The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.37           October 19, 1998 
 
 
Airport Workers In Toronto Strike Over Wages  
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.

TORONTO - At midnight October 1, some 520 maintenance, computer, and apron traffic workers at Pearson International Airport in Toronto walked off the job after talks between the negotiators for Local 0004 of the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) broke down.

This is the first strike by these workers since 1991 and the first contract fight and strike since the airport was privatized a couple of years ago along with other major airports across Canada. Pearson is the busiest airport in Canada and the center for all Canada-wide connections. The workers, who are critical for the maintenance of ground operations and emergency services infrastructure, explain that the airport cannot operate for any length of time in safe conditions without them.

In the early morning of October 3, about 25 unionists on Britannia Road held up a long line of vehicle traffic bringing other airport workers to work, including air traffic controllers, firefighters, and others. The day before, the pickets at this key entrance caused aircraft departure delays.

Signs carried by the strikers stated: "parity not charity" and "fed up, pay up." The workers are demanding pay parity with similar workers in Vancouver and other airports. They are demanding a 15-23 percent pay hike in the first year and a further 5 percent over the following two years of a three-year contract. Other demands deal with medical, pension, and dental benefits, as well as job security.

The GTAA bosses have offered a five-year contract and a 12 percent raise. They say their offer expired on October 2. They are attempting to run the airport with untrained management personnel.

"If there is an emergency there is going to be trouble," said five-year maintenance worker Jerry Rosell.

"Ninety-six percent of 95 percent of the membership voted to strike," said picket captain Mike Miljkovic, an electrician with 20 years' experience. "They have been pushing us like a sleeping bear and now we have to fight."

"They haven't negotiated in good faith and they want to break the union," picket captain Ervin Bayley explained as he and seven other members of local 0004 held up vehicle traffic at another entrance. At the Britannia Road line, a similar opinion was given by a striker who is one of three women who work as airport electricians in Canada.

Bayley and others like him are responsible for the maintenance of emergency generators at Pearson and smaller regional airports like the one at Buttonville. "People don't know the facts," said Bayley. "After nine years I make $16.90 an hour. My wage was higher at my previous job with a trucking company. None of us has had a raise in nine years."

Bayley reported that in the first couple of days of the strike a number of angry drivers had veered their cars toward strikers resulting in a couple of minor injuries.

"If this goes on for any length of time there are going to be serious safety problems," said a picket at another gate who didn't want to be named. "For example, in the apron control tower that directs the ground traffic, they have management people working 12-hour shifts." The air-side apron is where the aircraft move to the ramp and position themselves to move toward the runways.

A number of strikers expressed the concern that, as the impact of the strike increases, the GTAA bosses will move to get court injunctions to limit the number of pickets and their ability to slow traffic into the airport.

200 workers in N.Y. walk out at Standard Motors
NEW YORK - Deep concession demands by the company pushed about 200 members of the United Auto Workers Local 365 onto the picket line October 2 at Standard Motors Corp.

Evaristo López, a stock room attendant with 30 years in the plant, said the main issue in the strike is cuts in their medical benefits. He said the company's offer demanded employees pay at least $50 a month for their medical coverage. "That's why we went on strike. They didn't want to give anything," said López. In addition the company wanted to end providing health-care benefits to retirees.

Pickets said that other company concession demands included eliminating three sick days, two holidays, and eight hours of vacation, and offered no raise in the three years of the contract.

Picket lines are being staffed around the clock at the large auto parts manufacturing facility. The unionists are often met with cars honking in support.

Strikers said they felt the company was taken by surprise when workers took to the streets and refused to accept the concessions. The highly automated plant supplies manufacturers with ignition parts on a just-in-time basis, which workers thought put them in a good position to force the company back to the negotiating table.

UAW Local 365 is an amalgamated local of more than 15 shops in New York and Long Island, constituting the largest UAW local in the city. Strikers said the contract has expired in at least one other shop. It is working on a one-week contract extension. Several more plants in the local have contracts expiring in the next couple of months.

200 striking copper workers are still fighting
COPPERHILL, Tennessee -Some 200 union members at the acid plant here are still walking the picket line after being on strike for more than two years. At one time there was an underground copper mine, a mill, a smelter, and a sulfuric acid plant. The mine and smelter were shut down decades ago. The strike began April 30, 1996.

Unions involved in the strike include the International Association of Machinists, the Boilermakers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the International Chemical Workers Union (ICWU) who merged with the UFCW over a year ago. The ICWU represents the majority of strikers. Workers are on strike to prevent job combinations and the subsequent loss of jobs.

Jewell Cole, who worked at the plant for 32 years, said, "There have been no negotiations within the last year. They are bringing in one-half the number of rail cars with sulfur in them compared to before the strike. They are running the plant with 50-60 scabs and the salary people. I believe they're producing bad acid, which their customers sometimes return."

Gerald Horne, a maintenance painter with 26 years' seniority at the plant said, "Three former workers, two of them union, have crossed the line. The picket line has turned away some potential scabs and some Teamster truck drivers. And even nonunion truck drivers are respecting our picket line."

Mitchell Loudermilk, a striker with 30 years in at the plant explained, "The company wants big reductions in retirement benefits. We've kept up these picket lines for the principles involved."

The unions are organizing a rally and picnic for later in October.

Auto parts workers in England vote on strike
LONDON - Workers at Johnson Controls are voting on industrial action in their contract fight with the company. Johnson Controls builds seats for the Fiesta Ford compact in Dagenham, England.

Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) members at Johnson Controls are demanding wage parity with Ford production line workers. Johnson workers get about 70 percent of Ford production workers' pay.

Ford outsourced seat production to Johnson some three years ago. The Johnson plant stands within the Ford production complex at Dagenham, and is directly connected by conveyor to the point of fit on the main Ford assembly line a few hundred yards away.

Another issue the workers want addressed is the increased ratio of "temporary" agency workers Johnson is using to carry out regular production. Around one-third of the workers in the plant are now contracted from an employment agency.

The Johnson bosses have so far refused to concede on the principle of parity - even over the lifetime of several contracts. They have so far offered a pay hike in the package, which amounts to around 3.5 percent.

A further 5.5-6 percent raise is also offered in non- guaranteed bonus payments. Workers want to eradicate this component of their pay. In an attempt to sideline the union, Johnson's manager called a lunchtime meeting to win workers to back the company's deal.

But a counter-meeting organized at the union hall half a mile away at short notice drew the whole shift. One shift has also staged a work stoppage to protest the company offer.

Strike action at the Johnson factory would rapidly affect production on the Ford assembly line, which produces 700 cars per shift.

A walkout by Johnson workers in the United States last year left Ford with thousands of parked vehicles needing seats.

John Steele, a member of the International Association of Machinists, and Maria Isabel LeBlanc in Toronto; Don Mackle, a member of UAW Local 365 in New York; Dan Fein in Atlanta; and Ian Grant, a member of the TGWU at Ford Dagenham in London, contributed to this column.

 
 
 
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