GUELPH – Some 31 employees at Cargill Canada’s meat processing plant on Dunlop Drive in Guelph have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two weeks and on Dec. 8, 80 employees were sent home to get tested and await the results.
On Dec. 11, Tim Deelstra, spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 175 and 633, estimated the number of positive cases at 21.
But later that day, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health spokesperson Danny Williamson updated the positive count to 31, noting there are “approximately 40 additional high risk contacts in isolation.”
He added, “While case management is underway and the risk to the public should generally be considered low, there is a risk of indirect spread to the community from this outbreak.
“COVID-19 is spreading within our community. Higher levels of community transmission increase the risk of outbreaks, and outbreaks in turn contribute to greater community spread.”
Deelstra said said contact tracing with public health and the employer identified people who worked in close proximity to the positive employees.
Williamson noted that working with Cargill, public health has instigated a complete infection prevention and control inspection of the plant as well as testing for all staff in the affected area of the building.
Deelstra noted the union has been working with management to determine best practices and to find the balance between productivity and health and safety.
He said staff are screened when they enter the facility, they wear personal protective equipment during their shifts, and barriers have been placed between work stations.
There has also been enhanced cleaning and employees have been spread out in the facility, which has caused a reduction in production.
Deelstra said all employees will be paid while they remain in isolation.
“This is the world we’re in right now,” he said.
“We’re doing what we can to keep people safe. We’ve been on high alert since March.”
A second Cargill facility on Watson Road has not had any COVID-positive employees, he said.
Deelstra said the union has 70,000 members across Ontario and they work in long-term care and retirement homes, at grocery store butcher counters and in industrial food facilities like Cargill.
He said workers in retirement homes and long-term care have been “badly hit” by the virus, especially in the early phase of the disease.
Workers in grocery stores have been spat on by anti-mask customers and then left to clean up discarded face masks.
One employee at Maple Lodge Farms in Milton died from COVID-19 early in the pandemic. And now the cases at Cargill.
“Traditionally, people looked at these workers as not valuable. I hope that those thoughts have shifted now,” Deelstra said.
“As the pandemic has shown, it turns out these are very important jobs.
“We value the work they do as a union; we hope the public and government will start to see that as well.”
