Bargaining Begins at Maple Leaf Foods – Lethbridge
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On May 8th and 9th, 2018 your Union bargaining committee met with your Employer to commence negotiations for the renewal of your Union Contract. Your bargaining committee is comprised of your coworkers from a variety of departments in your workplace. On May 8th, 2018 the parties exchanged proposals and then continued throughout that day and the following day discussing the non-monetary items (proposals not related to money).
Some progress was made on those non-monetary items from both the Company and the Union. Bargaining wrapped up at the end of day two and we will be looking at scheduling additional dates to resume negotiations very soon.
Our goal is to get through the rest of those non-monetary items and move on to the monetary proposals, those that are more specifically related to money.
In any set of negotiations there is some give and some take on both sides. Some bargaining is more difficult than others depending on a variety of things such as the type or the tone of proposals from the Company.
Without getting into the details of the Company’s proposals in this update, we can safely say that your Union committee was very disappointed to see what the Company was asking for. However, we are still very early on in the process and the proposals that are on the table today, are not necessarily going to be on the table tomorrow.
Everyone should remain optimistic for now and let the process continue in due course. Our goal is to achieve a contract that is fair and reasonable, and one that we can recommend to you for acceptance.
We ask that you check the website (www.ufcw401.ca) for future updates as they will be posted there once there is something new to report. Look under “News and Events, Negotiations.” As well, you need to watch your Union Bulletin board for important updates.
If you have any questions or concerns about negotiations speak to your Union Steward or call the Union office and speak to Bill Bennett.
Sincerely,
Your Bargaining Committee
Posted on: May 11,2018