[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I read the arbitrators decision and disagreed with much of her logic

I’d be lying if I said that I was shocked by that assessment, it’s not always the case obviously but it’s far from uncommon.

That said, from the sounds of it I think the union and their council missed some key points. They should have presented more evidence about the differences in wages in AB vs the other provinces - the key issue was which contracts were comparable - Freshco in the other western provinces or safeway/superstore in AB. AB wages are higher across industries, and that should have been hammered home. Once the arbitrator selected Freshco west as the comparable the union had lost.

Hard to say what was specifically argued as often times many points brought up during a hearing aren’t included in the written decision, but this is probably a good example of why it’s best in some arbitration cases to make your ask a little lower than the comparables.

Interestingly (to me) the employer noted they are losing ground to discount retailers and specifically mentioned Costco. I would have hammered home Costco's wages as evidence that higher wages aren't excluded from a discount format with few SKUs - I suspect the union didn't want to do that because it draws attention to the fact that unrepresented Costco workers make more than basically any UFCW represented grocery workers.

I kinda doubt the last portion to be the case as Costco is known as a very pro-union company in the states and the biggest reason they aren’t as unionized in Canada is because they typically offer very competitive wages and don’t have a toxic workplace culture. Kinda silly for the employer to use Costco as a comparable since they’re really not their direct competition but if the arbitrator is gonna buy it they may as well try.

Anyway, I agree there are savings here vs Safeway wage rates. I also think it's likely this will lead to decertification votes at Freshco stores. The contract is for up to 7 years and the part timers are getting minimum wage + an increment based on hours, which maxes out at less than a dollar over minimum, no employer paid benefits, and no guarantees on full timers at any store, and part timers can be scheduled for >32 hours during summer, December, Thanksgiving, or to cover absences of like 10 different types. Not much upside for those employees to be paying union dues out of their $15.10 per hour. The union specifically brought this up as a risk during the proceedings.

I haven’t read their agreement to see what other benefits they receive but yeah that decision was clearly not ideal from the union’s perspective. Not sure how ufcw’s dues are calculated but at a little over $15/hour I imagine the employees are likely only paying between $30-$40/month of which they probably get around 1/3(if not all in a lot of cases) back at tax time so it may not be enough to really drive a decertification push. Time will tell I guess.