Unionized staff at Richardson International’s canola crush plant at Lethbridge have voted for six years’ labour peace rather than proceeding toward a strike vote.
The 140-odd workers, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401, voted Feb. 1-2 on a new proposal from the company after voting 79 per cent in December to reject a previous offer.
The revised offer, which tacks a sixth year onto the deal, was accepted by a vote of 65 per cent, UFCW lead negotiator Chris O’Halloran said in a release.
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The workers’ previous contract expired at the end of August 2019; the new six-year deal is retroactive to Sept. 1 that year and runs through to the end of September 2024.
“A 65 per cent acceptance shows that our members thought carefully about what was on the table,” O’Halloran said in UFCW’s release. It “says to the company that we were able to get it done this time, but they are on notice that they need to better right off the bat next time.”
The union’s bargaining committee had recommended in late January that workers vote in favour of the revised deal — and noted that if the second deal were to be rejected, the union would start the process to hold a strike vote.
The new offer moved money from the later years of the previous offer, providing for increases of 2.25 per cent in the first year, 2.75 per cent in the second year, three per cent in the third and 2.5 per cent in each of the following three years. The new deal also provided for increased pension contributions from the company.
Supplying customers in Canada and the U.S. as well as other export markets, Winnipeg-based Richardson’s Lethbridge plant has capacity to handle up to 700,000 tonnes of canola per year, following a $120 million expansion in 2017.
The Lethbridge plant includes a packaging facility at which canola oil is bottled and margarine and shortening are packaged. Its products are sold under the Canola Harvest and Wesson brands and to private-label and foodservice customers.
Richardson’s other oilseed facilities include its canola crush and refining plant at Yorkton, Sask. and its margarine plant at Oakville, Ont. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network
