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Brooks resident launches petition to shut down JBS plant over COVID-19

An online petition has been launched asking for the JBS meat packing plant in Brooks to be temporarily closed down.

Brooks has seen a major outbreak of COVID-19 with hundreds cases linked to JBS. In fact, that city has 90% of all the cases AHS South Zone.

The petition, by Brooks resident Benyat Zeki is on the website, change.org and expresses “grave concern regarding the high risk of COVID-19 transmission at the Brooks plant”. As of Monday (Apr. 27), the petition had garnered over 2,000 names.

It also states production at JBS is not conducive to physical-distancing and masks and PPE provided are inadequate to protect against the spread.

Brooks has a population of just over 14,000 people. As of Sunday, 540 cases had been confirmed in that community.

The petition is asking the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to shut down the plant for at least two weeks and at the very least, an in-person external inspection.

Last week, Brooks Mayor Barry Morishita told our radio station community spread of the virus was a big concern in his city, noting many people are just not listening to public health orders.

You can find that petition here: Protect the workers at JBS Foods Canada, Protect Brooks AB

Right now, JBS remains opens.

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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