Vol. 71/No. 18      May 7, 2007

Key issues in dispute are work rules, rest times, and unsafe conditions generated by CN’s “precision railroad” productivity drive. UTU officials called for “selective and targeted strike action” in rotating strikes in British Columbia and Ontario. CN bosses then locked out strikers in Vancouver and Kamloops, British Columbia, as well as at three Ontario terminals. On April 17 the federal parliament passed strikebreaking legislation forcing the unionists back to work.

—John Steele

Steelworkers strike Rexam Can
in Alabama and eight other states
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama—“We went on strike because the company decided to tell the retirees that they don’t want to take care of their health care anymore,” said Steve McKeever, on the picket line outside Rexam Beverage Can’s plant here April 12. Workers at the plant are members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7436 and make beverage can tops. Along with some 800 other USW members in eight other cities, the Steelworkers walked out April 10 after twice rejecting the company’s offer of a new five-year contract. The previous pact expired February 24.

“They only offered us a 2 percent wage increase over the next five years,” said McKeever, a 27-year veteran press operator at Rexam. Of the 138 workers at the Birmingham plant, all but one are union members, he added. Health care costs for working employees are also an important strike issue. The workers are staffing a round-the-clock picket line at the plant.

—Susan Lamont

Shipyard workers in Mississippi
end strike, sign new contract
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama—After 28 days on strike, shipyard workers at the giant Northrop Grumman facility in Pascagoula, Mississippi, ratified a revised contract offer April 4 and began returning to work. Before going on strike the workers had voted down two company-proposed contracts. The final agreement was approved by 60 percent of the 3,300 union members voting.

A central demand of the nearly 8,000 unionists working at the shipyard was higher pay to offset the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on workers’ standard of living. The company’s earlier offers of a $1.40-an-hour raise the first year of the contract was increased to $1.68 in the new pact. Other demands by the workers for lower health insurance premiums and dental and vision coverage were not part of the pact.

—Paul Mailhot

Meat workers in Britain
strike 24 hours at six plants
CAMBUSLANG, Scotland—More than 1,400 meat workers, members of the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU), took 24-hour strike action April 12 against Grampian Country Foods Group (GCFG) at six of its plants in the United Kingdom. Workers at three factories in Scotland, two in Wales, and one in England walked out over demands for improved wages and pensions. They also objected to the treatment of agency (temporary) workers, many of whom are from Poland and generally receive lower wages. Few union members crossed the picket lines, but at Cambuslang the company bused in more than 100 agency workers on an extended shift. This was the first daylong strike at the factory here in 15 years. Based in Scotland, GCFG employs 20,000 workers in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Thailand.

—Pamela Holmes
 
 
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