—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Steelworkers join picket line to back New Jersey casino strikers

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Members of United Steelworkers District 10 attending our union conference here ended the session a little early July 19 for an act of solidarity.

We gathered around 300 strong and marched up the boardwalk to the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort to join UNITE HERE Local 54 on their picket line.

About 1,000 cooks, bartenders, housekeepers and other members of the union have been on strike since July 1, when contract negotiations broke down with casino owner Icahn Enterprises. The main issues are health care, which the company eliminated after declaring bankruptcy in 2014, and work rule provisions.

You could feel the energy rise as we approached and joined our sisters and brothers on the line. Many members of the Steelworkers returned to the picket when the conference adjourned each evening.

—  Vonie Long, USW Local 1165 president, Chester County, Pa.

Strikers in Montreal’s Old Port, senior homes demand $15/hour

MONTREAL — On July 16 some 200 members and supporters of Old Port Workers Union — Local 10333 of the Public Service Alliance of Canada — demonstrated in the streets of Old Montreal to gain support for their strike that began May 27. Their main demand is a minimum wage of 15 Canadian dollars ($11.34) an hour.

Almost half of the union’s 350 members at the historic tourist attraction earn less than CA$15.

Since negotiations began last February the bosses have come back three times with the same offer, union President Konrad Lamour said before the march.

Management has used the fact that Old Port is under federal jurisdiction to get around Quebec’s law against hiring strikebreakers, and has begun to employ nonunion workers in jobs such as parking lot attendants and security. Some of the port’s main attractions — a beach, science center, Imax theater and exhibition center — remain closed by the strike.

“I’m involved in the struggle because it’s an important cause,” Kevin Sorto, an electrical engineering student at McGill University, told the Militant. He was hired as a parking attendant, but the strike started before he began to work. That hasn’t stopped him from picketing five days a week.

At the rally, Serge Cadieux, general secretary of the Quebec Federation of Labor, talked about the fight of some 3,000 nurses, nursing assistants and other members of the Service Employees International Union in private residences for the elderly. Unionists at 32 residences went on strike June 21 to win a new contract and a CA$15 an hour minimum wage.

The union website reports that a big majority of workers obtained CA$15 an hour in the 13 proposed settlements concluded to date.

— Michel Prairie