Vol. 76/No. 43      November 26, 2012

Thousands strike Hostess
across United States

Hostess is one of the largest baking companies in the U.S., with some 18,500 workers in 36 bakeries, 570 retail outlets and 565 distribution centers.

In January the company entered its second bankruptcy proceeding in the last eight years.

The previous bankruptcy, which lasted from 2004 to 2009, led to the closure of 21 Hostess plants and union concessions. The reorganized company is owned by Ripplewood Holdings, a private equity firm, and two hedge funds—Silver Point Capital and Monarch Alternative Capital.

In September the company presented a “best and final offer” to workers—some 7,500 represented by the Teamsters Union and 5,700 by the BCTGM. Demands included an 8 percent wage cut, shifting 20 percent more of health care costs onto the workers, closure of more plants and elimination of the eight-hour day.

The Teamsters passed the concessions with 54 percent in favor, while BCTGM members rejected them by 92 percent. Hostess went to the bankruptcy judge and got the cuts imposed on the bakery union’s members, leading to the strikes.

Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn announced Nov. 13 that the company is permanently closing at least three of the plants on strike: in Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati. “We will close the entire company if widespread strikes cripple our business,” he threatened.

—John Studer

Greek workers march
against gov’t austerity

The measures passed by 153 to 128 with 19 abstentions. They were demanded by the so-called troika—the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund—as a prerequisite for $40 billion in further loans to stave off government debt default.

The package includes raising the retirement age from 65 to 67 for those retiring in 2013 or later, cutting unemployment benefits, reducing pensions by 5 to 15 percent and eliminating all holiday bonuses.

The new law makes it easier to fire workers and reduces severance payments by as much as 83 percent. It allows lengthening the workweek to six days without overtime pay.

Official unemployment in August is more than 25 percent; among youth under 24 years old it is 58 percent. Since 2009 the country’s gross domestic product has dropped by 25 percent.

“Now we will have to challenge implementation of the austerity cuts plant by plant,” Panagiotis Katsaros, who works at the Eliniki Halivourgia steel mill, told the Militant. Workers at the mill went back to work in July after a nine-month strike against firings and cuts in working hours.

“We continue our difficult struggle for 126 of our coworkers to be rehired,” Katsaros said. “And the dairy processing plant Mevgal just went out on strike today because workers have not been paid in two months. Steelworkers will do what we can to help.”

—Natasha Terlexis

Quebec strikers at adhesive
plant: ‘question of respect’

The workers, whose contract expired Dec. 13, 2011, walked out May 4. On Oct. 19, 84 union members out of a workforce of 115 rejected the boss’s “final offer” by 84 percent.

The offer contained wage increases. But it also included management rights to transfer workers without respect for seniority for weeks at a time, and eliminated training for workers applying for transfer to a new position, Céline Lamarre, union business agent, told the Militant.

“We need flexibility in the plant, for production,” Lysanne Bruneau, human resources director for MAPEI in Canada, said in a Nov. 9 phone interview. “The union absolutely doesn’t want to give it to us.”

Strikers bolstered Montreal hotel workers’ picket lines in front of the Maritime Hotel Oct. 30, where 60 members of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) were locked out in late August.

—Katy LeRougetel and John Steele

Quebec hotel workers fight
for wage raises, against layoffs

About 100 workers walked the picket line every day the first week.

They are among 5,500 hotel workers organized by the Confederation of National Trade Unions at 35 hotels across the province that have been fighting on a unified platform. Many hotels have already settled with four-year contracts, where workers have won yearly 3 percent wage increases, 2 percent increases in employer pension funds, and some protection from job cuts due to “green” programs. (Clients staying several nights pay less, but rooms are not cleaned and towels are not changed every day.)

“The green plan affects all kinds of jobs: the laundry, the chambermaids, everything cascades,” Michel Dionne, who has 25 years seniority and does technical maintenance, told the Militant.

Local union President Robin St-Pierre said workers are demanding an hourly increase of 60 cents in addition to the increase won in other hotels “in order to catch up a little.” Chambermaids here make $14.09 an hour compared to $19.62 at the Montreal Hyatt Regency.

“The union wants to freeze in time the way the workforce is organized,” Herman Champagne, SilverBirch Hotels’ corporate director of labor relations, told the Militant.

Mirta Barboza, a chambermaid for five years, said she has 30 minutes to clean a room, 14 rooms per day.

“There are about 40 positions in the kitchen that need to be filled,” said André Trépannier, a cook for 27 years. “Now they force us to do overtime.”

—Annette Kouri