Raise the Hammer

Loblaws cashiers are paid as little as $11 an hour.

Sigh... For Loblaws, the truth is easily found out.

Why? Because Loblaws is a union shop. Its wages are governed by the Collective Agreement (CA) between the union and the employer. A new CA or union contract just took effect on July 9, 2015. Less than a month ago.

Among other things, the Loblaws CA provides for a Defined Benefit pension plan for the workers. It is very, very rare for private sector workers to have a Defined Benefit pension plan.

So nobody can accuse me of repeating management spin, I'll provide a link to and a quotation from the website of The United Food and Commercial Workers Union report about the latest union contract between Loblaws and its 12,000 union workers in Ontario. I'll quote three of their bullet points about part time workers, since PT workers tend to be the lowest paid.

part-time in the wage progression and with over 300 hours worked will see immediate increases of $.05 up to $1.00 per hour; for those who do not get at least a $0.25 cent hourly increase by going on the new progression will receive an additional $100 in addition to the $350 lump sum;

all part-time at the end rate are guaranteed a minimum gap above the minimum wage if for example minimum wage goes to $15/hour.

all part-time workers including those with the least hours worked, will receive $350 as an immediate bonus.

Currently, the minimum wage in Ontario is $11 per hour. Which means that it is mathematically impossible, per their union contract, for any Loblaws worker to be "paid as little as $11.00 an hour."

Even if a worker has worked less than 300 hours and did not get the 25 cent increase then they would get the $450 bonus. $11 is the minimum wage in Ontario. As soon as the company starts paying bonuses to everyone, then everyone is automatically above that. And $450 over 300 hours gives an hourly rate of at least $12.50. And notice how everyone over 300 hours has their base pay automatically above minimum wage with at least a $350 bonus on top of that.

And as for "precarious part-time and contract positions," these are union jobs. Nobody can be fired except for cause and that is very, very difficult in a union shop unless the worker is doing Very Bad Things.

Finally, as for reporting the cashier being "disturbing," no union arbitrator in the entire world is going to uphold any discipline based upon the worker not asking a customer for a donation.

Loblaws is providing 12,000 union jobs for the people of Ontario. Not too many companies can make that claim.