Locked-out workers at a Sask-atchewan hog barn returned to the job last week, their dispute still unresolved.
The 13 locked-out employees at Bear Hills Pork Producers near Perdue have filed for first agreement arbitration with the Saskatchewan Labor Relations Board. It’s an option available to employers and workers who are seeking their first contract.
The move brings the lockout to an end, but the dispute lingers and the fate of the workers is now in the hands of the labor relations board.
Members of the Grain Services Union local 1450 provided the board with a list of outstanding issues and their latest position on those issues May 15. The company has 14 days to do the same.
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The board has two options: it can appoint a mediator to try and resolve the dispute within 120 days; or it can go straight to a hearing where both sides will present their case in front of a three-person panel.
If the board chooses to appoint a mediator, the union has requested that person not come from the provincial labor department.
“We requested that because we believe that the department of labor and anyone attached to the government of Saskatchewan comes to the process with a bias,” said GSU spokesperson Larry Hubich.
He said the bias stems from the department’s decision to exempt hog barn workers from provincial labor standards and from the government’s record of backing hog barn initiatives.
The mediator may not be an issue because Hubich anticipates the case will go straight to a hearing. A letter from the labor relations board confirming the GSU’s application for first agreement arbitration indicates that a hearing is the direction the board is likely to take.
Hubich said the three-person panel will consist of the chair or vice-chair of the labor relations board as well as a member from the business community and another from the trade union community.
“Really it comes down to a decision of the chair or vice-chair.”
The employees will continue to work at the barns while they await the board’s decision. They returned to work May 15, a day Hubich said the workers described as “rather tense.”
John La Clare is chief operating officer of Heartland Livestock Services, which is the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool affiliate that owns Bear Hills Pork Producers. He is pleased with the way the workers handled themselves upon their return.
“From our point of view the return went really quite well.”
La Clare said employees will be working under the conditions that existed prior to the lockout until the board renders its decision.
Hubich said there are five main areas where the employer and the union do not agree:
- Hours of work.
- Statutory holiday pay.
- Allowance for safety clothing and footwear.
- Benefits package.
- Length of the agreement.
La Clare agreed that those topics are the main bones of contention. He said the company will file its position to the labor relations board within the 14-day deadline.
“We expect the process to start shortly.”
