Our Members at Work

At Olymel in Cornwall, members of UFCW Local 175 prepare fresh sliced and pre-cooked bacon for retail grocery, hospitality, and other sectors.

Gloria Almonte is a General Labourer at the Cornwall plant where she has worked for 19 and a half years.

From Monday to Friday, Gloria’s days start early on a line that slices and packs bacon. Each morning, Gloria dons a freezer coat and work boots before grabbing her lab coat and a bucket full of her gloves, sleeves, aprons, and other PPE. Once in the plant, Gloria washes her hands and swipes in.

When she’s working overtime in the morning, Gloria sets up stands, moves scales, makes sure that equipment is in the right places, and removes any excess water so that bacon doesn’t get stuck on the line.

At 7 a.m., Gloria puts on her mask, washes her hands, and finishes suiting up in cotton gloves, latex gloves, and plastic sleeves before going to her spot on the line. To help prevent repetitive strain injuries, every hour, everyone rotates to a different spot on the line throughout each shift.

Each line has a team leader who is in charge of changing rolls, putting folders on the machine, taking numbers and temperatures, and replacing workers who need to step away. One person feeds the slicer with pork bellies as other workers pack bacon, operate weigh stations, fit packages with clear plastic, and fix packs to go through a wrapper machine. Once wrapped, a worker packs boxes, which are also assembled by those on the line.

Gloria finds that sometimes standing for eight hours a day without a lot of movement can be difficult on her back and on her body in general, but she still enjoys going to work each day.

Most of the workers on my line are women and we talk and share ideas during the day. After 19 years working with a lot of the same people, we have become like family and we enjoy spending time together,” said Gloria.

Gloria enjoys her shift at the plant because it gives her weekends and evenings off to be with her family and she’s able to pick up some overtime, too. Near Christmas, Gloria often picks up additional Sunday work to make double pay for those hours.

I became a Steward to help my fellow members be treated fairly and to give a voice to the ones that could not stand up for their rights,” said Gloria. “I also got involved on the Health and Safety committee because people were always coming to me with queries and I felt I could make a difference.

Gloria enjoys being able to fix issues for her co-workers and she appreciates the training and other opportunities available to her as a Steward. She also looks forward to being involved in negotiations for the next collective agreement.

In her collective agreement, Gloria believes that seniority, vacation distribution, and days in lieu are especially beneficial. Employees at the plant also benefit from the grievance and arbitration procedure, which was recently used to settle an issue stemming from pandemic premiums. That settlement included a new attendance bonus program that puts up to $700 per year into the pockets of the Members.

Working during the pandemic, especially at the beginning, frustrated Gloria and many others. “It took some pressure to implement the health and safety measures I knew we needed,” said Gloria. “Some measures have been lifted, even some I believe we should have kept, but we still have dividers in the cafeteria and the plant, and we also have different breaks and staggered end times for shifts.”

Gloria made a few changes in her own life too, to help manage her stress levels. “I stopped working so much overtime and I’ve spent more time with my kids and my husband. I started meditating and I listen to instrumental music an hour before I go to bed,” she said. Gloria also limits how much time she spends reading the news, and has found a lot of comfort in being able to get the vaccine for both herself and her family. “I feel protected,” she added.

The pandemic shed light on the importance of the employees in Canada’s food supply network, but Gloria says that realization didn’t last long. “It was difficult to watch how important we became in the public eye at the beginning – even called heroes at some points – only to go back to being unseen and underappreciated,” said Gloria. But, she added, “we supported each other and helped while we could by respecting all the regulations and trying to keep each other safe,” she added.

I love going to the supermarket and seeing that the products we make are for sale. It gives me a sense of pride that I am actually a part of feeding people.

Thank you, Gloria, for your hard work and dedication to keeping our communities fed throughout the pandemic, and every day. You are an integral part of the economy and society, and a vital part of your Union.

Gloria Almonte reports at the Packinghouse Sector Meeting at the NDF Convention in July 2022.