|
||
| Today's Front Page | Current Listing | Archive | Search | Contact People's Voice |
MINE MILL-CAW STRIKES FALCONBRIDGE!
by Liz Rowley
| |||||||||
SUDBURY - Twelve hundred miners and smelter workers are on strike against Falconbridge Noranda. They haven't had a pay increase in nine years, but the main issue is the continued existence of their union.
For the first time, Falconbridge is operating through a strike, with scabs pulled from management, brought into work sites by bus, train, trucks and helicopters. "It's a signal of what the future's going to be like, with the kind of politics we have in the province," says Rolly Gautier, Mine Mill-CAW Local 598 President.
The workers hit the bricks August 1, after the company made it clear there would no agreement without major concessions. Under new joint ownership with the vicious transnational Noranda, Falconbridge is restructuring and wants "flexibility" in the workplace, to increase productivity and profits.
A key concession was that the 40-strong stewards' body be cut in half, leaving 20 stewards to cover three shifts in seven work sites, seven days a week. The company is also demanding that full-time union staff be cut in half.
Another demand is to drop job bumping and bidding rights, effectively ending seniority. Key health and safety sections are to be eliminated, and stewards are to be kept out of the grievance procedure until step 3, virtually removing the union from the grievance process.
One of the early shots at Mine-Mill workers and their union came across the bargaining table from a Falconbridge Noranda Vice President, who referred to workers as "bottom-feeders and scum-suckers."
"We are not bottom-feeders and scum-suckers. We are human beings, with families, who deserve and have a right to respect and dignity," said Rolly Gautier to a mass picket and rally Oct. 14 outside the smelter. The event was jointly organized by the union and the Sudbury Coalition for Social Justice.
With the strike costing the company $1.5 million a day, it's clear that the real issue is union-busting. Gautier also thinks the company may be trying to test the CAW, which Mine-Mill is now part of.
It's an old story in Sudbury, with a new twist by a new transnational. The stakes are high. Since what happens here may be repeated in mines and smelters across Canada, local activists say this strike must not be lost.
Molly Hancock, spokesperson for the Sudbury Social Justice Coalition, told strikers that the community fully supports them.
"Sudbury is a mining union town," she said earlier in an interview. "This strike and the way it's being conducted by the company, is making an impression on the community about how working people are viewed by this particular company. We've never seen anything like it before... It seems to us that it's the beginning of this corporate globalization movement in the mining industry."
Mass support has come from the labour movement and the community, including from the USWA and miners at INCO, construction workers, teachers and the federations, and other unions in the public and private sectors. Shelly Martel, NDP MPP for Sudbury expressed her support for the strike. The Charlie McClure Club of the Communist Party, which helped build the rally, gave its full support.
Gautier said one of the keys to victory was to make sure the young people in the union know what the struggle is about. Judging by the young people on the picket line, Gautier has delivered the goods.
Two young strikers and their wives interviewed by People's Voice at the rally said the company has seriously underestimated the workers. "They think we're stupid. But you know, many of us have university and college degrees. We may have to read the contract two or three times, but we can read what they mean."
When the company sent personal letters home to all the strikers - twice, including its final offer - Rob Gravelle and Darren Nixon pulled out calculators and worked it out for themselves. The offer was "bullshit," worse than they had thought.
Now it's time to shut the mine down, say many of the strikers. "Yeah, we're going to try," said one. "I don't know how long we have to wait to get the okay to shut down Falconbridge, but it's coming. We'll have to do it."
The company is claiming high levels of production, up to 50%, but Gravelle and Nixon say it isn't more than 20%. "They're running at 50%, but they're throwing away about 30% because the quality is garbage. They're running empty trucks through the picket lines. You can tell by the tires, they're running them back and forth empty.
"They tape everything we say. They videotape us all the time. They listen in on our cell-phone conversations. These guys are there for intimidation purposes. They've forked out a million dollars just on security. They use a firm called Accufax from Hamilton, they're union-busters."
Mining unions in Norway have declared Falconbridge Noranda hot, and will stop the refining of Falconbridge ore by the end of October. The impact will help bring production to a stop in Sudbury too, say the strikers.
"International solidarity - that's what we need to beat globalization" said Nixon.
The union will soon hold another membership meeting. Pressure to stop the scabs is building, and support for the strike is growing across the North.
"We're not going to let this company rule us. We going to stick to our guns. We're the ones who live here," said Gravelle and Nixon.
| Editor: | Kimball
Cariou |