Calgary – March 7, 2020 – UFCW Local 401 members working at Cargill’s Case Ready plant in Calgary have achieved a new collective agreement that includes wage increases and strong improvements to working conditions affecting nearly 400 members at the beef processing facility.

Cargill Case Ready is a meat processing and packaging facility producing case-ready meat products created by highly skilled employees for retailers across Western Canada.

“Our members at Cargill Case Ready deserve the very best contract they are willing to fight for,” says UFCW 401 President Thomas Hesse. “We congratulate the committee for their work during negotiations, and we encourage them to continue this work every day as we prepare our efforts to make this contract even better next time.”

The new agreement features numerous improvements including:

• New protections ensuring employees are treated with dignity and respect and not retaliated against for raising workplace concerns;
• Major improvements to break times and health and safety committee programs;
• A new initiative encouraging women to participate in the apprenticeship program;
• Benefit qualification improvements;
• Numerous job level increases;
• Wage increases in each year of the contract retroactive to January 2019

 “After months of negotiating with Cargill, our bargaining committee decided to take the company’s last offer to the membership for a democratic vote,” says UFCW 401 lead negotiator Devin Yeager. “The result was a strong acceptance of that offer, and for that, we are pleased for our Case Ready members.”

To read more about the new union contract at Cargill Case Ready, click here.

UFCW Local 401 is Alberta’s largest private sector union with 32,000 members working in food processing, retail, education, health care, hospitality, and security services. To learn more about UFCW 401 and its outstanding work, visit the Local Union’s website.

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