Windsor Salt strike might show up in your grocery bill
CBC
About 250 employees are a month into striking at Windsor Salt and union reps say the company has not spoken with employees yet.
The workers have been on strike since Feb. 17 at 200 Morton Drive, near the Ojibway salt mine location.
Unionized Windsor Salt employees haven't gone on strike for 32 years, said Lindsay Meloche, chairperson for the Unifor Local 240 unit representing Windsor Salt employees.
CBC News reached out to Windsor Salt but has yet to hear back.
U.S.-based holding company Stone Canyon Industries, which owns Windsor Salt, received a court injunction on March 1 that allowed non-unionized workers to cross the picket line.
But even with non-unionized workers, Meloche said Windsor Salt is likely struggling to meet demands with 250 staff members on the picket line.
"The mine is completely shut down," she said, adding that shipping employees are sending out product that was mined pre-strike.
"I don't know the capacity of what they can produce without us being back to work," she said.
Sylvain Charlebois is the director of the Agrifood Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He said the ongoing strike might hit Canadians in their wallets if staffing shortages continue.
He said rising supply chain costs contributing to grocery inflation are in part caused by the rising cost of ingredients, like salt.
"I know a lot of people are blaming grocers for higher prices, but the reality is that ingredients are more costly," he said.
"As soon as you have labour disruptions, it just makes things worse."
Windsor Salt workers went on strike in response to de-unionizing actions by Stone Canyon Industries, Meloche said.
"The management company basically wants to contract out the jobs for everyone," she said, adding that would mean eliminating packaging, shipping and skilled trades work as unionized labour at Windsor Salt.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.