared to strike. And since this one facility is responsible for 40 per cent of the beef processing in Canada, that’s put a lot of people on edge. Today, CBC reporter Joel Dryden on what Cargill workers want, and what it could mean beyond this one facility.

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. Hi, I'm Angela Starrett. You may remember back in the spring of 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak at the Cargill Beef Processing Plant in High River, Alberta. Cargill has told the union that 38 people who work in the High River plant have tested positive for COVID-19. 50 workers at the Cargill facility have now tested positive.

At least half of the folks who work there have become sick. Nearly a thousand workers tested positive. At the time, it was the biggest outbreak tied to a single facility in all of North America. tied to a single facility in all of North America. Three workers died. A class action lawsuit followed. And then, in January of this year, an RCMP investigation after a complaint was filed by 16-year-old Ariana Quesada, whose father was one of the workers who died.

I feel that this will bring me and my whole family courage to keep going. I spent Christmas with one less person to hug. And all the executives, the general managers, everyone at Cargill got to spend Christmas with their loved ones and I did not get that. That investigation is still open, although no charges have been laid. Now, as 2021 draws to a close, COVID is much less of a threat at the Cargill plant. But many workers say the kinds of conditions at the slaughterhouse that were laid bare by the pandemic haven't improved. And now they're demanding changes.

Their union is currently negotiating a new contract with Cargill Management. And workers say if their demands aren't met by December 6th, they'll go on strike. 97% of employees voted in favour of strike action. And since this one slaughterhouse processes about 40% of Canada's beef supply, that's got a lot of people on edge. And so if there's a further disruption in that supply chain because there's a worker or manufacturing stoppage, we can anticipate that prices would be affected by that. Today I'm talking to Joel Dryden, who's currently reporting from CBC's pop-up bureau in Lethbridge, Alberta, about what Cargill workers want and what their demands might mean for other Canadian meat plant workers. Hi, Joel.

Hi, Angela. Thank you so much for being with us today. And you've been reporting on Cargill since the early days of the pandemic, you know, often alongside your colleague and other reporter Sarah Rieger. I'm wondering if you could just briefly recap some of the kinds of working conditions that Cargill workers described to you guys back then. Sure. Yeah. So, you know, at a place like Cargill, there's a lot of repetitive work, and that often leads to injuries related to strain. You're working fast on these conveyor belts, which essentially are just a series of neat products coming down the line. And

it's quite dangerous because you're working with knives. And so it's easy to make mistakes due to speed. Last year, when we were doing those series, one worker described witnessing a colleague who sliced three fingers off. And this worker, yeah, alleged that this colleague was was bleeding um for 40 minutes because supervisors um didn't want to call 9-1-1 and and Cargill disputes that story but it really illustrates kind of the challenging and and sometimes dangerous nature of this work um and it's you

know aside from the physical strain um it's mentally taxing as well, especially if you're working on the kill line. That's really depressing work that often burns workers out because you're dealing with dead animals and that takes a huge psychological toll. Wow. Yeah, I never thought about it in that way in particular. And so the way I understand it, around 950 workers at the Cargill plant got COVID in that outbreak in the spring of 2020. I mean, that's half of their workforce. Did anyone you spoke to last year link the kinds of working conditions that Cargill workers described to you with the severity of that outbreak? Yeah. And, you know, a lot of it has to do just with the speed of the work in these facilities, you know, like the speed during the outbreak, it meant that you couldn't really focus on PPE and on safety. These facilities are extremely crowded. And, you know, many workers mentioned that, that their sense was the, the, the plant and the company was, was more concerned with, with profits rather than worker safety. And many workers also told us during that period

that they, they tried to sound the alarm about these COVID risks, but they felt that the company didn't really listen to them or take action quickly enough. Fast forward, you know, we're almost two years into this pandemic. Do Cargill workers say things have improved? You know, in terms of protections against COVID, they say that things have really improved a lot and are much safer. But, you know, in terms of the underlying working conditions at the plant, there are still, you know, a lot of challenges there that persist. at the plant, there are still, you know, a lot of challenges there that persist and, and certain conditions at the plant over the past year or so have really made things, you know, a lot more difficult in certain ways. Yeah. And I want to hear a little bit more about that and some examples

in particular. So let's, let's break that down some more. You were talking earlier about how people said the speed of the work, like how fast the meat is coming down these conveyor belts was this real problem. Is that speed the same as before? gotten worse because there are less people working at the plant than, than there used to be. And that's, that's something that Cargill confirmed to me is that they, they do have staffing shortages right now. And, you know, just to give you an idea of this, the last week I was at the plant and there's this, uh, there's this big billboard that is offering sign on bonuses to workers, that is offering sign-on bonuses to workers, $500 for days, $600 for nights. And workers also say that at the end of the day, supervisors will go down the line and ask them, will you work overtime? Will you work overtime? So there's really a big noticeable shortage of workers at this plant right now. Wow. And I mean, according to the workers you're

speaking to, what does that mean exactly for the workers? Yeah. So, you know, I think of this man named Elaine Mendoza, and he works on what's called the harvest floor. And that's otherwise sometimes called the killing floor. It's really, you know, one of the more stressful areas of this plant to work. The line speed, it runs fast. And he said that, you know, the line speed is running quickly and fewer and fewer people are coming to work. Either they quit, they resign, or they are absent, or they are sick. So we have to move double.

We have to do it even when there is a lack of people. You know, the line speed doesn't change. So they have to move double speed to get the job done. Another worker named Freddy Vasquez, he said that basically the faster speed translates into even more injuries. And he was telling me the story about this woman who was at my line. And she was hunched over under a cryovac machine. And she was in pain.

It's a miracle she wasn't crying. I thought she was crying at first. And all of a sudden, I put my hand on her shoulder. Are you okay? And she's like, me in pain, me in pain. It's a miracle she wasn't crying. I thought she was crying at first. And all of a sudden, I put my hand on the shoulder. Are you okay? And she's like, me in pain, me in pain. My back, my back, back. No move, no move, no move. And all of a sudden, I'm like, go to the nurse. No, no, no. And that's just kind of an example of incidents that happen all the time. People's bodies just tend to break down. Wow. Because I guess they're incidents that happen all the time. People's bodies just tend to break down. Wow. Because I guess they're on their feet all the time, too, as well.

It's kind of like the story we did about Amazon, the line. They're just on their feet for hours and hours and hours, I imagine. Doing this repetitive work. Exactly. Yeah. So how do workers say that supervisors respond if they can't keep up to this sort of extreme pace here? Yeah, you know, I heard from multiple workers that some supervisors will yell and scream at them. They describe it as verbal abuse.

Freddy Vasquez, who we spoke about earlier, said that, you know, workers are often treated like animals. And he's seen, you know, are often treated like animals and he's seen you know a lot of people yelled at sworn at treated with such disrespect i've seen supervisors yell at girls and the girls just crying i've always hated bullies in Cargill. There are a lot of bullies. Thomas Hesse from UFC Local 401, that's the union that represents the workers, he described Cargill as being, quote, drunk on production. It's a place that's drunk on production.

They have a phenomenon called line speeds. And they just, you know, they phenomenon called line speeds. And they just, you know, they speed up the line and workers get hurt and they feel like chattels. And, you know, it can be really very much a crack the whip culture. And the notion that workers are human beings can be forgotten, unfortunately. Wow. And how does Cargill respond to these allegations that supervisors are behaving in this way, harassing and bullying workers? Yeah, Cargill told me in an email that to their knowledge, the reports aren't true, but they can't speak to every conversation that happens on the plant floor. They also said that employees can report workplace concerns anonymously

and that, quote, any investigation that results in substantiation of allegations results in appropriate corrective actions. 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 that sort of gives us some context on, I guess, the kinds of tensions that seem to have

been simmering for a long time here. So I want now to get to this possible strike that could happen on December 6th. So the union and Cargill are negotiating a new contract. In broad terms, what would you say are the main changes that workers are hoping to see here? Yeah, I mean, of course, higher pay comes into it. But it's not just that. You know, a big sticking point is paid stick days, which were not part of the previous offer. That becomes especially important given the context of the massive COVID outbreak. And, you know, it's important to these workers that some sort of system be put into place that would make the pace of the work actually slow down so that it's safer and more manageable.

And broadly speaking, they just really want to change the culture to stop this alleged verbal abuse and mistreatment of workers. Right. And I want to clarify here, they still don't have any paid sick days. Is that right? Even after this massive outbreak? Yeah, that's right. So that is definitely a big sticking point for these workers. Yeah. And so last week, workers voted on an initial contract offer from Cargill, and 98% of them voted it down. And I know I'm stating the obvious here, but 98% is a lot. Have workers there ever been this outspoken in their demands to management before? No, it doesn't. It doesn't appear so. And, and Freddie told me several times, and he's a bit of a troublemaker. He'll tell you that in his own words, but he's willing to speak out. But lots of other people are really afraid to do that. They're scared to come forward. Like I said, I'm putting my job on the line, my faces on the pictures or my voice, whatever it may be, my name. People are scared to speak up because in reality... And you know, experts have told me that particularly because

Cargill employs a lot of temporary foreign workers and other immigrant workers. This is just generally quite a vulnerable workforce who may have a lot of incentive not to speak out because they're worried about what impacts might result if they do that. Yeah. But, you know, I got the impression from people that we spoke to that after the pandemic, it's just the combined pressures of the work with the pandemic. I guess really the sense is that they've just pandemic in so many different, you know, industries. People just don't want to be treated this way anymore, like even pre-pandemic. But I guess what really strikes me about this meat plant is, you know, what we heard from Arianna Quesada, you know, her dad died of COVID and they felt they weren't, the company

wasn't taking the proper precautions to protect the workers. And it just felt like people were exhausted. People, as you say, had had enough. And so how has Cargill responded to workers voting down their first offer? Yeah, so they have issued a lockout notice. And so that means, you know, if it comes to December the 6th and a deal hasn't been made, Cargill workers will be on strike. They will simultaneously be locked out of the plant itself. They also, a day or two after the offer was voted down, they also put up a bulletin inside the plant voicing their disappointment with the vote.

And the union actually forwarded me photos of this temporary fencing they say Cargill is putting up to limit access to the plant if workers do end up striking. And given, you know, what an important part of Alberta's meat industry this plant is, are there any indications of what Premier Jason Kenney might do if a strike does happen? Yeah, right now I think that's really up in the air. He was actually asked about this at a press conference on Monday. We very much hope that the union and employer will come to an agreement because the closure of that facility would have a devastating impact on the broader Alberta beef industry, which has already had a super tough year. He did suggest mediation maybe could be offered, but there has been some speculation, at least

from the union, about whether the provincial government could try to stop the strike by invoking its new critical infrastructure act. And, you know, I don't know how that would necessarily work. And this isn't even something that the government has even suggested. But, you know, part of that law does create offenses for obstructing the operation of what's called essential infrastructure. So, I mean, I guess it is possible that that could come into play here. Right. And what is the new Critical Infrastructure Act? What does that lay out? It's a very unique law that I think many parties are still trying to understand and parse out. But essentially, and a lot of it was put in place after we saw those protests around pipelines. And so that was deemed critical infrastructure. And so this is

the provincial government's, the purpose of this act is to prevent certain protests from going forward around critical infrastructure. And so, you know, should this be invoked around cargo, that would mean that the provincial government would deem cargo as being an essential infrastructure, which would be pretty significant. So I don't know how likely it is something like that would happen, but the union at least is speculating that that is on the table. Well, let's zoom out for a minute to talk about Cargill as a company. How big is the company as a whole?

So Cargill Limited is a Canadian company, and it's a subsidiary of this way bigger company, Cargill, which is based in the U.S. And Cargill is the biggest privately owned company in the U.S. in terms of revenue. It's one of the biggest in the world. And Cargill, the whole company, actually did really well during the pandemic. I mean, according to Bloomberg News, in their 2021 fiscal year, their net income was just over $4.93 billion U.S., which was actually the most profitable year for this company in the 156 years that they have been in operation. Wow, that's huge. So obviously, this is a very big, very powerful company. But despite that, you know, it seems like in some ways the workers could actually have some real bargaining power here, you know, given that Canada relies on this one plant for about 40 percent of its beef processing. And given that the plant is facing these staffing shortages, does that seem like a fair assessment based on what you're hearing from people?

hearing from people? Yeah, I think so. And, you know, the union is telling its workers a lot right now that it is actually bargaining from a position of strength and largely, I think, for the reasons that you just stated. But, you know, the sentiment coming from workers that I spoke to definitely seems to be, you know, we're overworked and we know that the plant is understaffed and really the cumulative impact of the pandemic and these working conditions that have persisted for years, now is the time to address those concerns. And yeah, really these workers just don't seem interested in backing down from those concerns at this point. So some FrontBurner listeners may remember hearing you and your colleague, reporter Sarah Rieger, on the podcast back in May, telling an incredibly similar story. But it was about a different outbreak at a different Alberta meat processing plant called Olimel in Red Deer.

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.

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. Quite a few co-workers got contracted with the virus in our line. contracted with the virus in our line. So I'm wondering if Cargill workers do strike, or even if the company just agrees to their demands, what kind of impacts do experts you've spoken to think that might have on workers at other meat plants? Yeah, and I think this is a big, interesting part of the puzzle.

One guy I spoke to, his name is Sean Tucker, and he's a professor of human resource management at the University of Regina, and he specializes in worker safety. And essentially, he said that this whole situation with this strike, not only is it a chance for cargo workers to make their voices heard, but it's also, it could serve essentially as a watershed moment for meatpacking workers across Canada, but also across North America. Joel, thank you so much for this. Thanks so much for having me. That's it for FrontBurner for today. I'm Angela Starrett, in for Jamie Poisson. We, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.