Meat cutters at Saskatoon’s Intercontinental Packers have reluctantly agreed to consider lowering wages for new workers.
Fred Mitchell, the president of the hog slaughter and processing company, asked union officials to open their contract so that new workers will start at a lower rate and will top out at $14.25 per hour – $2.36 less than senior meat cutters are now paid.
Present employees will work under the old wage structure set out in their contract, which expires in 2000. Employees will vote on Mitchell’s proposal in September.
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Union local president Maurice Werezak said union officials are recommending workers accept the proposal because it may be the only way to stave off the brutal wage reductions inflicted on employees by Maple Leaf Foods in Burlington, Ont. and Fletcher’s Fine Foods in Red Deer, Alta.
The Burlington workers agreed to wage cuts near 40 percent after a strike, while Red Deer workers accepted a similar cut after their lockout/strike.
“I don’t like a two-tiered wage system,” conceded Werezak. “But we want to keep our members who are currently employed at the same rate of pay they are currently working at.”
He said the union committee accepted that Intercontinental would have trouble competing if its wages were far higher.
Mitchell has earned the respect of workers because of his dedication to the plant and his plan to add 300 jobs when provincial hog production increases, Werezak said.
Intercontinental workers are unhappy about new workers starting at lower wages, but their anger is directed at their company’s competitors, Werezak said.
“I absolutely despise what Maple Leaf and Fletcher’s has done.”
