Last week, Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers published an update regarding contract negotiations for factory workers in Red Deer.
Local 401 represents all the workers employed by Masterfeeds Inc. at their Red Deer factory, except supervisors, managers, forepersons, and anyone in office, sales, or security positions.
These workers include shippers and receivers, pellet mill operators, mixers, general labourers, baggers, and those working in the warehouse and maintenance.
Based out of Ontario, Masterfeeds specializes in livestock feed. They employ over 600 workers across the country who produce that feed, including at their Red Deer facility.
The most recent collective agreement for these workers expired in April 2025. Negotiations on its replacement did not begin, however, until October, over 5 months later.
According to last week’s update, Masterfeeds presented the workers’ bargaining committee with what they are calling their final offer, which includes wage increases in every year of a proposed 4-year contract.
| 1 May 2025* | 4.50% |
| 1 May 2026* | 3.00% |
| 1 May 2027 | 3.00% |
| 1 May 2028 | 3.00% |
| 13.50% |
This is much less than the 40% that the workers’ bargaining team asked for last October, but it is better than the 12% public sector workers have been getting in their new agreements. It is also better than the 9.77–9.81% they got in their last contract.
By the end of the new contract, assuming it is ratified, the only workers making under $30 an hour would be causal workers and brand new workers.
Here are some other changes in the proposed agreement.
In the previous agreement, workers received an additional 80¢ per hour for all hours worked after 14:00 and before 06:00. The new agreement proposes increasing that to 95¢ an hour with 90 days of ratification and then to $1.00 an hour next May.
Life insurance coverage will increase from $60,000 to $70,000 next May. It had been at $60,000 for over a decade.
Masterfeeds had been paying 80% of dental premiums under the previous collective agreement. They have agreed to increase that to 100%. If workers ratify this, it would mean they would go from paying 20% of of their dental premiums to just 0%.
Eye exam coverage would increase from $260 every 24 months to $275 every 24 months.
Bereavement leave under the previous collective agreement was 3 days for spouse, parents (including foster, step, and in-law), children (including step and foster), grandchildren, siblings, grandparents, and relatives who live with the worker. Masterfeeds has offered to increase this to 5 days for spouse, children, and parents. It would stay as 3 days for everyone else, but would add siblings-in-law.
The boot allowance would increase from $250 per year to $275 per year.
Under the previous agreement, part-time workers were those regularly scheduled up to 4 shifts per week. That has been changed to 32 hours per week.
Masterfeeds had to make sure new workers signed their UFCW membership application form within 30 days of being hired. That has been reduced to 14 days.
Effective next January, Masterfeed would make annual contributions of $500 to Local 401’s education and training fund.
The meal allowance would increase from $9.50 to $11.00, effective next May. This is paid to workers who have to work past 1.5 hours after their scheduled quitting time. The meal allowance has not increased since 2015.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was added to the list of general holidays, which are used to determine stat holiday pay. This brings the total number of general holidays to 12.
Any leave of absence beyond 30 days would not count toward seniority accumulation in the previous collective agreement. The new agreement proposes increasing this cutoff to 6 months.
Parental leave would increase from a maximum of 37 weeks to a maximum of 63 weeks. There are also 4 new proposed leaves of absence.
| Personal leave | Up to 5 days |
| Family violence leave | Up to 10 days |
| Traditional Aboriginal practices leave | Up to 5 days |
| Paid medical leave | Up to 10 days |
Workers would need to provide a doctor’s note if they are absent for 5 consecutive days. There was no doctor’s note requirement in the previous agreement.
In-person voting will occur in the company’s lunchroom next Thursday (23rd) and online next Friday (24th).
