Retail workers with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) have been on strike for months in Saskatchewan and Ontario. On Oct. 2, approximately 200 employees at the Moose Jaw Co-op served strike notice over the issue of two-tiered contracts. On Nov. 1, fellow UFCW Local 1400 members at the Saskatoon Co-op followed suit, with more than 900 employees walking off the job after a two-year contract dispute. Workers at Baxtrom’s Your Independent Grocer (YIG) in Cornwall went on strike on Nov. 23, after rejecting a contract offer that would have locked UFCW Local 1600A members into long contracts with no living wage increase. The Moose Jaw strike was resolved on Nov. 7, but the others continue to drag on. Though the strikes involve different employers, they are united in the shared struggle of workers for a living wage.
The issue of two-tiered contracts was central to the strikes at the Moose Jaw and Saskatoon Co-ops. Workers at the Moose Jaw Co-op MarketPlace (grocery store), Agro Centre (farm supplies), Gas Bar and gas stations initially went on strike over new hires—those brought on since the last collective agreement—being paid less for doing the same work. Of this lower tier of employees, 78 per cent are women. UFCW Local 1400 members in Moose Jaw rejected two strike notices before 90 per cent voted to strike in October. At the Saskatoon Co-op, UFCW Local 1400 rejected a contract offer that would have seen the wages of new hires slashed by $8,000 per year. Saskatoon Co-op employees hit the picket lines in November for the first time in 35 years. As of this writing, they remain on the picket lines.
The demand for wage cuts by Co-op employees is particularly egregious given that the companies’ parent firm, Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL), reported a record $1.1 billion in profits for 2018. Well-paid FCL executives declare that new employees must accept lower wages than existing ones, the same kind of two-tiered contracts that have been increasingly forced on workers in recent decades. Two-tiered contracts are a cancer within the labour movement that must be opposed at all costs. They weaken unions from within by sowing divisions between older and younger members, reducing the collective strength of unions and the labour movement as a whole.
Unfortunately, the contract that was agreed upon after the conclusion of the strike in Moose Jaw preserves a two-tiered wage differential. The union leaders could report only that they had reduced the pay difference between new and existing employees. Such an agreement does nothing to reduce the corrosive effects of two-tiered contracts on workers and the labour movement.
The continuing fight of UFCW Local 1400 members at the Saskatoon Co-op must therefore be supported by all workers and youth who face the continued erosion of wages and living conditions represented by two-tiered contracts. The Saskatoon Co-op include stores in Saskatoon, Martensville, Warman, Colonsay, and Watrous. Since the onset of the strike, pickets have seen visits from “security guards” employed by the “private security firm” Evident Corporate Investigations. Picketers have reported Evident personnel following and intimidating them, threatening to have workers’ vehicles towed, and refusing to present their licenses as required by law.
In Cornwall, UFCW Local 1600A is also resisting the assault on living wages through their strike at Baxtrom’s YIG, a franchise of grocery giant Loblaw Companies Ltd. The initial contract offered to the union by owner/operator John Baxtrom would have locked workers into long contracts with no living wage increase to account for erosion in spending power caused by inflation. Under the terms of the contract, even workers who had been employed by Baxtrom’s YIG for decades would still have earned a wage only 60 cents higher than the minimum wage of $11.06/hour—one of the lowest in Canada. Baxtrom’s YIG workers went on strike calling for higher wages and more short-term contracts. As of this writing, they too remain on strike.
The protracted nature of the strikes in Saskatoon and Cornwall has meant the appearance of scab labour. Shamefully, since the strikes began, an estimated 160 Saskatoon Co-op workers have crossed picket lines and returned to work, as have 20 unionized workers at Baxtrom’s YIG. With both the Saskatoon Co-op and Baxtrom’s YIG remaining open for business, communities face a division between shoppers who are willing to cross picket lines, and those who refuse to do so. As picketing workers continue to brave the winter cold, both UFCW locals have urged residents in Saskatoon and Cornwell not to shop at their respective stores until the strike is resolved.
The struggle for a living wage is an issue that affects all working people. Two-tiered contracts and lengthy contracts without an annual wage increase are just two of the ways that workers’ standard of living is being pushed down to maintain corporate profits. All workers and youth must support those on the front lines of the fight against wage cuts.
For a living wage! Against two-tiered contracts!
Picket lines mean do not cross!
Support UFCW Local 1400 and Local 1600A!
