Striking Sobeys workers ratify new agreement

Warehouse and distribution workers recently ratified a new collective agreement.

These workers are represented by Local 987 of the General Teamsters and include warehousepersons, janitors, and drivers. They are employed at the retail support centre owned by Sobeys Capital in Rockyview County.

According to Alberta Mediation Services, the last collective agreement for these workers expired back in April.

Local 987 claims that Sobeys has not been cooperative in the negotiations process, making a single offer yet refusing to respond to the 3 counteroffers that Local 987 brought to the bargaining table.

Despite this bad faith bargaining by Sobeys, the workers’ bargaining team brought the offer back to their members, and on 12 August 2025, those workers voted to reject that offer. Over 200 of the 251 eligible workers participated, and 62% voted against Sobey’s offer.

In an email to The Alberta Worker, Brock Penner, a business agent for Local 987, claimed that Sobeys then emailed the roughly 250 members of Local 987 to tell them that “if they didn’t accept the offer the employer would move to lock them out”.

Apparently, the bargaining committee for the workers tried to negotiate further with Sobeys, but Sobeys refused, asked the mediator to write, and filed for a re-vote with the ALRB.

According to a Local 987 Facebook post, Sobeys was refusing to budge of a difference of just 25¢ an hour between their offer and the workers’ offer.

In response to Sobeys locking out workers, Local 987 filed for a strike vote with the Alberta Labour Relations Board, to be held after the mandatory 14-day cooling off period.

Penner said that prior to the strike vote, they held a ratification vote. This time, the workers voted just 50.08% against Sobey’s offer, and 214 workers voted.

The subsequent strike vote attracted 219 participating members, and 92% of those voted in favour of striking to counter being locked out by their employer, which lasted for over 50 days.

Prior to striking, according to Penner, the workers’ bargaining committee submitted 3 options to Sobeys that had been preratified by the workers. Sobeys refused to counteroffer, rejected all 3 options, and demanded that the workers hold a third ratification. They even added a $4000 signing bonus as incentive.

The bargaining team said they were not taking the same deal back to the workers for a third time. They had already rejected it twice. They wanted to negotiate instead, seeing the signing bonus “as a bribe to try and get them to pass the agreement”.

Ultimately, it came to Michael Dyer, the mediator. He released his recommendations to the two negotiating parties on 4 November.

Over 200 workers participated in the ratification vote regarding those recommendation, and 80% voted in favour of ratifying.

The recommendations included wage increases over 5 years for top-rated full-time workers hired prior to 16 April 2016, full-time truck drivers, and part-time truck drivers.

20 April 2025	$1.35 an hour
19 April 2026	$1.00 an hour
18 April 2027	$1.00 an hour
216 April 2028	$1.00 an hour
22 April 2029	$1.00 an hour

Drivers will also receive an additional 25¢ per hour in the first year.

Full-time warehouse workers other than those in the top level will receive a wage increase in the first year, ranging from $1.oo to $2.00 an hour. Wages for these workers will then be frozen for the remainder of the contract.

Part-time warehousepersons and janitors will receive first-year increases as well, followed by wage freezes the rest of the contract. Those increases will also range from $1.00 to $2.00 an hour. Plus, there have been 4 more levels added to the wage grid for these workers.

Here are some other changes recommended by the mediator.

Workers who must work 3 or more hours of overtime will be guaranteed 2 paid 15-minute breaks. Previously, they were entitled to just 1 break if the work 1 or more hours of overtime. The first of the 2 new breaks is to be taken prior to overtime starting, and the second after completing 2 hours of overtime.

If a workers is confirmed and approved for voluntary overtime after their shift ends but the overtime ends up not being needed, the worker may choose between leaving after their shift or working 1 hour of overtime.

The maximum for severance pay has increased from 15 weeks’ pay to 26 weeks’ pay.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation has been added to the list of paid holidays, which are used in determining stat holiday pay.

The footwear reimbursement has changed from just a maximum of $150 per year to also include the option of $300 every 2 years.

Drivers making a power tail gate delivery will now receive a 75¢ per hour premium, in addition to their regular pay rate. Plus, the 2-trailer hauling premium has been doubled, from $20 per day to $40 per day.

The maximum for driver waiting time pay has increased from 8 hours per day to 10 hours per day.

Finally, drivers meals shall now be paid, at $10 per meal.

The new collective agreement will expire in April 2030.