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Temporary Closure of Olymel's Agri-Food Yamachiche Plant in Quebec Workers Must Have the Final Say in Decisions That Affect Their Health
The union that represents the workers, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1991P, and its chief shop steward Janick Vallières, say that many more precautions could have been taken. The union maintains that the company is only following the minimum recommendations by the public health department. The union executive had proposed additional measures to improve social distancing and health measures, but found management's response disappointing. Among other measures, the union proposed to stop the shuttle transporting workers from Montreal to the plant. In these large agri-food production plants, which are generally located in the regions, a large proportion of the workers come from the major centres, particularly Montreal and Quebec City. These workers are brought to the plants on buses provided by the company. These buses are crowded and do not allow for proper social distancing. The union therefore proposed to stop this service to avoid community transmission within the plant. The union also proposed extending production to seven days. "Usually we produce on two shifts over five days. We proposed to put 500 workers from Monday to Thursday and 500 workers from Friday to Sunday. By spreading production over seven days, we would have had fewer workers at the same time to allow for social distancing. Our request was not taken into account," said Vallières.
Reached by Workers' Forum, Martin Maurice, president of the Olymel workers' union in Vallée Jonction (affiliated with the CSN) agrees. His union has also proposed several social distancing measures on the production lines which the company has done nothing about. The union had also proposed to take the temperature of each employee, a request also ignored by Olymel. It has also proposed specific measures for the plant's cafeterias and corridors and many other social distancing measures. Maurice says he is in constant contact with regional public health and the plant's senior management, but he regrets that despite well-written protocols, the measures are poorly applied or not applied at all. The union's position is clear, says Martin -- the workers want to continue production, but only as long as the company's management applies to the letter the strict measures that are necessary to guarantee their safety. The company's management and its spokesperson believe they have done everything necessary to contain the outbreak. "When we saw that we had nine cases, we closed the plant with the cooperation of public health. We are experiencing a major health crisis," said the company spokesperson. Asked about other cases of COVID-19 in Olymel's plants, including the newly acquired F. Ménard plant in Ange Gardien in the Granby region, the spokesperson said that "the company will continue to evaluate the situation on a daily basis and will take other measures if the situation requires it." He also said that Olymel has hired two medical experts to guide it in its decisions and help it better cope with the pandemic. The numerous cases of COVID-19 infections in major food production centres have forced the Quebec government's Ministry of Health and Social Services to respond. A specific protocol for these industries was put forward. In this regard, the Olymel spokesman said that "we have implemented new protocols for slaughterhouses in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health. We are going to enforce the two-metre distancing rule whenever possible. Mitigation measures are being taken in accordance with public health, such as the installation of separators and the wearing of helmets with visors."
This situation highlights the importance of giving all necessary space for action to workers directly involved in production, in this case agri-food production. The measures that are necessary to continue operations must come from where the work is done, that is, the factory floor. The protocols that must be put in have to meet the needs of the workers to work safely. Public health experts and other government agencies, as well as company management, can only draw conclusions by being in constant contact with workers directly on the production line. Every effort must be made to facilitate these exchanges. Health and safety committees exist to ensure that workers can communicate their needs and demands directly to public health officials. Workers are continuing production in conditions of a pandemic and it is their direct experience that is needed to design a protocol to prevent the spread of the virus and allow the continuation of production and plant operations. The Yamachiche is plant is expected to reopen on April 14 in three stages. The first step is to bring in 100 employees for slaughtering of livestock. The second step is to bring the remaining employees into the meat cutting department on April 15. The third step is to assess the possible return of production workers from Montreal. However, the workers' experience is that if the matter is reduced to putting a well-written protocol on a bulletin board or elsewhere on the plant floor, nothing will be settled and everything will have to start all over again.
This article was published in   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
The danger that the COVID-19 outbreak could spread to large industrial
production centres considered essential has already become a reality
for several agri-food plants. This is the case at Olymel's Quebec
plants in Yamachiche; Saint-Esprit; F. Ménard in Ange Gardien,
which specializes in large-scale pork slaughter; Exceldor in
Saint-Bruno, which specializes in the further processing of poultry
products; and Viande du Breton in Rivière-du-Loup, a pork
slaughterhouse, to name but a few. In the case of the Yamachiche plant,
where close to 1,000 people work, it is reported that more than 100
people tested positive for COVID-19 in just a few days. The company's
senior
management was forced to cease operations as soon as the outbreak began
at the plant, four days after the first employee tested positive on
March 25. The company spokesperson maintains that all public health
recommendations regarding safety procedures on the plant's production
lines were followed to the letter. Olymel also defends itself by
claiming that its employees may have contracted the virus outside the
plant. The plant is expected to gradually resume operations on April
14, under public health supervision, after completing a 15-day
quarantine.
The
union also deplores the company's lack of transparency. According to
shop steward Vallières, the bond of trust has been broken and he
would have liked more information on the infected people, their work
department and their shift, so that he could have conducted proper
investigations.
This
new protocol is being implemented by public health in collaboration
with Olymel management, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Quebec's
Labour Standards, Pay Equity, and Workplace Health and Safety Board
(CNESST) and UFCW.