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By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

156 cases, one death linked to outbreak

Union asking for two-week closure of Red Deer Olymel plant

Feb 6, 2021 | 10:12 AM

The union representing employees at Red Deer’s Olymel pork plant is asking for an immediate two-week shutdown of the facility.

Alberta Health confirmed to rdnewsNOW on Friday that there are 80 active cases linked to a COVID-19 outbreak at the facility.

The death of a man in his 30s is also linked to the outbreak. The man passed away Jan. 28 and had no known comorbidities.

Alberta Health also noted that since the outbreak at Olymel was declared there on Nov. 17, there have been 156 recorded cases.

In a letter shared to social media Friday night, UFCW Local 401 President Thomas Hesse shared three requests to Olymel, the first being a two-week shutdown to halt further COVID-19 spread.

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The second is guaranteed full compensation for every employee during the shutdown. Lastly, the union wishes to immediately hold a joint meeting along with an independent health expert, government officials and Alberta Health Services.

“In these circumstances we are asking you to treat this grave hazard to your Alberta employees’ health and safety with no less precaution and care than Olymel extended to its employees in Yamachiche, Quebec last March, when nine employees tested positive,” Hesse writes.

“This morning we polled our membership at the plant to assess their level of fear about the outbreak. By mid-afternoon over 80% who responded said that they want the plant to be shut down for 14 days days to keep them and their families safe.”

Hesse mentions the chance that the outbreak could become worse given new variants of COVID-19 identified in the province. As of Friday, Alberta Health has confirmed 71 cases of the variant first identified in the UK, and seven of the variant from South Africa.

“We are encouraged by the positive steps forward in the new COVID-19 Letter of Understanding reached in our recent contract negotiations and in that spirit ask you to support our request for this meeting,” Hesse continues.

“We urge you to act on these three points with the greatest urgency. Every infection carries the risk of death or serious, long-lasting health consequences we are only beginning to understand. We cannot afford to wait.”

This isn’t the first time UFCW Local 401 has requested a closure of the Red Deer Olymel plant. Last April, a similar request was made. At the time, the company said the situation did not yet justify such action.

The request came on the heels of outbreaks at the Cargill meat processing facility in High River, the Harmony Beef Company facility in Balzac, and the JBS Canada meat processing facility in Brooks.

Olymel did note at the time, however, that additional health precautions were being put in place in Red Deer, including portable trailers to house employees who show up with a high temperature, staggered break times, reduced line speed, increased distancing, and a bigger emphasis on hand washing. Plastic dividers were installed in production areas where distancing isn’t possible, and more N95 masks were made available to staff.

The plant employs close to 2,000 people, though Hesse tells rdnewsNOW the company has indicated it is in the hiring process to expand production.

“These workers, they don’t get to stay home. Everyone on their Facebook says ‘Stay home and save lives,'” Hesse said to rdnewsNOW Saturday morning. “People are chastised if we allow a few people over at Christmas, yet hundreds of workers pour into these grocery stores and food processing plants, and when something like this happens, we’re seemingly indifferent.

“What we believe is that the gentleman who died was an Olymel worker, and that he died of COVID. We’ve been unable to confirm some of those facts and are awaiting a medical examiner’s report, but yet another death in a food processing plant is very disturbing.”

In a brief statement to rdnewsNOW, Richard Vigneault, Olymel corporate communications, says the company hasn’t yet had talks about closure of the plant.

He says Olymel is working with Alberta Health Services and that its main priority is the health of employees.

“We are working fairly hard to follow all the measures, reinforce them, and work with the organization and with AHS which is crucial in these circumstances,” Vigneault says. “We want to make sure all our employees are safe and are following all sanitary measures in place at the plant.”