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05 April 2005
Stubborn company finally agrees to
mediation
Schneider rejects union offer of contract
extension
Schneider
Officer Employees' Association | TNG
Canada Local 30009
Schneider Foods has agreed to mediation
in an attempt to reach a new collective agreement with its
office employees in Kitchener.
Art Lacroix, president of the 170-member Schneider Office
Employees' Association, says the small movement on the company's
part came Monday during a meeting at the Ontario Labour
Relations Board (OLRB).
In return, the Local agreed to adjourn
bad-faith bargaining charges filed in early March by TNG
Canada/CWA. "If
either side feels mediation is not working, we can revive
the complaint," says Lacroix.
The union will soon be making the
formal application for mediation after being assured on
Monday that the OLRB will appoint a senior mediator who
will supervise negotiations and try to "keep both parties on track," says
the SOEA president.
The company, says Lacroix, refuses to let the dispute go
to arbitration.
Lacroix says he was disappointed that the company was not
prepared to accept the SOEA's offer of a contract extension
by one year to Oct. 31, 2005.
However, he adds, Schneider management
did make minor modifications in its proposals and provided
some information the SOEA has been requesting since bargaining
began almost six months ago. "They were urged (by the OLRB officer) to provide
more," says Lacroix.
The lack of information to support bargaining is one of
the four main areas of concern outlined in TNG Canada's
formal complaint. The others are:
- interference, including one-on-one meetings
with members, to break union solidarity;
- violation of statutory freeze on benefit
plan changes; and
- refusal to negotiate pay, pension and
benefits.
Lacroix says many of the Local's members, who hold information
systems, information technology, administrative, finance
and clerical jobs, remain optimistic that a deal can be
reached.
Some of the more rebellious members
wore 'Fair Deal' T-shirts to work on Friday — a corporately approved jeans day.
At least three, including Lacroix, were sent home and "quite
a few were given (company-provided) shirts to wear and some
were asked to cover the offending T-shirts with sweaters
or jackets."
The discipline invoked against the
three members will be "lumped
in with" a grievance the SOEA filed after the company
sent 22 members home on March 9 for wearing 'cobra' T-shirts
bearing the message: If Provoked, We Will Strike.
Lacroix says the SOEA is reviewing
its job-action plans after both sides were advised by
the OLRB officer to "put
our efforts into negotiating rather than distractions."
Meanwhile, TNG Canada continues an advocacy campaign to
pressure Schneider Foods and parent company Maple Leaf to
resume bargaining. Guild members and other Canadians are
encouraged to sign up with the enM@SSE
Action Centre to
send letters to each company's CEO, urging them to be fair
to their workers in Kitchener.
Canadians can also call the Schneider
Foods Customer Service Centre toll-free at 1-800-567-1890 to voice
an opinion.
Schneider management has brought
few concrete proposals to the bargaining table since the
office employees' contract expired on Oct. 31, 2004. Four
bargaining sessions and two meetings with a conciliator
yielded little but requests by the company for a No Board
Report, which was finally issued. As a result of that,
both sides were put in a "free" position
on March 7. Although the SOEA's bargaining team had earlier
been given a strike mandate by the membership, the union
elected to conduct information pickets and work to rule.
A survey of Guild members prior to the start of negotiations
revealed their biggest concerns are job security and severance
packages. Following Maple Leaf's takeover of Schneider last
spring, many employees at Schneider head office in Kitchener
have been transferred to Maple Leaf offices in Mississauga.
IT staff have been told they will be relocated by June 2006.
Lacroix says the SOEA is seeking increases of four per
cent in each year of a new contract, regardless the term,
which has yet to be discussed. The office employees' salary
grid currently ranges from $21,000 to $76,000.
The employees are also intent on winning indexed pensions
and improved health benefits.
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