AGR Local 90001 is comprised of approximately 70 members. The local is made up of members from both the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).
Although our members may be based in offices throughout Eastern NL, a typical day for a front-line inspector would include travel throughout our vast boundaries while carrying out inspection and regulatory duties in both field settings and third-party premises.
Our CFIA members work tasks vary across our 3 lines of Animal, Food and Plant Programs. From administrative personnel, to front line Inspectors, and supervisors in their respective program, our members are dedicated to safeguarding food, animals and plants, which enhances the health and well-being of Canada’s people, environment and economy.
Within AAFC, we have members in finance, public affairs, administration, knowledge transfer, research assistants and general labourers. Agricultural practices in NL differ from those in other agricultural areas of Canada due to the province’s cooler and shorter summers. This allows our members to support innovative research, development and knowledge and technology transfer activities in relation to horticulture, forages, clean technologies, biodiversity and bio-resources for a boreal northern environment.
Our recent successes include:
1. Developed low cost methods of reseeding perennial forage crops on stony soils which helped the dairy industry significantly reduce the renovation costs of stony fields.
2. Developed integrated pest management techniques for protecting brassica crops from cabbage maggot.
3. Established four pilot scale wood chip bioreactor systems to study the mitigation of nutrient losses from tile drained cropping systems.
4. Developed blueberry and lingonberry hybrid selections and micropropagation techniques for cultivation in boreal northern regions.
5. Developed molecular markers to assist with the early selection of new blueberry and lingonberry hybrids with improved frost tolerance, adaptation to NL soils and health promoting compounds.
In our opinion the main advantage of being a union member is individuals who are unionized enjoy greater job satisfaction because unions allow employees to negotiate the rules and policies of the workplace with the employer. Our local works closely for and with its union members to ensure that issues of concern are dealt with in manner that protects are dealt with in manner that protects our workers’ rights.