Rona takeover to have no immediate impact in Sudbury, company says

Rona has told the union that represents its Sudbury employees that a $3.2-billion takeover from American home improvement chain Lowe's won't affect the store, at least in the short term.

“All the collective agreements are going to remain in place for now,” said Jeff Barry, a representative with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 175, which represents 14 employees at the Sudbury Rona store, located on Barrydowne Road.

“They don't believe anything is going to be affected until at least October.”

While the deal is still pending regulatory approval, both companies' boards have unanimously approved the transaction.

Lowe's is based in Mooresville, North Carolina, and has more than 1,800 stores and 265,000 employees in North America.

Rona has its headquarters in Boucherville, Quebec, and has more than 17,000 employees in its corporate stores, and another 5,000 workers at its independent affiliate dealers.

The Sudbury Rona store is one of only a few locations with unionized employees, said Barry.

On Nov. 12, 2015, the workers were locked out after more than nine months of negotiations failed to result in a new collective agreement.

Barry said one of the main sticking points during negotiations was securing a strong severance package for the workers.

On Nov. 16, four days after the lockout, both sides ratified a collective agreement, which included the severance language the union fought to maintain.

“We wanted that agreement because there was a good severance package in there, if there was a store closure,” Barry said.

Barry added the severance packages could prove helpful if the Lowe's takeover results in the Sudbury Rona's closure a year or more down the line.

“If something happened and they closed the store, the members would be looked after,” he said.

Sudbury has a Lowe's store on Marcus Drive, around two kilometres south of the Rona location.