Last week, Local 401 of the United Food & Commercial Workers published an update on their website regarding recent contract negotiations.
Roughly 60 workers employed by West Coast Reduction at their Edmonton processing plant have been waiting for nearly a year to get a new collective agreement. Their previous one expired last July.
West Coast Reduction is a Vancouver-based company specializing in converting food waste and by-products into ingredients for renewable energy, animal feed, and other products.
At their Edmonton plant, the workers render leftover parts from chicken and pig butchering and collect used cooking oil to recycle.
According to the update, the workers can expect to see raises in each year of the new contract.
| 2024 | 5.00% |
| 2025 (as of ratification) | 2.75% |
| 2026 | 2.00% |
| 2027 | 2.00% |
| 2028 | 2.75% |
That’s a 14.5% combined increase over the life of the contract, or 15.33% if we account for compound increasing. This averages out to 2.9% (3.07%) per year.
In their last contract, they got 8% over 5 years, so this a definite improvement.
On top of the new increases, the workers will receive a $1,000 signing bonus for ratifying the contract; although that bonus won’t factor into the pay increases.
For example, if they received $30,000 in 2025, plus the $1,000 signing bonus, their 2% increase in 2026 will be based on $30,000, not $31,000.
Workers will also receive increased bereavement leave and improved paramedical coverage. As well, RRSP contribution maximums will increase to 7%.
The employer had presented what they called their final offer to the bargaining committee back in March; however, the workers voted 93% in April to reject that offer.
At the time, the workers’ negotiation committee had claimed they intended to apply for mediation to move the collective bargaining process along and hopefully win some concessions for the work.
It wasn’t clear from the website update how the recent gains compared to the original offers from the employer or whether negotiations ended up going to arbitration, but the workers voted 82% last Thursday to ratify the tentative agreement.
Their last collective agreement took more than a year past the expiration date of the previous agreement before it was ratified.
