Pete’s Frootique workers ratify first collective agreement

Workers from Sobeys-owned Halifax location of Pete’s Frootique have ratified their first collective agreement. The 92 workers from the downtown grocer have been on strike since Nov. 18.

The workers’ union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2, sent out a press release Friday night:

SEIU Local 2 would like to thank allies and community members for all the incredible support the workers received during the strike.

Details about the agreement will be available in the coming days. Representatives will be available for comment next week.

The announcement comes one day before the workers were set to take part in pickets during a national day of action on Saturday. That event has been cancelled.

Workers started hosting rallies in October 2023, saying they wanted better wages and paid sick time. They voted in March 2023 to join Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2, which represents 20,000 workers across Canada, including in Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Alberta.

The union hosted a national day of action on Dec. 16 that included information pickets at Sobeys locations, and were gathering support from across the country through a Facebook page.

Talks between the union and Sobeys, which purchased Pete’s Frootique in 2015, were at an impasse. The last offer Sobeys made amounted to a raise of five cents per hour. The workers at the grocer, including managers, were making minimum wage.

When the workers went on strike in November, Sobeys closed the store indefinitely.

At a press conference on Dec. 8, 2023, Nicholle Savoie, one of the workers on strike, said her colleagues’ resolve remained strong.

“The support we’ve been receiving over the last few weeks has been incredible. We know that it isn’t only because people see the injustice that we are facing as workers, but also because all people are sick and tired of seeing large corporations make record profits while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet,” Savoie said. 

“Together we’re calling for an end to greedflation by Sobeys.” 

At that same press conference Friday, Danny Cavanagh, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, and Debbie Richardson, president of the Halifax-Dartmouth and District Labour Council said those unions were doing what they could to support the workers.

Cavanagh called Sobeys offer of five cents above minimum wage a “heartless insult.”

“Not just to the workers at Pete’s Frootique, but to all workers in Nova Scotia struggling to make ends meet,” Cavanagh said. 

“To add insult to injury, Sobeys is basking in enormous profits and executive compensation. Sobeys CEO Michael Medline took home over $8.6 million last year and his workers only deserve a five cent raise? That makes no sense.”

In October, the Examiner interviewed Emily MacKinlay and Nick Piovesan, two other Pete’s workers, about their experience working at the store during the early months of the COVID pandemic. MacKinlay and Piovesan said they received a two dollars per hour raise in pay during the first few months of the pandemic, but workers only received that money if they worked more than 20 hours in a week.

“We kept working while most other people stayed home, and we were called heroes and the hero pay [Pete’s] offered us was less than what people were getting to stay home,” Piovesan said.

“And they yanked it away the second they could.” 

Piovesan said many of the workers, including himself, were struggling with their mental health in late 2020 as the pandemic raged on.  

“I ended up going on stress leave for a few months,” Piovesan said. “Complete exhaustion. I felt like I was losing it, and I just wasn’t able to be at work every day anymore. I was struggling myself and I was surrounded by other people who were also struggling, and it started to take a toll.” 

The Bedford location of Pete’s Frootique has remained open. The staff at that store are not in a union.