Lakeside?

[cowman]

I caught a little blurb on the news that a strike is pretty well a given at Lakeside? The guy being quoted said the cops are gearing up for it as it looks like it could get pretty violent! Reading into that I suspect Tyson intends to try to bring in replacement workers to operate the plant? Now I wonder where they are going to get replacement workers?
All this over 30 cents an hour difference? The same deal both Cargill and XL signed with their workers? What kind of game is Tyson playing?
Obviously Tyson does not want to deal with a union and intends to get rid of them no matter what the cost.
Now that is their right, but should the rest of us be held hostage because of their ideology? Should the Canadian taxpayer be held accountable for the extra policing costs because they choose to not pay 30 cents an hour?
Somewhere down the line Tyson should be held accountable for their actions whether it be a boycott of their products or producers refusing to sell them cattle. They shouldn't be allowed to disrupt a whole industry for a sleazy ideology and greed.

[cowman]

RCMP are bringing in members from across the province to assist in keeping things under control at Lakeside. If major oil industries aren't able to attract workers it is going to be interesting to see where Tyson will get them from.
The province has been involved in some sort of mediation but obviously it hasn't worked.

[Horse]

What is the payscale for tyson ? I havent seen any$ amounts on the strike situation but if you are right about 30 cents then it does seen stupid.
Hell why strike just go get another higher paying job? Didnt I hear that on here somewhere?

[Horse]

I guess the main problem with Lakeside workers getting another job is that most of them are immigrants that likely don't have skill sets that would lend themselves to work in the oil industry.
30 cents does seem pretty petty, however, there may be an issue with benefits as well.

[Horse]

it is to bad thinks at lakeside is going
this way !this large us plant has made milliuns of dollars on our canadian beef while the r-calf closed the border on us.
we have toured the plant inside well i tell you no white men or women is going to work there .
at twelfe dollar per hour no wonder we need the r-c-m-p to come in next week.our canadian taxpayer has to cover these giant corporate non union
plants
our fat cattle will be down again this week.
at cargill we don,t have thes problems !

[Horse]

jerryk is twelve dollars an hour the base rate at Lakeside ? Seems pretty low given the type of work involved. Local 7-11 is paying $18.00 an hour for the night shift !!!

[Rodjam]

I am not a big fan of unions but large companies like this sure make it easier to side with them. If Walmart can shut out the unions I guess Tyson can try as well.

[Rodjam]

I read yesterday that a large group of Lakeside workers are breaking away from the union in hopes of averting a strike.
Maybe someone else reading this site can remember when Gainers ( ??) had a huge strike in Edmonton not that many years ago. I can't remember all the details but I do remember watching on TV when busses full of replacement workers were trying to get through the picket lines.

[murgen]

The Gainers strike? Isn't that when they ended up shutting the plant and moved everything to Winnipeg, or was it the other way around? I believe the whole time during the strike, the Union was negotiating, with the company, and knew what was going to happen, but never did tell their members!

[murgen]

I asked a few people at work today about the Gainers strike, it was Peter Polkington that owned Gainers at the time and there was considerable violence when replacement workers went across the picket lines. Latest report is that the Army may have to go in if things get rough in Brooks tomorrow morning.

[cowman]

Actually I believe the Gainers strike was a lockout as Pocklington tried to impose a drastic pay cut? The facts were Pocklington played his cards right to get some more money out of the Alberta government and had no intention of continuing running the plant. The land it was sitting on was worth a lot more than the business was ever worth and Pocklington had a long reputation of ripping off the various governments?
Truly a robber baron?
I believe Tyson has every intention of breaking the union...that is what this is all about? People who link Cargill in the same boat as Lakeside really have no clue? While Cargill is a tough business they are not operating on the scale of dirty tactics that Lakeside does? If you know anyone who works at Lakeside...ask them about how they operate?

[kato]

Wouldn't surprise me if this is a shot at union breaking.

How can Lakeside say with a straight face that they can't afford to pay their workers? After the two years they have just put in? Puleeezzz.....

Get rid of the union, and they are left with a large part of their workforce that is made up of immigrants who very likely have nowhere else to go. A captive workforce. No options. If I was one of those workers, I sure wouldn't want my future and security in the hands of the likes of Tyson.

After all, we've all seen how the welfare of those who supply the primary product has been front and center in the priorities down at corporate headquarters eh? I would think the workers are no more important than we are.

Maybe the McCains will send some Maple Leaf recruiters to Brooks so they can get the second shift at the hog plant in Brandon up and running? Would these guys rather work at Lakeside, where they are obviously not very valued, or work in a plant that has been known to have draws for a free truck for workers with perfect attendance..... mmmm....

[farmers_son]

Since 1947 and up to 1984 wages in Canadian packing plants were established by an industry wide national contract. Burns challenged the right of the union to establish a national contract and demanded that the UFCW bargain on a plant by plant basis. The national contract was not upheld by labour relations boards in Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba. The UFCW struck but effectively lost. Lakeside hired non union workers to work through the strike at $3 an hour less than the national wage. Lakeside decertified after a long and protracted strike/lockout and has resisted efforts by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) to re-organize them ever since.

However a walkout by 70 plant workers in April, 2004 to protest bad working conditions gave the first indication that attitudes were changing inside the plant. The company, instead of bringing in the workers and dealing with their concerns, simply fired all of them. That gave UFCW an opening that they quickly seized. UFCW 401 successfully certified the plant in a vote on August 27, 2004. The organization of the 2,100 workers at Lakeside is the most significant successful union drive in Alberta in the past 20 years..

The union won the certification vote 905 to 857 - a majority of 51.4 percent.

Lakeside Packers is owned by Tyson Foods - the world's largest processor and marketer of chicken and red meat products with annual sales in excess of $23 billion U.S. There are unionized Tyson plants in the United States. The Washington DC based UFCW has 1.4 million members throughout North America. The UFCW successfully organized workers in several Walmarts in Canada, all of which then closed. The UFCW is working to unionize farm workers. See:

http://www.ufcw.ca/media/family_farm_leaflet.pdf

The Gainers strike in 1986 resulted when the owners of Gainers, Peter Pocklinton decided not to renew a contract with the unionized workers and brought in non unionized workers in their place. The strike was settled in December 1986 when Premier Getty persuaded Pocklinton to settle with the union.

Prior to the strike Pocklington was bailed out by his Tory pals in the Provincial government, the taxpayers paid $22 million to keep Gainers afloat. After the strike when Pocklington couldn't pay off his debts to the Alberta government, they seized Gainers and sold it to Burns Foods of Calgary.

Burns, owned by Arthur Childes another long time Tory bagman and supporter, threatened to shut the plant if workers didn't take a three year wage freeze. Burns then sold the plant to Maple Leaf Foods, owned by a member of the McCain family, (McCain Foods Ltd.) Maple Leaf shut down the plant in 1997 after the UFCW striked at the Edmonton plant. Maple Leaf responded to the strike by seeking an injunction to allow trucks through picket lines at its Edmonton, Alberta, packing plant so it could remove the processing equipment. 900 workers were laid off. Maple Leaf opened up a plant in Brandon Manitoba with equipment moved from the Gainers plant in Edmonton, equipment that was bought with Alberta government money. The Edmonton plant was 91 years old. The UFCW responded to the Edmonton plant closure UFCW by announcing a toothless consumer boycott of Maple Leaf and then agreeing to job cuts and wage reductions of $6 an hour at Maple Leaf plants in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.

Tyson's shares were up 18 cents, or 1.02 percent, at $17.88 at the New York Stock Exchange this morning Wednesday October 12.

[cowman]

If you read the propoganda in the papers Tyson claims it is offering a wage from $12 to $18 hour with $12 being the starting wage. Sunterra has an ad in the paper offering $10.75 as a starting wage.
The spokesman for Tyson said it isn't about money but about working conditions...most notably overtime? I suspect this means Tyson doesn't want to pay time and one half for anything over 40 hours and probably wants compulsary overtime?
Watched the news last night and they showed the two busses of workers being turned back at the picket lines. I don't think the union is going to win this one as the "replacement workers" are regular union members? If it gets ugly won't that be a wonderful place to work once this all gets settled?
At the calf sale yesterday there was some concern if this strike drags on for very long it could affect prices and the biggest problem could be cull cows? Tyson has been buying cows and now that market will dry up? We really don't need that scenerio this year as there are a lot of old cows looking for a place to go this year?

[sagewood]

I agree, we certainly don't need the strike at Lakeside to be ongoing. In this oil-rich province,, when every other industry gets support, why oh why cannot the government say that there must be certain 'humane' working conditions, i.e. bathroom breaks when needed, health considerations etc. It was my understanding that the workers are not complaining so much about the money, but about the 'slave-type' conditions that they work in--i.e. cannot get to the washroom when needed, but only allowed to go when 'scheduled'. Now I can understand how the line work would be interrupted if everyone was off to the washroom at the same time, however, some common sense could prevail here.

I do think that the Alberta government has the right to wade into this situation, after Tyson very happily taking 33 million of our taxpayer dollars just last year--I think we as taxpayers and people in the beef industry who are being unjustly penalized yet again have a right to have someone intercede on our behalf. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am really getting sick and tired of the American-owned bullies destroying our cattle industry. How many more years do we have to work at off-farm jobs just to keep the farm runnning? Everyone was so hopeful this fall that a bumper crop would be likely and that cattle prices would be up and then mother nature has ruined most of the crop grades and now the greedy Americans are finishing off the rest of our hope for a decent pay cheque this fall. I pretty well have had enough of the Americans--but by god when they want our wood, water and oil--look out--they will just take it--until then, we dance to their tune.