More than a month after the agreement in principle reached between Agropur and the workers at its Granby plant, the collective agreement has still not been signed. The employees denounce a serious deterioration in the working climate, while their union accuses the company of being in bad faith during the discussions, which the dairy cooperative refutes.
“I’ve never seen that in 42 years of unionism,” says Daniel Chaput, president of the cheese factory employees’ union, which is affiliated with the Central of Democratic Unions (CSD). “The climate is poor. We feel a climate of revenge on the part of the employer,” he continues in the same breath. A dozen grievances have been filed in recent weeks.
He cites the example of an employee who accompanied an inspector into the factory to check whether the company had used scabs. “We didn’t really know the reasons for this suspension, but it gives the impression of reprisals,” he said.
The duty spoke with several employees. All agreed to speak, but refused to be named; they say they fear reprisals from the employer. All refer to the imposition of “suspensions that are not justified” in recent weeks, the “increase in employee departures” and the hiring of new coordinators “who monitor what we do”. “Several of us are thinking of leaving,” said one of them.
I’ve never seen that in 42 years of unionism. The climate is mediocre. We feel a climate of revenge on the part of the employer.
Union support advisor Bernard Cournoyer is taking part in discussions with Agropur: “Since the agreement in principle, we’ve revised the texts four times. And each time, the employer proposes elements that deviate from the agreement in principle that we had signed. He comes back with modifications, requests which had nevertheless been refused by the employees. »
Daniel Chaput is unequivocal: “We have a mandate from our general meeting based on the proposals of the agreement in principle. If the employer wants to get out of this, we will definitely go back to the general assembly. »
The management and union parties are due to meet again on Friday. “We’ll see what’s going to happen, because we spent the whole week responding to changes that didn’t respect the agreement. »
Agropur denies being in bad faith. Since the beginning of August, “our teams have worked with the union to put the finishing touches to the texts of the collective agreement, but in compliance with the agreement in principle”, indicates Guillaume Bérubé, spokesperson for the dairy cooperative. “I really want to be clear: at Agropur, we haven’t made any changes to modify the agreement. »
Wanting to be reassuring, Mr. Bérubé concedes that “there is work to be done” to improve the working climate: “That’s why we’re going to do everything we can to complete the process and sign the agreement collectively by working with the union. »
I really want to be clear: at Agropur, we have made no changes to modify the agreement
Remember that the workers at the Granby plant went on an indefinite general strike on June 29. The main reason for the conflict stemmed from the employer’s desire to modify the schedules. Among other things, Agropur wanted to increase shifts from 8 to 12 hours, which ultimately did not happen.
Concluded on August 3, the agreement in principle was approved by 73% by the union members. It was also the Minister of Labor of Quebec, Jean Boulet, who made the announcement on Twitter: “I welcome the agreement in principle reached between Agropur and its employees affiliated with the CSD. Finding solutions is always the best way to resolve a labor dispute. »
This initial conflict resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of liters of milk, which had to be thrown away because it could not be processed in the factory.