QuoteUnion Presses Company To Address Safety Concerns



The union representing workers at XL Foods, at the centre of a massive recall over concerns of tainted beef products, says conditions inside the Brooks, Alta., meat-packing plant are still not safe, despite the company stand that it has addressed all the concerns.



"The union has sought and continues to seek a review of line speeds and reduction in line speeds to ensure that workers have adequate time to deal with food safety matters," the union wrote in a statement on its website. "Line speeds are a serious problem. Employees are pushed too hard as Lakeside is more concerned, it seems, with the quantity of beef produced rather than the quality of beef produced."



The statement also cites dirty washrooms and continued sewage backup as problems that need to be addressed.



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QuoteThe union for workers at an Alberta meat packer shut down over E. coli concerns says the pace of slaughter operations forces workers to take shortcuts around cleanliness and puts the health of beef-eating Canadians at risk.



O'Halloran told a news conference Wednesday that between 300 and 320 carcasses go by workers every hour and employees make between 3,000 and 4,000 cuts a shift. That has resulted in less time in which to make sure knives are sanitized after each cut.



"It's just not enough time," O'Halloran said. "We are calling on Lakeside to take it seriously. You can replace all the aluminum, all the stainless steel you want at the plant, but if you don't give your workers the tools to perform the job properly, we're not going to solve this problem."



He said cattle are supposed to be washed before they enter to ensure their fur is free of manure. But sometimes the water is not hot enough to get off all the excrement.



He also said excrement from the cattle has backed up on the killing floor at times and forced workers to traipse through the waste and track it through the plant.



O'Halloran said the plant's increasing reliance on temporary foreign workers is also a problem. The company has not worked with the union to ensure the workers are properly trained and know what their rights are, he added.



The union boss said whistleblower protection is needed for workers who are afraid to speak out about problems for fear of reprisal.



There were about 80 front-line workers from the plant packed into the media conference room at a Brooks hotel. Most refused to comment, saying their English was poor or they were fearful of getting into trouble.



Wilfer Garcia, who has been working at X-L for close to two years after coming to Canada from Colombia, expressed sympathy for those on the line.



"To do a piece of meat, they need, say, 30 seconds to do each one, but because there's less people, more pieces are coming and they have to put pieces on top of the other ones. It makes a problem," said Garcia, who works in packing.



Even if several employees don't show up for work, the pace and expectations remain the same, Garcia said.



"One way or another there's not enough employees for the 4,000 pieces that they process every day," he added.



O'Halloran said the food agency and the federal government share some of the responsibility for what has happened.



He said while the 46 agency staff the federal government says are positioned at the plant do a good job, they are overworked and don't have the authority they need to shutter operations when things go wrong.



"Somebody better wake up and put some teeth in the CFIA because they don't have any teeth now."



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Quote from: "Shen Li"If there is tainted beef then why didn't the 40 f*cking inspectors do their jobs and find it like the US inspectors did?

Quote from: "Romero"

Quote from: "Shen Li"If there is tainted beef then why didn't the 40 f*cking inspectors do their jobs and find it like the US inspectors did?

They did. Notice how they were understaffed, overworked and ignored. Notice how the union, workers and inspectors have been sounding the alarm. Notice how the company has accepted full responsibility.



The Canadian inspectors did their job. The US inspectors did their job. The company failed and they tried to pretend it wasn't happening.



All because of your kind of policies. If you had it your way, there wouldn't be any fucking inspectors at all. Just a bunch of cheap foreign workers slaving away in a bunch of excrement.