Canadian Labour Reporter

lAboUr brieFs 2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 nothing sweet about nestle's position on pensions: Unifor toronto — Talks between Unifor Local 252 and Nestle broke down after days of bar- gaining, leading 365 Toronto workers to strike. Negotiations over the com- pany's pension plan caused bargaining to grind to a halt on May 4. Workers were in a legal strike position as of midnight on May 3. While the facility's produc- tivity has also been a point of concern, Unifor workers are focused primarily on improv- ing their defined benefit pen- sion plan. "The company first came to the table with the goal of elimi- nating the defined benefit pen- sion plan altogether, which was a complete non-starter for us," explained union chairperson Said Duale. Unifor reports the company's latest offer would see the pen- sion plan replaced with a de- fined contribution plan for 25 per cent of current workers and for all future employees. "For workers who have not had an increase to their pension in four years, this is unreason- able," Duale said. According to the union, Nes- tle has made it clear no other improvements — to wages or benefits — are on the table with this offer. "We're talking about the big- gest food and beverage manu- facturer in the world, and they're saying they can't afford a secure retirement for their dedicated employees?" said Paul Shiels, president of Uni- for's Local 252. "And on top of that we're told to accept a three year wage freeze." The union reported its com- mittee worked tirelessly with the employer in an effort to improve productivity and to ensure a strong future for em- ployees. "It just doesn't appear that they are as committed as us to finding an agreement that is fair for everyone," said Jerry Dias, Unifor's national presi- dent. "This isn't about one collec- tive agreement; it's about retire- ment security and good jobs for future generations." Unifor represents more than 305,000 workers across Cana- da — 9,600 of whom currently work in the food and beverage industry. Canada surprises with April job losses, under- performing U.s. ottAWA — Canada's econ- omy lost 28,900 jobs in April, Statistics Canada said on May 9. The report revealed across- the-board weakness, confirm- ing the labour market is stalled and adding jobs at a more slug- gish pace than in the United States. The biggest losses were in accommodation and food ser- vices industries followed by finance, insurance, real estate and leasing. All the job losses were in full- time positions and the majority were in the private sector. Market players had forecast, on average, 12,000 net new jobs in April following a big gain of 42,900 in March. The jobless rate was un- changed at 6.9 per cent because fewer people participated in the labour force, Statistics Canada said. The participation rate was 66.1 per cent compared with 66.2 per cent in March. Employment was little changed since last August, Sta- tistics Canada said. The six-month moving av- erage for employment growth stood at 2,300 in April, down from 9,700 in March. In the year to April, the num- ber of people working rose by 0.8 per cent, or 149,000. Adjusted to U.S. methods for comparison purposes, the Canadian unemployment rate was down 0.2 percentage points in the year to six per cent, com- pared with a 1.2 point decrease in the U.S. unemployment rate to 6.3 per cent. The Canadian employment rate slipped 0.3 percentage points to 62.1 per cent versus a 0.3 point increase to 58.9 per cent in the United States Teachers protest outside the presidential house in San Jose, Costa Rica. Public school and college employees are on indefi nite strike af- ter four months of overdue wages. More than 7,000 teachers have reportedly been affected by delays in issuing paychecks. FormerLY CLV reports serving labour relations professionals since 1956 www.labour-reporter.com published weekly by omson reuters Canada Ltd. subscription rate: $595 per year Customer service tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5106 email: carswell.customerrelations@ thomsonreuters.com Website: www.carswell.com Director, Carswell media Karen Lorimer publisher John Hobel managing editor Todd Humber news editor Sabrina Nanji | (416) 649-9348 sabrina.nanji@thomsonreuters.com news editor Liz Foster | (416) 298-5129 liz.foster@thomsonreuters.com marketing Co-ordinator Travis Chan | (416) 609-5872 travis.chan@thomsonreuters.com © 2014 Carswell, a division of omson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. 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