Militant/Natalie Stake-Doucet

Workers picket Quality Meat Packers in Toronto, Ontario, November 1.

One of the strikers put up a sign on the fence in front of the plant that reads, “Increased cost of living + low wage increase = strike.” The more than 500 workers in the plant are members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 175.

“Six years ago, I was making $18.05 per hour. Today I make $14.90. I don’t believe it when they say they don’t have enough money,” said Felipe, a worker with 23 years in the plant [U.S. $1 = CAN $0.82].

Six years ago, the bosses dealt the workers a blow, forcing through a 40 percent cut in wages and benefits after a two-month strike failed to turn back the company’s concession demands. Since then, workers have faced increased line speeds, a rising injury rate, longer hours, and brutal harassment by supervisors and foremen. With almost the same number of workers in the cut and kill, plus some faster machinery, pork processing has gone from 4,000 to as many as 6,000 hogs per day. So workers are fed up and are fighting back.

As strikers fanned out to cover the four gates of the plant, bosses began gearing up to intimidate the pickets with security goons and video cameras.

At about 6 a.m. on November 1 a small army of strikers arrived to handle the morning shift. As workers signed in for picket duty, the mood was upbeat and defiant. By 9 a.m. the picket had swelled to about 100 strikers. Picket lines are up around the clock.

Many workers described the reasons they walked out. The bosses “treat us like we are machines, and we are not machines,” said kill floor worker Nuno Flamino, who has four and a half years’ seniority.

“The union gives us strength when we are united and strong,” said Laurenio Rego, a butcher in the cutting room with three years in the plant.

The months leading to Christmas are usually some of the busiest for the bosses. “They are losing $1 million a day while we lose a dollar a day,” said Le Dung, a butcher in the boning room.

“It’s not fair, we do this hard job and they’re not paying us right,” said Amado Panda, 26, who has been on the job eight months.

Many other workers were quick to offer solidarity the first morning of the strike. Municipal outside (nonoffice) workers, members of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 416, who have a yard adjacent to the plant, donated wood for the burn barrels that began to spring up at the entrances. A truck driver who is a member of the Chemical and Allied Workers union telephoned his dispatcher to report he was not going to cross the picket line to pick up a load of waste.

Throughout the morning, strikers talked to each other in a variety of languages. Instructions from picket captains were translated into Mandarin for those of Chinese origin.

A television crew from a local community Portuguese-language station interviewed strikers. Towards noon the atmosphere on the line became festive as one striker began to play Portuguese music on his car stereo.

The large size of the October 28 union meeting to decide on the contract reflected the anger and determination of the workers to fight back. Many made their way through a massive traffic jam that night after work to get to the meeting at a hotel in north Toronto. Despite the recommendation of the negotiating committee to accept the company’s offer, workers voted 282-94 to reject it and go on strike.

The proposal the workers turned down codifies the large pay cut the bosses imposed six years ago. It included no new concessions and provides for some token improvements, including a small wage increase over three years.

The union meeting was switched from its previously planned weekend date to a weeknight at the demand of the company. The bosses assumed the tentative agreement would be accepted, and had planned to gear up production for the following week, or, as it turned out, to clear out the plant in the event of a strike. The tentative deal had an October 28 midnight deadline. The company offered a $500 signing bonus if it was accepted that evening.

Six years ago, the big majority of the workers were of Portuguese origin. The plant sits in the middle of Toronto’s Portuguese community. After the 1998-99 strike, the bosses began hiring immigrant workers from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere. They counted on this to create obstacles to unity among the union members.

Over the past weeks, in the countdown to October 31, this proved not to be the case. Workers took a number of plant-wide actions that showed growing unity. Veterans of the last strike, for example, drafted a leaflet appealing to all workers to stick together. The flyer was translated into Mandarin, enabling the many workers of Chinese origin to read it. In early October, workers learned the company would try to limit to 20 minutes per week the time permitted for using the washrooms outside of official breaks. In response, the vast majority boycotted a lunchtime “employee appreciation” barbeque organized by the bosses.

As this issue goes to press, union officials report the company had not responded to their October 28 phone call, after the union meeting, informing them of the rejection of the tentative agreement and the union’s decision to strike.

Natalie Stake-Doucet and John Steele are members of UFCW Local 175 at Quality Meat Packers and Toronto Abattoirs, respectively, in Toronto.  
 
 
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