Toronto – The United Steelworkers (USW) and the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Related Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSSRM) – known as Los Mineros – announced a joint declaration to create a cross-border commission to explore unification of  a potential union representing one-million industrial workers in Mexico, Canada, U.S. and the Caribbean.

In signing the declaration over the weekend, USW President Leo W. Gerard and Napoleon Gomez, general secretary for Los Mineros, jointly renewed the two unions “common commitment to democracy, equality, and solidarity for working men and women throughout North America and throughout the world.”

Citing a global strategic alliance signed in 2005, Gerard and Gomez said the declaration establishes a joint commission of five members from each of the two unions’ executive boards to propose “immediate measures to increase strategic cooperation between our organizations as well as the steps required to form a unified organization.”

The USW represents 850,000 workers in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, while Los Mineros represents about 180,000 in Mexico.

Both the USW and Los Mineros members have been under assault in lengthy mining strikes. The USW is in the 11th month of a strike in Canada against Vale Inco – a Brazilian mining giant with 3,500 nickel miners in Sudbury; and 1,100 Los Mineros copper miners are nearing three years on strike against Grupo Mexico in a small desert mining town called Cananea in northern Mexico.

The two unions condemned the “cowardly and brutal attack by Mexican federal police on the striking mineworkers and their families at Cananea, and on the family members of mineworkers at Pasta de Conchos.”

On Jun. 6, an estimated 2,000 federal and state police garbed in riot gear – backed by armed helicopters, armored personnel carriers and tear gas – forcefully evicted the striking miners while beating and injuring at least three Los Mineros leaders.

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KITCHENER, ON – CAW members at Lanark Place/Lanark Heights retirement home and long term care facility will demonstrate on Tuesday, June 22 for a fair contract. Negotiations between CAW Local 302 and Lanark have stalled, with the company refusing to drop demands for wage freezes and other concessions.

Similar demonstrations have already taken place across the province in response to a breakdown in negotiations with Extendicare and Revera – both long term care home providers.

“This employer is trying to hide behind Bill 16, the Public Sector Compensation Restraint Act, and refuses to bargain a fair wage for this group of front line health care workers,” saidBill Gibson, CAW Kitchener-area Director.

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The option of a strike against VIA Rail Canada has been approved by more than 94% of Canadian Auto Workers members working for the railroad, CAW says. CAW represents more than 2,000 workers at VIA in on-train and clerical services, including ticket vendors and maintenance.

Members in Local 100 and National Council 4000 have voted to support the VIA Master Bargaining Committee as the committee ponders a strike deadline of 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Time) Sunday, June 27. CAW says negotiations with VIA Rail management continue, with the next meeting scheduled for June 21 in Montreal, and running until the near-midnight deadline June 27, unless an agreement is reached.

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TORONTO – CAW members who work at VIA Rail have voted more than 94 per cent in favour of strike action, if needed.

CAW members in Local 100 and National Council 4000 voted in a recent series of meetings across the country to support the VIA Master Bargaining Committee as they move towards a strike deadline of June 27 – at 11:59 p.m.

Further negotiations are scheduled for Monday, June 21 in Montreal and will continue until the deadline of Sunday, June 27th at midnight.

“The bargaining committee remains determined to reach a settlement without a dispute but the corporation’s concession demands must be stopped,” said CAW President Ken Lewenza.

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‘These workers do an incredible job under unbelievably difficult circumstances each and every day, but they have reached a breaking point.’ – Peter Olfert.

Winnipeg (11 June 2010) – Hundreds of Manitoba government employees took to the streets of Winnipeg this week to protest the government’s inaction in dealing with overcrowding at provincial jails, a backlog in dealing with accused offenders on remand and growing caseloads for workers dealing with individuals on probation.

Organizers of the rally, including the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union (MGEU/NUPGE), say these issues are getting worse, not better, and are having a ripple effect on those working with victims of crime and their families, with at-risk youth, with those involved in trying to manage the judicial system and with those who provide protective services to children.

“These workers do an incredible job under unbelievably difficult circumstances each and every day, but they have reached a breaking point,” says Peter Olfert, MGEU President. “This is no time for temporary fixes and short-term solutions, which has been the government’s solution to the challenges in the justice system. Things have gotten to the point where many of our people are seriously considering exercising their right, under Manitoba law, to refuse unsafe work or are leaving their professions because of stress and workload issues.”

Olfert says numerous dangerous incidents involving gang members incarcerated at Manitoba jails underline the need for substantive changes, including serious uprisings at correctional centres in Brandon, The Pas, Milner Ridge, Headingley, the Remand Centre in Winnipeg, the Manitoba Youth Centre and Agassiz Youth Centre.

“These are examples of the new reality at Manitoba jails, where the onerous task of separating and segregating gang members is now a huge part of the job,” Olfert says.

“It’s a Rubick’s Cube when it comes to separating and segregating gang members and finding space to do this in already outrageously jammed facilities,” he adds. “The added burden is simply unmanageable, and the government’s solution to date has been to jam more people in and cut back on educational and other programs that are meant to rehabilitate individuals so recidivism rates decrease.”

Highest rate in Canada

Olfert says Manitoba has the highest recidivism rate in the country.

“If government doesn’t begin addressing this kind of thing right now, more and more people are going to be affected in our communities through increases in the crime rate, added stresses on families and a heavier reliance on government funded social programs,” he argues.

Employees of the provincial justice department have been lobbying the Province for years to get serious about clearing a huge backlog of inmates on remand. Approximately 70% of inmates at provincial jails now are awaiting trial. Some will have to wait up to 1 1/2 years to have their day in court.

Such inmates are harder to manage, says Pat Gilbertson, MGEU’s corrections component director.

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A strike by more than 400 Casino Regina employees enters its second day today.

Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) walked off the gaming floor at 6 p.m. Thursday after failing in attempts to reach a new contract with their employer, the Crown-owned Saskatchewan Gaming Corp.

About 425 employees were joined on the picket line by 40-some members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). The union, which represents about 300 food and beverage service employees at the casino, has decided to honour PSAC’s decision to strike.

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Workers at the Novotel Hotel in downtown Toronto could strike during the G20 summit if talks break down, leaders of Unite Here Local 75, which represents over 7,000 hotel workers, said at a news conference yesterday.

Most hotel contracts in the Toronto area expired in February 2010. The only hotel that could affect the G20 summit is the Hotel Novotel Toronto Centre on The Esplanade; union president Paul Clifford said the union will be in a legal strike position on June 24.

“We have made the decision and put Novotel Toronto Centre into a legal strike lockout position,” Mr. Clifford said. “Negotiations across the city are on an individual hotel by hotel basis. We would prefer to be able to negotiate with the entire industry. They haven’t done that. We have collectively chosen to focus our attention on the Novotel Hotel prior to the G20. The rest of the hotels will be working, but members from other hotels will be joining the actions at Novotel.”

Novotel, which employs about 100 workers, is situated outside the G20 security zone; however, the French trade delegation and media personnel are booked there during the summit. Should a strike take place, Mr. Clifford said it will “involve picket lines, rallies, noise, significant delays for guests and no services in the hotel.”

Contract negotiations at 34 other hotels across the GTA are in various stages, he said.

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MONTREAL – If you were looking forward to a summer outing to Montreal’s Biodome or Insectarium over the next few months, you might want to make alternate plans.

The union representing more than 5,500 of the city’s blue-collar workers announced late Friday afternoon that the employees will begin targeted strike action on June 16 that will shut down both popular attractions indefinitely.

The workers, represented by Local 301 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, have been without a contract since Aug. 31, 2007, and union representive Marc Ranger says they simply got tired of waiting.

“We advised (the city) that we would re-evaluate the progress of negotiations at the end of May and decide what we would do,” he said. “Some progress was made, but at the same time, we were looking for a global deal, not just an agreement on a few specific issues.”

The targeted strike will involve two separate componants, explained city of Montreal spokesperson Gonzalo Nunez. The first affects only overtime hours. Each day, one of the city’s 19 boroughs will be subject to a ban on all overtime.

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TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – There appeared to be hope on the picket lines this week that negotiations that restarted on Friday between Brazil’s Vale and the union representing its Sudbury workers would be successful in getting miners back to the rockface.

One striker at the Copper Cliff refinery picket line told Mining Weekly Online that though there was a renewed optimism that this round of negotiations might see a deal being reached between the world’s second-biggest mining company and the United Steelworkers Local 6500 union (USW).

“But I’m not taking anything for granted at this stage,” said the mine development coordinator, who did not want to be named for fear of being targeted by Vale.

Striking Vale drilling coordinator Alan Crowther said that there was a new expectation that the two sides would see eye to eye now. “I certainly am hopeful. There are rumours that Vale is preparing for workers to start returning.”

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Negotiations between the Coast Inn of the West and union representatives have begun to see if there is any possibility of future work for recently laid-off employees.

The hotel’s restaurant employees were informed May 20 that their last day of work would be May 22, with the recession and economic situation cited as the reason for the layoffs.

Wayne Roberts, Local 40 Unite Here representative for the Terrace area, was in town last week to speak with hotel management and the 18 laid-off unionized restaurant employees.

“There’ll be some ongoing discussions at this point in hopes that we’ll achieve what we want to achieve on behalf of our folks,” he said of last week’s talks.

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