After setting a precedent with a Metro strike in the
Workers voted 88 per cent in favour of the deal, which
The union represents more than 1,600 workers at the 11 stores, which are owned by
"Unifor’s strategic and sector-wide bargaining strategy for supermarket workers has delivered the largest wage gains Dominion workers have ever seen,"
The deal also includes signing bonuses, a lower threshold of hours for part-time workers to get health benefits, and a commitment from the employer to create 22 new full-time jobs within a year.
That month-long strike at 27 Metro stores last summer resulted in a new contract that
"I guess they didn't want to put up a fight with
The last time Dominion workers were in bargaining, in 2020, they went on strike for 12 weeks. This time they didn't even take a strike vote, Wrice said. A tentative deal was reached after one day of conciliation.
The strike in 2020 was a fraught one, with workers spurred on by the recent loss of so-called pandemic hero pay, said
Four years later, many of the concerns that led to the strike in 2020 are still in existence, but heightened, he said -- like wages, full-time work and corporate profits. Others more recently came to a head, like inflation, or the mounting public frustration with the major grocers.
Black said he had expected the Dominion workers to strike again. The fact they didn't means they must have seen the deal as pretty good, he said.
"Had the deal been insulting to the membership," things might have been different, said Black.
King said
"It's clear that ... there was a lot of pent-up frustration, especially on the wage front," he said.
Between hero pay, inflation and grocery profits, it's not surprising that workers have seized this opportunity to make significant gains, King said.
After the Metro workers ratified their deal,
So far it's been successful. For example, the union achieved a similar agreement for No Frills workers at 17 Ontario stores in November.
However, it's hard to know how much the pattern set by Metro factored into the subsequent deals, said Black, and how much it was simply the economic backdrop of inflation. The current frustration with grocers is likely helping boost workers' bargaining power, he added: "These are not popular businesses right now."
Even though inflation has waned from its highs, it's clear that wages are still an urgent issue for workers who have lost purchasing power since their last agreement, King said.
"For workers who are in a collective agreement, they've got to kind of wait till their time comes to address those issues."
There's no knowing what the economic backdrop will be when all these grocery collective agreements expire, many not for five years, said Black. But he thinks the unions will be up for another round of fighting.
"I think that the unions in the grocery sector are fighting hard (and) trying to establish patterns with decent contracts, to build a better floor for wages and working conditions in a sector which has experienced for years and years now downward pressures on wages and working conditions," he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published
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