© BloombergSignage is displayed outside the Cargill Inc. meat plant in Chambly, Quebec, Canada.
Beef processing at Cargill's Dunlop plant in Guelph, Ontario was halted after about 1,000 workers took to the picket lines on May 27. The plant has capacity to process 1,500 head of cattle per day. The workers rejected a proposal that the US meatpacker said would have raised wages by 9.3% in the first year of a four-year agreement.
"While we navigate this labor disruption, we will shift production to other facilities within our broad supply chain footprint to minimize any disruptions to our customers," a Cargill spokesperson said.
The Ontario plant suspension comes as profit margins of North American beef producers have been under pressure due to a shortage of slaughter-weight cattle.
Comment: The food supply is taking a battering from all angles, whether it be Western governments' brazen war on farming, suspicious food plant fires, soaring feed and energy costs, or (seemingly manufactured) viral outbreaks: