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Vol. 73/No. 5      February 9, 2009

 
On the Picket Line
 
Ottawa transit strike solid
in face of antiunion attacks
After more than 46 days, picket lines by 2,300 Ottawa transit workers remain solid in face of a massive antiunion campaign by Ottawa’s city council. The capital of Canada has been without transit service since December 10, when the members of Local 279 of the Amalgamated Transit Union walked out over management demands for concessions on scheduling, assigned routes, hours of work, and working conditions.

Other issues deal with wages, sick days, and contracting-out language. Union officials have offered to end the strike by putting the scheduling issues into a non-binding mediation process and referring all other issues to binding arbitration.

“This is a union-busting operation by the council,” Local 279 president André Cornellier told the Militant. Mediated talks between the union and city bosses broke off on January 23. City officials are now organizing an anti-strike rally for Parliament Hill on January 26. In a letter to Local 279 members Cornellier said the union will show the City of Ottawa that its members cannot be broken.

—John Steele

Italian unions strike over
deaths on the docks
Dock workers’ unions in Italy held a national one-day strike January 23 to protest unsafe working conditions that have cause a series of deaths on the docks. The strike was called by Italy’s major port unions, Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl, and Uiltrasporti.

Dock worker Giuliano Fenelli was crushed to death the previous day by a mobile crane in La Spezia. There have been two other fatalities on the docks since the beginning of January.

In a joint statement the unions said, “It is now clear that we face a genuine emergency in terms of workplace safety in the ports.”

They added, “There are precise causes for such accidents, related to workplace safety measures that have long been promised but never delivered.”

The unions want a meeting with the government to take up ways to improve safety, including proper training programs.

—Sam Manuel

Rail workers in Germany
reject low wage offer
Locomotive engineers in Germany’s GDL rail union rejected a revised wage contract offer from national operator Deutsche Bahn January 22, posing the possibility of a strike, reported Reuters. GDL head Claus Weselsky said the company, which employs 130,000 workers, had made concessions on working hours, but insists on only a 1 percent raise.

The union is asking for a 6.5 percent raise for some 12,000 engineers. The two other rail unions, Transnet and GDBA, represent the majority of rail workers and are seeking a 10 percent hike.

Weselsky said GDL would compromise on wages, if the company gave more ground, too. “We’ll have no choice but to get our members ready for a strike otherwise,” Weselsky said.

GDL reached a separate wage agreement with Deutsche Bahn last year after strikes in 2007. It says no work stoppages will begin before February.

The two other rail unions are not covered by the same agreement.

—Sam Manuel  
 
 
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