It’s election time for more than 1,200 workers at Canada’s newest and
biggest grain company.
Employees of Agricore United’s country operations division are voting
on whether to join the Grain Services Union.
If more than half of them say yes, the union and company management
will set to work negotiating a collective agreement to cover such
things as wages, benefits and job security.
Ballots were sent out Feb. 15 and are to be mailed back to the Canada
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Industrial Relations Board by March 14, with the results announced a
few days later.
GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner expressed confidence the majority of
employees will vote in favour of the union.
“Our organizers continue to report a very positive response, so we’re
looking for that to be reflected in the outcome in the ballot,” he said
in a Feb. 20 interview.
An AU spokesperson wouldn’t predict the outcome of the vote, saying
only that it’s the employees’ choice.
“We’re encouraging everyone who is eligible to vote to cast their
ballot,” said Tracey Bryksa. “The more who vote, the more
representative the outcome is.”
But she also made it clear the company hopes employees reject the
union, saying a “direct working relationship” between management and
employees is in the best interests of the company and the workers.
“We believe we have better and more direct communications between the
employee and the company without the union being involved,” she said.
“But ultimately it is the employees’ choice and we respect that.”
Wagner said the union has been talking to employees about the benefits
of union membership, including such things as higher wages, increased
job security and more control over working conditions.
He said the GSU has also been providing some non-unionized workers with
basic education about what unions do.
“There are a lot of misconceptions,” he said, citing as an example
misinformation being circulated that a vote to join the union was the
same as a vote to go on strike.
The vote was made necessary by last fall’s merger of Agricore
Co-operative and United Grain Growers to create AU.
Agricore’s country employees were members of the GSU, while UGG’s were
non-unionized.
Roughly 1,250 employees of AU are eligible to vote. That group includes
about 600 who are members of the GSU by virtue of their previous
employment with Agricore, and another 650 non-unionized workers who
were previously employed by Agricore or UGG.
Ballots were also sent to about 60 employees who are on permanent
layoff from AU but have not officially severed their employment. The
CIRB has yet to rule on whether their votes will be counted.
If the vote favours the union, then the two sides would begin
collective bargaining for a new contract. In the meantime, former
Agricore employees will remain covered by the old GSU-Agricore
contract, while former UGG employees will have their terms and co
nditions of employment frozen until a contract is achieved.
The outcome of the vote is also crucial to the GSU itself, which will
either gain 650 new dues-paying members or lose 600.
That has big financial implications for the union, which has seen its
membership shrink in recent years due to layoffs and cutbacks at
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
Most Western Producer employees are members of a different local of the
Grain Services Union.
