Throughout the second week of February striking workers and their supporters successfully blocked buses carrying scabs that bosses were trying to get into the plant. On February 10 International Association of Machinists (IAM) Locals 171 and 939 organized more than 100 people to picket, with support from Canadian Auto Workers members locked out by Ronal Canada in nearby Stevensville, members of Teamsters Local 879, and other unions. The St. Catherines District labour council distributed signs saying, "Don’t cross the picket line" and "No scabs."

The mass picketing took place despite a court injunction Fleet had obtained that limited picketing to 25 people and that said vans crossing the picket line could only be held up for 10 minutes.

Twice in January, pickets stopped Fleet from busing in scabs. Both times, the police ordered the buses to leave when it became clear the strikers had no intention of letting scabs in the plant.

On February 8 production workers rejected the company’s latest offer by a vote of 221 to 6. The local president, Julius Antal, said the offer was practically identical to one workers had rejected three weeks before.

"I think they thought they were going to break us but they’ve just made us stronger," said Linda Smith, who has worked at Fleet for 24 years. "I was one of the people ‘terminated’ on January 15, and now they’re denying us severance pay."

Tom McGuigan, one of the strikers who was part of the mass picketing, said, "It’s our fight now, but if we lose it will be everyone’s fight later."

The Fleet strikers participated in a rally in neighboring Stevensville on February 1 alongside other workers locked out or on strike in the Niagara region to oppose Bill 7. The legislation, passed in 1995, gives employers the legal right to use scabs.

The production workers and office workers have been on strike against Fleet since October 1, when they rejected the bosses’ demand to recall workers as determined by the company, without regard to seniority. Since then, production workers have rejected two more company offers.

On February 9, office workers, who are members of IAM Local 939, voted 24 to 20 to reject the company’s latest offer and vowed not to go back to work until production workers had also settled.

Ken Kells, who has worked at Fleet for 37 years, said, "this whole story is about trying to break the union. That’s why they offered us a bunch of crap they knew we wouldn’t accept."

Members of both locals on strike have received letters from Fleet Industries telling them there is work available in the plant if they cross the picket line. Workers would have to reapply for their old jobs, and the company would decide the rate of pay, type of work, and when, if ever, the workers would start.

On February 13, faced with the fact that not one worker had crossed the picket line, Magellan Aerospace, Fleet’s parent company, announced they will close the plant.

In an acknowledgment of the workers’ determination to defend their union, Bill Matthews, the vice-president of marketing at Magellan, said that "when the group went on strike, we ran the plant with management and non-union. But we knew that we couldn’t do that forever. We exercised our legal right to bring in replacement workers and we were unable to do that."

On February 20, 17 union members, including the entire negotiating committee and the president of Local 171, were found guilty of violating the court order that bars workers from stopping scabs from entering the plant. About 60 family members and supporters attended the court hearing in a show of support.

In a reflection of the broad support this strike has won in the region, the judge "purged" the charges and did not impose any penalties. The cops, however, now have a court order to arrest anyone breaching the injunction. The 17 unionists were told that if any of them violate the injunction they will be jailed. Fleet is seeking to make the 17 defendants pay for all the legal costs.

The union has maintained its picket shacks and fire barrels and workers continue to staff the picket line. There is still no official closure of the plant. Armed with the court order authorizing the arrest of anyone violating the injunction, Fleet has brought a number of vans with scabs across the picket line since February 20.

Strikers who have been allowed to retrieve their tool boxes from the plant report that little or no production was evident.

Patricia O’Beirne is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Toronto. John Steele is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Toronto.  
 
 
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