The 225 members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1518 voted in the union and then went on strike to demand a contract. The company hires only immigrant workers for production jobs, most of them women.

Ramparkash Sharma, the chief shop steward, said the company "thought they could do whatever they wanted. That's why we fought for the union." Superior Poultry defeated an attempt in 1992 to organize a union, Sharma said, in which the company fired some 30 union supporters. "This time they failed. Our people were stronger than last time." The Pollon Group, which owns Superior, is the largest poultry producer in British Columbia and until now has managed to keep unions out of three of its four plants.

The 1992 fight to organize a union took place in the midst of a labor retreat that lasted until the late 1990s. In contrast, when the poultry workers went out on strike last summer, 12,000 woodworkers had just pushed back an attempt by forest companies to impose major concessions on them, and several thousand Vancouver hotel workers were on strike. UFCW members at Fletcher's Fine Foods also voted down company demands for a 40 percent wage cut and set up picket lines after being locked out by the bosses.

Jagroop Dhaliwal, a union member at Superior Poultry, stressed that the company tried to break the strike by calling in the White Knights security company from Alberta. The antilabor outfit was used in Alberta against meat packers who struck Fletcher's in 1999. "They threatened us" Dhaliwal explained. "They said, Jagroop, we know where you live. But I didn't care. I knew this was only threats."

Facing a determined walkout, the company applied for compulsory arbitration, effectively admitting defeat. The arbitrator had no choice but to impose a first contract. In her report the arbitrator explained that although up to 60 workers crossed the picket lines, from the beginning the company was only able to carry out production "in a limited fashion. The Employer lost business and one of its major customers" especially as a result of the union's boycott campaign, the report said.

Union member Somjit Wongpim said the fight against company abuse of workers and discrimination was one of the issues in the union struggle. "They abuse employees," Wongpim said of the bosses. "They don't respect human rights. I tell them I can't do" a particularly hard job, she said. "They say they don't care. I have to do it."

Workers, the majority of whom are women with children, were also forced to work up to 14-hour days six days a week. Wongpim explained that this meant that she would either have to pay for a baby-sitter or have her husband stay home to look after the children.

The new contract says that "the company will limit overtime hours of work as far as reasonably possible." Some workers consider this to mean that overtime will now be voluntary. Wongpim said it would be up to the union to fight to limit overtime. The new contract imposes a seven-day workweek. This means that workers will be forced to work some weekends, and will work different days from one week to the next.

Dhaliwal explained that the contract itself, which was imposed by compulsory arbitration, falls far short of what the workers were fighting for. The arbitrator appointed by the Labour Relations Board, a provincial government body, admitted that her proposals were based on recognizing "the economic realities" of the company.

Dhaliwal said the pay rate is much lower than at other unionized poultry plants. There will be a modest wage increase for the lowest paid workers. Although starting pay will go up to $8 an hour from $7.15, wages will rise much more rapidly than before, topping out at $10.65 after 18 months.

The company had sought to convince a layer of workers to cross the picket lines by offering them $12 to $14 an hour. Apart from the workers who refused to join the strike from the beginning only four others crossed the picket lines during the strike.  
 
 
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