Spirits on the picket line high as Metro worker strike enters third week

Workers walking the picket line in front of the Metro grocery store in Brantford say spirits remain high as the strike enters its third week.

“We’ve received a lot of support from the community and we really appreciate it,” John Murnaghan, a part-time employee at the St. Paul Avenue store, said Tuesday (Aug. 15). “We had a big rally here on Monday and a lot of other union locals came out to support us.

“We’ve also had a lot of support from the community and the neighborhood with people coming by with food and water.”

Murnaghan is one of nearly 3,700 unionized Metro employees across Ontario who have been on strike since July 29 after rejecting an attempted agreement that had been reached by the union bargaining committee and the company.

Murnaghan said he, like many of the striking workers represented by Unifor Local 414, is upset the company cut the so called “hero pay” of $2 an hour workers received during the pandemic. They want the $2 an hour reinstated.

“We’re eager to get back to work,” Murnaghan said. “But we’re also determined to get a fair wage hike.

“We’re not asking for a lot but we need more than what’s being offered.”

Senior union officials have acknowledged that tentative agreement was rejected, in part, because it didn’t bump up their wages back to levels they were making during the pandemic.

Marie-Claude Bacon, Metro’s vice-president of public affairs and communications, said the company remains committed to the bargaining process.

Metro’s bargaining committee reached out to Unifor over the weekend requesting a meeting with the employees’ bargaining committee as quickly as Sunday (Aug. 13) or Monday (Aug. 14).

Bacon said the union unfortunately refused.

“It’s the joint responsibility of Metro and the union to keep trying to negotiate an outcome at the bargaining table, particularly in a context where the parties had reached a very good agreement which both parties recognized as such and that was unanimously recommended by union representatives to the employees,” Bacon said.

The agreement offered, among other things, substantial wage increases as well as improved pension and benefits, including sick days, and improved scheduling for different groups of employees, Bacon said.

“This was in addition to their current wages and working conditions that are among the highest in the industry and which were negotiated by this union,” Bacon said in the statement.

Full-time employees Judy Snetsinger and Krystal Barr said Tuesday the company’s offer of $3.75 an hour over four years isn’t enough.

“It just doesn’t cut it,” Snetsinger, the store’s deli manager and an employee for 19 years, said. “We should be able to shop in our own store for groceries but we can’t because we can’t afford it.”

The workers say the part-time workers have been offered only $2.65 an hour over four years.

Barr, the store’s meat manager, is upset because the tentative agreement, which was rejected, doesn’t recognize the extra responsibilities that come with her role.

In addition to doing the regular job of meat preparation, Barr has extra responsibilities including scheduling.

“These workers face a precarious financial situation at the best of times,” Cory Judson, president of the Brantford District Labor Council, said. “Now, three weeks into the strike, they need the recognition they deserve.

“Metro made a 26 per cent profit in the third quarter and refuses to go back to the bargaining table where the workers are simply asking for a small raise so that they can pay their bills and eat.”

Many of the workers at the store are part-time and it’s difficult to get full-time hours, Judson said.

Bacon, however, said every part-time employee who wants a full-time position has opportunities.

“In the last two years alone, we’ve opened up a number of full-time positions and we haven’t been able to fill them all from our part-time ranks,” Bacon said. “Even today, we have full-time positions posted that part-time employees can apply for.”

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