BY MICHEL DUGRÉ AND ELSSA MARTÍNEZ
SHAWINIGAN, Quebec - Five thousand paperworkers in 11 plants launched a strike June 15 against Abitibi- Consolidated, the world's biggest newsprint producer. The workers are members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP). The company owns 18 paper plants in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Of the 11 plants involved in the strike, four are in Ontario, five in Quebec, and two in Newfoundland - some 40 percent of the paper produced by the company.

Contract negotiations have not yet started. The strike is over how negotiations will take place. Abitibi- Consolidated is demanding negotiations take place plant by plant. Workers insisted the contract be negotiated company- wide, and voted 95 percent against the company's proposal.

The company had threatened to shut down the Chandler and Wayagamak plants in Quebec, and the Kenora plant in Ontario, if workers went ahead with the strike. The company is now seeking an injunction to end the strike at its four Ontario plants.

"They're looking for a way to break our union," said Réjean Laroche, who works at the Laurentide plant, in the St. Maurice river valley in the heart of Quebec. "But people are waking up, and we will remain on strike as long as necessary."

In the early 1990s, the bosses wrested major concessions from paperworkers in eastern Canada. They succeeded in cutting the workforce while increasing production. At the Shawinigan Belgo plant, for example, the company laid off 300 workers, with seniority of up to 16 years. "With the remaining two-thirds of the workers, we're breaking production records almost daily," said Robert Guertin, who has worked in the plant for 22 years.

Workers emphasized the bad working conditions they face, including rotating shifts and few weekends off. "At the Wayagamak plant in Trois-Rivieres, there is a pool of 54 workers who frequently have to work on all three shifts during the same week," noted Denis Rousseau. "About 20 of them are on call."

The unionists are digging in for what many of them expect to be a long strike. "The first thing I asked when I got here was if our picket shack was insulated for winter," Alain Charette, from the Laurentide plant, said jokingly. The company has built up stock for a few weeks. But the strike is preventing Abitibi-Consolidated from taking advantage of higher newsprint prices and a lower Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar. The vast majority of the paper produced in Canada is sold in the United States.

The strikers hope to establish a favorable pattern for the 20,000 workers at other paper companies in eastern Canada. For years, the three plants in the St. Maurice area have set the pattern for the other workers. "It's the first time workers from this area have gone on strike together with workers from Ontario," noted Philippe Hanna from the Algo plant. At a meeting of representatives of the 25,000 paperworkers who are members of CEP in eastern Canada, a proposal was adopted to ask paperworkers not directly involved in the strike to donate the equivalent of two hours' pay per week to strikers. Representatives of the three Fletcher Challenge pulp and paper plants in British Columbia, whose nine-month strike ended in April, attended the meeting.

When negotiations do start, the unionists are planning to fight for better wages and a lowering of the retirement age to 55. "We have to fight. Nothing is won forever," said Robert La Haye, who like many other strikers of this area, participated in two other strikes in 1975 and 1987. "We don't know if we'll win. But every time we've fought, our union spirit has become stronger."

Michel Dugré is member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and the Communist League candidate for mayor in Montreal. Elssa Martinez is a CEP member and Communist League candidate for Montreal city council.  
 
 
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