Replacement workers during a strike

[Johnnny]

Sudbury News - Steelworkers kicked out of legislature

Striking Steelworkers Local 6500 members were among those ejected from the gallery of the Ontario legislature Oct. 8 during a debate about proposed anti-scab legislation.
About 70 members of the union were in Toronto to attend a rally in support of the legislation, and were later invited to sit in the gallery to watch the vote on the private member's bill.
The bill, introduced by New Democrat Welland MPP Peter Kormos, was defeated in second reading that day.
“We had maybe 200 people listening to the debate, but after awhile they couldn't take it anymore, especially when one Liberal member was really, really ignorant in a comment,” said Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas. “They got thrown out by security.”
Gélinas said the bill would have banned any sort of replacement worker from taking strikers' jobs, including those who already work for the company in question.

In jurisdictions where anti-scab legislation exists, such as Quebec and British Columbia, strikes are significantly shorter because company owners have an incentive to go back to the bargaining table, she said.


Ontario had such legislation during the early 1990s when the NDP were in power, but the legislation was repealed in 1995 shortly after the Conservatives won the election, said Gélinas

Were do you stand on this topic?

I believe the government should have passed the bill and forced the company to go back to the bargaining table because this strike business is just too long.

you watch IF these replacements dont work out they will shuttle people from brazil to work in the mines here and the government will just turn a blind eye

 

[lone wolf]

Inco isn't your average greed vs greed belligerence. Inco is union-busting. Inco is getting ready to pull out of town and it will take Sudbury Basin mineral rights with it. I really believe if Conservative governments are going to keep selling us out to foreign companies, they had better preserve the timber and mineral rights.

Google Earth the whole mine camp to the west. Inco has dumped millions of tons of toxic waste over the years. When Inco/CVRD/Vale - or whatever name it hides under - pulls up and leaves, it wants to leave rich.

 

[Kakato]

The umwa went through a big strike here at the then kaiser mine many years ago and scabs were used.People were shot at,had their houses torched,were beaten on the busses which led to some of the first cc cams used in a labour dispute,the company finally succumbed and closed the doors putting thousands out of work.Most of the unionized workers went up the valley to work at the one non union mine here,the ones doing the threatening were pretty well blackballed.
Now they learned to get along,scabs are allways a last resort but there shouldnt be legislation telling me or anyone else they cant work for someone because a union says they cant and have a law backing them.

My stepdad was working in the giant mine when a union "brother" blew up some of these so called scabs.

After spending 22 years as a teamster and working with steelworkers,united mine workers and other unions I dont see much use for them anymore.
But theres a lot of highly paid peeps above the workers that dont want to see their gravey train go off the tracks.

I watched the OTPF buy up their union brothers mines here and glory hole them for a quick buck and then most got laid off when they shut them down and sold them for cheap.Theres no looking after the brothers and sisters anymore,it's all about the greed of a few.

 

[Johnnny]

thats scary man, sudbury has alot of ore to be mined for the next 100 yrs and if they pull out and keep the mineral rights to the basin when they leave they are starving the community from jobs. And you know what the government wont step in even if it got that far

 

[Kakato]

Inco isn't your average greed vs greed belligerence. Inco is union-busting. Inco is getting ready to pull out of town and it will take Sudbury Basin mineral rights with it. I really believe if Conservative governments are going to keep selling us out to foreign companies, they had better preserve the timber and mineral rights.

Google Earth the whole mine camp to the west. Inco has dumped millions of tons of toxic waste over the years. When Inco/CVRD/Vale - or whatever name it hides under - pulls up and leaves, it wants to leave rich.

The thing is it's American investors who are willing to gamble the money on our resources to explore and work them.They also have to pay reclamation bonds now so the accountability is there.

Any big mining company will have properties all over the world.Mineral exploration and exploitation went global a long time ago and Cananda's not a cheap place to explore with environmental issues being top priority on any site now.

 

[lone wolf]

The thing is it's American investors who are willing to gamble the money on our resources to explore and work them.They also have to pay reclamation bonds now so the accountability is there.

Any big mining company will have properties all over the world.Mineral exploration and exploitation went global a long time ago and Cananda's not a cheap place to explore with environmental issues being top priority on any site now.

Willing isn't the right word. Try able.

 

[Kakato]

Willing isn't the right word. Try able.

True,most camps I was at in the raw exploration stage were Canadian but working for shares,hoping for some good cores to lure in either a junior which was also usually Canadian and then Americans who have the cash to start a mine.
Most mine propertys change hands a half dozen times before a mine is built.

 

[Kakato]

When the international union of operating engineers ran the pipeline show in Alberta the Christian labour association of Canada(CLAC) came in and literally put the IUOE out of work by undercutting the contracts.CLAC was known as a rat or scab union and you dont want them moving in.

I have some horror storys through 3 years of dealing with them,they still owe me and 50 other guys 3 years of dues we paid.When the job shut down they claimed we never had a collective agreement with them and would return the dues,been a couple years now,still waiting.:roll:

 

[Niflmir]

On the note about investors, I think most Canadian companies go south to avoid our taxes. So it's a moot point really. Globalization means investors have no nationality these days.

As for scabs. Many contracts between unions and employers forbid non-unioned people from working. That is legally binding. Similarly, many of the better contracts state that the terms will hold even when the contract comes up for renegotiation.

Of course, some terms in some contracts are unconscionable and this might be one of them. But one way or another people still see scabs as contractually forbidden. Or in other words, "There ought'a be a law!"

 

[jambo101]

Here in Quebec scab labor is illegal,however "management" can can carry on working all phases of the operation whether they are qualified or not.,as some one who has been through a few strikes its hilarious to return to work to see how badly management has screwed everything up,usually all the machines are broken,forlifts stuck in walls,product all over the floor,and a lot of stressed out management people who were forced to work by their superiors

 

[lone wolf]

What good is a strike to the Union or they in whose pockets they live if the plant closes its doors?

 

[Kakato]

What good is a strike to the Union or they in whose pockets they live if the plant closes its doors?

None and theres about 10,000 guys in the mines here now that realize that.
I still remember president Deanna from the UMWA telling his members they would never shut the mine,after they did he couldnt even show his face in town.
Ive been through lots of lockouts,wobbles and seen how childish some disagreements can get.

One of the best was when management took our soap away for showers after work because you dont get on the bus black with coaldust at the end of the day.
They gave us no warning so we shut her down at lunchtime after being told if we didnt like it we could all go home.Of course your stuck there doing nothing untill the cross shift bus came back and it was empty as the boys honoured our wobble,most phoned in sick from the union hall,just kept passing the phone to each member.One of the things in our contract was to not participate in any illegal work stoppages.We all got wrote up level 1 and laughed about it later.

Most of the aggresive anti managment shop stewards were recruited into management eventually.

 

[Liberalman]

make them all esential workers and let the arbitrador decide who gets what

 

[YukonJack]

Unions are nothing but painful anachronisms and cancerous pustules.

 

[AnnaG]

There are a few unions worth the dues they get from their workers, but most, I agree, are nothing but nuisances and troublemakers.