| The labour dispute at Lakeside Packers is heating up, with the union charging that employees aren’t allowed bathroom breaks when they need them and that employees are told not to file worker’s compensation claims when they’re injured. Tyson Foods, the U.S. owner of Lakeside Packers, denies both claims.
Lakeside Packers employees became part of the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) in August 2004. Negotiations on a first contract fell apart this summer and employees voted to strike. But the government appointed a disputes inquiry board on the same day the strike was supposed to start and workers are prohibited from striking for two months while the board mediates the dispute.
Doug O’Halloran, spokesperson for the UFCW, claims current employees "are really working in conditions of the 1930s in the meatpacking plants.
"We have people who literally mess their pants because the company won’t let them off the line to go for a break," says O’Halloran. "There’s no respect for the workers. It’s ‘Do as I say,’ and a lot of intimidation and bullying. That’s just the way Tyson operates."
O’Halloran says assembly-line speeds at the slaughterhouse are extremely fast and it’s leading to lots of injuries, but he claims Lakeside Packers tell employees not to make WCB claims.
"That keeps their compensation rates down and they get all these awards for being a safe plant and non-injury plant," says O’Halloran.
Godwin Iwanegbe, a slaughterhouse employee for the last three years, says when he moved to Canada from Nigeria he never expected to be working in "Third World" conditions. "I say they value the cows more than the people working there," he says.
Iwanegbe says that, last fall, a supervisor refused to let him go to the bathroom, so he wet himself – something he says has happened to lots of other employees.
"That was the reason I actually joined the union. I don’t know why they choose to be wicked like that," he says.
Iwanegbe confirms that the union’s claims that Lakeside Packers tells employees not to file worker’s compensation claims are true.
"There are injuries happening every day that they hide," he says. "A lot of injuries happen every hour, not every day, and they don’t record it."
Iwanegbe says Lakeside Packers has cut coffee breaks short, or makes employees take them right after their shift has started, if the assembly line breaks down. And he says employees often don’t get paid for having to work after their scheduled shift is over. Iwanegbe also says it’s unfair that the company tells employees they have to bring in death certificates if they need time off because a relative has died.
Iwanegbe thinks employees are mistreated because 80 per cent of them are immigrants.
"What I read about Canada back home is quite different from what is happening here," says Iwanegbe. "It’s just like a Third World nation the way they treat people."
Gary Mickelson, spokesperson for Tyson Foods, disputes the claims of Iwanegbe and the union.
"Union leaders have been making false and misleading claims against our company for months as we’ve attempted to negotiate a labour contract with them," writes Mickelson in an e-mail to Fast Forward. "The truth is we work hard to treat all of our Team Members fairly. This includes doing our best to accommodate them when they need to use the restroom."
Mickelson adds Tyson Foods has a bill of rights that states, "all of our people – regardless of their ethnic background – are treated with dignity and respect." Mickelson says Tyson Foods has "an outstanding workplace safety record." He says that any employee who is hurt on the job is required to report it "so it can be immediately addressed."
The disputes inquiry board is still meeting with both sides in the labour dispute and has until September 15 to make recommendations to government. |
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