Winnipeg - Workers at Canada's Quality Meat Packers Ltd. will be in a position to strike early next week after union members rejected a recent company wage proposal, a union spokesman said.
The hog processor is one of two in Ontario, Canada's most populous province, with a processing capacity of 26,000 hogs a week.
“We've had a vote on the collective agreement,” John Demelo, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers local 743, said from Toronto where the family-owned operation is located.
“We have a strike vote coming up this Sunday. On Monday, December 7, we'll be in a legal position to strike or be locked out,” Demelo said.
Quality Meats spokeswoman Karen Sample said the company could cease operations on Monday after the plant's 830 workers rejected an offer she said was “competitive” with other sectors in the industry.
“The company made an offer to employees last week which was rejected,” she said. “There's the possibility of a shutdown on Monday.”
The workers are employed at two Toronto-area Quality Meat kill and cut plants and at the Toronto Abattoires processing plant.
Demelo said the most recent contract expired on October 31 after employees had voted a year ago to extend it by one year.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
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