http://themilitant.com/2016/8038/803832.html
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Vol. 80/No. 38 October 10, 2016
—ON THE PICKET LINE—
Maggie Trowe, Editor
Militant/Anne Howie
Bus drivers in London, members of Unite union, organize 24-hour strike
against Tower Transit. Issues include schedule changes that cut pay and
abusive comments by company chairman.
Help the Militant cover labor struggles around the world!
This column gives a voice to those engaged in battle and building
solidarity today — including workers locked out by Honeywell, United Gas
Workers Union members fighting concession demands by Dominion Gas, and
construction workers demanding safe conditions. I invite those involved
in workers’ battles to contact me at 306 W. 37th St., 13th Floor, New
York, NY 10018; or (212) 244-4899; or themilitant@xxxxxxx. We’ll work
together to ensure your story is told.
— Maggie Trowe
Quebec Steelworkers strike over attacks on new hires, pension cuts
GRENVILLE-SUR-LA-ROUGE, Quebec — Since voting to strike by 99 percent
June 15, 92 members of United Steelworkers Local 6213 have picketed
round-the-clock at the Resco plant here, which produces refractory
bricks for steel and aluminum mills.
Press technician Julie Labelle, wearing a “femme d’acier” (woman of
steel) T-shirt, told the Militant Sept. 18 the company is out to weaken
the union by doubling the probation period to 90 days. “With layoffs
every two months, new workers won’t ever get into the union,” Labelle
said. Even with 13 years’ seniority, she works only seven to eight
months a year. And the company wants to double the period before new
workers receive full salary, she said.
Resco bosses also want to halve the pension benefits of existing workers
and eliminate a defined benefit pension for new workers, replacing it
with a fund dependent on how much the employer contributes.
Strikers said Steelworkers from Lafarge Cement in Saint-Constant, 80
miles away, visited the picket line. Those unionists waged a successful
three-month strike against a similar attack on their pensions. USW
members from ArcelorMittal in Montreal stopped by too. Their local has
pledged $1 per week per member — $550 a week — for the duration of the
strike.
Union employees of Resco Products in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, whose
contract expired in March, face similar concession demands in their
negotiations.
On Sept. 19 the Resco workers in Quebec voted to accept a new contract.
— Beverly Bernardo
London bus drivers organize protest strikes at Tower Transit
LONDON — Over 1,000 bus drivers, engineers and controllers, members of
the Unite union, carried out three 24-hour strikes against Tower Transit
beginning Aug. 26.
“The main thing is respect,” Ahmed Saleh, a union steward at the
Westbourne Park depot, told the Militant Sept. 17. Tower Transit
Chairman Neil Smith angered workers when he said during an interview in
Singapore last year, “The problem in London is a very large immigrant
workforce that you have to train to drive the bus,” in contrast to the
“highly educated workforce of people with high aspirations” in
Singapore. During a verbal confrontation with union convener Abdul
Hanafi Aug. 26, Smith called strikers “bastards.”
The strikes were called over schedule changes that left drivers with
less income, short-changing on overtime pay, and refusal to negotiate
collectively at the company’s three depots.
Saleh said the company is cutting 60-minute lunch breaks to the
contractual minimum of 40 minutes. “And the time to stretch your legs at
the end of a route has been reduced from 12 to 15 minutes to three to
four.”
A strike scheduled for Sept. 19 was called off when the company agreed
to negotiations with all three depots.
“The strikes were growing more solid,” Saleh told the Militant. “When
Smith called us ‘bastards,’ it made us more determined.”
— Ögmundur Jónsson
Related articles:
Trial set for unionists framed up in Quebec rail disaster
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