Workers at a Cargill meatpacking plant in High River, Alberta, are scheduled to vote on a tentative deal only days away from a strike or lockout.

The union says the deal offers the best food processing contract in Canada.

Nearly 2,000 workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers vote on the tentative agreement from Dec 2 to 4 .

The strike lock-out deadline was set for Monday, Dec 6.

Producers were watching the dispute closely, because the plant handles about 36 percent of Canada’s beef or 45 hundred cattle per day.

Last year, a temporary shut-down from Covid-19 caused a market backlog for months.

The union said the tentative deal includes the following provisions:

Up to $4,200 in retroactive pay for many Cargill union members;
$1,000 signing bonus;
$1,000 COVID-19 bonus;
More than $6,000 total bonus for many members three weeks before Christmas.
$5 wage increase – 21 percent over the contract – for many employees.

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