Dean Clouvier was back on the job last week, buying grain at Agricore’s elevator at Rosser, Man.
But something important had changed for the 53-year-old elevator manager, who started working for Manitoba Pool Elevators when he was 17 years old.
The rights and benefits that those 35 years of service had once provided for him had disappeared, consigned to history by the new collective agreement negotiated between Agricore and the Grain Services Union.
The deal, which ended a four-week strike by more than 300 elevator and agro-centre workers, was ratified by 60 percent of GSU members in a vote last week.
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The new contract eliminates seniority rights for job postings, promotions or layoffs. Now, a worker with 35 years experience will be treated the same as an employee who started last week.
“I’ll put my ability on the line against anybody’s,” Clouvier said. “I’m not worried about that.”
But he said employees with maybe 10 or 15 years seniority should be worried about job security under the new regime and how they will ensure a secure future for their families.
For Agricore’s chief executive officer Gordon Cummings, the elimination of seniority is a crucial element in the company’s efforts to survive and prosper in a competitive business dominated by companies without unions and without seniority rules.
He said those rules could have prevented the company from putting the right people in key elevators or agro-centres.
“In the end we have a contract that allows us to compete even up,” he said. “And I’d like to think we have a contract that reflects what the farmers want.”
While there were many issues in dispute, including wages, hours of work and pensions, the key item was clearly the company’s desire to eliminate the seniority rights that had been part of the 25-year-old Manitoba Pool contract. There was no seniority in the old Alberta Wheat Pool contract, which had been in place seven years.
GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner said many members, especially those in Alberta, most of whom hadn’t gone on strike, weren’t willing to go to the wall on that issue.
“It was our impression that in order to break through their opposition at this time, we’d have to be prepared to go into the new year with the strike,” he said. “People had to make the realistic assessment of how much more pain they could endure and it looked like there was going to be considerably more.”
He described seniority rights as “a bedrock of trade unionism” and vowed that the union would fight to get them back in the next contract. The new agreement expires Dec. 31, 2001.
While 60 percent of the union membership voted in favor of the deal, it was essentially rejected by Manitoba and accepted by Alberta. Clouvier said many of his Manitoba co-workers are unhappy with the deal and the return to work.
“The contract is not in any way, shape or form as good as we had previously,” he said. “But you accept the verdict of the majority, and you just knuckle down and go back and do the best job you can.”
Wagner said there is some bitterness among Manitoba members, who made it clear they would have liked more support from their co-workers in Alberta. But at the same time they can understand why Alberta workers would find it difficult to fight for something they’ve never had.
Meet face-to-face
Cummings said he’s concerned that many employees are disgruntled with the settlement. He said senior managers will go on the road in January and meet with employees, particularly in Manitoba and the Peace River region, to talk about their concerns.
“We know we have to spend more time and do more things to communicate effectively to employees where we’re going as a company and how it affects them,” he said. “There is a lot of healing to do.”
Neither side would claim victory or concede defeat, saying there were gains and losses both ways.
There were improvements to benefits like the drug plan and life insurance. Hours of works will be based on an eight-hour day and 40-hour week, with six-month averaging. The first 40 hours of overtime will be taken as time off, with hours beyond that paid in cash. Casual employees will also earn overtime after an eight-hour, 40-hour week.
There will be a general two percent wage increase Jan. 1, 2000 and on Jan. 1, 2001. Employees whose jobs are eliminated and move to a lower paying position will keep their old wage for 12 months, then see it reduced by five percent annually to the new maximum rate.
Union and management agreed there will be no punishment of employees as a result of actions taken during the strike.
Some Western Producer staff, including the writer, are members of a separate local of the Grain Services Union.
