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Vol. 76/No. 5      February 6, 2012

 
On the Picket Line
 

Locked-out Quebec smelter
workers win solidarity

MONTREAL—More than 750 union aluminum smelter workers are standing firm in their fight against the company’s plans to increase the use of mostly nonunion subcontractors, temporary workers who are paid half the going wage. Members of United Steelworkers Local 9490 were locked out by Rio Tinto Alcan in Alma, Quebec, Jan. 1.

On Jan. 17, almost 1,000 members of the National Union of Arvida Aluminum Employees, which represents workers at other Rio Tinto Alcan plants and its railway operation, voted almost unanimously to approve a $1 million interest-free loan to the locked-out Steelworkers.

Students from the nearby junior college Cégep de Jonquière and from the university in Chicoutimi joined nighttime picket lines Jan 18. Canadian Auto Workers union representatives from Rio Tinto’s plant in Kitimat, British Columbia, flew in to walk the picket lines Jan. 20. “The conflict in Alma affects us directly since the issues at the heart of the dispute are the same as in Kitimat,” CAW Local 2301 President Ed Abreu told the press.

United Steelworkers Local 1005 representing workers at United States Steel Corp. in Hamilton, Ontario, also plans to send a van load of members to Alma. Locked-out union members who spoke to the Militant by telephone said they have been buoyed by the solidarity.

—Katy LeRougetel

Thousands rally to back
Ontario Caterpillar workers

LONDON, Ontario—Some 10,000 unionists and supporters from across Ontario rallied at Victoria Park here Jan. 21 in solidarity with 465 Electro-Motive Diesel workers locked out on New Year’s Day by the company, which is owned by Caterpillar Inc. The workers, members of Local 27 of the Canadian Auto Workers, assemble railway locomotives.

The Caterpillar bosses locked the doors after workers refused to accept concession demands that include a 50 percent wage cut and the virtual elimination of their pension plan.

The rally was called by the Canadian Auto Workers in collaboration with the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress. Participants from 54 unions came to the rally on 70 buses. Cross-border solidarity was given by workers from the United States, including from the General Electric Co. locomotive plant in Erie, Penn.

Following the rally hundreds joined a picket line and barbecue at the Electro-Motive plant gate. A popular chant was “nothing in and nothing out,” showing workers’ determination to prevent supplies from entering the plant or machinery being removed by the bosses.

—John Steele and Joe Young

[The Jan. 23 Militant incorrectly stated that 650 workers, not 465, were locked out at Electro-Motive Diesel]

Mass. Teamsters strike shingle
plant over health insurance cuts

NORWOOD, Mass.—Ninety Teamsters on strike here since Dec. 19 at CertainTeed Corp. are picketing around the clock. During a Jan. 18 visit to the picket line a dump truck dropped off split logs for the strikers’ fire barrel, one of many donations including coffee by local supporters.

A subsidiary of the French company Saint-Gobain, CertainTeed makes asphalt shingles at the Norwood plant. Headquartered in Valley Forge, Penn., they have 7,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada. Only workers at this plant are on strike.

Negotiations broke down over the company’s insistence on replacing the union-administered insurance with a company-run plan. According to a statement from Teamsters Local 25 the bosses want to “drastically reduce the amount of health insurance they pay and, in return, give employees a one-time $1,000 bonus.”

Local 25 President Sean O’Brien, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman, and members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2222, which represents Verizon workers, joined a Jan. 5 rally at the plant.

The following week the strikers received a letter of solidarity from the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers, headquartered in Switzerland, pledging that they and their affiliates in France would bring pressure to bear on top executives of Saint-Gobain in Paris.

—Sarah Ullman

 
 
 
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