A second employee at a Cargill meat plant near High River died over the weekend from COVID-19, it was announced during the provincial chief medical officer of health’s update on May 11.
“Unfortunately, one death reported over the weekend was an employee from Cargill who fell ill last month,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said in a press conference. “The individual was hospitalized about a month ago.”
A United Food Commercial Workers Local 401 press release on May 12 stated the Cargill employee was Benito Quesada, 51, a union shop steward at the plant.
The announcement of the employee’s death came after an Occupational Health and Safety document stated Cargill hadn’t engaged worker representation into an internal report regarding a COVID-19 outbreak at the plant.
“Cargill Limited has not demonstrated to OHS that any attempt was made to engage the worker representation of the joint work site health and safety committee in Cargill’s investigation,” said the report, which was dated May 8 and was obtained by the Western Wheel.
The Cargill plant, just north of High River, employs approximately 2,000 people. It reopened on May 4 after being idled on April 20 for two weeks after the death of Cargill employee Hiep Bui, 67, from COVID-19.
As well, earlier this month, a father of a Cargill employee passed away from the virus.
Hinshaw reported on May 11 there are 36 active cases of COVID-19 among Cargill workers. There are 911 workers who have recovered. There have been more than 1,500 COVID-19 cases linked to Cargill.
Alberta NDP labour critic Christina Gray asked for a potential shutdown of Cargill, as quoted in a Canadian Press article, if safety can't be guaranteed to the employees.
"This is not a safe work environment. We believe the government is responsible and the employer is responsible and there must be a public inquiry after the emergency has ended, but that will be a ways away," Christina Gray said.
"If Cargill can't follow the law, they shouldn't remain open. Full stop."
Cargill was given an extension to May 18 to comply with the OHS.
In a press release, Cargill representatives said it is in compliance.
“Cargill was not found in ‘non-compliance’ of the OHS act and a new order was not issued against Cargill, the release said. “The OHS officer has given Cargill more time to complete its investigation and further involve the plant’s joint health and safety committee. It is common during an investigation for OHS officers to direct the employer to consider additional information as part of the investigation.
“Cargill fully intends on co-operating with the OHS officer’s direction and will consider further recommendations from the committee, if any. The OHS officer would be statutorily required to issue a stop work order if the plant is found to be unsafe. Cargill has not been issued a stop work order.”
Michael Hughes, spokesman for the United Food Commercial Workers Local 401 which represents Cargill employees, said Cargill needs to act now.
“When we lost Hiep we put out a statement saying ‘Never again,’” Hughes said on Monday. “We called for the authorities to do their job and to intervene and defend life.
“We haven’t seen them do that yet.”
Hughes said the union was rocked by the death of another Cargill member due to COVID-19.
"Benito was a quiet, gentle, and humble man who came to Canada from Mexico to work at the Cargill plant in High River,” said Hughes in the May 12 press release. “I had the pleasure of meeting Benito for the first time at a shop steward’s training course in 2016. We had many conversations since then, and he always told me how proud he was for having been able to bring his family to Canada.”
He said in an interview Cargill employees “are afraid for their lives and they want their union to stand up and defend that.”
He said Cargill now has to involve employees in the OHS process.
“Cargill needs to be doing the work it should have been doing weeks ago,” Hughes said. “It needs to include worker representatives in the process.
“That means having shop stewards unencumbered and doing their job in the plant
“It means allowing our full-time representatives to bring up issues, make suggestions and be heard.”
He said there has been a failure of authorities to step in and do something.
“We are not letting Cargill off the hook – they are on probation right now,” Hughes said. “From the media, the public, the union…”
He said his concern is what is going to happen after the Cargill outbreak is out of the headlines.
“A month from now or two months from now, we better have a functioning health and safety committee, a company that remembers when (we raise) concerns or else we are going to have another on of these outbreaks.”
The union had formally asked Cargill in a letter to shut down for two weeks after cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, in an Easter Sunday letter sent to the corporation’s representatives.
Hughes said it had previously asked Cargill in March to have a shutdown on the table in the event of an outbreak.
Statistics for COVID-19 in the Foothills area are as of the morning of May 12:
Okotoks: 164 cases – 31 active, 132 recovered and 1 death.
Black Diamond: 29 cases — 6 active, 23 recovered.
High River: 536 cases — 54 active, 475 recovered, 7 deaths.
With files from Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press.
