Picket lines are up at Viterra port facilities in Vancouver and Montreal as agricultural union employees protest the use of outside grain inspectors.
Milton Dyck, president of the Agricultural Union within the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said about 80 people were on the line in Vancouver in support of striking Canadian Grain Commission employees.
“We do know that the CGC is sending people in to do our members’ jobs,” he said from there April 24.
“So far people have been respecting the picket line.”
Dyck said there are other union workers at the terminal who won’t cross a picket line. Workers who do want to cross must be escorted by a manager.
The CGC asked grain companies to collect samples for inspection during the strike, which began April 19, and then send them to the commission for official grading and certification. The companies are using their own employees or other inspection companies to do so.
Dyck said workers are concerned about the integrity of the samples because CGC workers are impartial and “doing the work for the good of Canadians” while other unregulated inspectors may be biased.
PSAC agricultural members are on the line at various sites across the country and CGC workers were frustrated that they hadn’t yet been picketing their own work sites, he said.
“We have to start ramping it up.”
He also said picket lines are up at research centres across the country, including Swift Current and Indian Head in Saskatchewan.
Both sides continue to bargain, with reported movement over the weekend, but Dyck said he didn’t have details.
About 155,000 PSAC members who work for Treasury Board, including 35,000 who work for Canada Revenue Agency, voted in favour of strike action. They haven’t had a contract for nearly two years.
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