United Food & Commercial Workers Union
Local 1400
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UFCW Local 1400 is the largest private - sector union in the Province of Saskatchewan
Do you need to report a workplace injury?
Click here.
Are you a retired union member or a current union member over 50?
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Saskatchewan Federation of Union Retirees home page.
Affinity Credit Union employees click here to learn the benefits of saying UFCW YES!
GC Teleservices employees click here
to learn the benefits of saying UFCW YES!
Sobeys employees click here
to learn the benefits of saying UFCW YES!
WE CAN MAKE WAL-MART A BETTER PLACE!
Saskatchewan Wal-Mart Employees get information HERE
Music and News
from a Workers Perspective
Little tins of mints Leukemia research fundraiser - available in peppermint or cinnamon - $3 each.
Great size for your pocket or purse.
Contact the Saskatoon office or your Rep.
Union Made "Relentless" Wristbands
Only $2 each
Call the Saskatoon Office for details
All proceeds go to the UFCW Leukemia Research Fund
Last Updated 05/09/2008
News and Events
PRESIDENT PAUL MEINEMA'S VIDEO
MESSAGE
Click to View
Salvation Army NRO Store Members Ratify Collective Agreement
On April 26, 2008 the members of Local 1400 employed by Salvation Army at the
NRO stores in Regina and Saskatoon ratified their new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Details of the
settlement will be posted once available.
Yorkton Western Grocers Members Ratify Collective Agreement
On April 25, 2008 the members of Local 1400 employed by Western Grocers in Yorkton
ratified their new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Details of the
settlement will be posted once available.
National Day of Mourning for Workers Killed or Injured on the
Job - Fighting to End Workplace Carnage
Today, April 28, is the National Day of Mourning for Workers Killed or
Injured on the Job. Established in 1984 by the Canadian Labour Congress
(CLC), it has been adopted around the world as the UN Day for Safety and Health
at Work. The day of mourning is somberly celebrated across the country with
ceremonies highlighting the carnage that continues to take place in Canadian
workplaces, and in various ways around the
world.
“Carnage” is an apt term to describe what remains a growing trend on the job. Despite increased attention focused on the issue in the last 24 years since the day of mourning was founded, more than 25,000 Canadian workers have died, and nearly 25-million have been injured at work. Yes, accidents happen, but they are nearly always preventable. Employers have to be held accountable for working conditions.
It seems hard to believe, but until just three years ago, employers could in effect kill or maim someone in their employ with few or even no consequences. In 2004, however, Canada’s Criminal Code was amended to hold employers more responsible for health and safety offences that destroy workers’ lives. In 2005, the new law was put to the test after a 23-yearold worker named Steve L’Ecuyer was crushed to death by a machine at work. Without his knowledge, his employer, Transpavé Inc., had deliberately disabled a safety device on the machine that, had it been in place, would have prevented the accident and saved his life.
Yet, after a plea bargain deal earlier this year, Transpavé was fined a mere $110,000 for being found criminally negligent, the first conviction won under the amended Code. In effect, the courts are telling employers that workers are still expendable – it’s just that the price put on their heads has gone up somewhat. It’s just another cost of doing business.
It has to stop. Canada still has one of the highest workplace fatality rates of any Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nation. In 2006, the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada (AWBC) reported 976 workplace fatalities in Canada, compared to 805 in 1996. That’s an 18% increase in a decade.
Until the workplace is a safe place, we will not give up the fight. We remember the dead, and we fight for the living. Because working for a living should not cost you your life.
In solidarity,
Wayne Hanley
National President
National Day of Mourning events and services in your community.
National Consumer Boycott Request Against Horizon Milling and Robin Hood
Brands
April 23, 2008 - Please be advised that the Canadian Labour Congress, at the request of UFCW
Canada has endorsed a National Consumer Boycott against Horizon Milling and Robin Hood brands effective
April 21, 2008.
The boycott is in support of the 61 members of UFCW Canada Local 416P (Ontario) who have been locked out since April 24, 2007 and who are waiting for Horizon Milling to negotiate a fair and equitable collective agreement.
New Food Classics Collective Agreements
Collective Agreements for members working at New Food Classics are currently at the printer
and should be available through your Rep or Shop Steward soon.
Our Rights are Essential
Say NO to Bill 5 and Bill 6!
For further information on these Bills, what they are, and how they affect every working person
in the province of Saskatchewan, please check out the links below.
Read SFL Pamphlet.
Read SFL Brief to Minister Norris.
More information on the SFL website.
Information and upcoming public activities regarding these Bills.
UFCW Scholarship Applications
The 2008 UFCW Scholarship applications are now available. Please visit the scholarship page, under
the Education tab for forms, information and the 2007 recipients.
Court of Appeal Ruling on Giant Tiger Upholds LRB Decision
The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has
recently ruled that the original Labour Relations Board decision granting UFCW
Local 1400 the certification for the Regina Giant Tiger location, was proper.
The Court of Queen’s Bench had ruled previously that the Labour Board had not ruled properly, citing that too much time had elapsed from the date of application to their ruling and that a new store should not be included. Local 1400 appealed this ruling to the higher court.
“We are very pleased with the outcome of this hearing,” stated Secretary- Treasurer Norm Neault, “this group of employees has waited long enough, it is time to start bargaining their Collective Agreement without any further delays.”
Western Grocers Saskatoon Members Face Branch Closure
On March 26, 2008,
at a meeting held with the employees of the Saskatoon branch of Western Grocers
and representatives from the local, Westfair Foods officials announced that the
Saskatoon branch will be closing its doors.
The members were advised that the closure will take place within 18 to 24 months. The Collective Agreement and the Trade Union Act provide a process for layoff. A meeting is scheduled for April 2 with the employer and the union committee to discuss the closure.
Loblaws will no be longer operating the distribution center, a third party company not yet chosen is to provide the warehousing elsewhere in the province. The union is currently seeking legal advice on the matter.
It is unfortunate that union members who have been an integral part of the success of Westfair Foods during the last 35 years are to lose their livelihood. Over 320 jobs, many of them full-time will be lost, the impact to these families and our community in the city of Saskatoon will surely be felt.
The Loblaws group of companies once again have proven their values to the working men and women they employ, which is nothing more than the value of the dollar sign.
Time for Action, Not Apologies
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,
recognized annually on March 21, is about the need
for action, not apologies.
Two years ago, the Canadian government issued a formal apology to Chinese Canadian families for the head tax, an element of the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885. The act required payment of a “duty” of $50 for each person of Chinese origin entering Canada, with few exceptions. This was later raised to $100 and again to $500 – at the time the equivalent of two years’ wages at some of the most dangerous, grueling, and unmonitored job sites in Canada. The tax remained in place until the act was replaced with a new Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, often called the “Chinese Exclusion Act” for its even harsher immigration restrictions.
So much for apologies. Fast-forward to 2008 when many of the workers brought to Canada under the federal government’s expanding Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to fill mainly low-skill jobs are paying under-the-table head taxes to local job brokers for the opportunity. As for the 19,000 migrant agriculture workers brought here each season under the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (CSAWP), they continue to work under the threat of being sent home at any time if they raise even legitimate concerns about their working conditions.
Like their Chinese brethren a century ago, most of the workers in Canada under these programs are mainly out of the sight and the awareness of Canadians. They are often ghettoized in small communities across Canada, hidden away in workplaces where a lack of communication in their own language keeps them ignorant of Canadian labour and health and safety laws, usually being paid less than Canadians doing the same work.
Canadians have to stop pretending that this kind of discrimination is OK because of “labour market shortages”, and that the government’s rationale to provide business with a bottomless pool of cheap labour amounts to anything other than workplace racism. For landed immigrants and other racially-marginalized Canadians, the picture can be similar, typically earning less and finding it harder to get ahead than other workers.
A proven solution to this kind of systemic racism has been organizing. Forming a union in the workplace permits workers to be treated with equal dignity and respect, and to improve their lives with equal opportunities. As trade unionists, we have to be there to help them. Our fight against racism is fought through listening, solidarity, organizing, and helping to obtain the same rights and rewards for marginalized workers that other Canadian workers enjoy.
No more apologies. Actions speak louder than words.
In solidarity,
Wayne Hanley
National President
Saskatchewan Worker Rights at Risk in Wake of Firings:
UFCW Canada National President Says Labour Rights Threatened by Politically Motivated
Shakeup at the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board
March 11, 2008 - The abrupt firing
of the Chairman and the two Vice-Chairmen of the Saskatchewan Labour Board
(SLRB) by the Brad Wall Saskatchewan Party government is "an assault on the
working people of Saskatchewan and an attack on the principle of an impartial
labour board process," says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW
Canada, one of the country's largest private sector unions representing more
than 240,000 members across Canada.
The firings follow the Wall
government's proposed changes to the Saskatchewan Trade Union Act which would
make the province one of the most difficult in Canada to organize a union.
The pro-business, anti-union changes were proposed within weeks of the
Saskatchewan Party taking power.
"While in opposition Brad Wall
confirmed if his party won the next election he would declare 'war' on
labour," Hanley said. "The proposed changes to the labour laws along with
these firings are all part of an agenda to reduce the rights of working
people."
"The government's press release said all three fired SLRB
members had done good work but 'were terminated without cause' anyway. By
replacing the former Chair with a new Chairman whose past work included
union decertification campaigns Premier Wall is politicizing a tribunal
system that is meant to be impartial," said Hanley. "The officers of the
labour board are there to make rulings solely under the direction of the
Labour Act, not the Premier. The Saskatchewan Labour Board is no place
for political appointees."
The upheaval at the SLRB (which rules on
union certification applications, first-contract arbitrations, as well
charges of employer wrongdoings) has, for now, ground the board's activities
to a halt. UFCW Canada Local 1400 has at least eight applications in process
at the SLRB. Local 1400 is also waiting for SLRB decisions on cases
where hearings have concluded, including a union certification application
for employees at a Wal-Mart store in Weyburn, Saskatchewan.
"It could
be the former Chair and Vice-Chairs will be allowed to write the decisions
for the some of the cases that were before them," says Paul Meinema, the
president of UFCW Canada Local 1400. That has happened in similar
circumstances in other jurisdictions, but for now no one is telling us what
is happening except a number of hearing dates we had scheduled have been
cancelled until further notice."
What is clear "is Premier Wall's 'war'
is a war on the rights of Saskatchewan workers," added UFCW Canada's national
president, Wayne Hanley. "The Supreme Court of Canada also made it very clear
in June that the Charter guarantees the right to collective bargaining
for workers in Canada. Premier Wall's firings and his attack on
Saskatchewan labour laws have turned the rights of Saskatchewan citizens
into collateral damage."
Sask Party Government Fires Labour Relations Board
March 6, 2008 -
Read SFL Media Release.
New Report Reveals a Widening Wage Gap Between Men and Women in Canada
Unions react with year-long campaign to women’s equality “once and for all!”
It just doesn’t pay to be a working woman in Canada today, according to
a new report released by the Canadian Labour Congress. In fact, for today’s
younger, more educated working woman, it pays a lot less than it did just ten
years ago.
Read the CLC Media Release and full report.
Women Still Struggle for Much
Later this week, on Saturday, March 8, events will take
place around the world celebrating the annual International
Women’s Day (IWD) – exactly 100 years since 15,000 women
workers from the garment and
textile industries marched in New
York City demanding shorter working
time, better pay, voting rights,
and an end to child labour.
More than half of UFCW Canada’s members are women, from diverse ethnic and racial origins, and we are proud to be part of the celebration. Celebration is, indeed, in order as women have achieved so much in garnering equitable treatment in the workplace and in many other ways. Yet there is still a vast amount of ground to be claimed before our society can be truly equitable when it comes to sexual discrimination.
Despite a Pay Equity Act in Ontario, for example, that is celebrating its 20th anniversary, women in the province still earn 29% less than men. Two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women. Female high school graduates earn 27% less than male graduates, and female university graduates earn 16% less – a gap that widens as their careers progress. And 42% of elderly women in Ontario live in poverty.
Equity legislation exists in six of Canada’s 10 provinces. In three more (Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and British Columbia), policy frameworks have been established to deal with pay equity without the benefit of law. In Alberta, neither system exists, and the only recourse is appeal through the human rights system.
On a national level, women continue to be shut out more than men from federal Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. EI discriminates against women because it does not recognize that women have different patterns of work, due to family responsibilities and work availability, that are not accommodated in the EI structure. Overall, 40% of unemployed men are eligible for EI benefits, while “two in every three working women who pay into EI never receive a penny if they lose their jobs”, according to a report issued late last year by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, or CCPA (www.policyalternatives.ca)
These are just two areas in which it is clear that our society is still failing to come to grips with the fact that, despite all efforts, women continue to be discriminated against.
We are making progress, yes. But these injustices continue to exist, which is intolerable and we must continue with our efforts to correct them. Political action and social education are vital aspects of this effort, but that is not enough. As we celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, it serves as a reminder that it is also incumbent upon us to include these needs in the collective bargaining process to ensure every UFCW Canada member is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve regardless of sex.
In solidarity,
Wayne Hanley
National President
Canadian Labour Congress Statement on Federal Budget
The CLC has released two documents on the Federal Budget. Click on the links to find out more.
An Unbalanced and Unfair Budget
Canadian Labour Congress Detailed Analysis of the 2008 Federal Budget
Salvation Army (Waterston Centre) Members Ratify Collective Agreement
On January 24, 2008 the members of Local 1400 employed by Salvation Army at the
Waterston Centre in Regina ratified their new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Details of the
settlement are posted on the Negotiations page.
Westfair Foods Local 1400 Members' Prescription Drug Coverage Plan
The Board of Trustees of the Westfair Foods Ltd./United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1400
are pleased to announce the implementation of the following Prescription Drug coverage
effective January 1, 2008.
This benefit trust fund coverage is for all part-time Local 1400 members of Extra Foods, Superstore,
Real Canadian Wholesale Club and Western Grocers (Saskatoon) who are not covered by the
company group insurance plan.
If you have any questions about this newly implemented benefit plan, please contact the Administrator of the plan as noted or your Local 1400 Rep.
Who Needs A Good Paying Job?
Please do not use self-scanners when you are shopping; support your community, not a computer. For more information, please click this link.
Information for UFCW Members Regarding Italian Pensions
Any of our Italian members who may have, or have family members who worked in
Italy, may be eligible for a pension from Italy. The Institito Nazionale Assisternza Sociale
(INAS) is a Canadian organization working with the Italian labour movement to assist Italians
to apply for their pension.
View further information in
English
View further information in
Italian
Notice to All Superstore, Extra Foods and Real Canadian Wholesale Club, Local
1400 Members
If you are an available anytime employee, you are entitled to a minimum of 14 scheduled hours per
week. This includes weeks in which one or more Statutory Holidays fall. If you do not receive
this minimum of scheduled hours, please ask your Supervisor or Manager to correct the problem.
If it is not corrected in a timely manner, please contact your Representative to file a grievance.
Mark Your Calendar
April 28, 2008
National Day of Mourning
More information - Government of Canada
More information - Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety
May 1, 2008
Intermational Workers' Day (May Day)
Events
More information.
More information.
May 4 to 9, 2008
SFL & CLC Annual Spring School - Saskatoon
View Posting
May 26 to June 4, 2008
Second Quarter Meetings - Provincial
View Posting
June 15 to 19, 2008
Prairie School for Union Women (PSUW) 2008 - Waskesiu
View Posting
June 21, 2008
National Aboriginal Day
More information - Government of Canada
July 1, 2008
Canada Day
July 20, 2008
UFCW Local 1400 Leukemia Bashers Golf Tournament - Saskatoon
Information and Entry Form
July 27, 2008
UFCW Local 1400 Youth Committee hosting a Rider Prider Bus Trip
View Information
August 4, 2008
Saskatchewan Day
August 23, 2008
UFCW Local 1400 George Semeniuk Classic Golf Tournament - Moose Jaw
Watch for more infomation
Contact Us
Saskatoon Office
1526 Fletcher Road
Saskatoon, SK S7M 5M1
ph: 306.384.5787
toll free: 1.800.274.4036
fax: 306.978.0790
Regina Office
800 Horace Street
Regina, SK S4T 5K8
ph: 306.791.4881
toll free: 1.888.886.9016
fax: 306.791.4883
