(Montreal) The union that represents the 250 workers at Agropur in Granby says it is ready to call off its strike if the employer gives up changing the work schedules in the plant.
Posted at 4:54 p.m.
This strike by workers at the Agropur food processing plant caused a lot of talk because of the hundreds of thousands of liters of milk that had to be thrown away at the start of the labor dispute.
The strike was called on June 29 by the 250 workers, members of a union of the Central of Democratic Trade Unions (CSD).
The changes that the employer wants to make to work schedules are at the heart of the dispute. It is for this reason that the union members had decided to go on strike.
The CSD union argues in particular that the employer wants employees to return to work at different times depending on the day of the week, which is detrimental to work-family balance. The employer would also like to extend the length of working days from eight to 12 hours.
The employer reportedly made 158 demands affecting 32 of the 33 clauses of the collective agreement.
The employer did not want to confirm this information from the union, saying it did not want to negotiate in the public square. However, he admitted that he did need more flexibility from workers to adapt to sometimes changing needs.
Today, the union says it is ready to end its strike if the employer renounces the modifications to the schedules that it wants to impose. At the end of a general assembly that would approve the idea, the employees would therefore return to work and continue to negotiate the collective agreement, he suggests.
“What we have put on the table is that if the employer agrees to maintain the status quo in article 8 of the collective agreement, concerning work schedules, the workers could, following the approval of the general meeting, return to work and continue the negotiation of the next collective agreement”, explained Bernard Cournoyer, union adviser at the CSD.
“We have seen the impact of the conflict among milk producers. We are offering Agropur the opportunity to get back to work and put an end to this crisis. It is up to Agropur to demonstrate the necessary will to resolve this conflict,” added Mr. Cournoyer.
Management thinks about it
Asked to respond to the union, Agropur management said it was currently evaluating the proposal.
“Like our member owners, we are concerned about the waste caused by the strike, which is why we took the initiative and contacted the union as early as July 6 to ask them to have a discussion in order to avoid the waste. eating. We got a return from them on July 7 and we are currently evaluating their proposal. »