Nearly 25% of employees at the Exceldor chicken slaughter plant in Saint-Damase have left the ship since the start of the year. In the past two weeks alone, 11 of them have quit their jobs. In the hope of remaining competitive, the company finally agreed on Thursday to grant workers at this plant the same wage increases as those obtained by their colleagues in Saint-Anselme over the summer.
The Saint-Damase union members had been waiting for this decision for nearly six months already. Until recently, local workers felt “cheated” because they had been verbally promised to grant them the same pay conditions as those of workers in Saint-Anselme, according to the union office.
Back to the events. In 2019, to ensure union peace in its project to build a new factory in Saint-Hyacinthe – which is located about ten kilometers from Saint-Damase – Exceldor asked its workers to reopen the collective agreement that had just come. in principle expiring in 2021.
“The work climate with our employers has never been easy,” said Manon Poitras, chief delegate, during a virtual interview earlier this week. We worked very hard to get a new collective agreement accepted. They finally signed until 2028. The Saint-Damase plant has around 250 employees.
Normally, they always negotiate behind their colleagues at the Saint-Anselme slaughterhouse. Remember that the latter reached an agreement after a labor dispute which caused a stir, notably leading to the euthanasia of more than 1 million chickens last summer.
The employer also requested the support of workers from Saint-Damase “when the dezoning problems blocked the road” for his factory project, it is explained. The union therefore published in September 2020 an announcement in The Saint-Hyacinthe Courier to publicly support the construction of a new facility.
However, following all these “concessions”, the union waited for more than six months for the employer to honor its promises. The wage gap between workers in Saint-Damase and those in Saint-Anselme is $ 2.15 per hour. The two factories are specialized in the slaughter and processing of poultry.
“We were still negotiating after Saint-Anselme. We always said [à l’employeur] that if Saint-Anselme regulated [avec de meilleures conditions], we wanted the same thing, underlines Mme Poitras. The employer told us that Saint-Anselme would not have more, would not have less, and that he would not forget us. ”
Increases granted
Exceldor finally met with the union on Thursday. After months of waiting, he told her that workers would be entitled to the same wage increases as their colleagues. The company made no secret that it wanted to reduce the number of departures in this way.
The reality of the market makes it absolutely necessary to remain competitive because it is very, very aggressive at the moment. We want that to have a direct impact on calming the turnover rate game. But we clearly won’t sit down on that. We will continue to try to innovate and find solutions to have optimal retention.
Jordan Ouellet, Exceldor spokesperson
The company also wants to create a good working climate. “The number one priority is to have positive relationships with our employees. [L’annonce des augmentations salariales], that was ultimately what we wanted to do, we just wanted to do it well with good explanations. We wanted to support things and ensure the modality and understanding. ”
In Quebec, Exceldor has three factories and a distribution center.
The union for its part applauded this decision which it said it was long overdue. “Members of the union executive have welcomed the news,” said Roxane Larouche, spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union (TUAC). All of our requests were accepted. ”
A meeting will be held on Saturday to inform workers of new developments. On the other hand, the march which was to take place in Saint-Damase on the weekend to put pressure on the employer and raise awareness among the population was canceled.