MONTREAL — Some 130 workers at the Lavo plant here, members of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) voted by 97% March 26 to go out on strike the next day. The plant makes well-known cleaning products such as Comet and Arctic Power.
“We’ve had more than 65 bargaining sessions and 10 days of strike actions,” Sebastien Sylver, the local union president, said on the CSN website. “Last January we unanimously rejected what the employer called its ‘final’ offer and we are still arguing to conclude a contact that contains our legitimate demands.”
Wages are a key issue in the strike, like they are for nearby headquarters and warehouse workers, as well as for truck drivers at the Metro supermarket chain who have been on strike since March 30. “But there are other issues here, such as the contracting out of our jobs,” one Lavo worker told this Militant worker-correspondent April 23 when I joined their picket line.
Workers said that unionists from other CSN locals came by to show solidarity with them, including some from two Beton Provincial plants in Quebec, who joined their picket line April 9. They have been locked out since Dec. 5, 2024, after refusing to accept a four-year wage freeze. They wore orange T-shirts that proudly proclaim, “You won’t break us.”
Join the picket lines! They’re up at the Lavo plant on 11900 Boulevard Jean Baptiste, Monday to Friday from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.