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Norm Neault said his union workers at a Saskatoon slaughterhouse aren’t at all pleased with the handling of a recent COVID-19 outbreak.
Neault, the president of UFCW Local 1400, was speaking of Prairie Pride Natural Foods Ltd., which was declared an outbreak location by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) on Feb. 19.
According to a media release from the Saskatchewan NDP on Tuesday, the first cases at the facility were found on Feb. 12, adding that “workers and their union have been left completely in the dark about the scale of the outbreak.”
650 CKOM attempted to reach Prairie Pride Natural Foods Ltd. on Wednesday but didn’t receive a response by the time of publication.
Speaking to 650 CKOM by phone Wednesday, Neault said he still hasn’t been updated on the gravity of the outbreak, but he knows of at least nine confirmed cases. On top of that, 50 other individuals are self-isolating due to SHA guidelines due to the positive cases.
“That number seems to be growing as they become a little less confident in returning to work,” Neault explained.
“Many of them are nervous, scared, but they have to earn a living, so if they are deemed to return to work because they have no symptoms … they’re returning to work, but I believe (in many cases) they are apprehensive.”
He said the facility has around 240 unionized employees. Neault added his union has been in contact with many of the workers there, informing them to contact HealthLine811 and assisting them in filling out workers compensation board forms, along with any other assistance they may need.
“For the most part, they’re all very worried about the workplace and working there at this time until they can be a little bit more assured that this is a safe place to work in,” he said.
In terms of contact with those at Prairie Pride, Neault said emails have been exchanged. The union asked the company a series of questions, with “a few of them” garnering responses in print.
“We haven’t had any face-to-face or Zoom type of meetings as of yet. At this point, they’re assuring us that they are following the SHA guidelines and we’re of the opinion that this should rise above that and there should be some extra precautions taken,” the president added.
One of the extra precautions that was asked for was rapid testing. Since news broke Tuesday of the request by the Saskatchewan NDP, Neault said he has had one agency contact the union to offer its services. The union has not received anything from either the employer or the SHA.
When asked about the rapid testing request from the employer, the SHA told 650 CKOM to refer to the business with the request.
Neault believes if there was ever a time people could have used the rapid testing, it would be in this case. In the NDP release Tuesday, it added the province received a shipment of more than 422,000 rapid tests from the federal government, but had only utilized two per cent of the stockpile as of Feb. 5.
“While the government has announced plans to deploy more tests, they did not release any details or timelines associated with those plans,” the release states.
Neault said the union has additional concerns when it comes to the employer’s handling of the outbreak.
“We don’t know if they’ve done a deep clean of all the common areas. We asked for the lines to be reduced somewhat so individuals could be more cautious when they work (and) some (are) a bit more diligent about keeping their surroundings clean (and) maintaining that social distance,” he said.
