Packing-house staff fear grower revol

J.P. Squire The Okanagan Saturday  2010-10-02
Unionized workers at the Okanagan‘s largest packing-house operation are hoping for calm today, one week after 20 members called in sick as an informal protest against the rules in a new contract. Sources say a splinter group of growers, members of the B.C. Fruit Growers‘ Association, may try to take over packing houses operated by the Okanagan Tree Fruit Co-operative in Kelowna today.  "Tensions are really getting heated up," said one source who claimed to be a union member. "I‘m not too sure what is going to happen (today). It doesn‘t look good. They say they are going to take over operations. It‘s a wait-and-see sort of thing."  Growers are mad at the company and at the union; the union is mad at the growers and the company, he said, and it is "total frustration" for all involved. "Hopefully, everyone will calm down," he said, a sentiment echoed by Jim Elliot, an Oyama grower who is president of the Okanagan Tree Fruit Co-operative board of directors."Let‘s just calm down and take a step back. I‘m hoping that cooler heads will prevail. We‘re not out to beat up employees. I have no reason to believe that the workers wouldn‘t work their scheduled shifts (today)," said Elliot."We value our employees, and I think that, ultimately, most of our employees have growers‘ best interests at heart, particularly our long-service employees. It‘s not them and us. We all have to work together to make this thing work."

The fruit industry is facing many challenges, said Elliot, "and we don‘t need the aggravations and the irritants of these labour issues that make them seem bigger than they are." The former collective agreement with members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 247 said the regular work week was Monday to Friday, but a new contract, the result of binding arbitration, says it is any five consecutive days, such as Tuesday to Saturday.  It also allows the company to temporarily lay off a union member, for up to 48 hours - if an orchard is too wet for a pickup, for instance - without that employee bumping a member with less seniority.  Elliot has not heard any suggestion that a splinter group of growers would try to take over packing-house operations today.  "That is not condoned; that is not a plan by management or the board. I understand there is a lot of frustration in growers, management and unionized employees, but that is not a viable solution. We operate under a collective agreement, and if people are scheduled to work and show up for work, they will work."  If someone else shows up, the grievance procedure is the appropriate process, he said. Forklift operators, receivers, quality-control staff, truckers and jiffy loader operators didn‘t report for work last Saturday at the Vaughan, Roanoke and Sexsmith plants in Kelowna.