The 120 workers at the plant, located a few kilometers north of Toronto, produce plastic bottles and household cleaning fluids of one kind or another. The Toronto facility also serves as the headquarters for the company, which operates 12 plants in North America--two or three in Canada, and the rest in the United States.

The strikers' main demand is for an across-the-board $1 an hour wage increase in the first year of a three-year contract. This, they explain, would close the gap between the majority of the workers who are classified as laborers, and workers in higher-paying classifications such as maintenance or quality control jobs. The strikers are also demanding an increase of 50 cents an hour in the second and third year of the contract.

Currently the laborers earn $8.66 per hour and in many cases have done so for years. "The laborers need $10 an hour to catch up," said one striker.

The plant operates on three shifts. No premium is paid for the afternoon and midnight shifts.

Almost the entire workforce is from the Punjab in India. Many of the men wear the Sikh religious turban. About 40 percent of them are women, who produce the bottles on one side of the plant. The men fill the bottles with the bleach and other cleaning fluids. "I have to operate two machines," said one woman striker, describing the brutal working conditions. Much of the work involves heavy lifting, and the bosses continually demand greater speed. Back injuries and sickness from noxious and toxic chemical fumes are a growing problem for the workforce. The only "protection" for the fumes are gauze masks.

Several months ago the workers switched their membership to the Steelworkers from the International Laborers' Union. "That union was too close to the boss," said one striker, "so we changed the union." The workers are still operating under the old contract, which expired on July 30.

Before the strike vote, the company offered a three-year contract with a wage increase of 50 cents in the first year and 25 cents in the second and third years. Faced with the workers' resolve to strike, the company raised the first-year offer to 70 cents. Then the owners threatened to close the plant.

The workers opposed a percentage wage increase, arguing that it would widen the gap between the laborers and more highly paid workers like the machine setup people who earn $14.50 an hour. With the previous union, the higher-paid workers were classified as part of management and received a salary that amounted to about $20 an hour. Now they are wage workers in the union.

Despite the threat by the bosses to close the plant, the workers voted 71 to 27 to strike beginning December 1. Strikers explained that most of the small number of Spanish-speaking workers in the plant, swayed by a Spanish-speaking supervisor, did not vote for the strike. "A few participate in picket duty," they noted.

Currently there are no negotiations taking place between the union and the company. "This is hard out here in the snow," said one striker. "We don't know if the company will try to start production again. We'll see in the new year."

John Steele is a meat packer and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.  
 
 
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