Milk delivery to a major cheese plant in Eastern Canada is expected to resume soon as unionized employees at dairy co-operative Agropur’s facility at Granby, Que. end a five-and-a-half-week strike.
The plant’s 250-odd workers, represented by the Syndicat des salaries de la fromagerie — an arm of Centrale des syndicats democratiques (CSD) — have voted 73 per cent to ratify an agreement in principle with the company and were to return to work Monday (Aug. 8), the union said in a release Wednesday.
Off the job since June 29, the employees “will gradually return to work next week to clean the plant in order to resume cheese production as soon as possible,” Agropur said in a separate statement Wednesday.
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Producteurs de lait du Quebec president Daniel Gobeil on July 22 had written to the company, reiterating the dairy farmer group’s request for at least a minimal level of processing work to continue at the facility, to prevent milk waste.
Quebec media reports put the Granby plant’s processing capacity at about 800,000 litres per day.
The Granby plant will now start receiving milk “in the coming weeks,” Agropur said Wednesday, which “will help ensure the supply of our customers and avoid further food waste.”
Agropur said it “believes that it has reached an agreement with the employees that will ensure stability for the coming years.”
The new collective agreement expires July 23, 2026, the union said.
“If we have reached an agreement that suits our members, it is because they have remained united throughout the conflict,” CSD counsel Bernard Cournoyer said in the union’s release.
The deal includes increases of between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent in annual worker salaries, increased RRSP contributions from the company and concessions on allowances and advances due to disability-related absences, and on choosing vacation days, the union said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
