Vol. 77/No. 28      July 22, 2013

BART management remains intransigent in its plan to increase deductions from workers’ paychecks for health care and pensions, which would be only partially offset by a proposed 8 percent raise over three years.

— Eric Simpson

Mental health workers strike 5 days in California for contract
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Some 200 mental health workers struck the Telecare La Casa Mental Health Rehabilitation Center here June 26-30. Demands include a contract and safer conditions for workers and patients.

On June 29 more than 100 members and supporters of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West demonstrated at a local park.

“The company is deaf to our demands for training,” said Neilanie Besana, 24, a nurse and SEIU member. “We are not trained to respond when patients have a breakdown. One nurse and two mental health workers is not enough for 30 to 44 patients in a unit.”

Workers at Telecare, who joined the SEIU a year ago, say contract negotiations are stalled. They report the starting wage is $9 per hour and that wages have been frozen for three to four years.

— Arlene Rubinstein

Quebec construction unions end strike in face of gov’t order
MONTREAL — About 77,000 commercial, industrial and institutional construction workers returned to work July 2 under strikebreaking legislation adopted by the Quebec National Assembly the day before.

The law was approved after negotiations collapsed between the Union Alliance, a coalition of five unions organizing construction workers, and the Quebec Construction Association, the organization representing the Quebec construction bosses in the industrial and commercial sector.

The law extends the union contract for one year and makes any strike or lockout illegal during that time. The workers will receive a 2 percent increase in wages for the year. The unions and construction bosses have until June 30, 2014, to reach a negotiated settlement for a new contract. The law stipulates fines of $100 a day for workers and $125,000 a day for unions and employers’ associations for violations of the order.

The two-week province-wide strike that began June 17 shut down billions of dollars in construction projects. It initially involved 175,000 workers throughout the province. The 100,000 workers involved in residential and in engineering and road construction returned to work five days after union officials reached a tentative deal with the bosses that include wage increases of 8.6 percent over a four-year contract.

“We aren`t going back with a smile on our lips,” plumber Chrystian Tessier told the Militant as he returned to work at the $2.1 billion University of Montreal Hospital Center here. “Now we don’t have the right to strike for a year. Maybe we will get results later.”

None of the workers’ demands underlying the strike have been resolved.

— John Steele