BY MARIE-CLAIRE DAVID AND ALEXANDRE GEOFFROY
MONTREAL, Quebec - Around 250 members of United Steelworkers
of America Local 7625 in Montreal ended a five-week strike to
defend their union against Cari-All, the biggest manufacturer
of grocery carts in Canada.
"It's a victory even though we didn't make big gains - the employer didn't get what he wanted," said Voltaire Rosemond, who has been working at Cari-All for over 10 years. "We were able to preserve the gains we have made over the years."
Workers won a pension plan paid by the company of 1 percent of the annual pay. The bosses tried to eliminate the right of workers to have their shop steward with them in confrontations with the supervisor and to restrict seniority to each department instead of maintaining it throughout the plant. The employer lost on both counts. But workers will have to work at least four hours to be paid at a higher classification rate. Before they were paid the new rate as soon as they started to work on a different classification. Charges filed against a striker related to an incident on the picket line have been dropped.
This is the third strike at Cari-All since 1988. This time they faced many attempts by the bosses to break their strike. Company goons destroyed the union local's door and some union documents. They hired security guards and were granted an injunction to prevent the strikers from stopping company trucks entering and leaving the plant, which the antiriot squad enforced. The bosses also used the local newspaper to campaign against the strike.
On May 12 the company organized office workers, foremen, and some scabs in a counter-demonstration. This did not provoke strikers on the picket line who explained to Militant reporters what was happening. The workers said several strikers had their tires punctured that morning by nails laid out along the area in front of the plant where the strikers always park their cars.
Solidarity was welcomed during the strike. A few workers participated in the May Day demonstration and the strikers organized a hot-dog lunch on the picket line to publicize their struggle.
Alexandre Geoffroy is a member of the United Steelworkers of America.