Maple Leaf CEO's memos to
workers give glimpse of struggles with listeria
Source of Article: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/11/07/mccain-memos.html Special investigation by CBC News/Toronto Star
Last Updated: Saturday, November 8, 2008 | 9:27 AM ETCBC News
Weeks before the word listeria became a common term in households across In a series of confidential
memos obtained by CBC News and the Toronto Star, company president Michael
McCain reveals the business had stopped catering internal meetings, asked
workers to print double-sided and had put a freeze on hiring as they were
"scrubbing [their] budgets." The memos provide a glimpse
behind the scenes during the tumultuous months when the deadly listeriosis outbreak, linked to the company's For the past decade, McCain has
written the frank, unedited notes and e-mailed them to thousands of employees
each week, he said in an interview. To read a
samples of Michael McCain's emails, click on the links on the
right-hand side of the page. The documents, typically three pages, have been
shortened and information (such as routine business matters or company plans
for the future) removed. While mostly filled with
details about running the multi-billion dollar company, a major player in the
food industry, the notes focus on the listeriosis
outbreak over the months of August and September and increase in frequency to
several days a week. At least 20 people have died
from a Listeria monocytogenes strain
linked to the company's McCain said he first learned of
positive tests for listeria on three Sure Slice
products on Aug. 16 by way of a phone call from a manager late at night,
while at his "My first reaction was,
okay, it's unfortunate, disappointing. It happens to all brands," McCain
said in an exclusive interview. At that time, he says he didn't
know about any connections to illness. A day later, the company issued
its initial recall of several products — one that would later expand beyond
200. 'No reason to hang our heads'
"You all know how
critically important we take food safety throughout our organization,"
he writes in the Aug. 20 memo to employees. "We have had a breach in
that commitment…" McCain says the company
"acted swiftly" to the positive listeria
tests, an "isolated incident" limited to two production lines at
the He writes that there are
confirmed cases of listeriosis but "so far
these cases have not been linked to our products." As a precaution, the company
orders a sweeping recall of products made back to June 2 and announces the
closure of the plant for a deep-clean scrub. The next day, he writes to
employees again amid a building media storm as the first listeriosis
death becomes public. "This isn't something we
should ever want to be in the news about, but we have no reason to hang our
heads — we're doing what is the right thing to do in this situation … acting
responsibly and with extraordinary precaution," he writes on Aug. 21. He stresses that there's no
confirmed link to Maple Leaf products, but that public health has confirmed
the outbreak's connection to a single DNA pattern. A day later, McCain admits it
"has not been one of the most pleasant weeks in my 30-odd years in the
food industry." Listeria linked to plant
He grumbles about
"extensive" media coverage, calling it "most unfortunate"
that the pervasiveness of listeria in plants,
supermarkets and kitchens isn't being addressed. But there's hope in the note,
with McCain saying he's received "literally hundreds of supportive and
inspirational e-mails" in the past few days and quotes an optimistic
poem sent by one about refusing to fall down. On Aug. 23, however, public
health officials confirm the link between the listeria
strain and Maple Leaf's "I am deeply saddened to
advise you that test results have been returned, and we have been advised the
strain of listeria bacteria which caused the
illness and death of several consumers matches the listeria
strain identified in some Maple Leaf Food products," McCain writes that
same day. "My heart goes out to all
those who have become ill and to the families who have lost loved ones,"
he says. Several days later, he would offer those condolences publicly at a
press conference. Days later, McCain sends a memo
questioning the reclassification of some listeriosis-linked
deaths, raising the death toll from four to 12. He calls it
"disturbing" that "elderly patients with multiple health
challenges" who had listeria in their blood,
but whose deaths were not confirmed as directly caused by the bacteria, have
been added to the list. In the interview with the Star
and CBC News, McCain defends his comment, saying he never doubted the number
of deaths but was simply echoing the opinion of the public health agency's
top doctor. "I don't want to be crass
about this, but I was told by the health professionals that because these
individuals had multiple health challenges, they were vulnerable to all those
health challenges," he said in an interview. "They told me they
could not necessarily say that it was the listeriosis
that was the cause of death." 'Coming out the other side'
September begins to look less
grim for the company as listeriosis moves off the
front pages of newspapers and the Bartor Road plant
gears up to reopen. "We're coming out the
other side of this now," McCain writes on Sept. 6. Calls to a customer hotline
rapidly drop to 600 a day from a peak of 9,000, says McCain. About 50,000
calls from the public came in during the first weeks of the recall alone. McCain says he's
"intensely proud" of how the company handled the outbreak, but
singles out an employee for saying "very hurtful things" about
Maple Leaf — that the meat slicers hadn't been cleaned in years. Calling it the "most
ridiculous falsification," he says it's "good news" no one
pays attention to "bullshit like this." He says the equipment is
cleaned six to eight hours a day with sanitizers, steam and alcohol baths. Over the next few weeks, the
federal election takes the spotlight off Maple Leaf and the company starts to
focus on recovery. More than four weeks after its
closure, the 'Nauseating' class action
lawyers
But class action lawyers — who
first launched a lawsuit in late August — are on McCain's mind. The "single most offensive
aspect" of the situation, McCain says in a Sept. 19 note, are "nauseating" class action lawyers. While some claims are
legitimate, he acknowledges, others are "outright fraud." He said they collect outrageous
fees to try to extract money on the "faintest, thinnest of claims of
so-called emotional stress or illness (tummy ache stuff) without any
connection, any proof of connection or having just bought any Maple Leaf
product." McCain writes that he ignored
advice from company lawyers telling him to abstain from public comments that
could expose Maple Leaf to such lawsuits. "I was asked very firmly
to take the call from the team of lawyers … and I said, 'I don't want to talk
to them,'" he said in the interview. "They counsel people not to
take responsibility." By Sept. 27, three of the "We still have a ways to
go, but we are on the right track to recovery," he says. In the note, he refers to media
accounts questioning the level of oversight at meat processing plants,
calling them "terribly misguided." In one of the final memos, he
writes about the fact that someone has shared the weekly notes with the
media. "Candidly, I don't think that is 'fair ball'… but it is what it
is," he writes, vowing to continue writing them. By then, the memos are back to
normal, focusing more on the business of the company and McCain is touting
the company's assets — its "exceptionally
strong" business base, excellent cash flow and diversified business. He notes internal company
polling shows over 90 per cent of Canadians have high regard for the way the
company dealt with the recall and about 80 per cent said they would buy
products in the future. "History of other brands
in North America that have faced other challenges would indicate that if you
do the right thing, in six, nine, maybe 12-month time horizons, that the
brand can be recovered," he told the Star and CBC News. With files
from David McKie |
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