The Cargill beef plant at High River, south of Calgary, has become a COVID-19 hotspot with 358 people infected so far.
The union and the official provincial opposition party, the NDP, are calling for the plant to be shut down.
So far Cargill has kept it running, but cancelled one of two daily shifts.
Union president Thomas Hesse said “the lines are arranged in highly efficient ways and workers stand shoulder to shoulder, wielding knives.
“It’s loud, it's slippery, it's wet and there’s blood everywhere, especially on the slaughter side [of the operation],” he said, adding, “The plant hallways and lunch rooms and bathrooms are a certain size and they’re not rebuilding the plants to confront COVID.”
Most of the workers are either refugees or recent immigrants, their families live together and some women work in long-term care facilities where COVID-19 has spread.
There are about 2,000 employees at the High River plant. Cargill also operates the largest beef-packing plant in Eastern Canada at Guelph.
