Glacier FarmMedia – Cargill’s labour disputes have drawn to a close in Eastern and Western Canada.
In the second week of July, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401, which represents workers at Cargill’s case-ready plant in Calgary, said they had come to an agreement with the company. Union members voted on a final offer July 8-9, with 74 per cent in favour of the proposed agreement.
That follows similar news from Cargill’s Dunlop beef processing plant in Guelph, Ont. Workers there had been on strike for 41 days. The 960 unionized employees ratified a new collective agreement July 6.
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In June, employees at Cargill’s Calgary case-ready plant made history with a 100 per cent strike vote and strike notice was served. Workers were slated to hit the picket lines July 29. In late June, the union received a new offer that was ultimately approved by membership.
The deal did not contain everything members had asked for, “but members have judged it to be preferable to a protracted strike,” the union said in an online statement posted July 10.
“We owe a special thanks to the members of the bargaining committee,” union secretary-treasurer Richelle Stewart said in the same statement.
“They took risks and showed courage in confronting their employer through a process that included multiple rounds of bargaining and mediation, and eventually brought us to the brink of strike action, over a span of 18 months.”
The new agreement offers a $3 per hour wage increase, guaranteed work hours and a full-time walking steward paid for by the company to provide union representation inside the plant.
Most employees will receive substantial retroactive pay, with some expecting as much as $6,000.
This money will help members deal with the affordability crisis, the union said. Stewart said there is a need to speak boldly to policymakers in government and in business, and demand controls on the skyrocketing costs of rent, groceries, electricity and car insurance.
Guelph deal
In Ontario, UFCW Local 175, which represents workers at the Dunlop plant, said the new deal includes:
- Wage increases totalling $3.75 per hour over the course of the agreement, which includes a $2 per hour increase in the first year. That $2 will be paid retroactive for all hours worked, including overtime, since Jan. 1;
- Members receive a contract renewal incentive payment in the form of a $500 lump sum;
- Improved dental coverage and removal of lifetime caps on a number of dental services;
- A short term disability maximum of 70 per cent, providing up to $143 more per week; and
- Bereavement leave entitlement of five days, up from four, for the death of a spouse, child or parent.
The Dunlop facility fills 67 per cent of the federally inspected processing capacity in eastern Canada, according to the Beef Farmers of Ontario.
–With files from Farmtario
