Liberté Natural Foods is a Canadian manufacturer and distributor of all natural, organic, and specialty dairy and deli foods. It is based in the city of Brampton, Ontario.[1] The current Liberté Natural Foods is a combination of three previously separate companies, Western Creamery, Liberté Brand Products, and the dairy division of Tournevent. These companies were combined under the name of Liberté Natural Foods on July 1, 2006 to better reflect the company's goal of bringing fresh food solutions to customers. Although all three companies share a common name the products are still distributed under their respective brand names. Besides these brands Liberté also distributes products for several other manufacturers.
At the end of 2010 Liberté Natural Foods was acquired by the multinational yogurt producer Yoplait.[2] (In 2011 controlling interest of Yoplait was sold to General Mills.)
Liberté originally entered the market in 1928 as a manufacturer of cream cheese and cottage cheese centered in Montreal, Quebec. In 1964 Liberté expanded its operations and moved its operations to Brossard, Quebec where they started to manufacture yogurt in addition to their original cheese products. Since then they have added another production line in Candiac, Quebec where they are able to produce a wider variety of products.
Western Creamery has been providing customers with cultured dairy products for over 60 years. The company consists of two locations, a manufacturing facility in Toronto, Ontario and a distribution centre in Brampton, Ontario. Western Creamery manufactures a variety of natural yogurts, cream cheese spreads, pressed cottage cheeses, and sour creams. All Western Creamery products are made from all natural ingredients and are certified kosher.[3]
Laiterie Tournevent specializes in the production of milk, butter, and cheese that is manufactured from goat milk and its products are distributed all across Canada. In 1990 the production facility was expanded and modernized to allow Tournevent to develop several new products, and in 1992 the company introduced a home delivery service called "Tournevent Express".
Liberté distributes its products to many smaller independent stores, but its main customers are:[4]
- Loblaws
- A&P
- Dominion
- Y.I.G.
- Fortino's
- Sobey's
- Real Canadian Superstores
- I.G.A.
- No Frills
- Wal-Mart
- Whole Foods
- Pusateri's
- Byford Dairy
Liberté does not manufacture any products at its 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2)[5] Brampton, Ontario warehouse. This is the main distribution point for all of its manufactured products, as well as its distributed products from other vendors. This location also serves as the company's head office and is home to most of the companies administration, including the human resources department, sales staff and various inventory and supply coordinators. In 2007 the company began using its own drivers to deliver products to customers on the east coast.
In the fall of 2007 Liberté opened a 72,000-square-foot (6,700 m2) warehouse in Richmond, British Columbia. The facility is equipped to handle refrigerated, frozen, and shelf stable products including the Liberte, Western Creamery, Organic Meadow, Omega Nutrition, and Happy Planet brands in particular.
Martin Valiquette - General Manager
Martin Valiquette has held numerous jobs at Liberté Natural Foods Inc over the last 14 years. He has held the positions of Major Accounts Manager, Director of Marketing, Director of Sales and Marketing, and became the General Manager in 2004.
Martin is also a member of the Conseil d'administration du Conseil des Industriels Laitiers du Quebec (CILQ) (Milk Industry Council of Quebec).[6]
Roger Dickhout - CEO
Roger Dickhout is currently President & Chief Executive Officer of Pineridge Foods Inc.
Previously, as President & CEO, Roger led a turnaround of Canada Bread Company Ltd and a consolidation of the commercial baking segment which included acquiring and integrating regional bakers into a national platform.[7] Prior to that Roger was a partner with McKinsey & Company, Inc., a global strategic management consulting firm. Roger is a registered Professional Engineer, has a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Queen's University and a M.B.A. from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario (gold medalist). He also serves on the Board of Directors of Gennum Corporation,[8] Investeco,[9] and World Wildlife Fund - Canada.[10]
In October of 2006 the warehouse staff at the Brampton location decided to join a trade union and sought the support of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 175.[11] In the company's response to the application for certification they indicated that they thought that several field sales representatives should be included in the proposed bargaining unit.[12] The UFCW challenged this request as, in their opinion, the sales reps do not share a common interest with the warehouse staff. On October 24, 2006 a certification vote was held and workers voted 17 to 12 in favour of the union, the ballots of the disputed field sales reps were kept separate pending the outcome of the status dispute hearings. This is a significant issue as the group of field sales reps is large enough to have a huge impact on the outcome of the vote. Hearings at the Ontario Labour Relations Board regarding the inclusion of the field sales reps were concluded on February 7, 2007 and the board agreed with the UFCW and decided not to include the sales reps.[13] The decision was made on Friday May 4, 2007.
Union Members at the Brampton warehouse were successful in achieving a first collective agreement at a ratification meeting held on December 2, 2007.[14] The 55-page document guarantees the wages and working conditions which the Union Negotiating Committee achieved for the members. It covers approximately 45 full-time members of the bargaining unit who work for the food distribution company. The agreement includes:
- Employees with 12 months service receive increases of 50 cents per hour, effective as of the date of ratification in Year 1, 52 cents in Year 2 and 54 cents in Year 3 while those still in the wage progression receive an immediate increase of up to $1.25 per hour.
- The Lead Hand/Warehouse position has a premium of $1.50 per hour; vacant positions are posted and filled in accordance with Article 10.06 of the collective agreement.
- Additionally, all full-time employees who are on the payroll as of the date of ratification receive a lump sum payment of $150.
- Students, who are employed from May 1 to September 1 each year, are paid $12 per hour.
- Workers with seniority are paid their base hourly rate times their number of regularly scheduled hours for Ontario’s nine statutory holidays, plus Civic holiday and a floater day.
- A part-time worker who exceeds 28 hours for 12 consecutive weeks is reclassified as full-time, unless replacing a full-time employee.
The employer also agrees to:
- Make reasonable provisions for Health & Safety including ensuring that the Safety Committee, containing a minimum of three worker representatives, meets at least once every two months to make safety recommendations and perform regular plant inspections.
- Maintain a safety boot allowance of $125 per year to all full-time employees and to part-time employees who have completed one year of service.
- Provide all regular full-time employees, who have completed their probationary period, with life insurance, AD&D, long-term disability and extended health & dental plans; workers are also entitled to as many as five sick days annually; any unused sick days are paid out at 100 percent of the employee’s regular hourly pay.
- Contribute a matching amount – up to 6 per cent of annual earnings for those with 12 years of service – for those employees who elect to join the Liberté Natural Foods Inc. Group Retirement Savings Plan.
- Provide each employee with 2 sweaters or sweatshirts and one winter coat per year.
- A “Sunset” clause removing written discipline warnings from the employee’s record after 18 months if no additional warning is received during that time. Members also have the right to review their personnel records and may file a grievance if they object to material contained in the file. They also have the right to have a steward present at disciplinary meetings.
- Ensure that bargaining unit work is only performed by employees who are members of the bargaining unit, except in specified situations, such as emergencies.
- Not contract out bargaining unit work, if it would cause a layoff or reduction in the hours of full-time workers.
- Continue its present practice related to the Christmas bonus and also contribute a lump sum of $1,000 annually to the Locals 175 & 633 Training & Education Fund.
- The Union appointing two stewards who are permitted the necessary time during standard working hours, without loss of pay, to perform functions related to grievance & arbitration procedures, which are detailed in the new contract.
- The election or appointment of up to two members for the Union Negotiating Committee, which will be paid their hourly rate for eight hours on each day spent in negotiations, up to and including conciliation and mediation.
The contract also includes language related to hours or work, overtime, vacations, seniority, job vacancy postings, layoff & recall rights, leaves of absence and bereavement leave.
2011 Collective Agreement
The more than 50 warehouse workers at Liberté Natural Foods in Brampton had a ratification vote on July 10, 2011.[15] Members voted in favour of the three-year deal, which includes the following:
- Wages improve by 2 per cent per year of the contract term with the first increase retroactive to January 1, 2011.
- In addition, all active full-time employees as of date of ratification receive a lump sum payment of $550.
- Vision care coverage is now provided for workers at $100 per 24-month period.
- After five years of service, sick days for workers increase from five to six days.
- Workers now benefit from the representation of three Union stewards, up from the previous two.
- Other language improvements address premiums, overtime, part-time and temporary workers, and health and safety.
In January 2009 UFCW Local 175 also applied for certification for the delivery drivers based out of the Brampton warehouse.[16] A vote took place on January 19, 2009. The proposed bargaining unit was listed as:
"all employees of Liberté Natural Foods Inc., employed as Drivers in the City of Brampton, Ontario, save and except supervisors, and persons above the rank of supervisor, field sales representatives, sales, office and clerical staff and employees covered by subsisting collective agreements."
On January 28, 2009, the Ontario Labour Board decided that the UFCW would not be certified because "not more than fifty per cent of the ballots cast by employees in the bargaining unit were cast in favour of the applicant."[17]
On April 29, 2010, the UFCW made a second attempt at gaining union certification for the delivery drivers.[18] The vote took place on May 3, 2010, and a final decision of the Board was issues on May 12, 2010. Although a single employee sent a letter of objection to the Board the board decided that the UFCW should be certified because the majority of the bargaining unit voted in favour of joining a union.[19]
The employees that work in the company's Toronto manufacturing plant conducted a union organizing campaign at the same time as the delivery drivers in Brampton.
On April 29, 2010, the UFCW made their first attempt at gaining union certification for the Toronto employees.[20] The bargaining unit proposed on the application for certification was listed as follows:
"all employees of Liberté Natural Foods Inc., in the City of Toronto, save and except Supervisors, Lab Technicians, Field and Sales Representatives and persons above the rank of Supervisor and office and clerical staff."
The vote took place on May 3, 2010, and a final decision of the Board was issues on May 12, 2010. The Ontario Labour Board decided that the UFCW should be certified because the majority of the bargaining unit voted in favour of joining a union.[21]
The Company has also been active in trying to hide particular information regarding the Union certification of its Brampton warehouse. If you look at the history of this article, back on April 8, 2008 information regarding the Union certification of the warehouse employees was removed. The I.P. address was 68.179.113.57.[22] The "User Contributions" to Wikipedia for that I.P. address also shows that there were no other contributions or edits from this I.P. address except for this article.[23]
A reverse-ip look-up of this address reveals that it is registered to "Liberté Brand Products".[24] This shows that the changes to this article were made from someone within the company.
Ontario Labour Relations Board decisions related to the union campaigns