CO-OP STRIKE
No sign of settlement
Saskatoon Co-op employees are about to start their sixth month on the picket line — and there is little indication their union and the co-operative’s management are close to a settlement to end the divisive dispute.
No bargaining dates are scheduled, and the union says it received no response after submitting a contract offer last month. The union’s attempts to reach an agreement through binding arbitration have also failed to reach fruition.
“It doesn’t seem to matter what we put forward, they seem to reject it without counter-offering,” said Rod Gillies, a spokesman for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1400, which represents the roughly 900 striking workers.
“If we can get back to the table and bargain something substantive, will we bring it to the membership for a vote? Yeah, we will. Will the membership agree or disagree to it? I can’t answer (that),” Gillies added.
Saskatoon Co-op CEO Grant Wicks, in a prepared statement, took issue with the union’s position, saying UFCW Local 1400 indicated last month it was “reverting” to the bargaining position it held last spring, before the strike.
“We have not discussed a similar reversion in our bargaining position,” Wicks said.
Gillies said that’s because the union is no longer bound to any contract proposal it puts forward once it is rejected by management, which also has the option to accept it or respond with a counter-offer.
“If they actually thought that (we had reverted), they would have filed an unfair (labour practice complaint) against us,” he said.
Morale on the picket line, meanwhile, remains high, largely owing to warmer weather and a recent Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board ruling that allows employees to hand out informational leaflets on Saskatoon Co-op property, Gillies said. The March 19 decision found that the Moose Jaw Co-operative Association committed an unfair labour practice by alleging that UFCW Local 1400 members were trespassing while leafleting on its property during a strike last year.
The co-operative’s annual general meeting, set for June 20, could also prove pivotal, as it represents an opportunity for members to appoint directors. Gillies refused to rule out the union throwing its support behind one or more candidates.
“As we do every year, we look forward to hearing from our members at our annual meeting,” Wicks said.
The Saskatoon Co-op strike began Nov. 1 after the workers, who have been without a contract since late 2016, voted 65 per cent against management’s final offer. The dispute hinges on a proposed two-tier wage structure.
While UFCW Local 1400 contends that it is not fair to pay future employees less per hour, Saskatoon Co-op maintains that capping wages for new hires is necessary to keep the business financially sustainable over the long term.
The union eventually proposed an alternative second wage tier, but those talks broke down about a month after the strike began. One labour expert, however, said the union’s concession means “the Trojan horse is through the gate.”
According to the co-operative, 240 union members have crossed the picket lines and returned to work since the strike began. Wicks said all 30 locations are now open, including a new liquor store on Eighth Street.
Five months may seem like a long time for employees to walk the picket line, but the Saskatoon Co-op strike is far from the longest picketed labour dispute in Saskatchewan history. That distinction belongs to the Pineland Co-op in Nipawin, Sask. The strike began in June 1985 when a dispute over benefits and hours of work could not be resolved at the bargaining table.
“Moses only invaded Egypt for seven years. We went for seven and a half,” said Paul Guillet, a Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) official who served as the main union negotiator during the lengthy strike.
Guillet — who still works with RWDSU, as a co-ordinator in its Regina office — said about 10 union members crossed the Nipawin picket line and returned to work while the remaining 65 walked the picket line.
“During the first year, we had very good support on the picket line, both from our members — our members being union members — and from the public as well … Over the years, by the time we got to a settlement (in 1993), we had 14 members left.”
Many took other work, and around half a dozen retired from the picket line; those who stayed likely had nowhere else to go, he said.
In an interview on Tuesday, more than a quarter-century after the strike was settled, Guillet attributed the strike’s length to its divisiveness and a general desire for everyone involved to “save face” — concerns that were amplified by the small community.
“What finally happened is that the co-op agreed … to most available hours” — a policy that provides guarantees for part-time workers — “our backdoor way on making sure that we could weigh in on keeping full-time work,” he said.
A decade later, the Saskatchewan NDP introduced “most available hours” legislation, only to reverse course and repeal it under intense pressure from the province’s business community