051011 Tyson's Canada Beef Plant Sees Strike Delays

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - Strike pickets continued to delay traffic in and out of Tyson Foods Inc.'s Alberta beef slaughter plant despite new rules from a provincial labor board, a union spokesman said on Thursday.

The Alberta Labor Relations Board has restricted the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to stopping vehicles crossing a picket line outside the Lakeside Packers plant at Brooks, Alberta, for a maximum of three minutes.

That's down from an earlier maximum of five minutes per car and nine minutes per bus.

"When you get people who want to ask you questions, three minutes isn't enough time to do that," said Don Crisall, a spokesman for the union's local 401.

But the union was complying with the order, and with Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who were controlling traffic, Crisall said.

"Between the RCMP and the picketers, we have it down to a science now," he said.

The plant normally slaughters about a third of Canada's beef cattle, and employs 2,400 people.

The plant was not unionized for 20 years. The union went on strike over wages and working conditions last Wednesday after nine months of negotiations and a mediation attempt by the provincial government failed.

The company said as many as 1,000 employees were willing to cross the picket line last week, but has complained that pickets slowed operations.

A spokesman for Tyson did not return calls seeking comment on Thursday.

The company appeared to stop trying to bus workers to the site on Thursday, the union's Crisall said.

Workers willing to cross the picket line were instead driving their own vehicles to the site, he said. The company also appeared to be building a new road to the plant, he said.

The strike has been marked by several tense incidents and arrests for vandalism and dangerous driving.

Two senior managers at the plant were banned from being near the picket line by the Alberta Labor Relations Board on Thursday.

They were involved in a "dangerous pursuit" of the union's local president Douglas O'Halloran down roads near the plant on Saturday, the board said in a directive.

"The pursuit ended when O'Halloran's vehicle was forced off the road, resulting in injuries to O'Halloran," the board said.

Four people were charged with dangerous driving by the RCMP in connection with the incident.

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