Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (
TSX:MFI,
Forum) has announced it will offer vacant jobs to Syrian refugees at its meat plants.
“We would be very pleased and honoured to be part of the solution in terms of helping find employment for the Syrian refugees,” Rory McAlpine, Senior VP at Maple Leaf told the Canadian Press. “We have jobs available.”
McAlpine says Maple Leaf has 25 positions available in Brandon, Manitoba and 10 in Lethbridge, Alberta.
“We already have some Muslims working in our pork plants, even though they do not consume pork. Similarly, Muslims may work in a chicken plant even if it is not producing halal chicken,” he said.
Federal Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk told reporters, “We want to help refugees engage in the local workplace, […] under the refugee program we are working with immigration to ensure that some of those people are going to be placed in a community like Brandon.”
REACTION:
Maple Leaf stock was largely unchanged on the news, shifting down 1.84% to $23.00. The company has a $3.1b market cap.
OUR TAKE:
The Canadian meat processing industry is hurting for cheap workers, due to recent cuts to the foreign temporary worker program, and this is the first of what will no doubt be many industry attempts to snag refugee replacements. Syrians who are happy to get any sort of work that isn't in a war zone are an attractive replacement to temporary Mexican imports, but the real labour solution for Maple Leaf and others would be to pay locals a living wage to do the work.
--CP