The last time two major grain companies consolidated into one, things didn’t work out well for the Grain Services Union or its members.
In 2001, Agricore Co-operative merged with United Grain Growers to created Agricore United.
Country employees of Agricore were represented by the GSU, while UGG employees were non-unionized.
A few months later, in a federally supervised vote, employees voted 60 percent against joining the union, and the union lost its certification.
Now the union faces a similar situation, as Agricore United and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool prepare to combine into one company.
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Hugh Wagner, general secretary of the GSU, said last week the union intends to assert that all of the certification orders it has in place covering 700 existing Pool employees should remain in effect under the new company.
Wagner said the union’s position is that any Saskatchewan-based AU employees joining the new company should be automatically covered under certification orders and collective agreements in place in the province.
As for the other two provinces, the union will argue that they should have the right to set up bargaining units within the GSU by signing union cards and being certified by the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
Both the Pool and AU now have about 700 country employees, although with the sale of 24 AU elevators and a number of farm service centres to Cargill and JRI as part of the takeover deal, AU’s workforce will be reduced.
A Pool spokesperson said last week issues involving employee representation by the GSU in the new company will have to go through the proper labour regulatory and legal channels, and declined further comment.
The combination of the two companies is bound to lead to job losses, but the Pool has yet to release any estimates of the numbers involved.
Some employees of the Western Producer are members of a different local of the Grain Services Union.
