Striking Hudson's Bay warehouse workers reach tentative agreement

More than 300 workers at The Bay’s e-commerce warehouse in Scarborough walked off the job on Wednesday, June 22. (Unifor photo)

Unifor says it has reached a tentative agreement that could end a strike by more than 330 e-commerce workers at a Hudson’s Bay warehouse in Toronto.

The HBC Logistics workers launched strike action on June 22 after negotiations broke down over the issue of retroactive pay for work performed during the pandemic

“I congratulate the bargaining committee on reaching a tentative agreement for these workers, primarily women with the majority being newcomers, who literally carried The Bay through the pandemic,” Unifor Ontario Regional Director Naureen Rizvi said in a release Tuesday night.

The warehouse processes online orders from across Canada for The Bay.

Workers at the warehouse had continued to work without a contract through the pandemic and were seeking a retroactive increase.

“These workers have difficult jobs that became even harder during the pandemic. It was important to the bargaining committee that they receive the respect that they are due and we were committed to delivering improvements in this contract to reflect that,” Unifor Local 40 Vice-President Dwayne Gunness said in the release. 

In a statement to CP24 last week, The Bay said that it had made “fair, reasonable and competitive offers which included meaningful wage increases for associates” and that it was hopeful that a resolution could be reached quickly.

The union said the strike action will continue until a ratification vote takes place on June 30 and that details of the tentative agreement will not be released before ratification.