MONTREAL — More than 150 workers at the Kruger plant in the LaSalle neighborhood here, members of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), are on strike for the first time in 51 years.
They walked out Jan. 12, after a 36-hour strike in November and weeklong strike in December failed to win a satisfactory new contract. Their previous agreement expired last April.
“Ninety-two percent of workers rejected the employer’s last offer and 99% voted to go on strike,” Christian Vimet, local union treasurer, told the Militant.
Their main demands are a 20% wage increase over four years and a seniority bonus. Their current base wage after probation is 30 Canadian dollars an hour ($22). Strikers told the Militant their wages have not kept up with inflation.
“It’s amazing how many people honk their horns in support when they drive past the picket line. There are truck drivers, garbage haulers, ambulance drivers, school bus drivers,” said Vimet.
Solidarity has come from several other Kruger CSN locals, including workers at the Trois-Rivieres recycling plant and Montreal Place Turcot containerboard plant, as well as from strikers at the Beton Provincial concrete plant nearby. Ten unionists from the Rolls-Royce engine plant, who fought a six-month strike in 2022, joined the picket line.
The strikers also demonstrated in front of the Kruger plant in Crabtree, winning support from colleagues there.
“The billionaire boss, Joseph Kruger II, should be able to pay his employees well,” CSN President Caroline Senneville told the media. Several strikers pointed out that Kruger has received hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies from the Quebec government over the past 10 years.
Workers at the Brampton and Place Turcot plants will soon be in negotiations, and strikers here say Kruger is seeking to set an example. They’ve eliminated the weekend shift (26 hours work with 41.5 hours pay), and threatened to cut the weekly night shift.
Bring solidarity to the picket line at 7474 Cordner St., LaSalle! Union members picket 24 hours a day.