President Hesse Challenges Premier Smith

President Thomas Hesse of UFCW Local 401 recently made an appearance in the news in response to a controversial comment by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

In response to accusations about the exploitation of temporary foreign workers at the JBS plant in Brooks — Smith’s riding — Smith praised the facility as an immigrant success story, talking about how JBS had been “reaching out throughout the world” and other businesses should do the same.

It sounds on the surface like a positive celebration of diversity, doesn’t it? But there’s a catch. In saying this, Smith didn’t address the allegations about exploitative practices on the part of JBS. And President Hesse led the way in pushing back on that omission.
 

Giving a Voice to Workers in Brooks

Local 401 has strong ties to meatpackers in Brooks: working with then-President Douglas O’Halloran, Hesse worked closely with the activists who organized the Lakeside Packers Strike that eventually led to the unionization of the plant. 

Ever since, 401 has staunchly supported JBS workers, just as we have strongly supported meatpacking workers across the province.

This has included representing and supporting the many Temporary Foreign Workers who have come to these plants in recent years in every way we can. The federal policy debate over the TFW program aside, we have always made supporting those workers, finding them a path to permanency, and giving them a voice our first order of business.

There superficially seems to be something positive in Smith having a message that differs from federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s recent call to abolish the TFW program. It looks like maybe she’s come around to our way of thinking in celebrating our members of diverse backgrounds coming to Alberta.

However, no such celebration can be real when it also glosses over the very real adversity many of those workers have faced. And that’s why President Hesse chose to challenge Premier Smith.

President Hesse Highlights the Issues

The reality is that our members at JBS and other meatpacking plants do difficult and dangerous work. And JBS management must be approached with constant vigilance. As we saw recently and as President Hesse pointed out: “We’ve had issues with plant workers even being able to get breaks to go to the washroom.”

“I’ve heard (meatpacking) described by some experts as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, measured by rate of injury,” added Hesse.

He now amplifies this point: “It is simply not possible to positively support workers and their place and voice in the community while glossing over the very real challenges they face in the workplace. Praising JBS while refusing to mention or confront these facts is not pro-worker at all.”

A well-known national spokesperson in the labour movement, President Hesse has a long-standing commitment to representing workers in the public square. “Now more than ever,” he says: “Workers’ voices need to be heard.” 

Workers Are Raising Their Voices Across Canada

Ultimately, Premier Smith’s remarks on JBS are not an attempt to speak up for workers, but rather to deny them their voice behind a rose-tinted facade about their workplace that doesn’t match reality. And it comes — and this is probably not a coincidence — as Canada’s labour movement has become more vocal than it has been in decades.

“In more than four decades in the labour movement,” says President Hesse: “I can fairly say that I have never seen Canadian workers faced by greater adversity. Which means that it has never been more necessary for Canadian workers to be ready to stand up for their rights.”

The media has begun to sit up and notice, as the CBC has recently done, remarking on a rise in strikes as tariffs and trade wars contribute to an already-acute affordability crisis. And Hesse notes that it may well be necessary for workers in Alberta to join that wave.

“In Alberta, our members in many ways are facing the affordability crisis at its worst,” says Hesse. “And it takes more than rosy words about big corporations like JBS to address that crisis. The sad reality of labour relations is that often, it becomes necessary to fight.”

With the leadership of President Thomas Hesse and Secretary-Treasurer Richelle Stewart, UFCW Local 401 has been preparing — and continues to prepare — for those fights at all of our workplaces across Alberta. We thank our members for staying strong and staying engaged. Stay tuned for more updates!

Posted on: September 09,2025