"This strike is not about a money issue at all," said Ray Troupe, who has worked at the plant for 23 years. "Fleet wants to be able to lay off guys with 23 years seniority and hire new people with one to three years seniority."

The strikers include 300 production workers, members of International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 171, and 50 office workers belonging to IAM Local 939. They have been walking the picket line since October 1.

In a near unanimous strike vote in September, workers rejected the company demands to gut seniority rights and replace the plant-wide seniority system with seniority by job classification. The company demanded "complete and unfettered discretion" in deciding which workers will be laid off, rather than basing layoffs on seniority.

The "final offer" that workers rejected called for seniority to be calculated as "length of continuous service since date of last hiring by the company", in other words, a worker with 35 years seniority would lose all seniority if he or she was laid off and then rehired a few months later.

Nine years ago the union gave back 10 percent in wages, 20 percent in health benefits, a week’s vacation, and a holiday, with a company promise to restore the concessions a year later. The vacation was returned a year later, and 10 percent of the health benefits and the statutory holiday during the 1996 negotiations, but the 10 percent wage cut was never restored. "One manager told us, ‘We lied to you, get over it,’" said Troupe.

Cost of living adjustments (COLA) have been the only real wage increase seen by workers at Fleet over the past ten years. "Now Fleet wants us to give up our COLA for 18 months and they promise they’ll give it back to us, but we don’t believe them," said Troupe.

Negotiations have restarted with the office workers, but the production workers haven’t yet been offered anything new. At a meeting in early December, Fleet laid out its plans to further reduce the workforce in the plant to 150–250 workers by 2005. Some production is going on in the plant using supervisory and administrative personnel.

Stan Fiske, 64, who has worked there for 36 years, described how a few days before the strike began, a boss called him into the office and encouraged him to take early retirement or a layoff to avoid a strike six months before he is eligible to retire. "I said to him, ‘Are you trying to kick me out the door after 37 years? Take your paper and shove it you-know-where,’" Fiske said.

Bob Weaver, with 23 years service, said, "All of us have been through numerous strikes and this time I think the workers are really going to hold out." Workers at this plant have long experience in standing up to Fleet. One unionist explained that they "keep putting up the same picket shacks" because there has been a strike every six years or so. The last strike was in 1996.

There have been several strike support events, including a Niagara region strike caravan on November 29, which visited the picket lines of members of the Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers of Canada on strike against Anagram in St. Catherines and Niagara-on-the-Lake, a Steelworkers picket line at Washington Mills in Niagara Falls, the 39 members of the Canadian Auto Workers Union locked out at Ronal Canada in Stevensville, and the Fleet picket line.

Patricia O’Beirne is a member of UNITE in Toronto.  
 
 
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