This was the first strike that workers had conducted against the company in 20 years. Alain Leduc, president of Local 501, said that the bosses should take note of the fact that the vote indicated that many workers were not entirely satisfied with the contract. As part of the back-to-work agreement, the company agreed to drop all legal and disciplinary measures taken against strikers.

The unionists originally walked out to fight concessions the company was demanding on pensions, medical insurance, and the introduction of a seven-day, 12-hour schedule in some departments. Through boisterous mass picketing, numerous marches, and their determination to hold out "one minute more than the company," workers forced the bosses to withdraw these concessions after three-and-a-half weeks. The aim of the strike then became to win what had already been accepted by Camco workers in Hamilton, Ontario, on April 25, and to gain improvements in the pension plan.

The company May 9 presented a new offer that matched the Hamilton contract. But since it did not include pension improvements, the union executive committee did not put it to a vote by the union membership. The company then went on an offensive in an effort to defeat the strike. It sent letters to workers at their homes, urging them to demand a vote on the bosses' proposal. It raised the threat of either moving some of the production from its Montreal plant or of closing down the plant.

In response, some workers then started a petition calling for a vote on the company's offer. While it was signed by only 45 workers, a major big business daily here in Montreal, La Presse, jumped into the fray with a headline proclaiming dissension among the ranks of the union and carried an anonymous report that "union goons" had destroyed the petition and threatened to physically attack those circulating it.

Local president Leduc explained that the union had organized an informational meeting where those supporting the petition gave their point of view and the union leadership explained its position of maintaining the strike until they won a reduction of penalties for those taking their retirement at 60 and 61 years of age.

Spirits were high on the picket line June 5 as the unionists expressed their determination to win their demand for improvements in the pension plan. Some 50 strikers at the busy intersection near the port of Montreal waved their picket signs, blew whistles, and shouted for truckers to blow their horns in solidarity. Banners hung on the fence across from the company offices proclaimed the unity of the strikers.

An older worker commented that he had encouraged the union executive in its efforts to organize weekly meetings. "It's the only way to maintain unity," he said.

Manon St-Hilaire, a younger worker who is one of the growing number of women employed at the plant, said, "For 12 years, Hamilton has had a better contract than us. But now the company will take us more seriously three years from now" when the next contract expires.

The pension improvement for those wanting to retire at 60 or 61 was in the form of a lump sum rather than as a percentage of wages as the union had originally demanded. The new contract also included a 9.5 percent wage increase over three years.  
 
 
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