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Food Retail Workers in Canada Ratify a New Contract

Members of UFCW Local 832 who work at the Red River Co-op in the city of Selkirk in Manitoba, Canada, recently ratified a new contract.

Red River Co-op is a busy grocery store with a group of welcoming and friendly UFCW Local 832 members who work hard to ensure that quality items, such as treats from the bakery or a special cut of beef, are readily available for their customers.

Highlights from the new contract include:

•           Adding the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Orange Shirt Day), which honors indigenous children who were taken away through the Canadian residential “school” system, to the list of general holidays.

•           Increasing wages by 20¢ on the scales and 50¢ for top rates and overscaled.

•           Deleting a wage scale for clerks hired prior to December 19, 2020, that allowed the employer to pay those clerks less than the clerks hired after that date.

“We couldn’t have done this without the commitment of our committee and our members at the store,” said UFCW Local 832 Union Negotiator Joe Carreiro.

OSH Office Holds Workplace Safety Training in Texas

The UFCW Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Office team held an OSHA 10-hour general industry outreach training for Region 5 locals in Grapevine, Texas, on April 8 and 9.

International and regional staff, and representatives from UFCW Locals 455, 540 and 1000 attended the OSHA 10-hour course, which was facilitated by OSH Office Director Roy McAllister and OSH Specialist Victoria Valentina and emphasized the importance and utility of incorporating safety and health conversations when organizing and servicing our members.

The OSHA 10-hour course covered mandatory topics, such as an introduction to OSHA; walking and working surfaces; personal protective equipment; electrical safety; hazard communications; and exit routes and fire prevention plans. Elective topics covered included safety and health programs; machine guarding; and workplace violence. During the training session, participants applied what they learned to their day-to-day jobs by collaborating on exercises, and brainstorming union-based solutions for hypothetical scenarios revolving around safety and health concerns, such as slips, trips, and falls, and amputation near-misses due to lack of machine guarding.

“[This training] gives me something to back it up when I go and talk to management,” said one of the attendees. “I can go and say, ‘hey man, that’s OSHA code XYZ,’ and they’ll have to oblige me, they can’t just blow me off.”

“I think it’s very informative and it will help us with our co-workers at work making sure we’re safe,” said an attendee. “And the people we’re organizing, too; it can help let them see how the safety at their work can affect their lives, and how a union can help with that, too.”

If your local is interested in coordinating an OSHA 10-hour or 30-hour outreach training with the OSH Office team, contact OSH Office Director Roy McAllister at rmcallister@ufcw.org or OSH Specialist Victoria Valentina at vvalentina@ufcw.org.