85% of workers afraid to return as Alberta meat plant preps to reopen after COVID-19 outbreak, union says
Source: CBC News
Union is fighting to keep the Cargill plant, site of Canada's largest coronavirus outbreak, closed
Calgary, May 3 2020 - The union representing workers at an Alberta meat-packing plant, the site of one of North America's largest COVID-19 outbreaks, continues to fight to prevent the facility from reopening on Monday as planned.
A total of 1,510 cases of COVID-19 in Alberta are now linked to the outbreak at the Cargill plant, located near High River, according to a spokesperson for Alberta Health.
Nearly half of the company's 2,000 staff, 917 workers, have tested positive. Cargill announced the plant would close on April 20, after a worker died of COVID-19.
"The plant shouldn't reopen unless it's safe," said Thomas Hesse, president of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401. "In recent days, large plants in the United States that have been closed for two weeks have reopened and the number of diagnoses doubled after some plants reopened."
The union surveyed more than 600 workers in four languages over the weekend; 85 per cent reported they are afraid to return to work and 80 per cent said they do not want the plant to reopen Monday.