POINT TUPPER: After a year of talks, the company in charge of the gypsum plant here has reached a collective agreement with the union representing its workers.

On Sept. 8, Unifor confirmed the ratification of their first collective agreement with Cabot Manufacturing which owns the Cabot Gypsum plant in Point Tupper.

Unifor Local 972 President Archie MacLachlan said the workers are now part of the same union local which represents workers at Port Hawkesbury Paper. He said a representative of the Cabot Gypsum workers will sit on the union local executive as a vice president and attend meetings.

“About a year ago, some workers approached me about forming a union and I passed them along to somebody in Unifor,” he told The Reporter. “I got a gentleman out of New Brunswick to get in touch with the individuals who approached us and started the process. Early August I think the whole thing started. The organizer came down and had some meetings with a bunch of workers; organized them and enough of them went through the process to join Unifor, and then the Unifor national asked us to take them as part of our local. There’s about 60 workers at Cabot Manufacturing, not really enough to form their own local, per se. The current members of 972, we had some meetings and information sessions for our people and they overwhelmingly agreed to take Cabot Gypsum as part of 972.”

After votes were held on Aug. 30 and 31, MacLachlan said 97 per cent of workers ratified the deal, then the Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration, as well as the employer were notified.

“It was complicated, a little slower because of COVID, and trying to negotiate through Zoom, and all that kind of stuff, so it took about a year,” MacLachlan said.

On Sept. 10, 2021 Patrick Murray, Atlantic Organizer for Unifor, confirmed that 41 employees at the Point Tupper gypsum plant voted to join the national union, with nine voting against, and one spoiled ballot. A certification order from the Nova Scotia Labour Board arrived that same week.

Under the Trade Union Act, unions are required to have at least 40 per cent of workers sign cards in order to hold a vote, and in this case, Murray reported that it was “well over 50 per cent.”

With the certification order from the labour board, Murray said a bargaining committee was elected and a notice to bargain was served with their employer.

Although there were unsuccessful unionization attempts at Cabot Gypsum in the past, Murray said the union had been speaking with workers at Cabot Gypsum for around three years. He said the talks “really started to take off” once the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

At the time, Murray confirmed that workers wanted a respectful work environment, and he expected talks would address issues like improper equipment and broken exit doors.

A press release issued by Unifor on Sept. 8 said the workers are also looking forward to a more reasonable pay structure and greater health and safety measures.

“The collective agreement which they agreed to is a five-year deal with increases in pay over the five years. The total for the five years is just over a 17 per cent increase in their rates of pay,” said MacLachlan. “Over a year ago, when the workers came to us, one of their big deals was the health and safety of their workers. Unfortunately, with the type of product their making, it’s a dusty process. They had some major concerns about their training and the air conditions.”

Another part of the agreement deals with Paid Education Leave (PEL), the union noted.

“The employer will pay Unifor national directly a sum of money every year and that will be dedicated for the Cabot Gypsum employees,” noted MacLauchlan. “We put on a lot of training courses that help the workers get better educated on their responsibilities for workers in the workforce.”

In addition to PEL, Unifor said the agreement includes a grievance procedure, language around recruitment and retention, a structured labour management committee, and a structured health and safety committee.

Unifor is the largest private sector union in Canada which represents over 315,000 members in every sector of the economy.

Cabot Gypsum is a 20,000 square foot drywall plant in Point Tupper operating under Cabot Manufacturing ULC, which produces and ships regular and fire rated products, and they also manufacture mold and moisture resistant products, abuse resistant products, vinyl ceiling tiles, and exterior sheathing products.

MacLachlan called the deal a “starting point.”

“It gives the employer some responsibilities and the workers some responsibilities how to be a good employee,” he added. “It was something that took longer than we thought it was going to take but happy for the workers from Cabot Manufacturing because it takes a lot of courage to come forward in this work environment these days to do what they did. It’s not an easy thing, they were heading into unknown territory and I just hope we can make it a better for them, make it a safer place for them, make some more money for them, and the employer will be happy with their workforce.”