BY SUSAN BERMAN AND ROBERT SIMMS
BURLINGTON, Ontario - "I've worked here 31 years. We built
this place and now they treat us like animals. We have to fight
him [Maple Leaf Foods owner Wallace McCain]." This is how Bill
Nastos explained the strike of 900 members of United Food and
Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1227 here against the Maple
Leaf Food company's concession drive.
Just as Burlington workers entered the second week of their strike, Maple Leaf owners announced they were making arrangements to remove production equipment from their Edmonton, Alberta, plant in preparation for its shutdown. Nine hundred UFCW members in Edmonton walked off the job November 17 in a related contract dispute. In doing so, the unionists defied the company's threat to close the plant if a strike occurred.
Patrick Jones, vice-president of the Maple Leaf Meats division, blasted the UFCW union for the Edmonton strike: "They have convinced people to strike and give up their jobs to show solidarity for people in Burlington 3,000 miles away who make more than they do," he declared. "This is unbelievably irresponsible."
The company had already announced plans to close the 91- year-old Edmonton plant in the next two years and build a bigger modern facility somewhere in the western Canadian provinces. The bosses offered a tiny pay increase to Edmonton workers, who have had a wage freeze the past three years. Instead, the UFCW members voted to strike.
Strikers on the Burlington picket line say they refuse to accept the concessions the company is demanding, including wage cuts of up to Can$9 per hour (Can$1 = US$0.70). Currently wages range from Can$16.58 to $21.38 per hour for senior workers. Workers start at around Can$13 an hour and take 30 months to make full rate.
In addition, the employer wants to cut holidays and benefits, increase management's flexibility to organize work, and limit bathroom time to 20 minutes per week. Workers' pay would be docked for any additional time taken. Bathroom monitoring has already been in place in the Edmonton plant.
The first week of the strike, workers did daily picket duty. Hundreds massed on the picket lines, standing around flaming barrels. Waitresses from a nearby coffee shop pitched in their tip money early in the strike to buy donuts and coffee for pickets.
The union set up a coffee trailer with a book for guests to sign. In the first week they had Canadian Auto Workers members from GM, Ford, and Chrysler; steelworkers; and teachers. Many strikers noted the visit from teachers, coming on the heels of Ontario teachers' two-week strike against government cuts to education.
Maple Leaf, controlled by Wallace McCain and his two sons since 1995, is one of Canada's largest food companies. The McCains are among Canada's richest families. The McCains acquired Burns Foods meat-packing business last year, making them major players in pork. They are now trying to buy competitor Schneider Corp.
Canadian companies sell Can$5.8 billion worth of pork a year. In order to move into semicolonial markets, especially in Asia, and compete with their U.S. rivals, Canadian hog processors are on a campaign to shut outdated plants and drive down wages, benefits, and working conditions. Closing the Edmonton plant is part of this plan. The McCains have hired reputed union-buster Nick Sangalais of Minneapolis to lead the Burlington negotiations.
According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, while Burlington workers' average wage and benefits total Can$25.08 per hour, U.S. workers only average Can$16.50. "Burlington is the highest- cost collective agreement we have in the company and the most sensitive to North American competition," claimed Jones.
Thirteen U.S. plants each have more than double the capacity of the Burlington plant, Canada's largest operation.
The competitive edge of U.S. companies was wrenched from packinghouse workers during the 1980s. By 1985 the bosses had slashed average wages from US$10.69 per hour to $8.24 and eliminated 24,000 jobs. Injury rates skyrocketed.
In the mid-1980s, a new wave of strikes in both Canada and the United States fought further concessions. Two of the biggest battles were the Hormel strike in Minnesota in 1985 -86 and the Gainers strike (now Maple Leaf Foods) in Edmonton in 1986.
These are the conditions that set the scene for the current fight. Like their U.S. counterparts, Maple Leaf workers face a killing pace of work in the plants. "I have to bone a centerbone ham in 14 seconds and it has to be clean. No meat left on it," Belony Joachim told the Militant.
According to one worker, several years ago the Burlington plant processed 4,000 hogs a shift. Today, with a slightly smaller workforce, they process 7,000.
Susan Berman is a member of the United Steelworkers Local 5338. Katy LeRougetel contributed to this article.