The rally, organized by the Grey-Bruce Labor Council, was held across the street from the plant. In addition to strikers, participants included members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), Service Employees International Union, United Steelworkers of America, Power Workers Union, and several other unions.

A theme of the rally was opposition to sweeping antiunion amendments to the Ontario Labor Relations Act adopted by the Conservative provincial government of Premier Michael Harris. The labor code now allows companies to use scabs, and the IWA strike against Interforest has become a test case.

Over the course of the strike, Interforest has bussed in scabs, and obtained several injunctions limiting picketing and obstruction of vehicles at plant gates, in front of management homes, and at parking lots where specially marked company buses pick up scabs.

A number of the scabs hired have been forced to cross the line under the Ontario government's new "workfare" program, under which workers on welfare who refuse to be retrained or to take any work offered to them risk losing their income.  
 

Challenge to antiunion laws

Throughout the strike, workers at this specialty wood veneer plant — part of an international chain — have fought back. For the first four months of the strike, less than a half dozen union members crossed the picket line.

On October 18 the union was forced to vote on a memorandum of settlement, essentially the same offer that they had rejected prior to the strike. The company took advantage of the new legislation, which gives scabs — now defined as part of a "bargaining unit" — the right to vote on contract offers, whether or not they are union members. At the time of the Labor Board–supervised vote, the company had registered 172 scabs.

Despite this attack on union rights, the memorandum was rejected by a vote of 263-218. The next day, the company fired 35 strikers, including the local's union negotiating committee. Some termination notices were delivered to strikers' homes by company security guards equipped with video cameras. The fired workers' pink slips indicated "on strike" as a reason for termination.

Company officials later stated that these workers had "acted against the law" and that it would not take them back. Interforest then imposed an October 26 deadline, after which it said it would withdraw its latest offer. The bosses proceeded to carry out an aggressive telephone campaign aimed at getting workers to cross the picket line.

At a union meeting called that weekend, the names of the fired workers were read out loud. Despite the pressure bearing down on the strike, union members vowed to continue the strike until everyone was rehired. "It was the best meeting we've had since we went on strike. The only thing to do is to keep on fighting," said Jane Osborne, one of the fired workers.

In the following two days, 20 members of the Power Workers union and 80 members of the Canadian Auto Workers attending the CAW training school in nearby Port Elgin brought their support to the picket line.

On October 28 two busloads of Interforest strikers, including most of the fired workers, traveled 150 miles from the picket line to Toronto. They marched in front of Queen's Park, the Ontario legislature, carrying signs saying, "Workfare = Scabfare" and "Revoke the Scab Labor Laws."

Beth Pietz, one of the fired workers, and self-described "rookie" hired last January, told the Militant, "I'm a single mother with two kids to support. I've never worked in a place and been treated so badly. I've never worked in a union place before. I've learned a lot about what unions are. I support the union."  
 

Union officials back down

A few hours after the strikers returned in high spirits from the rally in Toronto they attended a union meeting previously called for that evening.

Top IWA officials there cast a serious doubt on the meaning of the October 18 contract rejection by claiming that the memorandum of settlement would have been accepted by the union membership had it not been for the scab vote.

"I disagreed," said striker Ryan McCubbin. "Most of the people I talked to said there was no way they could accept that offer, but with the scabs' votes mixed in with ours, there was no way to tell for sure where union members stood. And this caused a lot of confusion."

The IWA officials then called for another vote, in order to avert what they claimed would be a massive and uncontrolled crossing of picket lines. At that point, only about 20 union members had crossed the line. They also cited another clause in the labor code that opens the door for employers to refuse to take back workers when the duration of a strike exceeds six months.

They said that the fight to get the fired workers reinstated would have to go through arbitration, and accepting the last offer and going back to work now was the only way to save their jobs and the union.

On October 31, faced with the unwillingness of the union officialdom to continue to lead the fight, workers voted 250-32 to end the strike and return to work. Votes of 32 of the fired workers were kept in a separate envelope and not counted.

The next morning when about 300 workers gathered at the picket trailer across from the plant to prepare to return to work as a group, they were informed by the company that since the offer had been withdrawn, it did not recognize the latest contract vote. In addition, the company has filed charges against the union for "bargaining in bad faith." Workers' reaction to this lockout was to immediately get the picket lines back up.

Both the union and company are now awaiting a Labor Board ruling on the validity of the latest union vote and the company lockout, as well as the legality of the firings.

Sylvie Charbin is member of International Association of Machinists Local Lodge 2113. Ryan McCubbin, one of the fired IWA Local 500 strikers, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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