As the strike at Viterra entered its tenth week, there was a small flicker of hope on the horizon.
The company and the Grain Services Union last week exchanged letters indicating a willingness to resume bargaining, perhaps as soon as this week.
No date has been set to restart negotiations, and there is no public indication the two sides have budged on the contentious issues that led to the walkout and work-to-rule-campaign by union members July 7.
But given the acrimonious nature of the dispute, the notion of the two sides returning to the bargaining table is considered a step forward.
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“It’s encouraging in the sense that we’ve said from the beginning we can’t resolve the dispute unless we’re meeting to bargain,” said GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner.
The company expressed a similar view.
“It has always been our stance that we are open to communication and open to meeting as long we believe progress can be made,” said a Viterra spokesperson.
Head office workers and the country operations and maintenance bargaining units have been without a contract since Jan. 31, 2008.
Head office employees walked off the job July 7. Country employees are in a legal strike position but have so far engaged in a work-to-rule campaign.
The main issues include a company proposal to introduce performance-based pay, hours of work and a company proposal to take over sole control of the employees’ benefits plan, which is jointly administered by the company and the GSU.
In recent weeks the dispute has heated up, with the union accusing the company of bargaining in bad faith, the company advertising for replacement workers at its Regina head office, the union setting up picket lines at several country elevators, and the company locking out employees who declined to cross a picket line set up at the Viterra elevator in Balgonie by striking head office workers. Some employees did cross the line.
At the same time, the company has challenged a recent Canada Industrial Relations Board decision certifying union membership for Viterra’s country employees in Manitoba.
In a Sept. 4 letter to the union, Viterra’s chief operating officer Fran Malecha said the company “would be pleased to meet” in an attempt to finalize a collective agreement, and suggested the assistance of a mediator.
In his response, Wagner accepted the invitation to meet, adding there is “mutual interest and benefit to resolving the dispute on terms acceptable to both parties.”
In an interview, Wagner said it appears Viterra has dropped its previous condition that the union had to indicate acceptance of the company’s contract proposal before bargaining could resume.
