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So, who to believe? Cargill’s news release or Joseph, Martin and the union?
We don’t have to rely on any of them. We have an official Cargill letter dated March 23, written by Tanya Teeter, vice-president of labour for Cargill, and addressed to Hesse.
Nowhere in that letter, which lays out in great detail the initiatives that Cargill had taken to keep its employees safe, does it mention masks, face shields, barriers between work spaces, etc.
“I’m not going to use the word lie but to the extent that it ever happened, it was after the outbreak,” said Hesse.
“We’ve had virtually no access to the plant and that is not what workers have reported to us,” Hesse said of the company’s claims that since early March it had implemented all of the safety measures.
“We have no objective confirmation of that. Do I call it a lie? What we need is an objective, third-party report that confirms these facts. What we’re seeing is a press release today from a crisis management public relations firm.”
What we’re seeing is dangerous spin. Time to break that dreadful record.
Licia Corbella is a Postmedia columnist in Calgary.
