The plant here, which produces steel billets as well as finished products for the auto industry, is among the most productive mills owned by Stelco, the largest steel producer in Canada.

Serge Gailloux, plant chairman of USWA Local 6951, said in an interview that negotiations began at the end of a six-year contract, over the course of which union members in Quebec, while keeping up in wages, lost ground on pensions and other benefits.

"After some 40 negotiating sessions that began in March," he said, "Stelco waited until the very end of the contract to make an offer on pensions, which fell well below the plan that had just been granted to the Hamilton workers. What they offered us was only a ‘window,’ that is, a plan that would apply only for the proposed four-year contract, after which negotiations on pensions would go back to square one, with no increase."

In 1990 the company succeeded in breaking its minimills away from the central bargaining unit that had existed up until then. Stelco argues that minimills should be treated differently from integrated mills such as Hilton Works.

"I don’t agree," said Raymond Projean, a refiner who has worked at McMaster for 29 years. "We do the same work, in the same dangerous conditions. Why can’t we get the same offer? Is it because we’re Quebecois?"

One month before the strike, as workers began an overtime boycott campaign to pressure the company to negotiate, the company hired security agents armed with video cameras who attempted to provoke workers both inside and outside the plant. The company also threatened to suspend or fire any worker caught putting up union stickers on company property. The first night of the walkout, these security guards tried to cross the picket line, but were pushed back by strikers.

On August 23, Stelco obtained an injunction limiting pickets to eight strikers. The same day the company issued a notice to the union, demanding it pay $65,000 in property damages. A bright yellow line painted on the pavement at the entrance to the plant defined the "border" that strikers are not allowed to cross.

Several workers expressed frustration over the fact that for the last four years, union officials have collaborated with the employer to improve the "performance" of the plant, including acceptance of a major reorganization of production that eliminated certain jobs.

According to Réal Simard, a welder who has worked at MacMaster for 22 years, "The production re-engineering goals were met, often ahead of deadlines. We delivered the merchandise in the partnership, even breaking production records."

"The way I see it, after everything we did for the company, it has a debt to pay," said Alain Mawn, a bricklayer with 23 years on the job. "I feel betrayed. That’s why I’m out here."

This is the union local’s fourth strike since 1978. Their contract fights have often set the pattern for those of several other steel plants in the area. Drivers honking horns as they drive by the picket line on the highway in front of the plant attest to support for the walkout. Union members remain confident, with picket lines kept up seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Sylvie Charbin is a sewing machine operator and a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 2581 in Montreal.  
 
 
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