Richmond IKEA workers marking one year locked out
Posted May 9, 2014 10:04 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RICHMOND (NEWS1130) – IKEA workers in Richmond are marking one year on the picket lines.
The roughly 325 employees continue to resist changes to pay and benefits the company has been seeking.
According to Anita Dawson with the Teamsters Local 213, IKEA wants to make it harder for part-timers to qualify for benefits.
And she says the company wants top wages to kick in after 16 years of employment.
“That’s not acceptable. We are working with a four-year wage progression right now. With the proposal, it will take employees potentially 16 years to reach the upper pay scale,” she explains.
She notes it’s been a tough year for employees, with some actually going back to work for IKEA and others seeking part-time work elsewhere. But the pickets remain.
“We’ve had a few that have had babies. They were pregnant when the dispute began. They’ve had difficulty collecting maternity leave employment insurance because of the labour dispute.”
The Richmond location is one of only two unionized IKEAs in Canada.
The Canadian Labour Congress is asking the public to boycott all IKEA locations until the dispute ends.
