Sean Tucker

Sean Tucker is a professor of occupational health and safety at the University of Regina. Sean co-edited the book "Unjust transition: The future for fossil fuel workers" (Fernwood, 2024) and is co-author of an annual report (with Anya Keefe) comparing provincial workplace fatality rates. He writes and comments on a variety of OHS topics.

Twitter: @SeanTucker16

authortag: author_sean_tucker

Essential and Expendable: How Alberta’s COVID-19 Response Failed Cargill Workers

research | Sep 28, 2026

In 2020, Cargill's beef processing plant in High River, Alberta, was the site of the largest industrial COVID-19 outbreak in North America. More than 950 workers — nearly half the plant's workforce — tested positive. Two workers and four close contacts died, and dozens were hospitalized. Six years on, this report is the first independent investigation into how the outbreak was allowed to grow to the scale it did — and why it should never have.