New Outbreak at Olymel's Meat Processing Plant in Vallée-Jonction, Quebec
Workers' Proposals Must Be at the Centre of Solutions to Curb COVID-19
- Normand Chouinard -
Vallée-Jonction workers protest withdrawal of pandemic pay, June 23, 2020 How to practically solve the problem of mobilizing the vast
majority of workers in discussion and decision-making to fight the
pandemic is key at this time. Quebec's National Public Health Institute
and its Director, Dr. Horacio Arruda, stated on October 20 that 46 per
cent of the current outbreaks in the second wave of the pandemic in
Quebec are happening in workplaces. It clearly makes sense that workers
have a role to play in addressing this situation.
This task seems straightforward enough, but it is facing many
obstacles. The reason for this is that the current forms of public
authority block the participation of workers in decision-making and the
search for solutions.
Olymel's pork slaughtering and butchering plant in Vallée-Jonction
is a revealing example. At the beginning of the pandemic, this plant
experienced a significant number of COVID-19 cases. This was followed
by an ensemble of sanitary measures and the creation of a specific
protocol for this type of industry. The Public Health Institute, the
Labour Standards, Pay Equity and Workplace Health and Safety Board
(CNESST), Olymel management and, to a certain extent, municipal, Quebec
and federal elected officials participated in the discussion and
decisions regarding the directives to be adopted. It should be
remembered that the Olymel Vallée-Jonction Workers' Union, which is
affiliated with the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) was
not given a real say as the representative of more than 800 production
workers. In particular, the union had proposed several measures for
physical distancing on the production lines and the company did nothing
to implement them.
The application of the protocols and the monitoring of health
guidelines were supposed to reduce the risk of contagion in the plant.
 However, we recently learned that a second major outbreak of
COVID-19 at this plant is again raising the problem of how to curb
contagion in the agri-food industry, an industry that is very high risk
and at the same time, essential. So far, there are at least 114
COVID-19 cases in this plant, and most sadly, the death of one
worker.
Following
this new outbreak, the same authorities who were there this spring held an urgent meeting to follow up on the situation. The
Chaudière-Appalaches Regional Public Health Department (DRSP) decided
to test almost all of the employees.
Olymel's senior management rejected the union's proposal to close
the plant for two weeks, citing its obligation to respect contracts
with its customers and the need to avoid an overload of live hogs that
could not be slaughtered if the plant was closed. This is a problem
that arose this spring during the complete closure of its plant in
Yamachiche. It should also be mentioned that neither the DRSP or the
CNESST recommended the closure of the plant, which, according to
information gathered by Workers' Forum, created a lot of discontent among the workers.
According to Martin Maurice, President of the Olymel Vallée-Jonction
Workers' Union-CSN, the company's relaxation of sanitary measures over
the summer may have facilitated this new outbreak. "We would like to
convey our condolences to the family and loved ones of our deceased
colleague. For us, one death is one too many," he said on
the union website. "From the first wave of the pandemic, we demanded
protective measures to adequately protect all workers at the plant.
However, this past summer, we questioned the employer in connection with the
relaxation of certain health measures that had been put in place to
prevent any outbreak. The return of overtime and the cancellation of
the 10-minute buffer period between shifts are two concrete examples of
this relaxation. Also, several subcontractors are working at the plant
and we don't even know if they are respecting the protective measures
that are in place regarding movement from one workplace to another." He
also said that the lack of training of some workers may have
contributed to the outbreak.
 Although the Vallée-Jonction workers consider that the authorities
involved in the fight against the pandemic each have a role to play,
they do not accept being sidelined or participating only in some
consultations. They are well aware that at the end of the day their
proposals will likely be rejected, as has been the case since the
beginning of
the pandemic. The workers are engaged in a battle to decide who will
become the driving force in making decisions that affect them, and this
goes beyond mere consultation. They want to participate directly in the
major decisions related to production, notably the pace of work, the
organization of production on the lines, safe bus transportation
procedures for temporary foreign workers, the movement of workers
between departments, overtime and schedules. They are refusing to
simply be subjected to the decisions made by the authorities. They want
to affirm themselves as a new decision-making authority that must be
relied on to find solutions to the problems caused by the pandemic.
The more workers engage in discussion and decision-making, the more
influential their authority will be.
Workers are learning, in their struggle for safety and through their
daily relationships and interactions in the production process, to
become decision-makers.
This struggle is raging in many workplaces in Quebec and Canada in
the context of the fight against the pandemic. It is precisely the
workers' success in this battle that the old forms of authority want to
stop by preventing workers from becoming a new public authority.
This article was published in
Number 74 - October 29, 2020
Article Link:
New Outbreak at Olymel's Meat Processing Plant in Vallée-Jonction, Quebec: Workers' Proposals Must Be at the Centre of Solutions to Curb COVID-19 - Normand Chouinard
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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