Page - 504 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE504 writes, “[t]hey’re victims.”4 With limited training and for minimal pay, grocery store clerks are quite literally putting their lives on the line so that we can put food on the table. Tragically, many workplace fatalities have been recorded.5 Inch by Inch, Row by Row: Exceptional Risks for Employees Working Elbow to Elbow It should come as no surprise that meat processing facilities are at the epicentre of disease transmission in North America. Dangerous and exploitative working conditions are well documented in North American abattoirs, including injuries related to repetitive movements, holding awkward postures for extended periods, and working in extreme tem- peratures surrounded by fast-moving sharp instruments.6 Despite strong union presence in abattoirs and advocacy for their members, many inci- dents go unreported due to the precarious immigration status of some workers, as well as language barriers, that discourage them from standing up for their rights on the job or seeking compensation if they are injured.7 With COVID-19, dangerous working conditions have become even worse. Employees work elbow-to-elbow on fast-moving assembly lines, making physical distancing difficult. Rather than acting swiftly to protect employees by slowing line speeds or halting operations 4. Ibid. 5. Abha Bhattarai, “‘It Feels Like a War Zone’: As More of Them Die, Grocery Workers Increasingly Fear Showing up at Work”, The  Washington  Post  (12 April 2020), online: <washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/12/grocery-worker-fear-death- coronavirus/>. 6. Leonor Cedillo, Katherine Lippel & Delphine Nakache, “Factors Influencing the Health and Safety of Temporary Foreign Workers in Skilled and Low- Skilled Occupations in Canada” (2019) 29:3 New Solutions: A J Environmental & Occupational Health Policy at 422; Timothy Pachirat, Every  Twelve  Seconds:  Industrialized  Slaughter  and  the  Politics  of  Sight (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013) [Pachirat]; Jennifer Dillard, “A Slaughterhouse Nightmare: Psychological Harm Suffered by Slaughterhouse Employees and the Possibility of Redress through Legal Reform” (2008) 15:2 Geo J on Poverty L & Pol’y 391; Sally C Moyce & Marc Schenker, “Migrant Workers and Their Occupational Health and Safety” (2018) 39 Annual Rev Public Health at 351. 7. Pachirat, supra note 6; Verity Stevenson & Jaela Bernstien, “How a Haitian Asylum Seeker Was Swept Up in a Shadowy Industry of Temp Agency Work”, CBC News (28 March 2018), online: <cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/temp-worker- accident-1.4594744>; Grant Gerlock, “We Don’t Know How Many Workers Are Injured At Slaughterhouses. Here’s Why”, NPR (25 May 2016), online: <npr.org/ sections/thesalt/2016/05/25/479509221/we-dont-know-how-many-workers-are- injured-at-slaughterhouses-heres-why>.