That's very interesting Johnny. Gee, do you think the boys at Loblaw Companies bit off more than they could chew with their RCSS plan? I'm hearing that staffing shortages are also a problem at these stores. Who wants to work for that and pay union dues?
It would not surprise me if further concessions are on the table. Only they won't call them "concessions" and that will be all that is needed to get around the promises made during the last dose of concessions about "no more concessions".
Has anyone considered writing (or emailing) UFCW headquarters and putting the question directly to Canadian pooh-bah Michael Fraser?
Keep us posted on this - it's a very important development.
UFCW Local 1977 Selling off Full Time Positions?
There is "talk", suppostedly confirmed by a local UFCW rep, that UFCW Local 1977 and Zehrs have entered into "secret negotiations" (again) to remove all full time positions in both the dairy and produce deptments of the two stores in St. Catharines, Ont., namely Geneva St. and the Pen Centre stores. This because the new RCSS store location in St. Catharines is lagging badly in sales.
The Geneva St. store location (overall the busiest store in the Niagara peninsula) has been pressed into a "downward spiral" as far as service and commitment is concerned. Witness: addition of six self-serve scanning tills; reduction in express tills; reduction in "open tills"; reduction in front end staff; reduction in hours allocated in all departments; general disregard for condition of store appearance, etc. All this "supposedly to "increase" the appeal of the new RCSS store.
The affect so far. Customers complain daily of lack of service, of being "forced or solicited' to chose the self-scanners, general appearance of store and fact that all past service levels have fallen due to cutbacks and less staff trying to cope with more work.
The staff is stressed out, the customers are bitching, service is at an all time low and the RCSS is still not receiving increased sales!
If these full time jobs are lost, what prevents the company from going company wide with it's demands for wholesale full time job cuts? Where does that leave the membership going into contract negotiations in 2006?
My guess is that we will be faced with major concessions (regardless of the company's promise not to seek concessions nor local 1977 "leadership's" assurance of a "no concessions contract" promised at the last secret negotiations sell out!). We will face, yet another, two-tier or more wage structure, job loses, benefit reductions and loses and "parity" with the lower end of the RCSS/Wal-Mart wage and benefit structure. 
At the last union meeting I was at in April , Kevin Corporon stated that "I expect the no concessions to be challenged in court"
The secret deal that was necessary for the RCSS banner contains a clause that the Full-time head counts at RCSS count TOWARD the Full-time committment in regular Loblaws Stores.
I am not sure about the "ammended" Zehrs and Fortino deals.
What Loblaw is doing is called "training the customers."
The dollar deposit on shopping carts in BC wasn't about stopping theft, it was about training customers to bring the carts back to stations. That way, Loblaw didn't have to pay a service clerk to round up buggies.
They keep the live tills closed to force the customers to use the automated tills. It's called education and training. Customers are educated to not expect too much, and trained to do the work formerly done by store staff. Some might call it reduction in service; some might call it free labour.
I guess you could say they've gone from no frills to no tills.
They'll cut full-time hours to nothin' and then give the union a quota of FT positions in 2006. That way, the union will be able to say that they won something in bargaining.
Take away stuff during the contract and then give it back at bargaining time. It's like a neighbour who borrows your lawn mower in May and gives it back to you as a gift at Christmas. Then he borrows it from you again the next May and so on.
The workers know that it's the same mower, but the UFCW really thinks that the neighbour really likes and respects them and that the neighbour has really given them a fine gift.
Based on an e-mail received by myself, Scott Penner, Secretary-Treasurer of UFCW Local 1977 has "clarified" the role played by himself in recent election at local 1977, I hereby report his "explaination" of accusations made by myself on this forum.
Mr. Penner took a "unpaid leave", in a rented van (paid by himself), using his daughter's cell phone, visiting each workplace to talk to members and personally post his campagain literature. Futhermore he personally paid for the mail out via the local union through Canada Post as the election rules call for. All of this recorded in quarterly financial reports available for the asking at union meetings.
Mr. Penner states that there are "no jobs for sale" and "no secret deals". "The company must live up to the creation of 300 full time jobs by the end of the current CBA, they are currently about half way there".
"Does the company continue to cut hours and violate members rights-YES, and we will continue to be very busy fighting with them for the next 4 years".
Call me a cynic but I wonder if Mr. Penner got any additional compensation from the local or the UFCW or anywhere prior to or after his unpaid leave of absence.
If he didn't and he's being completely forthcoming in his statements about his electioneering, well, good for him. The poohbahs at 1977 must be getting nervous.
As for all those violations that the UFCW is fighting, I wonder how exactly they're fighting the employer. You might want to ask how many grievances have been filed, which stage of the grievance procedure they're at, how many have gone to arbitration and what the outcomes of the hearings have been. If they are simply filing grievances and letting them languish or dropping them or stamping their feet about the violations, that isn't really fighting. That's just pretending.
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If they are simply filing grievances and letting them languish or dropping them or stamping their feet about the violations, that isn't really fighting. That's just pretending.
ufcw 1518's 2003 retail agreement has arbitration built right into it. An in-house arbitrator and arbitration process. It's like an instant arbitration where all they need to do is to add a complaint and woala!
There doesn't seem to be a formal grievance procedure any longer. A complaint is investigated (sort of) by the union rep, if the rep believes it has some merit or if you stomp your feet loud enough, the rep refers it immediately to an arbitrator assigned by the actual contract.
But the process never leaves the employers premises. There does not seem to be public access to the arbitration outcome either.
If it sounds like an arbitration and it looks like an arbitration, is it?
It would be interesting to know if the 1977 agreement has a built in arbitrator.
There are "no secret deals", as long as they remain a secret. 
The last "secret deal" did not exist either, until it was no longer a secret.
See: Secret Deals Done Dirt Cheap!
Now where's my cloak & dagger?
I have been trying to find cases where Local 1000A went to Arbitration on behalf of terminated members. Guess what I cannot find any. There are about 4 or 5 DFR at the OLRB where contributers asked the question why wont you go to arbitration though?
It seems odd a Local of 25,000 with many employers gets along so famously.