The new proposal by the bosses to United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1518 still calls for big concessions, including a permanent two-tier wage scale with significantly lower rates for new workers. For example, under the previous contract wages for a laborer rise during three years service to Can$16.50 (Can$1=US 67 cents, subsequent figures are all in Canadian dollars). The company is now proposing a laborer hired before the lockout top out at $13.20. New hires would start at $9.50 and get a raise to $10.75 after one year and remain at that rate until the end of the contract. The company is also demanding the contract expire in 2007, with no wage hikes except for laborers who get an increase after one year of service.

"The workers don't like this new proposal, it is no good," explained Coconut, a Vietnamese worker who has been at Fletcher's since 1981. This was a common sentiment on the picket line. "I don't agree with the two-tier system" said Juatco, a meat cutter. "Somebody new could only get up to $10.75 and then wouldn't get a wage increase for the next six years. You can't live on that." Victor Brusovenanu, a maintenance worker, said, "We should be going for a 10 percent wage increase, not a wage cut. They locked us out. The cost of living keeps going up, not down."

The company's proposal includes two "buyouts." To qualify, workers who are locked out must return to the job for 90 days, at which point they will receive the buyout by either resigning outright or going down to the lower, tier two wage rates.

Several workers noted that the fact that the company has made this latest proposal shows that they want to keep the plant open and resume production. Since 1998, when the company sought to reopen the last contract and push through concessions, the bosses have threatened to close the plant or significantly reduce operations. Coconut explained that this tactic by the company has been used in previous contract negotiations as well. "Since 1987 or 1988 they've been saying that they'll close down."

While talks are ongoing, the union has agreed to the company's request to postpone its leafleting campaign, which urges consumers to boycott Fletcher's products. The leaflets that members have been distributing at local grocery stores also urge consumers not to buy products from Superior, Hallmark, or United Poultry, three companies owned by the Pollon group, British Columbia's largest poultry processor.

More than 200 UFCW Local 1518 members at Superior Poultry in Coquitlam near here have been on strike for six months, fighting for a first contract. The starting wage at the chicken processing facility is the provincial minimum, which the government recently increased to $7.60 an hour from $7.15.

Derrick O'Keefe is a laid-off member of UFCW Local 2000. Joe Young, a meat packer, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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