Nearly three years after going on strike, workers at the Engineered Coated Products manufacturing plant in Brantford remain on the picket line.

Approximately 80 workers walked off the job on August 23, 2008 after the company demanded big wage cuts. At the time workers were earning about $21 per hour, and the average worker had been with the company for about 20 years.

Earl Smith, the local chair of United Steelworkers says, “The company wanted 25 per cent across the board, they wanted to do away with our pensions, they wanted a continental shift.”

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Striking workers have marked their third Christmas on the picket line outside the gates of Engineered Coated Products.

“The last place I wanted to spend Christmas Eve was in this rat-trap trailer,” Steve Hunt, an ECP employee for 35 years, said Thursday.

“But we wanted to give some of the younger guys time with their families during the holidays.”

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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.

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BRANTFORD, Ont. — Union members from across the province will join a picket line in Brantford, Ont., today to press for the reinstatement of legislation banning replacement workers.

Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan says the massive three-day event will take place at Engineered Coated Products.

He says the labour movement is disgusted by the situation at ECP, where a strike is entering its third year.

Ryan says ECP has managed to keep the workers out on strike by busing in non-union workers.

The company demanded a 25 per cent rollback in wages and benefits as well as other concessions from its workers.

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Organized labour needs to raise the temperature at the Engineered Coated Products picket line and prevent scabs from crossing the line, says the president of the Ontario Federation of Labour.

“After two years it s pretty clear the company isn t going to come back to the bargaining table”, Sid Ryan said Monday. “Why would they when they can continue to bring scabs across the picket line day in and day out.”

“We need to raise the temperature there and stop scabs from crossing the line. ”

He made the comments at a labour summit held at the Brantford and District Labour Centre on Monday. The summit brought in union leaders and labour activities from across Ontario and was held in support of the striking workers of Engineered Coated Products (ECP) in Brantford.

The workers marked their second anniversary on the picket line on Monday.

Speaking during formal open session and in a later interview, Ryan said anti-scab legislation would bring balance to the bargaining process.

If there s a labour dispute, both sides should suffer. That s what brings them back to the table to negotiate an agreement, Ryan said. But as soon as the scales are tipped in favour of one side or the other, the process breaks down and you end up with prolonged disputes.

The province had anti-scab legislation under the NDP government of Bob Rae but the legislation was scrapped under the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris.

Lobbying efforts to bring such legislation back since the liberals took over under Premier Dalton McGuinty have not met with any success.

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614 days.

On a makeshift wooden sign affixed to a post, striking workers at Engineered Coated Products keep a tally of the number of days they’ve been off the job.

For 20 months, the workers, initially about 80 and now an estimated 60, have been camped outside the Elgin Street company as busloads of replacement workers are brought in daily to keep the packaging plant operational.

There has been no negotiation between the workers, represented by the United Steelworkers union, and the company since last July when the two sides met with a government conciliator.

And it seems unlikely they will be talking any time soon.

“It takes a toll,” admitted Rick Willson, a 33-year employee at ECP. “There’s nobody here to help.”

The strike began on Aug. 23, 2008 when Saul Marques, secretary- treasurer for United Steelworkers, Local 1-500, said the company demanded workers take a 25% wage cut, along with a cut in benefits and changes to their pension plan. The company, said Marques, also wanted to implement “continental” 12-hour shifts that would have resulted in job losses.

The workers, who earn between $17 and $23 an hour, had offered to take a 12% pay cut and other concessions in a three-year deal.

“The company wants us to agree to a 25% wage decrease or they won’t even talk,” said Marques. “It’s blackmail. Collective bargaining is supposed to be an exchange of facts. They’ve never provided us with any information.

“It’s been long enough. It’s time for the company to tell us their intent.”

ECP is part of the Intertape Polymer Group, which operates 10 plants in North America. The company bought the Brantford plant several years ago.

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