Workers at Brandon’s Maple Leaf meat plant are calling for a two-week shutdown of the facility to help get the COVID-19 outbreak under control.
The plant has been a hotspot for cases in the region, which is currently under increased provincial restrictions, including limits on gatherings and mandatory masks in public.
In an open letter Monday, workers via Migrante Manitoba, a community organization that advocates for the rights and welfare of migrant workers, said they were “crying for help” due to the pandemic, which has seen 70 cases connected to the Maple Leaf plant.
“They feel that their voices are not being heard,” said Migrante’s Diwa Marcellino.
“Some of the concerns are fairly legitimate, like lack of physical distancing in communal spaces, like the washrooms, some production areas, and also the cafeteria, and the lack of access to handwashing facilities and sanitizers.”
Marcellino told 680 CJOB that although the province said the outbreak came from outside the plant — something the workers doubt — there’s no harm in increasing health requirements during a pandemic.
“It doesn’t hurt to make sure that there is physical distancing in the workplace, and that there is handwashing available in the workplace, since that is the advice that has been given to almost everyone globally,” he said.
“I’ve been hearing from workers across the industry in the meat sector and they’ve all been saying the same thing.”
In the letter, the workers said much of their frustration stems from the way migrant staff are treated.
“Workers were also told by Maple Leaf that because the facility is considered the front line, they cannot be shut down,” the letter said.
“However, when workers applied for the province’s Risk Recognition (program), we were denied by the province and were told that we are not considered as front-line workers. The contradiction shows no respect to the migrant and immigrant workers.”
Marcellino said the workers are appealing to the province and to Maple Leaf for a temporary shutdown of the plant, a deep clean, and for the province’s public health fundamentals — handwashing and social distancing among them — to be given more serious consideration.
On Monday, the province’s chief public health official, Dr. Brent Roussin, said none of the health agencies the province is working with has seen any reason to shut down the Brandon plant.
“There are a lot of safety measures that have been in place for quite some time, and we’re working with a lot of agencies … along with the employer, who’s quite cooperative with this,” Roussin said.
“The protocols in place are above and beyond what we would normally see.
“We’re watching it very closely. We still don’t have evidence of inter-facility spread, so right now there hasn’t been any agency involved that suggesting we shut down that plant, but we’ll continue to look at the situation.”
A spokesperson for Maple Leaf said the company takes the concerns raised in the letter very seriously, and echoed Roussin’s view that the safety measures currently in place have been effective.
“The safety of our people is our top priority and high levels of safety can only be achieved if you are guided by the science,” said Maple Leaf vice-president of communications and public affairs, Janet Riley.
“Public Health and officials have said repeatedly that they have found no evidence of workplace transmission and the cases that have occurred among our team members appear to be linked to events and interactions within the community. ”
Riley said the plant conducts daily health and temperature screenings, requires masks and other personal protection equipment, and uses social distancing in the plant, as well as plexiglass separators between work stations.
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