Earlier this week, Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers published a bargaining update regarding the negotiations with Burnbrae Farms.
Burnbrae Farms is an egg-grading station that has been operating in Calgary since 2001. Workers there collect and grade the eggs supplied by local farms, which then are distributed throughout Canada. The facility is a crossover between production and warehousing.
These negotiations are on behalf of about 50 workers employed at the company’s processing plant in the Foothills Industrial Park of Southeast Calgary. Their previous contract expired in June 2020, nearly 3.5 years ago.
The workers’ bargaining team met with the employer 6–8 September 2023 to discuss negotiations and to exchange their initial proposals. As is custom, because the negotiating process was just starting, the proposals were just non-monetary items.
However, since that time, the two parties met on 30 October and again last month regarding both non-monetary and monetary items.
According to the latest bargaining update posted by Local 401, Burnbrae has tabled their final offer after only 3 months of bargaining. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most significant changes in the proposed 4-year contract.
First, Burnbrae has proposed a combined wage increase of $2.60 an hour between June 2022 and June 2025, which works out to 65¢ an hour each year. The first two increases will be retroactive.
Keep in mind that their previous contract expired in 2020, with the last wage increase coming in 2019. If this contract is effective as of June 2022, that means the workers are getting wage freezes for 2020 and 2021.
According to the previous contact, the lowest paid positions in 2019 were line packers and over-wrap operators, who were each making $20.00 an hour. The highest paid position was maintenance, which was $32.79 an hour.
That works out to a raise of between 7.92% and 13.00% for all unionized position, or an annual average of between 1.32% and 2.17%, including the two years of wage freezes.
Keep in mind that the consumer price index sat at 142.7 for Alberta in June 2019. This past June, it was 164.4, an increase of 21.7 or 15.21%. In other words, inflation over the last 4 years was over 15% in Alberta.
This results in a reduction in real wages for these workers. Real wages are wages adjusted for inflation. Because inflation is larger than the proposed wage increases, the workers’ real wages will actually drop.
A wage increase of 7.92% during 15.21% inflation, for example, is a real wage cut of 7.29%, while a 13.00% increase would be a reduction in real wages of 2.21%.
If these workers ratify this agreement, they’ll be receiving a reduction in real wages of between 2.21% and 7.29%.
And remember, that’s only including inflation up to June 2023. There are still two years of the contract remaining, which means the reduction in real wages will likely be much higher by June 2025.
Here are some of the other changes proposed in the tentative agreement.
Workers will see an increase in shift premiums under the new contract, if ratified. The afternoon shift will increase from 55¢ an hour to 70¢ an hour, while the night shift will increase to 85¢ fro 60¢. As well, the night shift will start at 22:00 instead of 23:00.
Anyone who has been with the company for 18 years or longer will qualify for 5 weeks of vacation. Previously, workers had to have been employed for 20 years.
Under the previous agreement, there were 10 holidays named in the paid holidays section, as well as “and all other public holidays proclaimed by the federal, municipal and provincial governments and observed by the wholesale industry.” The tentative agreement now just says “and all other public holidays proclaimed by the provincial governments”.
The workers wanted to add National Truth and Reconciliation Day to the list of paid holidays observed by the employer, as well as the worker’s birthday, if it falls on a regular work day, or the following Friday or Monday. They also wanted the ability for workers to transfer general Christian Holidays (such as Good Friday of Christmas) to days that are observed as holy days in their own faith traditions. None of these proposals made it into the employer’s final offer.
Just like with the previous agreement, the probationary period for new workers is 60 days. Well, technically, under the previous agreement, it was 60 days or 300 hours, whichever comes first. The 300 hours has disappeared from the new contract, and the employer has added in an option to extend the probationary period by another month, to 90 days, as long as they give notice and it’s agreed to.
Previously, any meetings workers had with union reps had to be on their own time, or more specifically, “not be on employer time”, if it was over 5 minutes. That part has been removed in the tentative agreement, which seems to indicate that workers won’t be docked pay for meeting with union reps for more than 5 minutes. Added to this section, however, is that such meetings must be approved by the plant manager.
In the previous contract, workers are eligible for parental leave if they’ve worked at the company for 52 weeks straight. Maternity leave also increased from 15 weeks to 16 weeks, and parental leave increased from 37 weeks to 62 weeks. As well, parental leave previously had to be completed within 52 weeks of the baby being born or the adopted child being placed with the parents; this has changed to 78 weeks.
Workers will be able to take up to a week of paid bereavement leave in the event of the death of an immediate family member, should they ratify this tentative agreement. Currently, this is available for just the death of a spouse, parent, or child, and the length of leave is at the discretion of the employer.
Burnbrae will increase the footwear allowance to $200 from the current $150 upon ratification.
Another new development is that effective this new contract, the employer will contribute $200 every year to an education and training fund.
Dental care will be added to the benefit plan if the new contract is ratified.
The most recent contract specifies that promotions to positions covered by UFCW will be based on fitness, merit, and ability; however, if two candidates are equally qualified in those areas, then the most senior workers would get priority. The union wanted to change it so that only seniority is the determining factor in promotions. Instead, the tentative agreement changed it to “knowledge, skill, ability and seniority”.
Here are some of the proposals the union made that didn’t end up in the final proposal from the employer.
The union wanted to change the phrase “basic work week”—which was 40 hours, split into 5 8-hour days—to “guaranteed work week”.
Under the most recent contract, Burnbrae had to give 24 hours of notice of a change in shift. The workers wanted to triple this to 72 hours.
The union planned to propose increases to meal allowances.
In the new contract, the union wanted workers to be able to take up to 5 days of paid personal and family responsibility leave within each calendar year. They also want each worker to be entitled to 10 paid days per year for domestic violence leave.
Full-time workers have access to 40 hours of leave each year to cover incidental illnesses, and they are then paid out any hours that are unused at the end of the year. The union wanted to double this to 80 hours. They are also allowed to apply once a year to have 1 day absence to del with urgent personal or family health related matters, which doesn’t affect the 40 hours. The union wanted to increase this to 5 days.
The union plans to hold question and answer meetings at the Glenmore Inn and Convention Centre in Calgary on Sunday, December 10, 2023, between noon and 14:00.
In-person voting will take place the following day between 13:30 and 15:30 in the lunchroom at the Burnbrae plant, and online voting will run from noon until 13:00 on Tuesday, December 12, 2023.
Update (12 December 2023): A majority of these workers voted in favour of ratifying the agreement.
