The union representing federal meat inspectors says its members will be back at work Monday at a meatpacking plant just north of Calgary if the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is reassured that it’s safe.
Production at family-owned Harmony Beef was halted last Friday after one of its employees tested positive for COVID-19 a day earlier. It processes up to 750 head of cattle per day.
The company was notified by Alberta Health that a worker, who hadn’t been on the job for days, had tested positive. A number of other workers from that area of the plant are self-isolating. The halt in operations was ordered by the CFIA which wouldn’t allow its inspectors to enter the facility.
“There’s been no work refusals from any of the federal food inspectors. They haven’t done that in Alberta to date,” said Fabian Murphy, president of the Agriculture Union.
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About 750 of the union’s 4,000 food inspectors work inside meat packing plants.
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“The Canadian Food Inspection Agency withdrew their services so it was a government agency that said to the plant that they must have a plan in place that’s going to ensure everybody’s safety before they’re allowed to resume full production,” he added.
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