This column is devoted to reporting the resistance by working people to the employers' assault on their living standards, working conditions, and unions.
We invite you to contribute short items to this column as a way for other fighting workers around the world to read about and learn from these important struggles. Jot down a few lines about what is happening in your union, at your workplace, or other workplaces in your area, including interesting political discussions.
Picket lines went up at the Kenworth truck plant in Ste- The'rese August 8. Eight hundred fifty workers began a strike after negotiations between the company and Local 728 of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) broke down. Union members had voted 95 percent in favor of a walkout August 3.
"No Contract, No Work. Dignity and Respect," reads one sign in front of the plant, reflecting the sentiment of most workers. The strikers are picketing 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The union is seeking improvements in the pension plan, including changes that would allow workers to retire earlier without any financial penalty. Workers, young and old, are determined to fight for this. "All we want is the pension fund and job security,'' explained one striker.
Many workers of retirement age would like to retire sooner rather than later. If allowed to do so this would open up jobs for younger workers in a period of hard economic times and high unemployment. Québec has one of the highest unemployment levels in Canada. Yvan Bourgeois, president of Local 728, said a letter has gone out to affiliates in the Québec Federation of Labor asking for support for the strike.
Kenworth, owned by Paccar of Seattle, has two plants in Seattle, Washington, and several others in the United States.
The vast majority of workers at the Ste-Thérese plant are French-speaking Québecois. The strike includes 100 office workers.
`They want to take more, even with record profits'
"I think this is a union-busting effort," said Ron Schey, picket captain of the early morning shift in Morton Grove, Illinois, just north of Chicago. "They came to negotiations wanting to take things away even though they're making record profits."
Schey is one of the 475 workers who struck ITT Bell & Gossett August 7. The company manufactures automobile and heating parts.
The strikers are organized by Local 890 of the United Auto Workers (UAW). This is their first strike since 1974.
The plant runs three shifts and has been at full throttle for some time. Workers report that they often work 12-hour shifts and some believe the company has built up a sizable inventory.
ITT proposes paying overtime only after workers complete 40 hours of work. This means the company could demand unlimited hours during a single day without paying overtime, or schedule weekend work at straight time.
The company is also seeking to impose mandatory overtime subject to disciplinary action.
Under the old contract, workers hired in at 85 percent of pay and took six months to reach the top scale. The new contract seeks to extend that period of time to five years. A union fact sheet says this will "create dissension and hard feelings between union brothers and sisters so as to disrupt the unity of our membership."
Another issue in the strike is management's attempt to eliminate more than a dozen steward positions in the plant.
After one week on strike, no union members have crossed the picket line and union truck drivers are honoring the strike. Much of the nonunion trucking in and out of the plant continues, however. Some of the production work is now being done by office personnel.
Montreal casino workers take strike action
Some 1,300 members of the Confederation of National
Trade Unions (CSN) at the Montreal Casino have been on
strike since the end of June. The casino, which is operated
by Loto-Québec, locked them out when workers started
wearing union buttons to push the employer to negotiate a
first contract.
Workers responded by voting to turn the lockout into a strike. Large picket lines are organized every day except Thursday, when the union holds its weekly meetings followed by special actions.
Workers are demanding seniority rights, that communication with employees be in French as well as English, union representation when workers are called into the office, and a four-day, 36-hour workweek.
The provincial government, which owns Loto-Québec, ordered the conflict into arbitration. Under the Québec labor code the arbitrator can force the union members back to work and impose a first contract. Strikers, angered by the prospect of an imposed settlement, responded with a demonstration in front of the offices of Loto-Québec's lawyers August 3, and a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Labor on August 10.
"This is my first experience in a labor conflict in 25 years of working," said Michelle, who works as a cash counter and was on the picket line with her son. "We have become like a family and gotten to know people in other departments."
Striker Mike Matthews described his job as "dirty, stressful, and noisy," and explained that he has to work up to eight days straight under these conditions.
The demand for a shorter workweek and for the right to work in French have challenged the Parti Québecois government. Its refusal to act on these questions in the strike at the casino, as well as recent moves to close several hospitals in Québec, has generated much debate in the labor movement.
Kmart workers protest firing of union activists
Dozens of members of the United Needletrades,
Industrial, and Textile Employees union (UNITE) at the
Kmart distribution center in Greensboro, North Carolina,
walked off the job and into the company offices recently to
protest the treatment of three union activists.
Governor Spencer, Randy Pixley, and Johnny Rutledge, who are all active in the union, were called into the office July 14 on suspicion of alcohol and drug use. The workers were ordered to take immediate drug tests and told that they were suspended until the results came back.
The company claimed that "one or two" people had reported the union activists as appearing to be under the influence earlier in the day.
Management didn't call the workers into the office until 2:45 p.m., 45 minutes before quitting time. The workers had never been told to stop driving their equipment all day.
Pixley and Rutledge took the tests the next morning, as Pixley had a family emergency and Rutledge had to pick up his kids at day care right after work. All three workers tested negative.
When Pixley and Rutledge delivered their test results to the company, management refused to look at them and fired the two workers.
"We know why they were suspended - because they're Black and in the union," said one worker at the office protest.
Another protest was held at the office later the same day to express support for the victimized workers.
The union met to discuss further actions to respond to this attack. While many workers felt positive about the actions at the company offices, they acknowledged that more would have to be done to get the workers back in the plant.
Filipino garment workers in Greece score a victory
After a 15-day protest in front of the Philippine
embassy in Athens, the Greek ministry of public order
rescinded an August 20 deportation order for 88 Filipino
workers and granted them an extension to stay in the
country until January 1996. The workers had been terminated
from their jobs at Alexander Fashions and ordered deported.
"The decision is very significant for all Filipino and foreign workers in Greece," explained Balita, one of the workers. "It is a victory over fear, over apathy, over neglect by the representatives of the Philippine government." The workers were employed at the plant under an agreement between the Philippine government and the company.
The Filipino workers reached out broadly both to immigrant organizations and to other unions to win their fight. They participated in a rally organized by garment workers in Athens demanding jobs. They joined the Greek workers chanting "we too want jobs" and "Greeks and foreigners, workers united." The Greek workers, at first surprised by this slogan, eventually joined in the chant.
Contributing to this column were: Monica Jones, member CAW Local 728 in Ste-Thérese, Québec; Frank Forrestal, member of UAW Local 551 in Chicago; Grant Hargrave, member Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union in Montreal; Mark Rahn, member of UNITE in Greensboro; and Georges Mehrabian in Athens.