An agreement in principle has been reached between Agropur and the union of workers on strike at its Granby plant. Details will be presented to employees on Wednesday and they will be able to confirm whether or not they have a new collective agreement.
The news was first announced by Quebec Labor Minister Jean Boulet, who congratulated the parties in a message posted on Twitter late Sunday afternoon.
“I welcome the agreement in principle reached between Agropur and its employees affiliated with the CSD. Finding solutions is always the best way to settle a labor dispute,” the minister wrote.
The information was then confirmed to The Canadian Press by the union communications adviser of the Central of Democratic Unions (CSD), Simon Lajoie. He said the deal happened very late Friday night.
As this is a tentative agreement, the proposed employment contract will be recommended for acceptance by union members. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, but the time has not yet been announced.
The parties are still in discussion to establish the protocol for the return to work of the strikers. Employees are expected to return to the factory within the next few days.
Some 250 workers at the Granby factory went on strike on June 29. This labor dispute had serious consequences at the start, when hundreds of thousands of liters of milk had to be thrown away because they could not use it in time or find other outlets. A situation that was later rectified.
The main issue in the conflict was the employer’s desire to modify working hours, according to the CSD. Agropur would have liked to reduce shifts from eight to 12 hours and start work days at different times depending on the day of the week.
Without confirming these assertions, Agropur admitted to needing more “flexibility” from the workers to adjust to needs according to the volume of milk available.