The Grain Services Union has asked a federal conciliator to help resolve issues between two of its bargaining units and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner said the offices and operations-maintenance units have been without contracts since Jan. 31, 2006. Bargaining started a month earlier, but negotiations stalled over a pension plan deficit.
“The pool said the deficiency issue was too large and complex to be resolved at the bargaining table,” Wagner said.
The issue was removed from the bargaining process so that the federal pension regulator could deal with it.
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However, Wagner said the company changed its mind in November and insisted agreements couldn’t be reached until the pension issue was resolved at the bargaining table.
In the meantime, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions told Sask Pool to pay outstanding amounts to the pension plan. The company has asked the Federal Court of Canada to examine that directive.
Wagner said the union was obliged to let the federal labour minister know of its bargaining dispute. Notice was filed Feb. 5.
Within 15 days federal mediation and conciliation services will either appoint a conciliation officer or advise that it won’t intervene.
Sask Pool general counsel and corporate secretary Ray Dean said the company accepts the filing as normal procedure.
“We’re committed to working through the process,” he said.
In a news release, the company said conciliation could take up to 99 days. If an agreement is not reached by the end of the process, a work stoppage could occur, it said.
Staff members at the Western Producer belong to a different local of the Grain Services Union.
