With the overall increased inflation, North America is seeing Prices Surge in Beef Market as well. This could cause a labor dispute which could further result in market uncertainty.
Prices Surge in Beef Market
Workers working in the beef plants have met with difficulties, too, because of which the Cargill Inc. beef plant workers have joined hands to go on a strike against this injustice. On Wednesday, an official notice was sent to the officials declaring that there would be a strike, including refusal to work on some shifts, overtime, or complete resignation from work on December 6th, 2021
In the month of October, a 6.2 percentage point rise in consumer prices was seen as compared to the last year 2020 in the United States. In only a month gap from September to October, there has been a rise of about 0.9 percentage points which has broken the highest record of the inflation rate. A lot of families, especially the labor departments, will be suffering the most from this.
In Canada, the 40 percentage point of beef capacity comes from the High River facility. If the workers there go on a strike, then there will be less beef available in the market, and it is likely that production costs will increase too as the farmers will start to cut back on selling their animals too.
Scott Payne, who is the union’s spokesman, discussing the situation with the Cargill and the supply chain, said that no negotiation has taken place yet. Cargill Inc. said that the company is still discussing this matter to come up with a solution, so there have been no offers made by Cargill Inc. just yet, nor have the wages been discussed.
Daniel Sullivan, who is a Cargill spokesman, mentioned that there is a high possibility that an agreement can be made between the workers and the company without any trouble. No one has to worry about it anymore, and soon, the agreements will take place, leaving everyone satisfied.
Because of Covid 19 pandemic, there has been a decrease of workers, and throughout the world, companies are facing challenges in finding workers as most of them have been sick, and some have even passed away. So a lot of slots are left empty, causing the demand for workers to increase.
In this case, if the rest of the workers go on a strike, then the companies will face a huge loss and might even shut down as labor workers are the backbone of every flourishing business. Using this opportunity, workers can put pressure on the companies to decrease the inflation as right now, they carry a lot of power in their hands.
Not just Cargill but other companies are on strike too. Kellogg Co., which is the world’s top cereal producer, is having a hard time, too, with its workers going on strike. The company has to import cereal from abroad in order to meet the demands of consumers in the United States. Deere & Co. company which is the biggest company in the world to make tractors has about ten thousand employees. From October 15th, the workers of Deere & Co. have been on strike too.
By the end of the next year, 2022, the United States will be meeting with the expiry of contracts of about one hundred and eighty huge contracts.
The prices in Canada are excessively increasing too. For the past year, Canada has met with a total increase of 20 percentage points increase in prices of a rib roast. Similarly, steaks and Sirloin prices have increased by ten percentage points than the last year 2020. While in the United States, the prices are breaking records of inflation for beef steaks.
In the month of October, Ivan Korzenowski, who is a shopper, mentioned that in Regina, Saskatchewan, he saw that a grocer was selling rib roast for about one hundred and twenty-four dollars. He said that even though everyone was expecting inflation but inflation to this level was not expected; everything is overpriced.
Charlebois mentioned that this inflation spike would not end here, but it will keep rising, and we do not know how far it will go. It is like a nine-inning game, and we are just at the beginning of the game. So not expecting for a miracle to happen and the inflation to drop is not so smart. Instead, we should look for a way to take matters into our hands, take full control of the situation and find a solution to this because it is not just affecting one or two but is affecting many on a massive scale.
In the research note Sunday, Goldman Sachs is an economist. In an interview, he mentioned that he does not see the situation getting better soon. The inflation is overshooting, and it will keep going. At some point later in time. Before it gets any better, we will see it get worse.
Joe Biden is being blamed for not making wise decisions to fight this rising inflation by the Congress party Republicans. In March, Joe Biden has launched an aid package of one point nine trillion dollars which has made inflation worse than before. There were other additional checks and aids for unemployment which was way more than our country’s economy could recover.
Joe Biden stated that he understands that Americans are facing hurt and bad effects from inflation, so his top priority, for now, is to fight off these inflation spikes.
