Company 'willing to keep meeting' after offer rejected
By Dave Bedard
Editor, Daily News
Published: November 25, 2021
File photo outside Cargill’s beef slaughter and packing plant at High River, Alta. on May 6, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Todd Korol)
Updated — Whether in a strike or a lockout, workers at one of Canada’s biggest beef slaughter plants took another step toward the picket line this week by voting to reject the company’s latest contract offer.
A vote conducted Tuesday and Wednesday by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401 went to the nays “by a 98 per cent margin,” the union said in a release late Wednesday.
The workers’ bargaining committee had already recommended last Friday that members vote to reject the company’s proposal.
A Cargill spokesman confirmed late Thursday the company has now issued a lockout notice, corresponding with the union’s previously stated strike date of Dec. 6.
The most recent collective bargaining agreement for Cargill’s 2,000-plus employees at High River expired at the end of 2020. Employees on Nov. 4 voted in favour of strike action, after which UFCW served the company with strike notice on Nov. 10 — thus putting workers in position to strike also on Dec. 6, just after midnight.
“Cargill workers have told their employer through another overwhelming vote that they matter and that they deserve something more,” 401 president Thomas Hesse said in the union’s release Wednesday.
“We will be communicating the result to Cargill and asking them to return to the bargaining table to respond to our members.”
Worker wages remain a priority in negotiations, the union said previously, with improvements also sought in benefits, pensions, personal leave, leaves of absence, vacation time and expansion of the use of line speed clocks to “all areas” in the plant.
The union’s list of proposals also include “retroactivity” of pay dating back to when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic.
The company’s proposed deal had called for incremental wage increases which over six years would total $4.50 and $2.50 per hour for production and maintenance workers respectively, along with a guaranteed number of hours per week and retroactive hourly pay of $1 and 50 cents respectively for hours worked since Jan. 3 this year.
‘Challenging time’
“No one ever wants to go on strike,” union secretary treasurer Richelle Stewart said in Wednesday’s release. “But these workers have been through hell. They want a fair deal and what Cargill has offered does not meet that threshold.”
UFCW said it would call for Cargill to “resume negotiations with our union bargaining committee soon, and certainly before December 6, to bring bargaining to a positive conclusion.”
A Cargill spokesperson said Thursday the company is “willing to keep meeting to avoid any labour disruption, which is in no one’s best interest during an already challenging time.”
The High River plant has “one of the best workforces across Canada, and our proposal reflects their tremendous skill and dedication,” the company said.
“Unfortunately, we have yet to reach an agreement. We remain optimistic that we can reach an agreement before the Dec. 6 deadline.”
Meanwhile, the company said, “we continue to focus on fulfilling food manufacturer, retail and food service customer orders while keeping markets moving for farmers and ranchers.”
If need be, Cargill said, “we will shift production to other facilities within our broad supply chain footprint to minimize any disruptions.”
Later Thursday, after the lockout notice was issued, the company said it “remain(s) determined and hopeful that we can reach an agreement” between now and Dec. 6 — and that it has agreed to a meeting with UFCW 401’s bargaining committee next Tuesday (Nov. 30).
Cargill’s beef slaughter operations in North America also include a plant at Guelph, Ont. and six plants across the U.S. Its other Canadian beef facilities include case-ready meat plants at Calgary, Guelph and Chambly, Que. and beef patty plants at Spruce Grove, Alta. and Brampton, Ont.
However, as was made clear last year due to COVID-19 outbreaks among employees — and in 2013 during a major flood in the area — work stoppages at High River can weigh on throughput of beef cattle across Western Canada.
The High River plant, about 40 km south of Calgary, has capacity to slaughter about 4,500 cattle per day and is estimated at about 36 per cent of Canada’s domestic beef processing capacity.
COVID-19 outbreaks at the plant in the spring of 2020 ultimately infected nearly half the workforce at the time, leading to the deaths of two workers and the father of one worker. The plant was shut down as a result for two weeks that spring. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
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