Liberté Natural Foods
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Liberté Natural Foods is a Canadian manufacturer and distributor of all natural, organic, and specialty dairy and deli foods. The current Liberté Natural Foods is a combination of three previously separate companies, Western Creamery, Liberté Brand Products, and the dairy division of Tournevent. These companies were combined under the name of Liberté Natural Foods on July 1, 2006 to better reflect the company's goal of bringing fresh food solutions to customers. Although all three companies share a common name the products are still distributed under their respective brand names. Besides these brands Liberté also distributes products for several other manufacturers, some of which are listed below.
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[edit] Liberté Brand Products
Liberté originally entered the market in 1928 as a manufacturer of cream cheese and cottage cheese centered in Montreal, Quebec. In 1964 Liberté expanded its operations and moved its operations to Brossard, Quebec where they started to manufacture yogurt in addition to their original cheese products. Since then they have added another production line in Candiac, Quebec where they are able to produce a wider variety of products.
[edit] Western Creamery
Western Creamery has been providing customers with high quality cultured dairy products for over 60 years. The company consists of two locations, a manufacturing facility in Toronto, Ontario and a distribution centre in Brampton, Ontario. Western Creamery manufactures a variety of natural yogurts, cream cheese spreads, pressed cottage cheeses, and sour creams. All Western Creamery products are made from all natural ingredients and are certified kosher.
[edit] Tournevent
Laiterie Tournevent specializes in the production of milk, butter, and cheese that is manufactured from goat milk and its products are distributed all across Canada. In 1990 the production facility was expanded and modernized to allow Tournevent to develope several new products, and in 1992 the company introduced a home delivery service called "Tournevent Express".
[edit] Vendors
Besides Liberté's own brands the company also distributes products for the following companies:
- Tropicana
- Tour Eiffel
- Summerfresh Salads
- White Wave
- Yoso
- Organic Meadow
- Soya World
- Happy Planet Foods
- Rowe Farm
- Green Valley
- Béland Organic Foods
- Summersweet
- Sol Cuisine
- Arla Foods
- Mornington Dairy
- President's Choice
- Our Compliments
- And many others...
[edit] Customers
Liberté distributes its products to many smaller independent stores, but its main customers are:
- Loblaws
- A&P
- Dominion
- Y.I.G.
- Fortino's
- Sobey's
- Real Canadian Superstores
- I.G.A.
- No Frills
- Pusateri's
- Byford Dairy
[edit] Brampton Warehouse
Liberté does not manufacture any products at its 60,000 square foot Brampton, Ontario warehouse. This is the main distribution point for all of its manufactured products, as well as its distributed products from other vendors. This location also serves as the company's head office and is home to most of the companies administration, including the human resources department, sales staff and various inventory and supply coordinators. In 2007 the company began using its own drivers to deliver products to customers on the east coast to improve customer satisfaction.
[edit] Vancouver Warehouse
In the fall of 2007 Liberté opened a small warehouse in Richmond, British Columbia. The facility is equipped to handle refrigerated, frozen, and shelf stable products including the Liberte, Western Creamery, Organic Meadow, Omega Nutrition, and Happy Planet brands in partiular.
[edit] Union Campaign
In October of 2006 the warehouse staff at the Brampton location decided to join a trade union and sought the support of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 175. In the company's response to the application for certification they indicated that they thought that several field sales representatives should be included in the proposed bargaining unit. The UFCW challenged this request as, in their opinion, the sales reps do not share a common interest with the warehouse staff. On October 24, 2006 a certification vote was held and workers voted 17 to 12 in favour of the union, the ballots of the disputed field sales reps were kept separate pending the outcome of the status dispute hearings. This is a significant issue as the group of field sales reps is large enough to have a huge impact on the outcome of the vote. Hearings at the Ontario Labour Relations Board regarding the inclusion of the field sales reps were concluded on February 7, 2007 and the board agreed with the UFCW and decided not to include the sales reps. The decision was made on Friday May 4, 2007.
Union Members at the Brampton warehouse were successful in achieving a first collective agreement at a ratification meeting held on December 2, 2007. The 55-page document guarantees the wages and working conditions which the Union Negotiating Committee achieved for the members. It covers approximately 45 full-time members of the bargaining unit who work for the food distribution company. The agreement includes:
- Employees with 12 months service receive increases of 50 cents per hour, effective as of the date of ratification in Year 1, 52 cents in Year 2 and 54 cents in Year 3 while those still in the wage progression receive an immediate increase of up to $1.25 per hour.
- The Lead Hand/Warehouse position has a premium of $.50 per hour; vacant positions are posted and filled in accordance with Article 10.06 of the collective agreement.
- Additionally, all full-time employees who are on the payroll as of the date of ratification receive a lump sum payment of $150.
- Students, who are employed from May 1 to September 1 each year, are paid $12 per hour.
- Workers with seniority are paid their base hourly rate times their number of regularly scheduled hours for Ontario’s nine statutory holidays, plus Civic holiday and a floater day.
- A part-time worker who exceeds 28 hours for 12 consecutive weeks is reclassified as full-time, unless replacing a full-time employee.
The employer also agrees to:
- Make reasonable provisions for Health & Safety including ensuring that the Safety Committee, containing a minimum of three worker representatives, meets at least once every two months to make safety recommendations and perform regular plant inspections.
- Maintain a safety boot allowance of $125 per year to all full-time employees and to part-time employees who have completed one year of service.
- Provide all regular full-time employees, who have completed their probationary period, with life insurance, AD&D, long-term disability and extended health & dental plans; workers are also entitled to as many as five sick days annually; any unused sick days are paid out at 100 percent of the employee’s regular hourly pay.
- Contribute a matching amount – up to 6 per cent of annual earnings for those with 12 years of service – for those employees who elect to join the Liberté Natural Foods Inc. Group Retirement Savings Plan.
- Provide each employee with 2 sweaters or sweatshirts and one winter coat per year.
- A “Sunset” clause removing written discipline warnings from the employee’s record after 18 months if no additional warning is received during that time. Members also have the right to review their personnel records and may file a grievance if they object to material contained in the file. They also have the right to have a steward present at disciplinary meetings.
- Ensure that bargaining unit work is only performed by employees who are members of the bargaining unit, except in specified situations, such as emergencies.
- Not contract out bargaining unit work, if it would cause a layoff or reduction in the hours of full-time workers.
- Continue its present practice related to the Christmas bonus and also contribute a lump sum of $1,000 annually to the Locals 175 & 633 Training & Education Fund.
- The Union appointing two stewards who are permitted the necessary time during standard working hours, without loss of pay, to perform functions related to grievance & arbitration procedures, which are detailed in the new contract.
- The election or appointment of up to two members for the Union Negotiating Committee, which will be paid their hourly rate for eight hours on each day spent in negotiations, up to and including conciliation and mediation.
The contract also includes language related to hours or work, overtime, vacations, seniority, job vacancy postings, layoff & recall rights, leaves of absence and bereavement leave.
[edit] Sources
Ontario labour Relations Board decisions related to the union campaign
