Oland Brewery prepares to lock out workers
Posted Feb 19, 2012 09:42:40 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
130 Oland Brewery employees could find themselves locked out by the end of Sunday.
The company gave notice to the Ministry of Labour Friday, after the workers rejected a tentative agreement with the Labatt Breweries subsidiary.
Labatt spokesman Wade Keller tells News 95.7 they thought a deal would be accepted last week, but that didn’t happen.
“The company is in a difficult place,” he begins. “We negotiated an agreement with the union’s negotiating team that was recommended to the members and then the members said no so there’s very little else the company can do.”
At issue are wages and pensions.
“Last year our unionized workforce earned, on average, $69,000,” he says. “That is inclusive of wages and variable compensation or bonus-type structure.”
He says the company has offered a 6 1/2 per cent wage increase as well as bonuses, which they see as fair.
If the workers are locked out, Keller says they won’t run out of beer.
“We have enough beer in our supplies to meet the market demand for the foreseeable future,” he assures. “We can operate the brewery with management and we also have five other breweries in Canada that can supply this market.”
