Grand Forks Herald
By Greg Neiman
October 31, 2005
Beef Producers are Losers with Meat Plant Strike
Alberta's Government Should Protect its Investment in the Beef Industry
Red Deer, Alberta --There's something about strikes at meat-processing plants in Alberta that makes them scary. You'd have to think back pretty hard to find examples of strikes or lockouts in the province that have the nasty edge to them of, say, the Gainers' strike in Edmonton, Alberta, or the Fletcher's strike in Red Deer, Alberta.
And now, while the Cargill plant in High River, Alberta, and the Olymel plant
in Red Deer with their unionized work forces operate in relative peace, and
quite profitably, the workers at the high-volume, modern (and very profitable)
Tyson Foods plant in Brooks, Alberta, must endure some pretty nasty conditions
to secure a first contract like one at Cargill.
Labor Laws
It's no secret that labor laws in Alberta are weighted to favor employers. In
other provinces in Canada, labor law allows the government to impose a first
contract on a severely divided workplace, allowing a new union local and company
management some time to learn to work together.
Not here. Although the government offered a mediator to reach a contract that
would have to be accepted voluntarily, something the United Food and Commercial
Workers agreed to, the company refused.
In Alberta, if a company decides it doesn't like unions, there will be a
fight, with winners and losers. Or, more often, just losers.
This is sad, costly, needless and scary.
The government should not wait to step in until a picketing worker is run
over by a bus or a worker is injured crossing picket lines.
Alberta labor law should be amended quickly to let the government impose a
mediated settlement and mandate further bargaining toward a lasting labor peace.
Can't Afford to Wait
Canada's beef industry can't afford to wait to see how long Arkansas-based
Tyson Foods can carry the losses of a prolonged slowdown or how long the workers
can stay off the job in increasingly cold conditions.
At the very least, the government should move to protect its investment. More
than $30 million of Alberta tax dollars went to Tyson's Lakeside plant in Brooks
as part of the stabilization program to assist the Alberta beef industry during
the mad cow crisis.
They were the largest single beneficiary of the program, which saw hundreds
of Alberta beef producers put in danger of losing their entire farms.
Throw in the federal subsidies and the total grows to more than $40 million.
The government also should move to protect its investment in the workers.
About 70 percent of the workers at Lakeside are immigrants. As our province's
labor shortage has increased in intensity, the government has gone to a lot of
effort and expense to promote Alberta as a destination for workers from abroad.
Now those efforts are being eroded by the message that this strike sends out to the world: Alberta workers must be satisfied with low pay and no union protection, in favor of a foreign-owned company.
Costing Producers, Taxpayers and Workers
This strike is costing beef producers a lot of money.
It is costing Brooks and all Alberta taxpayers a lot of money to bolster police services for the town.
It certainly is costing the workers.
It blackens the international reputation of Alberta as a place of opportunity.
Without some kind of outside intervention, conditions on the picket lines will get worse and more scary before they get better.
What's even more scary is the reluctance of the provincial government to catch up to the rest of Canada on its labor laws.
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