Canada Royal Milk of Kingston is not a safe place, five people who either work there now or who quit told CBC News.
They have cited cases of injuries caused by caustic chemicals, electrical shorts, electrical shorts and being told to work at heights without the required safety harnesses.
They have often alerted the Ministry of Labour and local politicians, but say the company continues to violate safety standards.
The company opened in 2019 to manufacture infant formula for export to China. When that proved bureaucratically difficult under Canadian supply management and export regulations, it began blending with goats’ milk.
Canadian employees said their Chinese boss told them the unsafe conditions and practices are the way things are done in China.
Local residents complained recently of odours arising from the river because the company had spilled or dumped milk.
CBC reports that:
“When a Chinese dairy processor invested $332 million to build a baby formula plant in Kingston, Ont., it promised to create hundreds of jobs in Eastern Ontario.
“Now, some of the people who took those jobs at Feihe International’s Canadian subsidiary are warning the workplace isn’t safe — and they’re afraid someone is going to get killed.
“‘They didn’t care about you. They didn’t care about your family,’ one worker said. ‘We were told constantly, ‘This is the way they do things in China.’,” CBC reports the worker said.
