Author of the article:Jason Herring
Publishing date:Nov 25, 2021 •
Nearly 950 workers at Cargill's High River plant tested positive for COVID-19 in spring of 2020. PHOTO BY REUTERS/TODD KOROL
Migrant and refugee workers in Alberta’s meat-packing plants face dangerous working conditions and precarious employment, according to new research from York University.
The research, conducted by Bronwyn Bragg and Jennifer Hyndman alongside Calgary advocacy group ActionDignity, conducted interviews and surveys with immigrant workers in the facilities.
Those workers reported unsafe working conditions in meat-packing facilities, an issue exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty-two per cent of survey respondents said they or someone in their home had tested positive for the virus, and 34 per cent reported other work-related injuries.
“This industry is a high-risk environment for the spread of COVID-19, but we also know once you dig into the literature and the data that this industry has a long history of being what we would call 3D work: dirty, difficult and dangerous,” Bragg said.
“There are high rates of worker injury, and that really came through in our data.”
The research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, began in the wake of Alberta’s first wave of COVID-19, when massive virus outbreaks ravaged two meat plants in the province.
Nearly 950 workers at Cargill’s High River plant tested positive for COVID-19, making it North America’s largest virus outbreak at the time. Three deaths were linked to the outbreak: workers Benito Quesada, 51, and Hiep Bui, 67, as well as Armando Sallegue, 71, the father of a worker. A separate outbreak at a JBS meat-packing plant in Brooks the same spring saw more than 650 workers test positive.
Migrant and refugee workers in Alberta’s meat-packing plants face dangerous working conditions and precarious employment, according to new research from York University.
The research, conducted by Bronwyn Bragg and Jennifer Hyndman alongside Calgary advocacy group ActionDignity, conducted interviews and surveys with immigrant workers in the facilities.
Those workers reported unsafe working conditions in meat-packing facilities, an issue exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty-two per cent of survey respondents said they or someone in their home had tested positive for the virus, and 34 per cent reported other work-related injuries.
“This industry is a high-risk environment for the spread of COVID-19, but we also know once you dig into the literature and the data that this industry has a long history of being what we would call 3D work: dirty, difficult and dangerous,” Bragg said.
“There are high rates of worker injury, and that really came through in our data.”
The research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, began in the wake of Alberta’s first wave of COVID-19, when massive virus outbreaks ravaged two meat plants in the province.
Nearly 950 workers at Cargill’s High River plant tested positive for COVID-19, making it North America’s largest virus outbreak at the time. Three deaths were linked to the outbreak: workers Benito Quesada, 51, and Hiep Bui, 67, as well as Armando Sallegue, 71, the father of a worker. A separate outbreak at a JBS meat-packing plant in Brooks the same spring saw more than 650 workers test positive.
A mourner touches a photo at a memorial of Hiep Bui, a Cargill worker who died from COVID-19.
PHOTO BY THE CANADIAN PRESS/JEFF MCINTOSH
All three of the COVID-19 deaths at Cargill involved migrant workers, a group which is overrepresented at Alberta meat-packing plants. Two-thirds of workers at the plants are considered immigrants, compared to just over a quarter of the province’s population. Resettled refugees make up 18 per cent of workers, despite only representing three per cent of Albertans.
Temporary foreign workers make up about 10 per cent of meat-plant workers, a number limited by a federal cap, though many of these workers gain permanent residency and continue working in the industry.
“Folks that are on these temporary work permits where they are restricted in terms of leaving their employer or fear being repatriated to their country of origin if they lose their job, they’re very disincentivized from speaking out against potentially unsafe working conditions,” Bragg said.
“(With the) resettled population, which is quite vulnerable and faces challenges around language and education, they bounce from precarious job to precarious job and end up ultimately in meat-packing, and once they have those jobs, they find it very hard to leave. So while they have a legal right to leave, to quit their job and go elsewhere, they struggle to find other employment and face a similar level of vulnerability.”
The York study included interviews from workers, who talked with researchers who spoke their first languages. According to a summary of the report , one worker said, “People will still stick around for this harsh and dangerous environment mainly to put food on the table for them and their family.” Another said they took the work because they “just wanted to … give a future to my only child.”
Though the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the meat-packing industry were in the first wave, the sector was in the spotlight again this February, when three deaths were reported at Olymel’s Red Deer pork slaughterhouse .
Concerns around health and safety are also at the centre of a contentious labour dispute at Cargill’s High River plant, where workers could go on strike as early as Dec. 6 if they cannot reach a deal with the company.
Bragg said her team’s research concluded legislative changes including greater oversight by Occupational Health and Safety are needed to boost safety at Alberta meat-packing facilities, saying the major outbreaks during the pandemic all followed similar patterns.
“Regardless of what is in the contract, if there’s not a significant policy and regulatory reform to ensure these workplaces are safe and unless there is policy reform to help workers secure their rights in the workplace, workers are going to continue to feel unsafe,” she said.
jherring@postmedia.com
Twitter: @jasonfherring
All three of the COVID-19 deaths at Cargill involved migrant workers, a group which is overrepresented at Alberta meat-packing plants. Two-thirds of workers at the plants are considered immigrants, compared to just over a quarter of the province’s population. Resettled refugees make up 18 per cent of workers, despite only representing three per cent of Albertans.
Temporary foreign workers make up about 10 per cent of meat-plant workers, a number limited by a federal cap, though many of these workers gain permanent residency and continue working in the industry.
“Folks that are on these temporary work permits where they are restricted in terms of leaving their employer or fear being repatriated to their country of origin if they lose their job, they’re very disincentivized from speaking out against potentially unsafe working conditions,” Bragg said.
“(With the) resettled population, which is quite vulnerable and faces challenges around language and education, they bounce from precarious job to precarious job and end up ultimately in meat-packing, and once they have those jobs, they find it very hard to leave. So while they have a legal right to leave, to quit their job and go elsewhere, they struggle to find other employment and face a similar level of vulnerability.”
The York study included interviews from workers, who talked with researchers who spoke their first languages. According to a summary of the report , one worker said, “People will still stick around for this harsh and dangerous environment mainly to put food on the table for them and their family.” Another said they took the work because they “just wanted to … give a future to my only child.”
Though the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the meat-packing industry were in the first wave, the sector was in the spotlight again this February, when three deaths were reported at Olymel’s Red Deer pork slaughterhouse .
Concerns around health and safety are also at the centre of a contentious labour dispute at Cargill’s High River plant, where workers could go on strike as early as Dec. 6 if they cannot reach a deal with the company.
Bragg said her team’s research concluded legislative changes including greater oversight by Occupational Health and Safety are needed to boost safety at Alberta meat-packing facilities, saying the major outbreaks during the pandemic all followed similar patterns.
“Regardless of what is in the contract, if there’s not a significant policy and regulatory reform to ensure these workplaces are safe and unless there is policy reform to help workers secure their rights in the workplace, workers are going to continue to feel unsafe,” she said.
jherring@postmedia.com
Twitter: @jasonfherring
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