Meat, poultry workers battle for union rights in British Columbia
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BY BEVERLY BERNARDO
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--Members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1518 in British Columbia's lower mainland are waging two important fights against Superior Poultry and Fletcher's Fine Foods.
On July 23 some 225 unionists at Superior Poultry in Coquitlam went on strike to back their demands for a first contract. A month later the bosses at Fletcher's Fine Foods in Vancouver locked out 400 UFCW members after they voted 345 to 13 against the company's demands to cut base wages to $10.00 from $16.50, and for other major concessions. Both groups of workers remain determined to win their fights against the two companies, which are major employers in the food industry.
Superior Poultry is part of the Pollon group, the largest poultry producer in the province, which has four plants and only one with a union contract. Fletcher's Fine Foods, which has changed its corporate name to Premium Brands Inc., had a record first quarter this year, with sales of Can$100.3 million (Can$1=US 67 cents). It has 12 other manufacturing plants in Canada and the United States.
On June 11, unionists at Superior, all of them immigrant workers and 80 percent women, voted 98.5 percent to strike, demanding improvements in wages and working conditions. Workers are hired on at Can$7.15 an hour, the minimum wage in the province of British Columbia. They have no medical, dental, or pension benefits. Overtime is mandatory, with 12-hour days six days a week the norm.
Ending harassment by the bosses and asserting their right to be treated with dignity are themes stressed by workers on the picket line. Adela Isley, who works in the evisceration department, said in an interview, "The company cares more about the chickens than they do about the people here, because they only care about the profits they make."
Superior Poultry continues production with about 50 workers who crossed the picket line at the start of the strike. The scabs are driven into the plant in buses with covered windows. UFCW Local 1518 estimates that Superior Poultry is spending between $10,000 to $15,000 per day on the squad of security goons who have harassed and tried to provoke the strikers and their supporters. This has included 24-hour video surveillance, following strikers home, and ripping "on strike" signs off strikers' bodies, including tearing up the signs and throwing it back at them.
The provincial Supreme Court is scheduled to rule in late September on a union petition seeking an injunction against the company for "attempting to incite violence on the picket line." UFCW business agent Jim Wells said charges laid by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that strikers were uttering death threats and causing mischief were thrown out by the attorney general's office for lack of evidence September 23.
UFCW members at Fletcher's Fine Foods are staffing their picket lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Many locked-out workers have added their own slogans to the picket signs. Several read "No to 40 percent wage cuts." Another popular slogan is "Workers to pay $30 an hour to use the washroom--no way!"
Fletcher's lockout
Fletcher's insulting contract proposal included a clause that would have workers pay for any time they use the washroom during their work time; if they use it for more than 20 minutes during the week they would pay double time, and if they use it for more than 20 minutes 12 weeks in a row they would be obliged to pay triple time. A sign posted on the fence in front of the entrance used by the workers reads, "Workers make the company rich, the company makes the workers poor." No production is taking place at the plant.
Two years prior to the August 19 lockout, Fletcher's had imposed 40 percent wage cuts on UFCW members at its Red Deer slaughterhouse. Management then demanded that UFCW Local 1518 members reopen their contract--which expired on May 31, 2000--otherwise the Vancouver plant would shut down. Workers soundly rejected the company's ultimatum at the time and remain unmoved by Fletcher's continuing threats to close the plant. "I'd rather this company shut down permanently than accept their ridiculous concessions," stated Chandra, an electrician with six years in the plant. "The bosses never understood how willing we are to fight."
Many workers at Fletcher's see their fight as part of a more general effort by working people to resist concession demands by the employers. "If we don't fight here, the bosses will roll back wages all over B.C. [British Columbia]," explained Mangal Purewal, who has worked on the cut line for 11 years.
Many Fletcher's workers have been to the Superior Poultry picket line to express their solidarity with that fight. About a dozen Fletcher's workers attended the 400-strong August 22 rally in front of the Superior Poultry plant. When Derrick O'Keefe, a member of UFCW Local 2000 at Grimm's Sausages--a company owned by Fletcher's--came to the line, locked-out workers immediately handed him a pile of leaflets explaining the issues in the strike. "If Fletcher's succeeds with us, they'll be coming after you guys next," they said.
As well, Local 1518 members at Fletcher's are encouraged by Superior Poultry strikers leafleting at Costco, one of Superior Poultry's biggest customers for its products marketed under the Valley Farms label. After a legal wrangle over their right to distribute literature, strikers report Costco has stopped stocking Superior Poultry products. They are now targeting the Church's Chicken restaurant chain that is supplied by Superior Poultry.
Many Fletcher's workers are eager to begin similar efforts to reach out to build support for their fight. On September 14 UFCW 1518 placed an ad in the Vancouver daily, The Province, urging people not to buy Fletcher's Fine Food products.
Beverly Bernardo is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1518, and is locked out by Fletcher's Fine Foods. Ned Dmytryshyn and Derrick O'Keefe contributed to this article.
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