The American Cargill meat packaging plant in High River, Alberta – a city about 65 km south of Calgary with about 13,500 inhabitants – was for a time the largest COVID-19 outbreak in North America, with 950 workers, almost half of the entire workforce, which tested positive for the virus.
This outbreak led to the deaths of two workers, Benito Quesada and Hiep Bui, as well as Armando Sallegue, the father of a worker visiting from the Philippines. Now Cargill can be legally liable for endangering the lives of his workers to make a profit.
Cargill, a company with an estimated value of between $ 30 and $ 40 billion, operates Canada’s largest meat packaging facility. The company has made a net profit of more than $ 13.5 billion over the past five years. Cargill facilities depend on the labor of a workforce that has largely immigrants, and whose assembly line work requires elbow-to-elbow contact.
The company is now being investigated by the Royal Mounted Canadian Police (RMCP) – Canada’s equivalent of the FBI – for criminal negligence after Quesada’s family filed a complaint. Quesada, fifty-one, supported his wife and four children after emigrating from Mexico.
“I spent one Christmas less time cuddling,” his 16-year-old daughter Ariana told the CBC, the state broadcaster. ‘And all the executives and general managers, all at Cargill, have to spend Christmas with their loved ones. And I did not get it. ”
This is the country’s first criminal investigation into a COVID outbreak in the workplace. Criminal investigations into workplace deaths in Canada are rare, according to Eric Adams, a law professor at the University of Alberta. “Unfortunately, there are too many tragedies in the workplace, too many deaths at work, but it is not very often that you can connect the dots in a criminal sentence to one single guilty person,” he said. Calgary Herald.
The law requires a “clear and substantial” departure from reasonable action to file criminal charges, which according to Adams is a major measure to achieve when it comes to the early days of the COVID outbreak, a time when almost every workplace was disorder.
On April 6, 2020, Cargill’s first COVID case was recorded. The same day, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401 brought the matter to management’s attention and requested personal protective equipment (PPE) for all employees. The UFCW has asked for financial assistance for workers who isolate themselves and a restriction in the flow of traffic at the plant. The union also pushed the idea of closing the plant directly for two weeks.
On April 12, 250 Filipino residents of High River wrote a letter to the mayor requesting that the plant be temporarily closed. The letter clearly communicated the need in their community, saying that “we are concerned about the workers and our families and are afraid of the possibility of bringing the virus home.”
After Cargill temporarily fired half of its workers, the Department of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) conducted the inspection of the facility via Zoom. Alberta’s top doctor, Deena Hinshaw, and his Trump-backed agriculture minister, Devin Dreeshen, attended the meeting. OHS concluded that the workplace was safe as it was ‘fairly practical for the employer’ to do so.
Cargill held a telephone city hall with his employees on April 18, saying it was safe to return to work. Management completely excluded UFCW 401 from this conversation. However, the locals have already planned their own town hall for the next day, where employees have expressed their concern about the workplace. A further UFCW telephone survey confirmed that 85 percent of employees were afraid to go to work.
Hiep became the first fatal worker on April 20 and died within days of becoming ill. After her death, Cargill finally agreed to shut down the plant for two weeks, but by that time the virus had plagued High River.
Hiep’s husband, twenty-five, Nga Nguyen, did not receive condolences from Cargill after the company was criticized for falling into the appropriate label. Hiep worked for Cargill for eighteen hours for 23 years.
As one frustrated worker told CBC investigators who spoke to a dozen employees about the situation at the plant:
Honestly, they do not care about their employees. They say they can replace people at any time. They do not care.
The facility reopened on May 4, despite the union’s objection that it needed more time to determine workplace safety. Workers have been reported to be put under pressure to get to work, even if they have cold or flu-like symptoms. Quesada, who contracted the virus while the plant refused to close, died three days later.
None of this has the Globe and Mail Canada’s Record Newspaper – from Cargill’s nomination to one of Canada’s best employers in 2020.
In addition to the criminal investigation, the OHS in the province is investigating the Cargill outbreak as well as another outbreak at the JBS Food plant in Brooks, Alberta. Alberta OHS can only impose small fines for health and safety violations – a price for companies as large as Cargill and JBS.
Cargill is also facing a lawsuit seeking damages for friends and families of Cargill workers who have been harmed by the spread of COVID at the facility. In the case, it is alleged that Cargill did not take reasonable precautions to protect its workers from COVID-19.
Labor leaders want harsh punishments. Michael Hughes of UFCW 401 said the outbreak under the current OHS regime exposed the “biggest limits on liability”.
Western Canada Director for United Steelworkers Steve Hunt agrees that COVID-19, without proper safety protocols, is as much a danger in the workplace as the use of heavy equipment:
Employers too often plead guilty to negligence in workplace death or injury in exchange for a fine. Killing workers should never be just a cost to doing business. Cargill is no exception.
Gil McGowan of the Alberta Federation of Labor welcomed the opening of the criminal investigation and expressed hope that it would usher in an era of accountability for big business:
When I heard the RCMP agreed with the family’s request to launch a criminal investigation into the case, I was emotional for two reasons. First, it suggested that the family could see justice in this matter. But also, I think we may be opening a new chapter in terms of health and safety at work, a chapter that could mean that the health and safety of workers is given a higher priority. . . . there is no doubt in my mind that many employers across the province and across the country have not done enough to keep their workers safe in the context of COVID.
The criminal investigation into Cargill is welcome news, but if we really want to account for corporate leaders with blood on their hands, we can not just rely on the courts. We need more democratic workplaces, where employees are not forced to go to work for fear of becoming fatally ill. Paid sick leave would be a good starting point, along with the overhaul of the temporary program for foreign workers who view immigrants as disposable labor.
The pandemic exposed the dire conditions of meat packaging workers. The poor treatment of workers is obviously not unique to Canada. The crisis that is currently unfolding knows no national borders. The U.S. Congress recently announced that it is investigating 270 deaths related to outbreaks at meat packaging plants, and it highlights the point that this is an international issue that needs to be addressed in an organized manner. A patchwork of queries is not going to be enough.
The ultimate villain in this story is not an individual CEO or manager, although they certainly deserve their share of the blame. It is an economic system that prioritizes profit over humanity, forcing vulnerable workers in cramped facilities for their employer’s profit, while spreading a highly contagious disease in the workplace.