The union representing roughly 900 workers at Metro Inc. warehouses in Etobicoke, Ont. has ratified a new 4.5-year collective agreement that includes pension and benefits gains.
Sandeep Kakan, director of pension and benefits at Unifor, says the agreement includes an increase in the defined benefit pension plan’s flat-rate benefit, retroactive to 2001, as well as benefits gains such as glasses and contact lenses, an enhancement to the eye exam benefit and increases for psychologist and other paramedical coverages.
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Employees will also receive an average wage increase of 15.8 per cent over the lifetime of the agreement, including an hourly increase of $2.25 in the first year, paid retroactively to Oct. 24, 2021.
“This is an historic deal, not just because of the current environment and the cost of living, but also because we’ve been monitoring these sectors for a while,” says Kakan. “Members had strong demands in addition to wages and were also cognizant of the pension credit — we had a credit increase all the way back to 2001.”
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