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Kenworth strikers: to make gains we have to push
Four weeks into a strike at the Kenworth truck
assembly plant in Ste. Therese, Quebec, there is no end
in sight and the 850 workers are digging in their
heels.
Local 728 of the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) stopped work August 8 to back demands for a better pension plan. The workers want the right to retire with full pension at age 55, once 30 years of service is reached. They also want increases in monthly payments.
"If we're going to retire at age 55, the pension has to be decent enough to live on," striking worker Jean- Guy Dejardins explained.
"To make gains these days," he added, "we have to be prepared to push."
Yves Riel stressed, "It is important that we have the choice to retire earlier. This will make room for more younger workers to have jobs."
The company is assembling a small number of trucks using management personnel. Quebec labor laws prohibit companies from hiring replacement workers during a strike. Kenworth claims it is meeting its production goals using its factories in the United States.
Talks between the company and union were held September 6 and 7, the first since August 3. But in a letter mailed to strikers prior to the recent talks, the company stated, "In agreeing to meet, the company warns the union that all counter proposals that directly or indirectly contain the retirement formula `age 55 and 30 years of service,' will be unacceptable and nonnegotiable."
In an attempt to demoralize the strikers the letter concluded, "Work from Ste. Therese has been transferred to other Kenworth plants in the United States. Due to a softening in the market, the three American plants are able to absorb this work from Ste. Therese without any overtime."
The company's claims, however, seem doubtful. Workers at the assembly plant in Renton, Washington, told the Militant they are working lots of overtime. Most strikers in Ste. Therese remain firm in their resolve to win improvements.
Kenworth is a subsidiary of Paccar, based in Bellevue, Washington. Kenworth trucks are built in Seattle and Renton in Washington, Chillicothe, Ohio, as well as in Australia, Mexico and Quebec.
Pacaar produced 22 percent of heavy-duty Class 8 trucks in 1994. The company reported a net income of $204 million in 1994, up from $142 million a year earlier. First quarter figures in 1995 show Paccar will match or exceed its 1994 profits.
Before the strike, 26 trucks a day were built in Ste. Therese, approximately 20 percent of Kenworth's output. The factory has several months of back orders.
The intransigence of Kenworth and the fact that there have been no union meetings since the strike began has prompted considerable discussion by strikers on the picket line
"I'm for the strike but we need to have more information from the negotiating committee," Ali Khadir explained. "I don't care if the news is negative or positive, but I want to be kept informed."
"When negotiations began, the goals of the office local were different from the plant local, said Jean- Pierre Guay, chairperson of the union which represents the 100 office workers on strike. "Now we are working together more."
Mine bosses forced to back down
Following an all day arbitration hearing on August
30, David Greek and members of United Mine Workers of
America (UMWA) Local 2397 received official word that
they had won a victory in a week-long dispute with the
management of Jim Walters Resources (JWR) Number 7
Mine.
Greek was reinstated with full back pay, nullifying his firing. Members of UMWA at this mine in Brookwood, Alabama, went on strike beginning August 22 for five days immediately following the suspension of Greek, a former local union president and the highest seniority worker at the mine.
Greek was suspended with intent to discharge after attempting to carry out standard procedures for operating the cage that carries workers and supplies underground. The policy agreed to in a Labor Management Positive Change Policy meeting allowed for miners to be transported underground every half hour. In between these times, supplies could be lowered.
An assistant mine foreman demanded that Greek hoist him underground during the time that supplies were being lowered. When Greek questioned this, he was suspended.
The next day at the hearing that is required under the UMWA contract within 24 to 48 hours following a discharge of this kind, Federal marshals served union officials with a temporary restraining order issued by a U.S. district court judge in Birmingham.
The document "ordered that defendant United Mine Workers of America Local No. 2397, and its agents, members, officers, servants, representatives, employees, and all persons acting in concert or participation with it, be and hereby are restrained from, in any manner, either directly or indirectly" instigating, encouraging or assisting the strike or any picketing."
The order was written to include not just members of UMWA Local 2397 but any supporters of the union who might also take action in solidarity. On August 24 the strike expanded to include members of the UMWA working at JWR's Number 4 and Number 5 mines, the Central shop, and members of UMWA construction workers Local 1867 who were working at JWR mines.
Local and district officials began urging miners to go back to work the next day. Following an intense discussion at the afternoon shift local meeting of UMWA 2368 at the Number 5 mine , miners decided not to go back to work, since they would not have been part of the strike otherwise. "Whose going to want to work in these mines 20 years from now," one member of the local said in explaining why the action was necessary. Miners at the Number 4, Number 5, and Central shops went back to work after 24 hours.
UMWA Local 2397 did not return to work until August 27. The local faces contempt charges filed by Jim Walters for refusing to comply with the restraining order.
A large layoff took place at the Jim Walters mines in 1992. During that time safety and working conditions have deteriorated. And the company has cranked up the pace of work by cutting crews.
These conditions and new miners being called back after long lay offs have put union members in a bit more of a fighting mood. The strike at JWR is only the latest in a flurry of brief work stoppages at other mines. There have been four short walkouts at the new Shoal Creek mine owned by Drummond company.
Monica Jones, member of CAW Local 728 on strike at Kenworth in Ste. Therese, Quebec; Alyson Kennedy, member of UMWA Local 2368 at the JWR no. 5 Mine, and John Hawkins, member of construction workers UMWA Local 1867 contributed to this column.