According to an in-depth analysis of Reuters, meat processors are installing robotic arms and other automation devices at production levels and allow staff to socially stay away when they were in the factory, marking a significant replacement for the prepandemic business style that saw staff. running shoulder to shoulder every day
Reuters notes that the United States, Canada and Brazil, all major meat producers and exporters, have followed generation at a slower rate than northern Europe or Japan and have fallen behind other commercial plants in automating their operations.
Olymel LP, one of Canada’s largest red meat and poultry processors, had an automation plan before the pandemic forced it to close a plant in Quebec for more than two weeks.
Then, to speed up the plan and intend to use robots to sort cuts of meat, collect and package shipments and stack the boxes, said vice president of engineering and assignment control, Marco Dufresne.
Tyson, the best-selling American meat company in the United States, is making a greater effort to automate it because of the pandemic, engineering director Doug Foreman said.
However, greater automation raises suspicion among groups of workers.
“It takes jobs away from people,” said BJ Motley, president of the Trade and Food Workers Union (UFCW), which represents Smithfield staff in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where more than 1,000 employees have coronavirus.
Smithfield automated the hog division at the plant a few years ago, eliminating 8 positions, he said.
JBS USA risks replacing staff with automation as a negotiating tactic, said Kim Cordova, president of the local TUAC union representing staff at the JBS beef factory in Greeley, Colorado.
“We’re threatened with automation all the time, like, “If you talk, we’ll use automation,” Cordova said.
A JBS spokesman said the accusation was “completely false. “
Read the full story in Reuters.
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