I have a quote from a meat-industry magazine.
“Until the day a meat processing job pays $50 an hour, the
labour pool processors draw from is often a desperate one: immigrants (some of
whom are hiding their illegal status), prisoners and ex-cons, refugees from
murderous hot spots like Somalia and Myanmar, recovering drug addicts.”
A few years ago, an investigation revealed that a company
recruiting immigrants to work for the Maple Leaf Foods hog-packing plant at
Brandon, Man., was secretly demanding thousands of dollars in commissions from
those workers.
Maple Leaf said it ended that practice.
But most of the big Canadian meat-packing plants routinely
hire relatively recent immigrants, refugees and refugee claimants simply
because they’re the ones willing to work for the lowest wages and in miserable
conditions.
And even that’s not enough, so they take advantage of the
federal government’s program to bring in offshore workers who are not allowed
to remain in Canada beyond their work term.
How can the packing companies train these people in food
safety and quality standards when many of them can’t speak even elementary
English?
Some have never learned to read or write, even in their own language,
let alone English and/or French.
Having said all that, there are really good employees among
these populations. But also too many poor ones.
Do you still wonder who is handling your food? Are you
comfortable with the situation?
