Unionized workers lined a Coquitlam street today, Sept. 18, for a lunchtime rally to put pressure on and build awareness about the strike at Uni-Select, Bumper to Bumper.
The 36 members with the United Steelworks Workers’ Local 2009 stood outside the auto parts distribution centre on Glacier Street to demand “fair wages” from the employer.
The members, who have been without a contract since April 30, 2024, and have rejected two proposals to ratify a new collective agreement, were joined at the noon rally by union members from MoveUP, Unifor, CUPE, the New Westminster and District Labour Council, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union and the International Union of Operating Engineers following a public call for solidarity, via the BC Federation of Labour union.
Outside the Coquitlam facility, which had security present, unionized members played music, waved flags, blew whistles and chanted about “corporate greed” through a loud speaker.
“It’s disgusting,” Al Bieksa, USW Local 2009 president, told the Tri-City News of the current salaries and wage proposals before the bargaining table, of which he is also now at. “We have longtime employees, some up to 40 years, who are making less than living wage. No Canadian should be making less than the living wage when companies are making so much.”
The Living Wage for Families BC calculates a living wage at $25.68 per hour for Metro Vancouver employees to cover basic expenses like food, transportation and childcare.
A request for comment from Uni-Select, Bumper to Bumper, was not immediately returned.
Bieksa said his bargaining committee is “trying to be creative” with the employer as he said Uni-Select doesn’t want to set a salary precedent for employees in its other operations. (The company’s shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol UNS.)
In 2022, the unionized workers in Coquitlam saw a 1.3 per cent bump in pay while, last year, their salaries went up 1.2 per cent despite inflation at a post–pandemic high of eight per cent, Bieksa said.
Currently, he said, the only way for members to earn more money is to work overtime.
Based in Boucherville, Que., Uni-Select, Bumper to Bumper, has nine distribution centres and more than 120 corporate stores that employ more than 2,000 people.
Meanwhile, Local 2009 is encouraging the public to not patronize the business until a contract is signed.
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