IT’S YOUR CHOICE
UFCW Local 175 members have voted to end their strike at Cargill’s plant in Guelph, Ontario, reaching a settlement with the company.
This coming Monday, you will have your choice to strike or accept the company’s latest offer. You can review that offer by clicking this link.
Your Bargaining Committee believes that this offer is better than a strike. Yesterday – Saturday, July 6th, 2024 — the workers at the Cargill Plant in Guelph, Ontario ended their 41-day strike and accepted an offer from the company. On its face, it appears that the Alberta deal is marginally better than the one accepted in Guelph, but they share similar core economic characteristics.
Settling was the choice of Local 175 members, and it’s an understandable one. As the strike dragged on, economic hardships grew, and more Guelph workers were forced to turn to the Food Bank. They made a calculated decision that ending the strike was better than continuing it.
UFCW Local 401 congratulates the members at UFCW Local 175 on the major improvements they made to their union contract, but it’s not hard to see why they felt that enough was enough, and that continuing the strike could do more harm than good. While everyone is feeling the affordability crisis, we can’t exactly know what it’s like to live in Ontario and Guelph’s economy.
“We owe the members of Local 175 a debt of gratitude,” said Thomas Hesse, President of UFCW Local 401. “It’s likely that we owe many of the improvements we see in our own settlement offer to their courage and willingness to fight.”
“They demonstrated to the company that Cargill employees were fully prepared to go on strike if they had to,” added Secretary-Treasurer Richelle Stewart of UFCW Local 401. “This set the stage for the fight in Alberta, and we are thankful for the leadership they showed. Undoubtedly, Local 401 members also showed their strength of character with a 100% strike vote that caused Cargill to substantially change their bargaining position.”
The Membership will be voting on the company offer tomorrow, July 8th, 2024. Members will be able to vote at the plant in the Training Room from 8:00am to 6:00pm.
Members who aren’t able to vote in-person will have an additional chance to vote online from 12:01am to 11:59pm on Tuesday, July 9th, 2024. The vote will be counted the morning of July 10th.
“We know this deal is not everything the membership wanted and deserve,” said Chris O’Halloran Executive Director for UFCW Local 401. “That being said, this offer has real improvements we can build on.”
“The harsh reality is that the employees in Guelph have now settled, and it may not be realistic to believe that four hundred case-ready employees can do better than 1100 striking workers did in Guelpgh after 41 days,” added O’Halloran. “It’s Local 401’s job to fight, but also to give workers fair and realistic advice.”
| BEFORE the strike vote | AFTER the strike vote |
| No – Retro pay No – Guarantee of Hours No – Walking Steward Smaller wage increase | Full retro pay to an average of over $4000.00 per employee Guarantee of hours for a significant number of employees Full-time paid Walking Steward to monitor the implementation of an agreement and to address issues and concerns in your workplace. Improved wages |
You will also receive all the improvements previously agreed to and shared with you:
- Introduction of vision care, including eye exams.
- Conversion of current flex employees to full-time with benefits.
- Increased boot allowance.
- Increased orthodontic coverage.
- Improved job levels.
- Improved health and safety language.
We were provided an estimate on everyone’s individual retro payment amounts from the company and have shared those with people who attended the information meetings this past week. If you weren’t able to attend and would still like to know your estimated retro payment, please contact Alain Mendoza at calgary.relief2@ufcw401.ab.ca or Noah Mogesse at noah.mogesse@ufcw.ca.
Finally, if you still have questions about how Levels work in the new agreement, as many people did, you can find a direct comparison of the level structures of the old and new agreements here.
If you have any questions, please contact Alain (e-mail: calgary.relief2@ufcw401.ab.ca), Noah (e-mail: noah.mogesse@ufcw.ca), Devin (e-mail: dyeager@ufcw401.ab.ca, cell: 403-680-4184), or Chris O’Halloran (e-mail: cohalloran@ufcw401.ab.ca, cell: 587-999-6448).
In solidarity,
Your UFCW Local 401 Union Bargaining Committee
Posted on: July 07,2024