CWA Canada: White-collar workers at food products operation to hold ratification vote on tentative 5-year contract

10 March 2008

White-collar workers
at food products operation
to hold ratification vote
on tentative 5-year contract

Schneider Office Employees' Association | CWA Canada Local 30009

Members of the Schneider Office Employees' Association (SOEA) are expected to hold a ratification vote sometime before Easter on a tentative five-year deal hammered out on Friday.

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Arthur Lacroix, president of the 75-member SOEA, says the proposed collective agreement contains salary increases, improved severance provisions and more inclusions in the bargaining unit. With it being a five-year agreement, it also offers his members some much-needed stability, he says.

Maple Leaf Foods, which took over Schneider Foods in 2004, came to the table on Friday with what management considered a final offer, says Lacroix. "We were able to massage it a little bit (and) got another 1.5 per cent on salary."

The company has also agreed to enhanced severance packages for its white-collar workers at the food products operation in Kitchener, ON. New entitlements would grant two weeks pay per year for those employees with nine years or less of service; 2.5 weeks for 10-19 years; and three weeks (to a maximum of 26) for those with 20-plus years of service.

Lacroix is expecting the SOEA membership to expand as a result of "some good language defining who's in and who's out" of the bargaining unit in the wake of an arbitration decision last year. He says the bargaining unit's status became a subject of negotiations in the Friday session and, in the end, "we'll have several job classifications we didn't have in the past."

The employees represented by the SOEA work in administration, finance, clerical and information technology departments.

He's also anticipating the SOEA membership to grow as a result of Maple Leaf transferring employees to Kitchener, which the company had held off doing until a new collective agreement had been reached. Maple Leaf, says Lacroix, is "closing quite a few offices and plants ... and shuffling people all around the country."

There are more improvements in the agreement reached during Friday's bargaining session, which was originally scheduled for Feb. 22, says the SOEA president, but details will not be released until members are informed and have a chance to vote.