Brault & Martineau employees in Repentigny and Saint-Léonard join the union – UFCW 501

Montreal – April 14, 2016 – Employees at Brault & Martineau working at the retailer’s Repentigny and Saint-Léonard locations are the newest members of UFCW Canada Local 501, just four months after members at a Brault & Martineau store in Laval were certified as a Local 501 bargaining unit. The two additional locations, comprised of about 70 members, were certified by Quebec’s Administrative Labour Tribunal on April 7.

Just like the Laval members, the sales consultants in Repentigny and Saint-Léonard were concerned with the negative impact of online sales; a new process that may threaten their jobs in the future. Sales consultants are paid solely on commission with no base salary, which means they get nothing when customers come to the store for information but do their purchasing online. Nor do they get paid for time spent with customers who come to the store for assistance after buying products online.

Add to that the fact, for some time the employer has been regularly reducing the profit margins of the products, so that sales consultants were getting less income per year even though their total unit sales went up.

“We are very happy and proud to welcome the new members from the Repentigny and Saint-Léonard locations,” said Alain Lachaîne, president of UFCW Canada Local 501. “By adding their voices to an international union with outstanding experience representing members in the retail sales sector, the new members will be able to improve their working conditions and keep their salary levels up. This will provide them with maximum protection of their rights and allow them to negotiate a proper collective agreement in good faith with their employer.”