The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.31           September 13, 1999 
 
 
Saskatchewan Meatpackers Resist Concessions  
This column is devoted to reporting the resistance by working people to the employers' assault on their living standards, working conditions, and unions

MOOSE JAW, Saskatchewan - "United we bargain, divided we beg," reads the banner in front of Tai Wan Pork, Inc., where 191 members of the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union Local 455 have been locked out since the first week of August.

A couple of dozen strikers were picketing the plant when Militant correspondents visited August 18.

They reported that a truck drove through the picket line August 13, injuring five workers. Striker Richard Savoie described how he was hit in the wrist by the truck and had to go to the hospital.

Strikers Dennis Campbell and Damon Cavan were also on the picket line when the truck drove through and had to jump out of the way. "The cops came and warned us that next time they'll charge us with mischief!" added Campbell.

Sheila Nixon, the first woman to be hired on the kill floor three years ago, said, "We have no choice but to fight. They want too many takebacks."

Striker Monique Berger added, "The company wants to take away 1.5 percent from the RRSP [retirement] contributions, undermine our seniority, limit our ability to bid on other jobs out of our category."

The company wanted to allow four weeks of vacation only after 10 years instead of the current five, cut wages on the kill floor, and freeze other wages, according to strikers Marty Kinch and Mike Andrews. "The company gave us these proposals and said if we didn't accept them we would be locked out. Despite this, we voted to reject this offer unanimously," added Kinch. Base rate for a laborer job is Can$8.50 an hour (US$5.70).

Andrews explained that he comes from a farm family and supports the farmers in this region, who have held several protests demanding government relief. Several strikers told us they supported the farmers' fight.

Quebec: Bell Actimedia workers locked out
MONTREAL, Quebec - The 350 members of the Office and Professional Employees Union at Bell Actimedia, whose collective agreement expired Sept. 30, 1998, have been locked out since March 10 after they refused the company's offer by 61 percent. Bell Actimedia produces the Yellow Pages.

Martine Jean, one of those locked out, told the Militant, "They wanted to cut our SDOs while we would continue to work 37.5 hours and be paid for 35.5 hours." SDOs are days off that can be taken every five weeks based on the fact that the workers put in two hours a week more than what they are paid for. Eliminating these days off amounts to a 4.4 percent cut in their hourly pay.

Other issues in the conflict are the posting of positions and training. Jean continued, "I could no longer apply for my position" because the company demands more and more specialization while not offering any chance for training. "They have lowered workers' levels. Ninety percent of us are women. The company has a long- term view. They want to cut our benefits as much as possible."

Although they are locked out, the workers picket five days a week. They have organized several activities to make their fight known. On March 30 a group of 20 of these workers joined with 1,000 other workers to protest the jailing of two city workers. They also participated in an April 24 demonstration of 300 organized by the Bell operators and technicians who were at that time also on strike against the company. They have demonstrated several times before the head office of the companyand distributed leaflets denouncing the attitude of the company bosses at the entrances to subway stations and in the neighborhoods where some of the company officials live.

Since the beginning of the lockout, there have been no negotiations. The company has also gotten several injunctions aiming to limit the right of the workers to demonstrate elsewhere than at the office of Actimedia and to distribute leaflets in the neighborhoods. The work normally done in Montreal is now being done in the office of Actimedia in Toronto where the workers accepted the contract. In Toronto, the workers belong to an association, instead of a union.

Anheuser-Busch workers accept national contract, local fights continue

CARTERSVILLE, Georgia -Teamsters who work at Anheuser- Busch - maker of Budweiser, Michelob, and other beers - approved a new five-year national contract. The results of the month-long mail balloting, announced August 7, were 3,164 for and 2,171 against. Workers at the company's 12 U.S. breweries had been without a contract since early last year and were working under the company's imposed "final offer" since last September.

Union members at the flagship plant in St. Louis staged a two-day strike last October. Eight thousand workers are covered by the new contract. Each worker would get raises of 50 cents an hour in each of its first two years, and 55 cents an hour in the third, fourth, and fifth years.

Teamsters at six locations -Newark, New Jersey; St. Louis; Fort Collins, Colorado; Los Angeles; Jacksonville, Florida; and Cartersville, Georgia - rejected their local contracts. This puts a question mark on implementing the new national agreement.

Dave Passarelli, a maintenance worker at the Cartersville plant, said workers here rejected the local contract because it violated seniority rights in regard to work shift schedules and because it contained a two-year "look back." This clause, Passarelli said, would allow the company to punish a worker for things that happened up to two years ago.

"The company wants to work the line with fewer and fewer people," Passarelli added. Teamsters Local 1129 "has filed charges against the company with the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] and has also sent a letter to the company asking for local negotiations to begin."

Auto workers demand union rights in Kentucky
HENDERSON, Kentucky - "We've been out this long - we're not going back for nothing," said Greg Joyner, one of four workers staffing the picket line at Accuride, during a visit here August 19. The plant manufactures truck wheels.

Four hundred members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2036 struck the plant in February of last year in a contract fight. One month later the local voted to return to work under the old contract. The company's response was to lock the gates. Joyner, who has worked at Accuride for 15 years, considers defense of the union to be at the center of the workers' fight. "They don't want us to have any union representation. That's why we struck."

Accuride has proposed denying workers the right to see their union steward during work hours without express permission, and wants to eliminate dues check off.

Picket Kenyon Hefner added, "Accuride wants to make us pay for our medical benefits, and to take away all our seniority." The company's other proposals include the contracting out of maintenance and janitorial work, and job combinations that would eliminate more than 100 jobs.

Six years ago workers forced the company to curtail compulsory overtime. "They were making us work three weekends in a row and work 12 hours day," said Joyner. "We forced them to give us every other weekend off."

The picket is maintained 24 hours a day in four shifts of six hours each. Of those who walked out 18 months ago, only six crossed the line before the company locked the gates. The plant is now producing again with a replacement work force organized through the strike-breaking employment agency Worldwide Labor, according to Dale Damin, UAW member and former miner. Some of the union fighters have found other work to tide them over, and some are getting by on their savings and on union strike pay. "By now everybody's made adjustments," said Damin.

In the first eight months of the fight, unionists held monthly marches to the plant from the nearby union hall. The pickets also described two rallies held in the area. At one, the Accuride UAW fighters joined a rally of 2,000 in solidarity with striking workers at National Standard wire, who have since reached a "tentative settlement," said Damin. Also present were UAW workers employed by Caterpillar, workers at aluminum plants, garment workers from Carhart, and members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). Another rally in solidarity with the Accuride workers was organized in Henderson.

On August 28 the president of Local 2036 reported to a meeting of 250 locked-out workers that the UAW international officials had decided to end strike pay after September. The workers responded by deciding, 142 to 114 in a secret ballot, against even voting on the company's latest contract proposal.

Ned Dmytryshyn, a member of the International Association of Machinists Local 11 in Delta, British Columbia; Alexandre Geoffroy and Joe Young, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Montreal; Dan Fein, a member of the UAW in Altanta; and Frank Evans contributed to this column.

 
 
 
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