By Ken WaddellThe Neepawa BannerAs the United Food and Commercial Workers #832 (UFCW) and Hytek-Springhill hog processing plant at Neepawa wait for the new proposed wage agreement to be translated from English into Korean and Ukrainian, both sides are hoping for a positive ratification vote.
The outcome of the vote may have been placed in jeopardy by an incorrect story in one of the local newspapers, The Neepawa Press.
In an interview with The Neepawa Banner, UFCW negotiator Jeff Traeger said,"The front page story in The Neepawa Press was completely wrong"
The Neepawa Press quoted a web site source and outlined details for an old proposed wage agreement. Those details have nothing to do with the proposed new agreement. Traeger said on Thursday, Feb. 4, "I'm having a really bad day. When I read the story, I see it was from an archived web site from 2002 that The Neepawa Press quoted. In the article, they quoted from the Members for Democracy which ceased to exist in 2006. That old archived web site still has the June 10, 2002 Springhill wage agreement proposal listed and that agreement was good for two years." Since that time a later five year agreement was accepted and it just ran out on January 31, 2010.
A very upset Traeger said, "The only true part in the story in The Neepawa Press is that we negotiated a new agreement before the old one ran out. This is the most shoddy piece of journalism I have ever seen. Here we have an agreement being translated and that will be released to every member at meetings on February 8 and we have this untrue story in every member's mail box."
Traeger went on to say, "We have a very good contract proposal on the table and both the union and the company are recommending members accept it. It's sad that members might take this false information from The Neepawa Press story and decide to go on strike. It will be a sad day for Neepawa and everyone involved if the workers are walking the picket line based on an inaccurate story."
The UFCW is planning member information sessions at Neepawa's Yellowhead Centre on February 8. Traeger said," We are having the information sessions on Monday and I had hoped I could spend my time explaining the agreement rather than having to have every member have a Neepawa Press in their hands and then having to explain that their story is wrong."
Traeger said, "We have obtained the use of the former lunch room right at the (Springhill) plant to hold the vote on February 9, starting at 5 a.m and running until 6 p.m. We're hoping that with a 13 hour vote and with it being held on-site we will give everyone a chance to vote"
