About 200 workers are on strike at a Lillydale Foods Inc. turkey processing plant in Edmonton. The strikers set up a picket line outside the facility after contract talks broke down last week. John Ventura, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers, said the employees want wage parity with their counterparts at other company plants and a guaranteed 36-hour work week. Ventura says Edmonton employees are handling heavier birds and getting $1.28 an hour less on average.
He also says the company's offer of 40 cents more per hour in each year of a three-year agreement was turned down by the union members. The company has said the wage offer is fair and reasonable. -
