The two-sided leaflet explains the main issues in dispute: at Superior Poultry a strike for a first contract to establish decent wages and working conditions; and at Fletcher's a fight to stop the company's attempt to impose a 40 percent wage cut, as well as other major concessions.

The 225 UFCW members at Superior Poultry have been on strike since July 23, and are digging in for a long battle. The unionists have just completed construction of a new picket shelter, complete with a solid metal roof and wall.

The new fortifications highlight the workers' resistance to a company bent on breaking the union.

The entirely immigrant workforce voted overwhelmingly to join the UFCW in 1999. But Superior Poultry management--part of the Pollon Group, British Columbia's largest producer of poultry--refused to negotiate a first contract. On June 11, the unionists voted by a 98.5 percent margin to strike.

The British Columbia Supreme Court granted the company's request for an injunction October 10 prohibiting strikers from picketing within 10 feet of the main entrance gate into the plant. Furthermore, the injunction prohibits strikers from "following or chasing any motor vehicle picking up or transporting the plants' employees." Workers explained that the court's ruling also banned one of the strikers from the picket line. They added that the court rejected the company's demand for a limit of five people on the picket line at a time. The injunction resulted from company allegations of an incident involving the vans used to transport scabs into the plant.

Since the strike began, company security guards have been videotaping all vehicles in and out of the plant. Around 40 workers did not join the strike and continue to work.

Many workers question the fairness of the court's ruling. "They had no proof and they are just trying to weaken the strike, but they can't," said Givan, a UFCW picket captain. "They're charging us, because they want to break us," said Balvir Dhillon, a picket captain on another shift.  
 
Wage parity at issue
Strikers explain that they are fighting for wage parity with unionized poultry plants in the region and for seniority rights and benefits. Workers at Superior Poultry start at the province's minimum wage of Can$7.15 per hour (US$4.60) and receive small raises at the company's discretion. Few make as much as $10 an hour.

At Fletcher's, the company remains determined to cut the base rate from $16.50 to $10 an hour. "Could you support your family on $10 an hour," reads a union banner facing Fraser Street--a route used by many factory workers on their way to their jobs. Unionists on the picket line at Fletcher's are debating a proposal from UFCW officials that a certain number of the current workforce take a buyout allowing the company to bring in workers at $10 an hour. Some workers are eager to leave Fletcher's and think the buyout is a good idea. Others understand that a permanent two-tier system would greatly weaken the union and oppose the company's proposal. But so far Fletcher's management has maintained its demand for across-the-board wage cuts.

"I don't like the buyout proposal. It's another way of getting the very low wages the company wants, of caving in," said Ian McLean, a Local 1518 shop steward at Fletcher's. "I don't want to see labor rates going down in the economy while prices keep going up," he continued. "What Fletcher's is demanding would be going back to what I was getting 20 years ago at today's prices."

Meanwhile, UFCW members at Fletcher's are discussing how to step up activity in their fight against concessions, including starting a Canada-wide boycott of Fletcher's products and seeking active support from the B.C. Federation of Labour at its upcoming convention in Vancouver, November 28 to December 1.

Beverly Bernardo is a locked-out member of UFCW Local 1518 at Fletcher's Fine Foods. Derrick O'Keefe is a member of the UFCW and the Young Socialists.  
 
 
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