After two million liters of milk were dumped last month, millions of dollars in cheese by-products were wasted due to a strike by 250 workers at the Agropur plant in Granby.
After the strike that began on June 29 at the Agropur plant in Granby, producers had to throw out more than two million liters of milk.
They’ve since been able to sell their milk to other factories in Ontario and Quebec in the meantime, but they’re still missing out on some cheese by-products that some of those factories can’t process.
“We don’t throw it into the environment, it turns into a biosystem. This is the lost revenue for the producers. We are talking about millions of dollars,” laments Daniel Gobel, Head of Producteurs de lait du Québec (PLQ).
Francis Hallen
“We are forced to buy back by-products from some factories, such as yoghurt,” explains Gobel, who wrote a letter to the president of Agropur and the head of the factories association yesterday.
For Granby Factory Guild President Daniel Chabot, the ball is in Agropur’s court, which stretches the balance between work and family.
“Employees are being asked to forget their families and really be there 40 hours a week, 24 hours a day,” explains the man who has worked in the factory for 42 years, pointing to the factory behind him.
When Daniel Chabot was asked to get wet from food scraps, he said he regretted it, and referred to the management team.
We had a strike vote in April. We left on June 29th. A cheese analyst who wants a quick deal in principle replies, “The business owner knew something was going to happen.
in registerHe insists: In the midst of a labor shortage, Agropur has to do more to avoid losing its workers, as do dozens of her colleagues, who have already found what they need elsewhere.
“There are people who will get bored,” he warns.
At Agropur, we also say we are ‘worried about waste’.
We understand the pressures dairy producers are under in this struggle. They are our members and co-owners,” confirms Vice President of Corporate Communications, Mylene Dupree.
“We want a quick return to work and continued discussions to reach a fair and equitable agreement,” she added.
Wages at Granby’s range from $29.07 to $32.48 an hour, states the cooperative. This is in addition to the benefits and up to six weeks of vacation, it is said.
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