Workers Want to Be Respected by Olymel and We Are Not!
- Interview, Martin Maurice -
Olymel workers
demonstrate at Ministry of Labour office July 7, 2021 Martin Maurice is the President of the Olymel Vallée-Jonction-CSN Workers Union
Workers' Forum: How do you assess the most recent developments regarding the Vallée-Jonction workers' strike?
Martin Maurice: First of all, it is clear that Olymel
is not changing its attitude in negotiations. Since the plant has
existed, and since the last collective agreement renewal, there have
always been threats of closure. Those are still continuing. It's
Olymel's way -- making threats all the time to try to crush its people
instead of
treating the workers with respect.
The media is talking about an impasse in the strike. The impasse is
that the employer does not want to put money on the table. We're
fighting over 35 cents on a six-year contract right now. The parties
are separated by 35 cents on the wage increase. The employer says we
are asking for too much. I don't see an impasse otherwise. What
remains to be settled is the wage increases.
 We had an offer during
conciliation. The union was prepared to present that offer to the
membership at a meeting, but not to recommend it. The employer was
adamant that the union should recommend it, but we wouldn't do so. The
employer was not shy about going to the media to attack us.
They are doing everything they can to make workers angry, including
negotiating in public and threatening to close the plant.
We didn't want to recommend the offer but we did present it to our
members. Olymel took great pleasure in coming out publicly against us
when we said we were going to go to our members to discuss our mandate
and where things stood in negotiations. When we met with our members on
Tuesday morning, August 3, to present them with
the conciliator's proposal, they were in complete agreement with our
not recommending this proposal. The members are behind us,
supporting us in saying that we remain ready to negotiate and that the
employer must sit down with us and negotiate.
WF: Why is the issue of wages so important to workers at this point in this dispute?
MM: It's related to the whole history of Olymel here.
In 2007, we lost nearly 40 per cent of our wage. We no longer have a
pension fund. We had to give up everything or else Olymel would have
closed. The workers wanted to keep the plant open. It was not the
company that kept it open, it was the workers who sacrificed
everything. Many left, but others stayed. The employer also wanted to
smash everything in the collective agreement. We managed to prevent
that but still we see that the employer has no respect for the workers.
They are always trying to get more out of us. Between the 2007 wage and
today's wage, there is a $1.13 difference. A class one worker
earns $20.82 an hour today and in 2007 she or he earned $19.69. Our
current demand is for a $5.80 wage increase over the life of the
agreement. We were asking for more, and wanted to have an agreement
with the employer on that basis. We have reduced our demands and they
are still saying it is too much.
We also lost our pension plan in 2007. We don't have a pension plan
now. Having a pension plan will not be in this agreement either because
of the unacceptable conditions that the employer was demanding from the
workers to reinstate a pension plan. We said we would put all our
efforts into wages instead but they haven't made an
acceptable wage offer either.
Olymel can't say it's not making money. It has increased its sales
revenue by 52 per cent in the last three years. The money is flowing,
but very little of it goes back to the workers.
We were asking for a three-year collective agreement. During
negotiations, we agreed on five years. The employer went up to six
years and now they are asking for a seven year agreement. We were clear
and firm -- there will be no seven-year collective agreement.
Olymel is stretching out the conflict and trying to say that the
impasse is the fault of the union, so that the blame will fall on the
union if pigs are slaughtered. We're used to Olymel's methods. It's
always trying to scare people, to say that the problem is not them but
the workers, but they should look at their side to see where the
problem
is.
WF: Can you tell us about the health and safety conditions at the workplace?
MM: As far as health and safety in the workplace is
concerned, there is a lot of work to be done and there will be more to
do all the time. We have 400 work accidents per year. We have to work
on prevention and we must not stop working on it. In the last few
years, the employer has stopped working on health and safety.
There is a lot of work to be done to improve the conditions, to improve
the workstations and to ensure that there are fewer work accidents.
It's a dangerous job, it's assembly line work. Workers have 30 to 35
seconds to bone a piece and the assembly line never stops.
It's a serious problem to have an employer who doesn't have respect
for their workers in the present day. Workers deserve respect and the
employer does not respect us. Even when the present conflict is over, I
am not sure they will treat us with respect. Our situation will still be
difficult.
This article was published in
August 6, 2021 - No. 66
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08662.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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