TORONTO - Six hundred Westin Harbour Castle hotel workers voted by 95 percent on August 5 to end their two-month walkout after beating back the company's attempt to use several hundred scabs and security guards to break their strike. The company sought to impose piece work, undermine seniority, and other rights and benefits.

Daphne Mills, a kitchen worker, pointed out that the hotel's managing director, "was very serious in his determination to break our union. He gave us no alternative [but to strike]. We had to fight to keep everything we had fought for before. But he also underrated us. He thought we wouldn't be able to last more than two weeks on the picket line."

The Globe and Mail, Canada's main big-business daily newspaper, had emphasized that "all eyes are on (a) strike" that was seen as "the first major testing ground for the use of replacement workers since a law banning them was repealed late last year" by the Ontario Conservative government of Michael Harris.

The hotel - part of a chain with hotels in the U.S. and Canada -had sought to cut its labor costs by millions of dollars each year by paying housekeepers piece rates of $6.50 per room instead of their hourly rate of $12.50 an hour. They also wanted to deny workers a minimum of four hours pay each day and instead send them home if there wasn't enough work.

The workers, members of the Textile Processors Union (which is connected to the Teamsters Union) voted over 99 percent to go on strike. Several hundred strikers maintained 24-hour round- the-clock picket lines, in many cases up to six or eight hours a day- five or more days a week.

Under the new contract housekeepers will have to clean 16 rather than 15 rooms a day and face disciplinary action up to firing if they cannot maintain the pace; the minimum shift will be reduced from four hours to three; and management will be given greater "flexibility" in assigning workers in one department to work in another for short periods of time. Workers will receive either 1.5 percent wage increases in each year of the three-year contract or, in several job categories, no wage increase at all.

Despite these concessions, workers were convinced that they defeated the most serious company attacks - piece work and union busting. Many said the main gain of the strike was that it showed what can be accomplished when workers use union power to defend their rights.

Mike, from the banquet department, declared, "This is proof that the poor people have power too, not just the rich. By getting together, staying out longer, and keeping a strong mind we showed we have very strong power."

Dairy workers defy union busting in Pennsylvania
JOHNSTON, Pennsylvania -Some 250 dairy workers, members of United Steelworkers of America Local 12755, have been on strike since August 1 against Sani-Dairy of Johnstown. The main issue in the strike from the beginning was Sani-Dairy's drive to replace union drivers with nonunion workers.

Sani-Dairy had advertised in the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat a few days before the strike began for replacement workers. On the night of August 1, strikers and their families attempted to prevent scabs from leaving the Sani-Dairy plant in trucks.

The Johnstown police arrived and attempted to clear a path for the scab drivers, and workers resisted the police. During the confrontation, a policeman was videotaped punching Deborah Kott, a striker's wife, in the face, breaking her jaw. Eyewitnesses said that he laughed about it afterwards.

Reginald Floyd, the cop, claims that he punched the woman after she charged at him, but the videotape, shown on local news, does not support his story.

"The tape shows that a police officer was holding her while the other policeman punched her," John Elash, Kotts' attorney, told the Tribune-Democrat. "Floyd had this woman being held in a position of total compliance and he broke her jaw for no reason at all."

The strikers voted down a second contract offer from Sani- Dairy August 21. Letters of support for the strikers can be sent to Striking Sani-Dairy Workers, USWA District 10, 519 Somerset St., Johnstown, PA. 15901

Toledo glass strikers demand right to safety
TOLEDO, Ohio - Workers at Tempglass here set up picket lines August 9, two days after union officials informed the company of its plans to strike. That night the company shut down operations and sent workers on the midnight shift home early claiming they had received a bomb threat.

The 200 members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 12 are conducting an unfair labor practice strike over the company's refusal to allow a UAW safety representative to enter the plant. "We're the people that have our sweat and blood on the floor that built this company," said John Seawater, an official of the striking local.

The strike puts everything on the table since the company has refused to negotiate a contract. The workers voted to join the union in 1994. The company has challenged the election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The average wage is $8.15 an hour but pickets report most workers make less around $7.50. Barb Hoffman, the recording- secretary of the union's bargaining committee and one of only about 20 women employees, told Militant reporters, "I've worked here for three years and never got a raise." Hoffman explained that the company wants to institute a "merit pay raise" system in which workers are periodically reviewed by their foreman to determine whether or not they will get a raise.

As part of this scheme, the company has said that it would only guarantee the raises to 70 percent of the workforce. About 40 workers crossed the picket lines, most of whom were temporary workers employed by one of two temporary agencies that supply the plant.

According to Hoffman, when a union representative called Express Personnel, one of the agencies, to explain that the local was walking out, he was informed that the agency was telling people that if they didn't want to cross the picket line they would place them at another job. If, however, the temporary workers crossed the picket line, the agency would pay them more. Tempglass has said it plans to continue to operate the plant, but wouldn't say whether replacement workers would be brought in.

The company has received willing support from local cops. On August 9 at 5:01 a.m., when the union set up pickets at the two entrances to the plant, they were met by police from Perrysburg Township, neighboring Rossford and Perrysburg, and the Wood County sheriff's department S.W.A.T. team. Three pickets were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and criminal damage after some vehicles crossed through the picket line. The company later obtained a temporary restraining order limiting picketing to five people at each entrance.

The strikers are determined. Hoffman pointed out that with the conditions in the plant workers were forced "to take a stand and we will win." She urged others to come by and show solidarity.

Steve Penner, member of the United Steelworkers Local 5338, Rosemary Ray, and John Steele in Toronto; Nicholas Brand in Loretto, Pennsylvania; Mark Gilsdorf, member of UAW Local 247 and John Sarge member of UAW Local 900 in Detroit, and Alan Epstein, member of UAW Local 12 in Toledo, Ohio contributed to this column.  
 
 
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