Lakeside Packers is a

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...

producer based in

Brooks, Alberta Brooks is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by the County of Newell. It is located on Highway 1 (Trans-Canada Highway) and the Canadian Pacific Railway, approximately southeast of Calgary, and northwest of Medicine Hat. Th ...

. It is owned by

JBS Canada JBS USA Holdings, Inc. is an American food processing company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational company JBS S.A. The subsidiary was created when JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with its purchase of Swift & Company. JBS speci ...

, a subsidiary of

JBS S.A. JBS S.A. is a Brazilian company that is the largest meat processing company (by sales) in the world, producing factory processed beef, chicken and pork, and also selling by-products from the processing of these meats. It is headquartered in São ...

, a Brazilian protein company.

History

BSE Aid

As of June 2004, Lakeside Packers had received roughly $33 million

Canadian dollar The Canadian dollar ( symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style ...

s in financial aid from the

Government of Alberta The government of Alberta (french: gouvernement de l'Alberta) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Alberta. As a constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor—i ...

since a cow with

bovine spongiform encephalopathy Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of t ...

was found on an Alberta farm in May 2003.

2005 labour dispute

Lakeside Packers was unionized under the

United Food and Commercial Workers The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in industries including retail; meatpacking, food processing and manufacturing; hosp ...

(UFCW) as of the early 1980s, and members were local Alberta residents who strongly supported their union local. But then there was a strike that began in 1984 and lasted about 18 months. It is not said how the union came to be decertified in that time. Workers at the plant later certified the UFCW Local 401 as their bargaining agent. Following a round of talks in 2005 the workers voted in favour of strike action, eventually settling after 3 weeks of job action. A minority of workers voted against unionization of the plant. Most workers were happy with plant staff and managers and known UFCW 401 was looking out for their own interests. During the talks in 2005, Lakeside staff were falsely informed by UFCW 401 about improvements to conditions to the work force. After the strike action, most members in favour of UFCW 401 quit immediately from working at the plant. Main complaint for quitting was the new work conditions and lack of pay.

Sale to XL Foods

As of March 2009, Lakeside Farm Industries, Ltd. was sold by Tyson to

XL Foods XL Foods Inc. is a Canadian meat packing company. The company is a subsidiary of Nilsson Brothers Inc. based in Edmonton, Alberta. From 2009 until 2013, XL Foods' Lakeside Packers Division was located just west of Brooks, Alberta, in Newell County. ...

, it is reported that Lakeside and its assets were sold to XL Foods Inc. for approximately $107 million.

Sale to JBS Canada

XL Foods sold the Lakeside Packers plant to

on January 14, 2013.

References

External links

Lakeside Packers website
Brooks, Alberta Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Alberta Meat companies of Canada JBS S.A. subsidiaries Food and drink companies based in Alberta {{Meat-stub