Canada’s Largest Meatpacking Facility Is on Trial for Endangering Its Workers During the Pandemic
Cargill runs Canada’s biggest meatpacking facility and obliged its workers to come in despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the company is facing a criminal investigation — the first of its kind — after the sadly predictable deaths of workers and their family members.
A Cargill meatpacking plant on April 17, 2020, in Fort Morgan, CO. (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
The US-owned Cargill meatpacking facility in High River, Alberta — a town about 65 km south of Calgary with around 13,500 residents — was for a time the site of North America’s single largest COVID-19 outbreak, with 950 workers, almost half of the entire workforce, testing positive for the virus.
This outbreak led to the deaths of two workers, Benito Quesada and Hiep Bui, as well as Armando Sallegue, the father of a worker, who had been visiting from the Philippines. Now Cargill could be facing legal accountability for risking the lives of its workers in pursuit of profit.
Criminal Negligence
Cargill, a company with an estimated worth between $30 and $40 billion, operates Canada’s largest meatpacking facility. The company has posted net profits of over $13.5 billion over the last five years. Cargill facilities depend on the labor of a largely immigrant workforce whose assembly line work demands elbow-to-elbow contact.
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