UPDATED: Three more cases at Maple Leaf Brandon

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This article was published 06/08/2020 (1898 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three more workers at Maple Leaf Foods’ pork processing plant in Brandon have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a post on the website of the union representing workers.

The three new cases follow one during the long weekend, which The Brandon Sun learned about after an internal union memo was leaked to the newspaper on Tuesday, which was verified on Wednesday.

UFCW local 832 said they were made aware of the three additional cases late Wednesday night. Maple Leaf and the union said on Wednesday that there was a confirmed case of COVID-19 at the plant dating back to last week. 70 workers were said to be self-isolating as they wait for test results to come back.

“UFCW 832 is now calling for Maple Leaf to cease production until Monday, August 10, at the earliest,” union president Jeff Traeger said in the post. “Until we have more results from the outstanding tests among our members at Maple Leaf.”

In the post, the union said that Maple Leaf disagrees with its call for a temporary shutdown. As reported in Thursday’s edition of the Sun, the union called for a shutdown if any employee who is actively working tests positive.

Health Minister Cameron Friesen and provincial chief public health officer Brent Roussin, who was said to be on vacation earlier this week, were set to give a COVID-19 briefing at 1 p.m. Last week, the pair announced that the province would only be holding one briefing per week unless the circumstances warranted more. 

The province already held a briefing this week on Tuesday.

Traeger sent a letter to Friesen on Thursday morning asking the government to complete a thorough, in-person health inspection of the plant. A copy of that letter was sent to the Sun.

“While we appreciate the employers’ work on containment, and on instituting public health protocols for this workplace, we are very concerned that four confirmed positive cases within five days and more anticipated positive cases is showing a dangerous trend,” the letter reads. “It is our understanding that numerous test results are expected back shortly.

“We fully expect to hear that many more of those are positive and we strongly believe that the most prudent action is to cease production until more test results come back and we have a better sense of the trend.”

Maple Leaf vice-president of communication Janet Riley told the Sun via email that “several other” employees have now been asked to self-isolate as a precautionary measure. She also confirmed that the company does not feel a shutdown is necessary.

“Given our daily health screening, temperature monitoring, social distancing and the personal protective equipment all team members wear while at work, we feel confident that our plant environment is safe,” Riley wrote.

In other cases where one or more workers tested positive for COVID-19 at food processing plants, such as at Cargill’s beef processing plant in High River, Alta., positive cases led to shutdowns. According to the Calgary Herald, two workers at that plant died of COVID-19 and nearly 1,000 more were infected.

Some families of workers at that Cargill plant have since filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging it did not take appropriate measures to keep employees and their loved ones safe.

Another Maple Leaf plant in Montreal had an outbreak earlier this year that led to the death of at least one employee.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark