Vol. 78/No. 28      August 4, 2014

After a month of negotiations between the workers’ union Unifor and Bombardier, bosses on July 12 presented a “take it or leave it offer.” The company’s three-year contract proposal, according to Ron Frost, union bargaining chairman, includes no wage increase during the first year, followed by 5 cents the second year and 10 cents the third year, and would replace the current pension plan for new hires with an inferior “defined contribution plan.”

“They want us older workers to turn on the newer ones, but we won’t do that,” said Frost.

Dozens of workers were at the picket line July 15, slowing down cars coming in and out of the plant.

Union local President Dominic Pasqualino said company officials told them they intend to keep the plant running with scabs. “I know they’re not going to get anybody from the other plant in La Pocatière, Québec,” said Pasqualino. “We supported them when they were on strike recently.”

Bombardier workers in La Pocatière, organized by the Confederation of National Trade Unions, went on strike in 2012 over pensions and union-busting job cuts. The company had reduced the unionized workforce from 1,000 employees in 2006 to 330 by 2012, largely through the use of subcontracting.

“They have been trying to pit us against each another,” said Pasqualino. “It won’t work. When we went to their strike they were happy to see us and treated us like family.”

— Félix Vincent Ardea and Joe Young

Illinois Steelworkers, on strike since May, picket Sloan Valve
FRANKLIN PARK, Ill., July 9 — Members of Steelworkers Local 7999 here have been picketing Sloan Valve around the clock since 350 workers walked off the job at midnight May 18. They had been working without a contract at the plant, which manufactures plumbing fixtures and valves, since Sept. 30.

“There are many reasons to strike. The main issues are the rising cost of health care and the ‘no excuse’ attendance policy,” said Vicky Hopp, who has worked at the factory for 37 years.

“My regular visits to the doctor have to be paid in cash and they want us to take a $9,000 deductible,” said Isaac Taylor, a lathe set-up man. “They knew we wouldn’t accept this. They want to make this a nonunion shop.”

Otto Hopp, a retired welding coordinator at the Ford Motor stamping plant, was at the picket in solidarity. “When Ford went on strike in the early 2000s the boss said, ‘Hopp you have to cross the picket line.’ I said I don’t have to do nothing! I would never cross a picket line.”

About 60 workers in all have crossed the picket line, according to strikers. A few retirees are among the scabs.

In Chicago, about 40 minutes south of Sloan Valve, production workers and drivers have been on strike since June 23 at the Hinckley Springs bottled water plant over pay and other issues. Members of Teamsters Local 710 have been without a contract for two years. Negotiations had been scheduled for June 25, but on that day bosses instead brought in scabs and have since refused to talk.

“We’re boycotting Hinckley,” said Sloan Valve striker Gloria Espana, whose husband and son are also striking members of Steelworkers Local 7999.

— Laura Anderson

UK public workers carry out one-day strike over pay, pensions
LIVERPOOL, England — Some 2,500 people joined a rally here July 10 organized by six unions as part of a one-day protest strike by hundreds of thousands of public sector workers across the U.K. against government cuts targeting workers’ jobs, pay and pensions.

Pay raises for public sector workers have been frozen or capped at 1 percent over the last four years. Average wages have gone down roughly 12 percent since 2008, according to a recent study by the Resolution Foundation.

“The 1 percent doesn’t even cover inflation,” said Josie Birch, a care worker and member of the Unison union. “We need to strike in order to stand up and be counted.”

“Two cooks in my school will lose their jobs, one is a man with four kids,” said Sheila Windsor, a teaching assistant. “First they cut their hours and then sacked them because the budget is going down.”

“I am here to protest ‘performance pay’ for teachers, it is a bad idea,” said Roz Morton, a teacher and member of the National Union of Teachers. “This will lead to divisions. We have been talking to parents about this issue in shopping areas.”

Pickets and rallies were held in boroughs throughout London. Several thousand marched to a rally in Trafalgar Square.

— Hugo Wils

 
 
Related articles:
Calif. port drivers’ fight for union gains support
5-day strike demands end to ‘contractor’ scam
Boston school bus drivers fight frame-up of unionist
Bosses, cops employ trumped-up charges in labor dispute
 
 
 
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