Union members in Toronto faced an uphill battle after the company, whose largest single owner is the Canadian government, successfully carried out a divide-and-conquer strategy. Workers here went on strike demanding a better pension plan and in solidarity with other refinery workers on strike at Petro-Canada plants across the country.

Until this latest round of negotiations all Petro-Canada refinery union members worked under the same contract. But this year the CEP local in Montreal accepted a "status quo" offer by the company to continue under the provisions of the old contract. Locals in Edmonton, Alberta, and Port Moody, British Columbia, dropped their demand for improved pensions and signed along the lines of the Montreal local a few weeks into the strike. The company then went after workers in the Toronto area, demanding major concessions.

Unionists at Petro-Canada reached out to other workers for solidarity, organized a "Boycott Petro-Canada" campaign complete with flying pickets at gas stations, and won backing from other strikes in the area, such as those at Christie Bakery, Coca-Cola, and Jacuzzi.

Back on the job, workers told the Militant that the company is seeking to undermine seniority rights and health and safety conditions by asserting is has the right to move workers at will to different jobs. To weaken plant-floor solidarity the bosses in some facilities make workers eat lunch at different times. Union bulletin boards have been taken down and the company has banned all clothing bearing the CEP insignia. Concessions have been imposed department-by-department, maximizing divisions in the workforce. The company froze wages in some departments, but gave increases to workers in others. One worker said the workweek in his department went up to at least 42 hours from 37.5 before the strike.

Union member Dave Watson said through his experience he would warn workers going into a strike to "be prepared financially. But not just financially, but in your heart. They always have more in their pockets than we do."

After voting on the new contract September 25, Don Gilmore, a maintenance worker, said looking back on the strike: "We did what we thought was right. That's all you can do."

Annette Kouri and Tony Di Felice are meat packers and members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in Toronto.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home