Starting at 5 o’clock, fifty employees are submitted to the facilities des Pêcheries Marinard.
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June 5, 2020 12h42
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Workers des Pêcheries Marinard of Rivière-au-Renard show
Simon Carmichael
Initiative of journalism-local – The Sun
Fifty workers des Pêcheries Marinard have shown, early Friday, in front of the processing facility in Rivière-au-Renard. According to the union, the company would not be enough to offer sufficient hours to employees due to a disagreement between the management and the shrimp on the price of the resource.
Starting at 5 o’clock, fifty employees are submitted to the facilities des Pêcheries Marinard. They were subsequently blocked access to the parking lot of the factory for a little over an hour to hear their claims. Access to facilities was, however, possible.
They are asking the management to find a way to ensure complete weeks to its employees, as is the case in other processing enterprises of the region. “Why is it that the plant in l’anse-aux-Griffons, they pay for 45 hours per week regardless of whether you work full-time or not, and that here, it has almost no hours ?”, explains the union advisor CSN, Rémi Bellemare-Caron. The union reports that the production employees do not get more than a dozen hours per week, which would “absolutely not enough”.
The plant in Rivière-au-Renard would not benefit from the wage subsidy support available to businesses by the federal government, unlike other processing companies of the region. “Two weeks ago, they told us having made the request, but since that time, we have more news. It begins to squeeze !” explained the union representative.
Closure of the plant for the day
Around 6: 45, while many unionized were expected to begin their shifts, they had the doors locked. The management has decided to cancel the work day due to the disruption. Following a discussion with the director of human resources, the union did no more to assure its members that their day would be paid. “People were ready to enter work. It is a corporate decision to close today, the employees should not be penalized financially for it”, claimed the union advisor CSN, Rémi Bellemare-Caron.
Around 8: 30, the management has indicated to the group that they had to leave the premises of the factory and that their gathering was illegal, that the group of employees refused to do. The Sûreté du Québec, which was parked a few blocks away, did not have to intervene as the employees are placed directly on the quay, a federal territory.
“Too many executives, not enough employees”
The union also denounced the poor management of human resources, particularly because the executives of the companies have not seen a decrease in their number of hours. “For example, this morning, there were 6 production employees and 12 managers in the zone. It is not consistent. They have no money to pay for the world, but there are two managers per employee,” says Mr. Bellemare-Caron.
The Sun was unable to reach the plant’s management of Fisheries Ménard, who, at the time of writing these lines had not yet commented publicly on the case.
