21 November, 2013The majority of 320 workers of Kronos Canada Inc. factory in Varennes, Quebec voted 70.8 percent in favour of the agreement of principle reached at negotiations on 19 November 2013.
Blitz negotiations restarted on 13 November, five months after the beginning of the conflict, when two days before the expiry of the collective agreement Kronos Canada announced a lockout.
IndustriALL congratulates its Canadian affiliate, Fédération de l’Industrie Manufacturière de la Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux - FIM-CSN, representing Kronos workers, with their great victory. The CSN in its turn extends their gratitude to the entire international trade union movement for received solidarity, which helped Kronos workers to win.
According to the FIM-CSN, the newly achieved agreement, which is valid until 15 June 2018, resolves many of the points of conflict. For instance according to the agreement subcontracted members of the union get a full guaranty of employment, while subcontracted work will be limited in several departments.
Workers keep their acquired benefits regarding the work schedule and performed overtime work. In addition, a vocational program will be launched in order to give employees who want to get to other positions opportunities for special training.
In terms of the financial benefits employees will be retroactively paid an increase equal to the consumer price index (CPI) together with a lump sum payment of 1,000 CAD (710 euros) during the first year, and the rest of four years of the agreement the increase will be equal to the CPI plus 0.5 percent annually.
The pension system will be reformed with a view to move from the fixed benefit to a fixed contribution system. Both active and retired workers will maintain their currently existing life insurance, in addition the employer agreed to increase his contribution.
The factory will restart working gradually so as to regain full capacity by February 2014.