The president of an agriculture union local in Ontario says the Canadian Grain Commission is using replacement workers to complete inspections at port during the strike.
Public Service Alliance of Canada members have been on strike since April 19. This includes about 3,000 people who work in agriculture-related jobs.
Aaron Swerdlyk is president of Local 00030 and in an email said the CGC has outsourced the work done by federal inspectors.
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“The CGC is providing exemptions under the Canada Grain Act to continue to load ships across the country using unqualified, biased third-party inspection companies,” he wrote.
But the grain commission said it has not hired third parties to complete inspections. Instead, grain companies are taking the samples and sending them for final inspection and certification.
The CGC said the companies may employ third party inspectors or their own staff to do so.
Swerdlyk said some of his members work at the ports of Thunder Bay and Hamilton. He said the replacement workers appear to be employees of the grain company staff or inspection companies.
He said he isn’t confident those taking the samples know how to do the procedure correctly.
“Sampling system verification is a CGC program and even if many private inspection companies have qualified inspectors, I would say the majority would not have adequate knowledge of these systems,” he said.
Swerdlyk added CGC managers are likely grading the samples but the samples could have been compromised.
He said none of his local members or any CGC employees had any intention of slowing down grain flow at ports and the employer could have earlier deemed some workers essential throughout a strike.
Contact karen.briere@producer.com
