The UFCW Local 401 is holding a special telephone town hall discussion for its members on Sunday.

The focus of which will be a discussion around vaccinations with a panel of experts.

The union represents employees at Alberta's major meat-packing plants.

Thomas Hesse, President of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 4-0-1 says the plant workers are deemed essential workers and should move higher on the list for the COVID-19 vaccine.

He says there needs to be a discussion on making the vaccine more readily available to those essential workers who aren't necessarily health-care professionals

The Cargill beef plant in High River and the J-B-S Canada plant in Brooks both had COVID-19 outbreaks last spring.