On Thursday, January 12, after three days of in-store voting, the members of all six Winnipeg FreshCo locations ratified their first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). This new four-and-a-half-year agreement will expire on October 1, 2026.
Some of the highlights of this new CBA are:
- Retroactive pay for full-time and some part-time employees. All employees that don’t receive retro pay will get a signing bonus
- Increased wages to the scales for all employees. The new wages also come with minimum wage gap language, which means as the minimum wage increases, so will members’ wages
- A new Person In Charge (PIC) premium
- The introduction of paid sick time for all full-time employees and paid sick time for some part-time employees
- New benefits options for full-time employees and part-time employees who work 24 hours or more per week
“I want to thank our bargaining committee and all of our members for their patience in this whole process,” said Marie Buchan, Secretary-Treasurer and Lead Negotiator for FreshCo bargaining. “This new CBA brings in many improvements for our members and will lay the groundwork for a strong retail agreement going forward.”
Previously, FreshCo was part of the Sobeys Capital Inc. province-wide CBA. From now on, our members at FreshCo will have their own agreement that provides a better opportunity to address their workplace-specific improvements at the bargaining table.
FreshCo is a chain of discount grocery stores owned by Sobeys Capital Inc. UFCW 832 members are the friendly faces you see stocking shelves, assisting customers and processing your purchases.