électromécanicien

manœuvre

mécanicien monteur

préparateur de commandes

expéditeur

Agropur

Only worked here a short while but, the pay was good. $18.17 on Days and a $0.75 cent shift premium for Afternoons ($18.92). The Afternoon shift is a bit more relaxed because management isn't around.  The Day shift has an old, cranky, crow for Health & Safety who will literally wait to pounce and OVER-react on you for the slightest errors. As with the previous reviewer from Woodstock, you arrive about 20 minutes before your shift. You use an electronic card to enter the building (which you get after a week or so or, you have to wait for a another person and enter with them).  You walk through mats that contain sanitizing solution and then put on your hair-net.  Then, you walk past all the managers offices, through part of the cooler and into the work area. You take your lunch upstairs to the lunch room and then head back down to get your uniform out of a metal closet. You then go into the crowded change room and put the work pants on and you can wear the work shirt alone or over your regular shirt.  You are told during orientation that there aren't any lockers left for new employees so, you have to stick your regular clothes on a shelf or leave them in a bag in the change room. You also have to make sure you have your safety shoes and safety glasses on.  Once you leave the change room you grab a bump-cap and clock in using a fingerprint reading device.  You punch in a 3 digit number for the line you're working on (posted on a wall), then your employee number and then scan the finger tip of the finger you selected when they find time to enter you into the system.  Again, if you're on the Day shift and even the early part of the Afternoon shift, the Health & Safety person will be stranding around, waiting to point out that one strand of hair you forgot to tuck under your hair-net and squawk at you like it's the worst thing ever!  Once you're punched in, then you go and get a lab-coat.... but don't put it on just yet! You have to wait until you're in the production area. Other workers love to point out if you've forgotten some part of the uniform, hair-net, or safety glasses. Once you're in the production area, then you can put on your lab coat. Then, you wash and dry your hands, put on a pair of latex gloves and use a foam sanitizer on your gloves. You have to repeat this any time you go in and out of the production area. In some areas, you even have to do this between the front and back of the line. When working in boxing areas, you have to remove and hang-up your lab coat, discard your latex gloves and put on gloves for handling boxes. 

Once you are on your production line, you get the sense that the company is more female dominated.  Men open heavy (20 to 80 lb.) blocks of cheese at the front of each line, while several women work along and at the back of the line. Each line has a Line Lead who makes a little more per hour (but does less physical labour). Some are nice and some are arrogant and like to brag about their seniority. Some lines also have a Slice operator who loads the cheese after the man has used a press to cut the blocks into rectangles. Slicers are usually women and also range from nice to downright nasty. The men definitely have more physical work and aren't always given help. Some lines will run cheese that is vacuum sealed and in boxes with straps on a pallet. The guy then has to: 1. Cut and discard the straps, open the boxes,2. Break down the boxes and throw them in a bin, 3. Put the heavy, wrapped cheese on a metal table, 4. Cut open wrapping and dump the cheese out, 5. Place the cheese on a roller table that uses a pneumatic press to push the cheese through a wire grate, 6. Put excess cheese in a trim bag and, when full, put in a designated bin. If a line is running steadily, it is nearly impossible to keep up without any help. And, if you seem to be struggling and ask for help, some co-workers and Line Leads will gossip that you are whiny or not used to hard work.  I even heard one co-worker threaten to stop helping a guy if he didn't do "the harder job" of opening boxes of cheese, than loading it on the table and cutting open the wrapper.  

Culture-wise, there are a lot of Polish ladies that work there. They are mainly older women who speak broken English and will use gestures to show you what to do. They also talk in Polish while working and you're never sure if it's about you or not. And, I got the sense that there were some single mother's who work there who were looking for their kids' next step-dad. There's a lot of flirting between the teens to 30-somethings.  

Also, I heard that one of the Production Supervisors told other workers about an e-mail sent to her in confidence. I discovered this after a co-worker in passing, told me they heard about an e-mail sent to a Supervisor.  That is extremely unprofessional for a Supervisor and could get them in trouble.

The company is much busier this year, than last year, now that they have a contract to do cheese for Subway. Most people will get 40 hours per week and you can sign-up to work Saturdays but, some will be mandatory.  

**This is a non-union company and you do not get Time-and-a-half pay on Saturday UNLESS you have worked 40 hours prior to Saturday!!!  Many of us new workers didn't know that and were mandated to work the Saturday after Labour Day. But, with Labour Day being a holiday, we didn't get 40 hours before working that Saturday. We were only given 2 hours of Statutory Holiday pay, which then gave us only 2 hours at Time-and-a-half on Saturday!  Another drawback at this company, is that you only get one 10 minute break after 3 hours of work.  Then, you get a 20 minute break 2.5 hours after that.  Both breaks are paid though.**

There are vending machines in the lunch room, including one you can use your electronic card to get free food out of, twice a day. But, they rarely re-stock that one. It contains dairy products like cheese, yogurt, yogurt drinks and chocolate-bar flavoured chocolate milk.  Occasionally, there is also an open package of cheese that workers can help themselves to and free coffee.

I worked as a Quality Technician a little while back and I can say, the experience was very poor. 
The Quality manager has no idea what is going on in the lab, and she's one of those office types who rarely show their face on the floor or lab yet instruct you tasks from her desk. 
The job itself is pretty basic. It's a straight 8 hour shift with no rotation which is great. A typical day is going over the production schedule with your colleague then picking up where they left off in terms of sample collection etc. Depending what they run, the day can be hectic or super slow. Most days, it's daily slow and you find yourself twiddling your thumbs wondering what to do next. They have 6 lines and usually 4 of them run big orders which you only need to take 1 sample from so you're entire shift you have only 3 lines to tend to.
If you have down time, you're expected to do some data entry, exports and general cleaning of the lab. 
You also are required to check up on the micro testing swabs (which need to be played, or need to be read) and record the data in the computer and lab results book. The job itself is also very independent. It is 1 tech per shift. There are other lab staff in the lab but as far as I experienced, the lady does nothing productive and is very negative and comes across as rude and people generally avoid her. The other lab lady isn't really part of the quality team as she's more health and safety and she is friendly and pleasant. 
The lab seniors can be hit and miss. The one girl is nice enough, she does her job well and will answer questions. But the one lab guy is incredibly moody. One day he will be friendly and helpful, the next he will ignore you or treat you poorly. It's quite strange!  The lab lady who does nothing and him definitely have a "thing" for eachother despite a large age gap.... Production staff told me they were suspended due to inappropriate behavior. 
Anyhow, as for the Quality Supervisors, they are not helpful either. There is a lot of nepotism and favouritism at this company in all departments. It's quite prominent in the Quality Department as the Quality supervisors are friends and had a production worker who was theor best friend fill in during absences which is completely unfair seeing as she has absolutely no Quality experience and  the task they had her doing (answering customer complaints) was done incorrectly most of the time as she just copied and pasted the same reply to every customer. 
The odds of you moving up in the company is very very slim unless you become great friends with your supervisor and the office staff and Quality Manager. 
The Quality Manager tends to be unappreciative and doesn't express any gratitude or thank you. She doesn't offer positive support either and can come off as rough, unempathetic and snooty. She will also write you up for the littlest things without giving you proper warning. 
The production staff are ok, it's a hit and miss. Depending on what shift you get you can have a great time or a miserable time. If you work days, it's full of grouchy old ladies who are ashamed that they been a production worker for the majority of their life while seeing other people excel and make something of themselves. If you work afternoons, you'll get a fun friendly crowd! Mostly young people under 30 years of age and I made friends with quote a few of them. 
Night shift is very quiet for the most part - people are cool. Best part about night shift is lack of management. You have a Production Supervisor but no one manages the  lab! 
As for company perks, they have a social committee that does a yearly African Lion Safari trip.and other small events throughout the year. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, they host a company event which is nice but food could be improved! 
For Christmas, the company gives you a box of cheese....nothing special...why would you want a box of cheese when you're surrounded by it all day. 
Anyhow, the best thing is that Agropur pays well - significantly above the average QC Technician wage. They also have benefits (100% health, and decent max amounts for vision, dental, chiro, massage etc). 
They also have a company pension which is NOT optional and a portion of your biweekly pay goes into the group benefits costs. 
They have a yearly boot reimbursement which is nice too. 
You also get to take cheese home daily. When you grab a sample off the line, it's a sealed package so there's lots of cheese left in the bag or package so you are free to take it home or give it away to staff. Eventually, you get so sick of cheese....

The building layout is not very good but it's an older building and could use some upgrades!

Overall, I would not recommend the place because nepotism is high, people are generally miserable, turnover rate is horrendously high and it's one of those jobs you get stuck at with no learning or career advancement available unless you suck up to your management and know how to please influential people. 
Aside from good pay, the company is less than average and even the perks offered are not worth the stress caused by colleagues and lack of support from the QC Manager. 


What is the best part of working at the company?
I was employed in the maintenance at Agropur in Woodstock for six years. In that time I have to say I have never seen a worse place to work for. The amount of favoritism, harassment and toxicity of the working environment was just unbelievable. My happiest day was the day I gave my notice and left because after all the years I was there I can't remember very many days I actually looked forward to going into work. I moved on and it was like the sun came out again and I actually enjoyed my work with people and employers that valued a licensed trade person with skill sets that were not taken for granted and treated like I mattered and not a door mat to be mistreated. I really would caution anyone especially skilled trades people from this place life is too short to put up with bad treatment like this. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I was in maintenance which inherently can be stressful in itself, however the management in Woodstock when I was employed there were about as unprofessional and incompetent as I have ever come across. For example being told to lubricate a bearing to a point where the grease is literally bursting it's seals is just wrong but we were put on a PM schedule and not even discussing the problem helped because management has no idea. I had a scope meter record the dirty power going to our programmable controllers which I played back for our plant manager to explain why our systems would just stop and go into error, I explained we needed some extra filtering for each panel to eliminate these problems and he said he didn't think it was much of a problem, so whenever this happened we had to stop the line totally power down everything and then power back up to clear the faults. Just two examples of the continuous list of things I would have to deal with. People who knew nothing about what they should have since they were in charge and their ego's too big to actually listen. I felt like a babysitter with spoiled kids out of control and not listening to someone who could actually fix a problem and make things better.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Absolutely terrible, the majority of line workers were good people but the supervisory and management in Woodstock was the worst. I am not a union supporter but after witnessing the number of incidents and managements treatment of the employees I whole heartedly would vote for a union at the Woodstock plant.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It was always stressful and chaotic not much structure the job seemed more like band aid this and band aid that, never being allowed to properly repair anything. I understand production is important but nothing is more frustrating than an operator that can't get their machine to operate properly because no time is scheduled to properly address issues in  timely manner. Once again the management issues I have discussed earlier and the utter incompetent way in which things were handled always.

I worked here close to one year this coming August.
I came from a Managerial type position into more of beginners position at Agropur Woodstock due to job location.
Right off the bat my colleagues warned me of the high turnover rate and favoritism.
When I was hired, another employee was hired around the same time and they didn't make it through probation as they disliked the work environment so much.
Not only is the work environment unprofessional and unsupported, there is an extremely malicious environment in certain departments.
I had gone to the Manager multiple times to report abuse, harassment by colleagues but she did nothing. I ended up having to talk to the Plant Manager a few times and he too did nothing to make me feel like I was safe. Ultimately, I did not feel safe at my job anymore and having to keep watching my back for fear of being backstabbed, reported and set-up to fail by colleagues. HC is useless as I reported some racism and because there were no witnesses, they told me it becomes a "he said she said" type situation so unless I get proof, they cannot do anything about it. 
There isn't much good to say about the company in general.
Managers are not nice, play favorites...especially in the Quality Department where friends of Supervisors/Managers get promotions and get to work up in the comfort of the front office. I became quite close to one Lab Technician and I observed first-hand the unfairness being shown to them by a fellow colleague. It was also rumored that 2 of the staff  in that department were carrying on with an inappropriate love/work relationship and were suspended for trying to get a colleague fired. They have unqualified people working in departments where you should have had schooling for. There is definitely bullying throughout the entire plant and some inappropriate/sexually suggestive behaviour exhibited by the older maintenance men towards the young girls in the company. Management seems very aloof about it.
Overall, I felt uncomfortable, unsupported and would never wish to return to the place regardless of money. Mental and physical health takes place before pay.

APPLIES TO WAREHOUSE/SHIPPING DEPARTMENT ONLY

Getting Laid-Off, if interested in employment for 12-24 weeks then this is the job for you

Labour intensive job and work environment is cold, dark, and wet. Long hours in a giant fridge takes a toll on the body. Starting out as a part-timer, you will be guaranteed to work morning, afternoon, and night shift all in the same week, every week. Also you will be 24/7 on-call and will be expected to show up to work with less than an hour notice.

Being a part-timer you will be management's emotional punching bag; meaning if one of your supervisors are having a bad day then expect their frustrations to be taken out on you. Expect to be treated with little to no respect. The harder you work, the worse you are treated. The less work you do, for some reason, you get a free pass.

Not only are you required to be a milkman, but you must also be a part-time lawyer and part-time accountant. The language of written law will be manipulated to the will of management, and missing hours are a regular occurrence. When bringing up missing pay to management you will be accused of fabricating work hours.

Job security is there once passed probation due to the union. Advancement to full-time is nearly impossible. There is no transparency between management and hourly employees and HR is also known to not tell the truth. Dysfunctional and disorganized, with management refusing to communicate with each other, each day is a mess. Schedule is finalized on the Friday for the following work week, giving only 36 hours notice for your following work week.

The job itself is pretty simple and straightforward. Very minimal in terms of microbial lab work.

Some of the people you work with are great, but management avoids a lot of questions. When I was hired I was asked about benefits and the answer was avoided until I had the paper work to hand back in. They obviously know these answers but hope you won't pry. The pay is great for what was basically measuring and tasting cheese. 

The weekend shift has 0 security and no one will give honest, straight answers about the likelihood of having a job by December (heard news in March/April) which is a shame. I would never have taken the job had it been clear. In addition, primary hear-say, people say no one really takes care of the employees in management. They avoid issues and use bandaids to fix things, which is also a shame.

There also became a really malicious work environment where each person is out to oust another in order to get the permanent position since contracts have no stability.

A Typical day: Arrive ay work between 6:30 and 6:50 am to change into the required uniform. Be on the line ready to work by 7am. Work on the line for 2.5 hrs and take a 10 min break. Then back to the line work another couple hours have a 20 min lunch break, back to the line to work until 3p.m. shift end. Learned alot about cheese production and the food regulations. Management not too fair. Lots of favourtism and sometimes unrealistic ideas. Most co-workers were good to work with although there was a serious issue with bullying in the workplace between employees and sometimes even from management. The hardest part of the job was dealing with the bullying and the way some co-workers treated other workers. The most enjoyable part of the job was actually doing my job. Working to put out a quality product that I was proud to say I packaged.

The pay is good.. Lots of overtime available in the fall..Fast paced production lines... Decent christmas gifts..Sometimes can be monotonous and boring..  You need to be flexible as the lead hands and the supervisors will pull you off a line to work somewhere else..Supervisors are ok..One is miserable and grumpy.. The other is weird and you never know where you stand with that person..  A few actually quite a bit of miserable people there. You need to watch out for them.. A couple of  men who would rather flirt with the young cuties than do there jobs.. There no.1 priority is flirting  The 10 minute break sucks to short and sit and relax and unwind.. Some of the line leaders are nice..Some line leaders have massive egos and think they are all that.. Im shocked at how many workers there are dating one another.. Massive amount of favourtism at this place..If you have a parent working there you can get away with anything..

Agropur and their full time staff are quite nasty to new employees. They create a discriminatory environment with the enforcement of green hair nets to decipher who is new and not. This leads to targeted bullying. I've witnessed line leads make new employees cry or go home. I've witnessed full time employees throw packed  heavy boxes at new employees. They refuse to properly train employees, training only on the slice one line and throwing them into unknown areas following the two weeks. You are promised a minimum of 3 shifts a week to start, if you take a sick day they'll limit the amount of shifts you receive if they don't fire you during a personal emergency leave. They hire you on a six month contract to hire and yet the plant manager refuses to hire full time positions before 2019

I worked as a Contractor for almost 4 years (not consecutively). Never had a problem with anyone (besides a few known unfriendly people). I learned how to use large machinery, fix jams, lock out tag out, good manufacturing practices, a million and one things about cheese! It was a fun and friendly work place, made friends to be with outside of work. The work overall was pretty complex. With certain packaging machines you needed to weigh things and if they didn't weigh up properly you have to manually fix them which involved "adding or substracting" cheese slices and chunks and you had to do the math fast. My favorite part was working in process where they make frozen cheese sticks, cheese balls, and lunchmate cheese along with the lines that cut and packaged shredded cheese.

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