Four more cases at Maple Leaf
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/08/2020 (2077 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Four more workers at Maple Leaf’s pork processing plant in Brandon have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the union that represents employees.
The announcement was made in a post to the website of United Food and Commercial Workers local 832 early Friday morning.
That brings the total number of COVID-19 cases among workers at the plant to eight, a day after it was announced that there were 18 new cases in Brandon connected to a 28-person cluster.
In the post to the union’s website, president Jeff Traeger again called for a temporary shutdown of the plant. On Thursday, Maple Leaf said it did not think a shutdown was warranted. During a media briefing the same day, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin implied that the plant would be shut down if Public Health felt it was necessary.
Roussin also said that it is not believed that the cases in the Brandon cluster were transmitted at a workplace.
Both Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kinew and Manitoba Liberal leader Dougald Lamont agreed with the union’s calls for a temporary work stoppage.
Manitoba Public Health and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency conducted an inspection of the plant on Thursday, Maple Leaf’s vice-president of communications Janet Riley told the Sun in an email late Thursday night. The union’s post from Friday said they are looking forward to hearing the results of those inspections.
Another issue raised in the union’s post is whether workers are allowed to refuse to go to work by exercising their legal right to do so as written in Manitoba’s labour laws.
“This is not a simple answer, the Government of Manitoba has deemed food production workers as essential, and Public Health monitors the protocols that Maple Leaf has put into place,” the post reads. “If they are following these rules to lower the risk, then your workplace is ruled as safe by the Manitoba government, and also as ‘low-risk’ by Public Health.”
The union also clarified its statement from earlier in the week saying that workers would continue to get paid while self-isolating. According to the Friday post, workers sent home must apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
If they are eligible, Maple Leaf will top-up workers to 75 per cent of their gross salary upon their return to work. If deemed ineligible for the CERB, Maple Leaf will still pay 75 per cent of a worker’s gross salary. In any case, workers will not be paid until they return to work.
“The Union believes that you should be 100% paid throughout their self-isolation, and this pay should not be used as an incentive to return to work,” the post said.
» cslark@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @ColinSlark