Full bibliography

The Flows of Racial Capitalism: Charting the Spread of COVID-19 through Alberta’s Meatpacking Industry

Resource type
Authors/contributors
Title
The Flows of Racial Capitalism: Charting the Spread of COVID-19 through Alberta’s Meatpacking Industry
Abstract
This article will present a case study of Cargill’s High River meatpacking plant operations to show how at crucial historical junctures racial capitalism shaped its working conditions and in so doing determined the spread of COVID-19. First, the Canadian meatpacking industry’s 1980s-era economic restructuring relocated and reorganized its workforce from a core to peripheral one, allowing for the low wage employment of many precarious workers; this restructuring enabled the Cargill company to gain overwhelming control of the meatpacking industry in Canada and to become a “choke point” in the supply chain. Second, Canadian immigration policy from 2006 to 2010 supported a marked increase in migrant workers to meet the labour market needs of business; this reconstituted the labour class to heighten their disposability. With these pieces in place, the Albertan provincial government could classify meatpackers as “essential workers” who worked even in the face of mass COVID infection in April through June 2020. Across this crucial historical period racial capitalism enabled the plant to circumvent public health interventions protecting workers through the onset of the pandemic. Political championing of business interests, enacted through legislative mechanisms, allowed for the exploitation of workers and consistently rendered workers personally responsible for their own health and safety, despite their lack of control over what exposed them to risk.
Publication
Journal of Critical Race Inquiry
Volume
10
Issue
2
Pages
1–20
Date
2023
Language
English
Short Title
The Flows of Racial Capitalism
Accessed
12/25/23, 3:24 PM
Library Catalog
Google Scholar
Citation
Rinaldi, J., & Fernando, S. (2023). The Flows of Racial Capitalism: Charting the Spread of COVID-19 through Alberta’s Meatpacking Industry. Journal of Critical Race Inquiry, 10(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.24908/jcri.v10i2.16535