Page - 505 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

505Worked to the Bone: COVID-19, the Agrifood Labour Force , and the Need for More… altogether, many processing companies have been accused of ignor- ing physical distancing protocols, ramping up production, pressur- ing employees to return to work after they had contracted the disease, and even offering bonus compensation for not missing shifts.8 As of May 18, it is estimated that at least 59 workers died and more than 14,000 workers have been infected or exposed to COVID-19 in U.S. meatpacking facilities.9 In Canada, the numbers are between 1,500 and 2,200 for workplace infections, and 5 workplace fatalities have been reported.10 The site of the largest single outbreak of the coronavirus in North America is a processing plant in High River, Alberta, where 949 employees tested positive for COVID-19 and 2 employees died.11 Working Hard or Hardly Working: Supply and Demand Disruptions for Migrant Workers Moving up the supply chain, from grocery store clerks to employees at processing plants, the next place where COVID-19 is disrupting labour in the agri-food sector is on the field. Due to mobility restrictions on temporary foreign workers, there are concerns that crops will not be 8. See e.g. Joel Dryden & Sarah Rieger, “Inside the Slaughterhouse”, CBC News (6 May 2020), online: <newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/cargill-covid19-out- break>; Peter Waldman et al, “Cold, Crowded, Deadly: How U.S. Meat Plants Became a Virus Breeding Ground”, Bloomberg  Businessweek  (7 May 2020), online: <bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-07/coronavirus-closes-meat-plants- threatens-food-supply?srnd=premium&sref=O7tM5ow9>. 9. Leah Douglas, “Mapping Covid-19 in Meat and Food Processing Plants” (22 April 2020, updated 18 May 2020), online: Food  and  Environment  Reporting  Network <https://thefern.org/2020/04/mapping-covid-19-in-meat-and-food-pro- cessing-plants/>. See also “Trump Order to Re-Open 14 Meatpacking Plants Fails to Increase Coronavirus Testing and Safety Measures Needed to Protect Food Supply & Workers” (8 May 2020), online: United  Food  and  Commercial  Workers  Union <ufcw.org/press/>. 10. Estimates from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union are more conservative than the numbers tracked by Factory Farm Collective, a civil society organization advocating for the elimination of animal agriculture. See “Help Protect Food Processing Workers! ACT NOW!” (8 May 2020), online: United  Food  and  Commercial  Workers  Canada <ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_ content&view=article&id=32649:help-protect-food-processing-workers-act- now&catid=10162:directions-20-036&Itemid=2468&lang=en>; “COVID-19 Cases in Canadian Slaughterhouses and Meat Packing Plants” (9 May 2020, updated 14 May 2020), online: Factory  Farm  Collective <factoryfarmcollective.ca/covid-19/>. 11. See e.g. Kathryn Blaze Baum, Carrie Tait & Tavia Grant, “How Cargill Became the Site of Canada’s Largest Single Outbreak of COVID-19”, The  Globe  and  Mail  (2 May 2020), online: <theglobeandmail.com/business/article-how-cargill-became- the-site-of-canadas-largest-single-outbreak-of/>; Dryden & Rieger, supra note 8.