Last week, Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers posted an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for Lethbridge food processing workers.
The 40 or so workers are employed by P&H Milling, a division of Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd, at the Lethbridge milling plant.
Workers at the plant, previously known as Ellison Milling, grind different cereal grains into flour, which they then ship in bulk by rail and trucks for domestic and international markets.
Their previous contract expired in December 2022, so they have gone over a year and a half without a new contract.
According to Local 401, the company has finally put forward their final offer, which the workers’ bargaining committee has disseminated to their members to review prior to the ratification vote next week.
If ratified, the new 4-year contract brings with it several improvement, most notably slightly higher raises than they got in the previous contract.
| January 2023 | 3.0% |
| January 2024 | 2.0% |
| January 2025 | 2.0% |
| January 2026 | 2.0% |
That’s a combined 9%, with an average of 2.25% per year. Their previous contract gave them 1.5% in each of its 3 years.
And while 9% is certainly better than 4.5%, we need some additional context here.
In January 2019, the consumer price index in Alberta was 140.5. This past January, 5 years later, it had reached 165.9, an increase of 25.4 points or 18.07%.
During that same period, assuming workers ratify this tentative agreement, wages will have increased 9.86% (including compound increases).
Inflation over the last 5 years was almost double the wage increases of the last contract and the first two years of this tentative agreement combined.
This means that these workers in Lethbridge will have received a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 8.21%.
In other words, if they spent $1000 on goods and services in January 2019, those same goods and services this past January would’ve cost $1082.10.
To put it another way, if they tried to spent $1000 today, they’d be able to get only $917.90 worth of those same goods and services.
Even if we include the 4% in combined increases promised in the final two years of the contract, it won’t even cover half of the shortfall. And that’s not even factoring the inflation we are sure to see this year and next year.
Here are some other highlights from the tentative agreement, which the workers’ bargaining committee claims “was still not addressing some of the workers’ concerns”.
If workers ratify the new agreement, they will receive a one-time $1,500 appreciation bonus. This does not change their base salaries, so it will have no effect when calculating wage increases.
As well, to qualify for their 5th week of vacation, workers won’t need to be with the company as long as the previous agreement, which required 20 years of service.
Finally, long-term disability weekly maximums will also increase.
Workers will be able to vote in person on whether to ratify the contract next Tuesday (23rd). They’ll be able to vote and the plant between 06:00 and 08:00 or at Local 401’s office between 13:30 and 15:30.
Online voting will take place between 08:30 and 13:00 the following day (24th).
