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Workers at four city grain elevators vote to reject final contract offer

THUNDER BAY -- A labour dispute could be on the horizon at the city’s grain elevators.
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United Steelworkers local staff representative Herb Daniher said workers at four city grain elevators on Friday voted by a "firm majority" to reject final contract offer from Lakehead Terminal Elevators Association. (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- A labour dispute could be on the horizon at the city’s grain elevators.

Grain workers at four city plants on Friday rejected the final offer from the Lakehead Terminal Elevators Association, the collaborative that represents the three major companies in Thunder Bay.

United Steelworkers local staff representative Herbert Daniher said a “firm majority” of the members voted against the offer.

“We’ve notified the employer and asked them to reconvene meetings as early as possible, likely Monday,” Daniher said.

“We’re now in a legal strike position, however the employer is also now in a legal lockout position.”

Either side can halt work by giving a 72 hour notice to the other party but Daniher said that still remains a last resort.

He hopes the rejection will trigger further discussion or third-party assistance.

“We need to go back and revisit the matters with the assistance of the conciliation and mediation from the federal government and we’ll see if we can’t come up with a resolution to the differences between the two parties,” Daniher said.

The 230 workers at four of the city’s elevators have been working without a contract since the previous one expired on Jan. 31, though negotiations had been ongoing for the past five to six months.

In recent years labour disruptions have been rare in the local industry as Daniher said job action hasn’t been taken since 1991.

This has been a record year at the port, due in large part to an overwhelming harvest in the prairies last fall as well as a harsh winter that delayed efforts to move the crop by rail.

Through the end of September more than 6 million tonnes of cargo had been shipped out of the port, with the vast majority of that being grain. By comparison, there had been nearly 4 million tonnes shipped out in 2013, which had been considered a busy year.

Those favourable conditions appear to not be enough to stop the union from trying to hold their ground.

Daniher wouldn’t go into detail when asked for specifics as to what each side was seeking but made clear the union was looking to avoid concessions.

“From our perspective we don’t want to give anything back. We want to try to move the matter forward and keep up with the level of inflation while that’s possible and try to make some improvements in the collective bargaining agreement,” he said.

“These are diverse interests that both parties have and we need to try and find a contract zone or balancing point to bring a resolution to it. That’s the objective.”

The affected elevators are the Superior Elevator, Richardson and the two operated by Viterra. They combined have a capacity of nearly 770,000 tonnes.





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