The leaders of Manitoba's opposition parties are backing a union's call to shut down the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Brandon, Man., after four cases of COVID-19 involving workers at the plant.
"We want them to shut the plant down," Jeff Traeger, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, told CBC News on Thursday morning.
The union said in a memo to workers early Thursday that three more cases had been identified among non-production unionized employees at the pork processing facility.
That came after one other worker in the plant tested positive for COVID-19, which prompted more than 70 employees who may have been exposed to go into self-isolation.
The first worker who tested positive, who also wasn't on the production line, hasn't been at work since July 28, the union said Wednesday.
The UFCW was alerted about the three new cases around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Traeger said. Now the union, which represents nearly 2,000 workers at the plant, wants Maple Leaf to stop production until at least Aug. 10, until more information is known about any of the 60 outstanding tests among workers.
I really hope this doesn't do to Brandon what the outbreak did to Brooks.