Potato packers on P.E.I. trying to keep workers on the job
CBC
Many potato packing plants on P.E.I. are working at a fraction of their normal capacity, while some have shut down entirely.
At the ones still operating, supervisors are trying to spread out the work to keep as many people getting hours as possible.
On Nov. 21, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency suspended U.S. trade in fresh P.E.I. potatoes following the discovery of potato wart in two Island fields.
At Mid Isle Farms in Albany, P.E.I., they are packing potatoes heading to their Canadian customers, but 60 per cent of their sales so far this year were south of the border and they were expecting that to continue, or even grow.
"I'm here every day, but the workers, we're finding it hard to keep them busy. We've lost probably 60 per cent of our business stateside, so it's an impact on the company itself," said Dave Masters, a production supervisor at Mid Isle Farms for eight years.
"We have people here that's been here 30 years, and there's a lot of them has been here seven and eight years. They want to stay here, and keep busy and keep working. So, yes, it's difficult."
Masters said there would usually be between 27 and 30 people on the production line, when they are busy, and they are now down to 17 or 18.
The rest, he said, have been sent home because there is just not enough work.
"Right now, I guess they are either looking for work, or hoping that they're going to get called back when business picks up again," Masters said.
"Hopefully they have EI or something to fall back on right now. Other than that, we're unable to keep everybody busy because of the shutdown, so it's impacting us really bad."
Masters said the timing — just before Christmas — is especially unfortunate.
"The holiday season is usually a busy time for us, usually two weeks, three weeks before Christmas, we are really busy and that obviously is affecting us right now, we are down to half a crew," Masters said.
"It's going to affect a lot of people having the cash flow for Christmastime. We were en route to give a lot of hours. People would be making more money just before Christmas, and that's not going to happen."
Kim Gavin, who lives in nearby Borden-Carleton, has been part of the production crew for 10 years.
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