Earlier this month, Local 401 of the United Food & Commercial Workers published an update on their website regarding factory workers in Lethbridge.
These 230 or so workers are employed by Cavendish Farms Ltd. at their Lethbridge potato processing facility, which used to be owned by Maple Leaf Foods. Well, technically, Maple Leaf owned the previous facility, and Cavendish opened the current facility in 2019 after purchasing the old one in 2013.
Cavendish Farms is a subsidiary of the New Brunswick-based J.D. Irving Ltd.
Workers at the Lethbridge plant turn over 700 million pounds of potatoes into frozen potato products, such as fries and patties, every year.
The latest collective agreement for these workers expired this past February, roughly 7 months ago.
According to this month’s update, bargaining on a replacement collective agreement did not begin until a couple of weeks ago.
At the initial bargaining session—which spanned the 15th and 16th—both parties exchanged their initial proposals.
The bargaining team that the workers elected to represent them has asked for a 10% wage increase in every year of a new 3-year agreement, which would come to 30%.
| 1 March 2026 | 10.00% |
| 1 March 2027 | 10.00% |
| 1 March 2028 | 10.00% |
| 30.00% |
This is much more than what they received in their previous agreement.
| 1 March 2021 | 3.00% |
| 1 March 2022 | 3.00% |
| 1 March 2023 | 3.00% |
| 1 March 2024 | 2.25% |
| 1 March 2025 | 2.50% |
| 13.75% |
Between March 2016 and March 2025, the consumer price index in Alberta increased 37 points, from 135 to 172. That is a jump of 27.4%.
During that same period, they saw a combined wage increase of 20.25%, leaving them with a loss in real wages of 7.16%, or 2.83% if we account for compounded increases.
Cavendish did not include a wage offer in the original proposal, but I cannot imagine they will initially accept this new proposal.
By the end of the last agreement, just 4 positions were making under $25 an hour: general labourers, tray pack labourers, case openers, and janitors. Living wage in Lethbridge is apparently $22.30 an hour, and no one with Local 401 was making that as of the end of the last contract.
Here are some other changes the workers proposed to the collective agreement.
Under the previous agreement, part-time workers started at 80% of the rate for their job category but would get a 5% increase after every 1,000 hours worked. The bargaining committee has asked for that to be changed to 6-month increments instead.
They have asked Cavendish to pay 15¢ an hour for every hour worked by every worker into an education and training fund. It would max out at 40 hours per week though.
Prior to any disciplinary meeting, the workers want shop stewards to be able to meet with affected workers for up to 15 minutes.
Workers currently have 3 working days after receiving a notice of dismissal or suspension to notify their department manager if they want to file a grievance. That would increase to 14 working days.
Under the previous agreement, workers who have exhausted all steps of the grievance process can file for arbitration within 21 working days. The workers’ bargaining committee wants to expand this to 60 days.
They have asked for a shop steward to be present when layoff notices are given to workers.
The bargaining committee wants to see a new pay premium for maintenance workers who have more than one trades ticket and one for second-class alternate steam chiefs.
Anyone currently working on Sundays are paid at time and a half. The workers’ bargaining team wants to increase that to double time and give time and a half rates to Saturday shifts.
They also want to increase 12-hour shift overtime pay from time and a half to double time.
If a worker gets called back into work after leaving the factory, they are guaranteed 4 hours of pay at their regular pay rate. The bargaining team wants this to increase to double time.
The workers’ bargaining team has proposed adding National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to the list of statutory holidays, which would bring the total number of stat holidays to 12.
They have asked to increase bereavement leave from 4 paid days off to 10 paid days off. They also want to add “any family member that is living with the employee” to the list of immediate family members. They want to increase bereavement leave from 3 days to 5 days for extended family. As well, they want to add 8 weeks of unpaid leave in the event that a worker’s spouse or child (including step children, miscarriage, and stillbirth).
Their proposal also includes 12 unpaid gynaecological health days per calendar year.
They do not want doctor’s notes to be required until a worker is on sick leave for at least 5 days.
The previous collective agreement had a complex formula for determining severance pay. The workers want to change it to simply 2 weeks of pay for every year a worker has been with the company.
Here are some of the things that Cavendish initially proposed.
They want to get rid of the 15¢ per hour retention bonus, which was lump sum payment paid out to workers each quarter.
They want to keep 12-hour workers at time and a half. They also want to change when overtime kicks in from 80 hours every 2 weeks to 44 hours every week.
They want to increase 10-minute rest periods to 15-minute rest periods.
They want to increase the probationary period for new workers from 720 hours to 2,000 hours.
They want to max out court duty pay at 10 working days.
The two parties are scheduled to meet again next month to continue bargaining and then again in December.
