TROIS RIVIERES, Quebec — When members of United Steelworkers Local 8396 showed up for work at Siemens Canada’s two factories across the street from each other here April 15, they learned the bosses had locked them out.
The 105 unionists at the German-owned company make electrical energy transformers. The have not had a wage increase in 29 months. Their last contract expired in December 2024. Despite 16 months of negotiations, Siemens and the USW had not even begun to discuss wages when the company imposed the lockout.
“Siemens prefers to close its doors rather than sit down and negotiate. A preventative lockout sends the message to workers that their rights end where the interests of the bosses begin. We don’t accept it,” USW representative Luc Laberge said in a press release posted on the union website. “It’s a cynical decision and our members feel it’s a slap in the face.”
That anger toward the company was palpable on the picket line. “We’re angry at management because they pushed us to work harder to get out more production so they could lock us out,” Yiani Comeau, who has worked in quality assurance for three years, told this Militant reporter on the picket line May 15.
“The lockout came as a surprise,” machine operator Pierre Charette said. “We only gave the union a mandate to call a strike after they locked us out. The last strike here was in 1986.”
After Quebec’s Ministry of Labour revealed that Siemens was using replacement workers, the union called for a hearing before the Administrative Labour Tribunal to compel the employer to stop doing so, as it’s a violation of Quebec’s Labour Code.
Picket lines are up 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Stop by and show your support at 3400 Bellefeuille St.