A Modern Twist

A unionized manufacturing company needed to buy a new piece of equipment move to a 24/7 operation to help fund this capital investment in equipment.

The Issue

A manufacturing business needed to move the hours of work in their collective agreement from a Monday to Friday, to a 24/7 operation. The company needed to purchase a new piece of equipment, and in order to best use their capital, they could not cease operation on evenings and weekends as they had been doing. They needed to increase their productivity in order to fund the capital investment. This change required a major rewrite of the collective agreement.

The Methodology

HR Atlantic needed the union to understand that the plant’s viability was completely dependent on this modernization. The negotiation was extensive and the rewrite touched on every monetary article in the collective agreement. In exchange for a change of shift hours, the employees were to be given a pay increase as well as the opportunity for hiring additional employees. A representative from HR Atlantic attended the ratification meeting and spoke to union membership. They provided the union membership with a thorough breakdown of the company’s financial state in order to better understand the necessity of the technological upgrade.

The Solution

The union got on side and ratified the new collective agreement. The plant modernized and became a 24/7 workplace with a collective agreement to support that. They have remained a client of HR Atlantic’s since.

Service Area: Labour Relations