WINDSOR, Ont. — Union workers at Integram Seating have voted 97.3 per cent in favour of strike action if necessary.
CAW Local 444 represents 675 members at Integram Seating, a supplier to the minivan plant. Workers held a strike authorization vote on Sunday at the Fogolar Furlan club.
A major walkout is planned next week by more than 12-hundred auto parts workers in London and more than 20-thousand others across Ontario
The event is being organized by the CAW as a way to show the union won’t agree to any more cuts.
Thousands of Belleville residents could be left stranded if 24 city bus drivers opt to walk off the job in the coming days.
The drivers signaled their intentions to potentially call a strike in a release sent to the media on Sunday by CAW Local 1839 chairperson, Susan Neal.
In the the release, Neal states that the “transit drivers have voted 100 per cent in favour of a strike.” Transit users, however, are being assured that bus service will not halt before the busy election period, Neal added.
Beaten up by concessions and heavy job losses during the recession, the union representing thousands of workers in the struggling auto parts sector is warning of looming labour unrest including plant disruptions if employer demands for cuts don’t stop.
The Canadian Auto Workers says it is mobilizing about 20,000 members in the sector to resist further proposals for bargaining concessions by employers, even against companies that threaten closure while automakers squeeze them.
“The continuing attack on auto parts workers has gone on for too long despite signs of recovery in the industry,” says CAW national president Ken Lewenza in a pamphlet that members will start receiving next week.
“Under the threat of closure or moving work to other plants, employers are coming to our members with outrageous demands and increasingly trying to pit worker against worker and plant against plant.”
“Corporate decision makers must understand that we will fight for our jobs and they must stop their demands for more and more takeaways.”
In trying to strike a more militant tone, the union says it will start an initiative with workplace rallies at about 100 companies on Wednesday Oct. 27.
Under the slogan “enough is enough,” workers will meet during their lunch hours that day to receive information and hold demonstrations to bolster membership support and raise public awareness.
But Jerry Dias, an assistant to Lewenza who is responsible for the union’s auto parts division, stressed on Wednesday that the CAW will resort to more aggressive tactics if employers and the automakers press for pay and benefit cuts.
Featuring a clenched fist on the cover, the 12-page pamphlet, obtained by The Star, reveals the union will use its collective national muscle to help locals fight employer demands by using “every available option includes demonstrations, occupations, plant shutdowns and refusing to handle “hot” cargo.” That latter tactic involves workers not handling production from a plant on strike or in a lockout.
The CAW will resume negotiations with the University of Windsor tomorrow, Tuesday October 12, after receiving an overwhelming vote of support from membership to go on strike if necessary – a vote of 96 per cent over all.
This set of negotiations is also the first time where all units are at the bargaining table together and face the same strike deadline, of October 21 at 12:01 a.m.
The CAW represents 400 members in the campus police and parking (CAW Local 195), the operating engineers (CAW Local 2458), and the full and part-time office and clerical workers (CAW Local 2458).
The breakdown of the strike vote is as follows:
Campus Police & Parking – 95 per cent
Operating Engineers – 100 per cent
Full Time Office & Clerical – 90 per cent
Part Time Office & Clerical – 96 per cent
Outstanding issues include pensions and job security as well as wages and benefits.
CAW members in Brantford and the surrounding area will be lending support to the picket lines at Engineered Coated Products on Thursday, September 16, as part of the 72 hour picket organized by the Brantford and District Labour Council, the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Brantford Strike Action Coalition.
The CAW is calling for an end to the use of scab labour which is only having the impact of prolonging the strike and dragging down working conditions for everyone, said CAW Kitchener Area Director Bill Gibson.
If Ontario goes ahead with a proposed wage freeze for public sector workers, there could be huge consequences.
The head of the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) warns that strikes are likely if Premier Dalton McGuinty sticks to his plan, which would maintain wages at their current rate for two years.
But CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn says it’s too early to tell if a job action is imminent.
Approximately one million workers would be affected.
The CAW is calling for the Ontario government to intervene in the more than year-long stand-off between the union and heavy truck manufacturer Navistar Corporation, after talks today failed to make any progress.
The CAW called the meeting with Navistar in an attempt to resolve the temporary closure of the plant and explore ways to maximize production at the facility, but the discussions failed to produce any resolutions.
The company did not provide any plans for the future of the facility but has pledged to provide a detailed and formal response within two weeks.
“Navistar Corporation has to understand that to manage change in a workplace it must be done in conjunction with the workers. Those who are affected by these changes must be treated with respect and dignity,” said CAW President Ken Lewenza, following the meeting.
“It is unconscionable that this corporation is allowed to send the historic production, supported by Ontario and Canadian tax dollars, to a foreign country like Mexico. The meeting today and all the meetings to this point have been extremely frustrating and now we will wait for the corporation’s response within the next two weeks.”
“This situation cannot be resolved through collective bargaining and requires significant intervention by the government.”
Navistar temporarily closed the facility in June 2009, laying off its entire workforce after a breakdown in negotiations between the two sides.
CAW members will be demonstrating outside long term care provider Extendicare’s head office tomorrow, just north of Toronto, protesting the company’s refusal to negotiate a fair settlement.
The company broke off talks with the union on April 26 and workers have been without a contract since March 31. The demonstration is just one in a series of pickets organized by the union since talks ground to a halt.
“Our members are frustrated that this multi-million dollar company, a for-profit long term care home provider, is now crying poor when it comes time to compensate its staff,” said CAW President Ken Lewenza.
The first face-to-face meeting in more than a year between former Navistar Chatham workers and company executives is on tap for Thursday.
The session, involving officials of CAW Local 127 – which represents factory workers and Local 35 – representing office workers – will be held in Windsor.
A plan tabled last year by the company to greatly downsize operations at the Richmond Street truck plant was flatly rejected by the CAW.
Since the old contract expired at the end of June last year the plant has sat idled. In its heyday in the late 1990s it employed more than 2,200 workers.
CAW representatives are hopeful tomorrow’s meeting will shed new light on the company’s plans for the Chatham facility.
Company spokesman Roy Wiley has said repeatedly the company is willing to talk provided the talks are productive.
