Joliette cement plant | Unifor relies on mediation after nearly 9 months of lockout

(Montreal) The union hopes to resume discussions soon with the mediator, after almost nine months of lockout at the Joliette cement plant, which belongs to the CRH Canada Group.

The local section of the Unifor union, affiliated with the FTQ, which represents about 130 workers there, affirms that the management has made several demands for concessions and that it wants to make more use of subcontracting.

“The employer wanted to reduce its production from four ovens to two ovens. We were 150 employees and they announced to us, last November, that they were going to operate with 60 employees and the rest outsourced,” said Unifor Quebec director Renaud Gagné in an interview on Tuesday.

The union says he only wanted to maintain his jobs, his achievements.

“The company is trying to obtain concessions. They made 417 requests initially. And us: zero. All we wanted and all we have been looking for for months is for the employer to use, whenever possible, its employees who are on a recall list,” said Mr. Gagné. .

But the management wants to have more flexibility, resort to subcontracting, in order to reduce its costs, he reports, adding that he doubts that this will achieve the intended goal.

The Quebec director of Unifor reports that labor relations there are difficult. The conflict ended up before the Administrative Labor Tribunal, after Unifor alleged the use of replacement workers during the lockout. He was partially successful, but the employer requested a review of the decision. This case is therefore not closed.

Last January, the employer’s final offers were 100% rejected by factory and office workers, points out Mr. Gagné.

Since then, the union has made a proposal, which the mediator has in his hands. He hopes that he will be able to bring the parties back to the table.

Reached by email, neither the CRH Group nor its parent company, Ash Grove, had responded to the invitation to make their comments on the labor dispute known and to the invitation to confirm or refute the statements of the union, at the time of this writing.