Vol. 75/No. 24 July 4, 2011
Canada gov’t locks out postal
workers in contract fight
MONTREAL—At picket lines and demonstrations across the country, Canada’s 48,000 postal workers are appealing for public support after Canada Post bosses ended 12 days of rotating strikes by locking them out June 15. The federal government is now preparing back-to-work, strikebreaking legislation.
The workers, members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), have been without a contract since January. Canada Post, a government-run corporation, is demanding massive concessions, saying they are necessary to make the company profitable in face of a decline in the use of the postal service. The postal bosses are demanding a two-tier wage structure with an 18 percent cut in pay for new hires, an increase in the retirement age, and an end to cost-of-living adjustments in pensions.
On June 17 drivers continuously honked in support as they passed by 50 CUPW strikers and their supporters at a demonstration here. Strikers explain that a major issue in the fight is the introduction of new machinery into the huge sorting plants across the country, which workers say will cause more injuries on the job due to speedup. New work rules demanded by the bosses will mean heavier loads for fewer letter carriers.
“Instead of respecting our rights, the government is intent on imposing a law which may permit an arbitrator to impose a whole new set of rules designed to reduce labour costs at the expense of our health and safety,” said a CUPW media release.
At the picket line at the St. Laurent sorting plant just outside Montreal, mail courier Gary Dinan told the Militant, “Canada Post disrespects all its workers, from retirees, to those now working, to new hires. That’s why so many signs demand ‘Respect.’”
Under the threat of similar strikebreaking legislation 3,800 Air Canada ticket agents and call center workers ended a four-day walkout June 16 after Canadian Auto Workers union officials reached a tentative agreement with the airline bosses.
The central issue was pensions, with the company demanding an inferior, insecure investment-based pension for new hires. The agreement announced June 16 referred the pension question to arbitration. Voting on the new airline contract will take place over the next two weeks.
—John Steele
and Beverly Bernardo
Coal miners go on strike
in Queensland, Australia
SYDNEY, Australia—Coal miners went on strike at BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) mines in the Bowen Basin in Queensland June 14.
Some 3,500 workers—members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, and the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union—are taking part in six-hour rolling strikes at six mines. This is the first strike in a decade at the BMA mines, two of which are underground mines and the others open-cut.
The main demands of the unions are for equal pay for contract workers and company employees and a say in hiring by union representatives. Many members are also opposed to the proposed introduction of a seven-day-on, seven-day-off roster.
BMA is the largest exporter of coking coal in the world, more of which is mined in the Bowen Basin than anywhere else. Operations were halted at the Bowen Basin mines last year by floods, and coal output dropped by 30 percent. Coal prices rose due to the shortage and BMA profits swelled.
—Linda Harris
Texas flour mill workers
strike over health care
SAN ANTONIO—Workers at the C.H. Guenther & Son Pioneer Flour Mill here have been on strike for two months. Members of Teamsters Local 657 walked off the job April 25 over health-care costs and retirement benefits.
“When we signed our three-year contract last year we thought we would get a raise of 50 cents about now,” said Stephen Prieto, a warehouse worker with 33 years at the mill. “But then the company reopened the whole thing around health care. They want us to pay $35 a week, not the $11 we have been paying.”
“The raise we are due will be wiped out by our health-care payments,” added Mario Villarrial, who has 25 years on the job.
“We can’t live on less money,” said George Gonzalez, a machine operator who has worked at the plant for 32 years. “We need a raise, not a cut.”
The strikers say Guenther is using office and other nonunion workers to run the mill, which produces gravy, pancake mixes, and many other flour products for Pioneer and White Wings brands.
Jerry Hernandez, a miller, told the Militant that a highly vocal contingent of nurses from the Rio Grande Valley spent an hour walking the picket line before heading to El Paso for contract negotiations. UPS workers have also joined the picket line in solidarity and rail workers have refused to cross it.
Supporters of the Militant went door to door in a nearby working-class neighborhood and sold two subscriptions to women very interested in the developments at the mill. Six strikers signed up to get the paper.
—David Creed
and Jacquie Henderson
Philadelphia rail car workers
walk out due to heat conditions
PHILADELPHIA—Some 60 production workers at the Hyundai-Rotem rail car manufacturing plant in South Philadelphia walked off the job June 9, protesting the refusal of the company to provide break room air conditioning and access to cold drinking water. Temperatures neared 100 degrees.
The next day, the company provided water and told workers the air conditioning was being repaired.
About 100 production workers are employed here by Hyundai-Rotem, a subsidiary of the Korea-based auto company Hyundai Motor Group. The rail cars are being built for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which runs the region’s subways and rail lines.
The workers voted last year to join the Transport Workers Union and have since been fighting to get a contract.
Nine workers bought copies of the Militant. One later bought a subscription and took three more papers and some promotional literature to show coworkers in the plant.
—Mitchel Rosenberg