The “last chance meeting” held Thursday morning in the office of the Minister of Labor in the presence of the administration of Olmel and CSN was “Binaa” and the ball is now in the union’s court.
• Read also: “A last chance meeting”
• Read also: More than 500 jobs cut at the Vallée-Jonction factory
This is what Minister Jean Boulet said after the incident, saying that arbitration of disputes is “the best approach to quickly resolving a long-running conflict”.
According to Mr. Boulet, the employer has already given the green light to the arbitration dispute, but both parties must request the intervention of an arbitrator so that the procedure can proceed.
Hold the meeting in a constructive manner. I have already received a positive response from the employer, who will be willing to take the path of arbitration in disputes. “The ball is now in the union’s court,” Minister Boulet said.
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“If I receive a request from both parties by 5 pm this afternoon, I undertake to refer the case to arbitration [vendredi] In the morning, when the Minister goes to arbitration, this will end the labor dispute. We are reviewing the protocol for returning to work and the strike is over, and this would allow us to avoid mass layoffs of 500 people next Monday.”
Olimel’s management confirmed later in the morning that it had accepted arbitration to settle the labor dispute in Vallée-Jonction.
“Four months into the strike, the Olmel management decided that it should respond positively to the arbitration proposal submitted by the Minister of Labor. Although our company considers a preferred negotiating agreement, we believe that this arbitration proposal from the Minister is the only way out of this crisis, nor Sima to reduce the pressure that has become unbearable for pig breeders,” noted Paul Beauchamp, Deputy Prime Minister of Olemel, in a statement.
“It is also the only solution to avoid the downsizing of our operations at the Vallée-Jonction plant and the loss of more than 500 jobs, which will be necessary if the strike continues beyond next Sunday,” added Mr. Beauchamp.
The strike has been underway at the Olmel pig slaughterhouse in Valley Junction, Bos, since April. The initial agreement reached earlier this month was rejected by 57% of union members. So far, the mediator mentioned in the case has not been able to resolve the impasse.
Because of the conflict, more than 150,000 pigs are waiting on farms to go to the slaughterhouse, according to Éleveurs de porcs du Québec.
