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Alberta Meat Packing Workers Take Action to Defend Themselves Family of Cargill Worker Demands RCMP Investigation into Cargill for Criminal NegligenceAriana Quesada, the 16 year old daughter of Benito Quesada, filed a formal complaint with the RCMP on January 8 asking police to investigate potential criminal negligence in the death of her father. Benito Quesada, a 51-year-old worker at the Cargill meat processing plant in High River Alberta. The father of four and shop steward died of COVID-19 on May 7, 2020, one of almost 1,000 workers who contracted COVID-19 at the plant. He was the second worker to die at Cargill from COVID-19. Hiep Bui, 67, died on April 19, 2020. Armando Sallegue, the father of Cargill worker Arwyn Sallegue, also died of COVID-19 after Arwyn contracted COVID-19 at work. "We have filed a complaint ... to finally bring justice to my dad ... to finally hold Cargill accountable for what they did," Ariana Quesada said. Ariana has the support and assistance of Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) which represents workers at the Cargill plant. The complaint filed by Ariana Quesada cites the Westray Law, a Criminal Code provision named after a deadly mining disaster in Nova Scotia in 1992 that provides for criminal prosecution for employers who fail to take "reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm" to workers. The complaint states that Cargill failed to heed early public health warnings and failed to protect workers from a known, deadly threat. The RCMP has confirmed that it has opened a file. Media reports state that this is the first known file opened regarding a workplace-related COVID-19 death. Michael Hughes, spokesperson for local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) which represents workers at the Cargill plant, pointed out that the threat of fines for violations of occupational health and safety laws is not a strong deterrent for a company like Cargill which reported revenue of $113.5 billion U.S. in 2019. "I think what the situation at Cargill really exposed is that there are severe limits to accountability" under current workplace rules," he said. The plant is also facing a class action lawsuit initiated by people who had close contact with workers at Cargill. While workers who are covered by Workers Compensation are prohibited from suing their employer for wrongful death or injury, families and close contacts are not. Class action lawsuits must receive judicial certification before they can proceed. Cargill workers and their families and
friends are to be saluted for their courage and determination to hold Cargill to account
and for justice for all who have died or lost their loved ones because
of the refusal of those in authority to hold Cargill to account. (With files from CBC and the Calgary Herald)
This article was published in   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
