|
November 1, 2018
BC Forestry Workers Step Up Fight for
the Dignity of Labour
Firm Opposition to Anti-Labour
Concessions in Northern
and Southern Interior
PDF
Workers at CANFOR sawmill in Price George picket during one-day strike,
October 25, 2018.
BC
Forestry
Workers
Step
Up
Fight
for
the Dignity of Labour
• Firm Opposition to Anti-Labour Concessions in
Northern and Southern Interior
Lockout at
Bécancour Aluminum Smelter
• Aluminum Workers Fight for Their Dignity and
Rights
Quebec Liquor Board
Workers' Fight for Modern Working Conditions
• Unannounced Strike Against Unjust
Disciplinary Measures and for
Meaningful Negotiations
Rotating Strikes at
Post Office
• Postal Workers Ready to Strike When Called
For Your Information
• Data on Nova Scotia's Economy and Workforce
BC Forestry Workers Step Up Fight for the
Dignity of Labour
Firm Opposition to Anti-Labour Concessions in Northern
and Southern Interior
Workers on picket line at Canfor sawmill and chip plant in Prince
George, October 25,
2018.
BC forestry workers are stepping up their fight against
anti-labour concessions and for their dignity and rights.
On October 25, workers at Canfor's Prince George
sawmill and chip plant in Northern BC held a one-day strike. This
action is part of the rotating strikes that USW Local 1-2017 began
on October 17 with a picket line at Tolko's Lakeview Lumber in
Williams Lake. The aim of the rotating strikes is to force sawmill
owners
represented by the Council on Northern Interior Forest Employment
Relations (CONIFER) to withdraw their demands for anti-labour
concessions. As part of the workers' job action, all CONIFER operations
are under an overtime ban. Concessions that employers are demanding
include a new hire rate starting at 85 per cent of job rate, the
doubling of the probation period for new employees from 30
to 60 days, and the shifting of the cost of benefits to workers.
Workers point out that Canfor announced a profit
of $125.3 million for the third quarter, raising the year-to-date
total to $407.3 million. West Fraser, another company which is
represented by CONIFER, posted profits of $238 million for the
third quarter, pushing its year-to-date total to $781 million.
Although both
figures are down from the previous quarter, they are part of an upswing
in profits that has been the case in forestry in BC for a number of
years now. Forestry monopolies exercise blackmail against forestry
workers and communities in order to extort concessions, using the ups
and downs of the industry as a pretext, in this case with the dictate
that
they need anti-labour concessions in order to face the "long-term
realities of a cyclical industry." Workers reject these self-serving
arguments and demand working conditions and wages that are commensurate
with the work they do. These are claims on the social wealth they
produce, which cannot be subordinated to the drive for narrow private
profit of the forestry monopolies and the wrecking they cause to the
industry.
Forestry workers from Northern British Columbia are
planning further rotating strikes which they do not announce in advance
so that they are as effective as possible. "We are not releasing
information," said Brian O'Rourke, President of USW Local 1-2017.
"If we did, in all reality the employer has injunctions waiting for us
at the gate
when we show up. So we are telling our members, if you come to work and
there's a picket line, join in and participate and show your solidarity
and we'll go from there."
|
Update on concessions demanded by the IFLRA in southern interior. Click
to enlarge.
|
There are no talks taking place at this time between
USW Local 1-2017 and CONIFER.
In the Southern Interior, forestry workers held votes
over a 10 day period resulting in a strike mandate for the USW
Locals that represent them: USW Local 1-405 (Cranbrook),
USW 1-423 (Kelowna) and USW1-417 (Kamloops). On Friday,
October 27, the USW Locals reported that the members voted 98
per
cent in favour of the strike. The bargaining committee returned to
Kelowna on Tuesday, October 30, in an effort to negotiate a
contract with the Interior Forest Labour Relations Association (IFLRA)
-- Southern Employer, according to a bulletin released by
Local 1-405.
Roughly 800 members are employed in those
operations across the East and West Kootenays, and 3,500 across
the southern interior of the province.
USW locals are also facing a concession list from the
IFLRA that includes changes to health and welfare benefits, the
extension of the probationary period and more.
Both the southern Interior and Northern BC agreements
expired on June 30.
Lockout at Bécancour Aluminum
Smelter
Aluminum Workers Fight for Their Dignity and Rights
Announcement for rally in support of ABI workers, at 11:30 am on
November 28, 2018,
outside
Hydro Quebec offices in Montreal. Click to enlarge.
The Alcoa/Rio Tinto cartel has locked out 1,030
aluminum workers at the Bécancour Aluminum Smelter (ABI) since
January. The global oligarchs have unleashed their supranational
strength against the workers to extract extensive concessions that will
damage not only the individual workers involved but also the economy,
the Bécancour
community, Quebec and Canada.
The workers organized into United Steelworkers
Local 9700 confront a global power that controls much of the
aluminum and alumina production worldwide. The oligarchs are using this
power over the productive forces and social wealth to force workers to
submit to their dictate and in consequence seize even greater private
profits
from the value workers produce.
In this struggle, the aluminum workers are receiving
great assistance from fellow workers throughout Quebec and Canada but
nothing from governments. In fact the Quebec government has directly
assisted the Alcoa/Rio Tinto oligarchs by allowing them to renege on
their Hydro-Québec contract to pay the state company a monthly
agreed
amount. The total the anti-social cartel has saved from the government
orchestrated manoeuvre now surpasses $175
million since the
lockout began. Growing numbers of working people are denouncing the
Quebec government for this treacherous anti-social capitulation to the
oligarchs and demand that it cease immediately and do its
duty to the people and force the aluminum oligarchs to abide by the
hydro contract and in addition pay back all that they have so far
refused to pay.
Delegates at USW District 3, Western Canada, convention send message of
solidarity to
locked-out ABI workers, October 30, 2018.
The aluminum workers also face the international
intrigue of the big powers especially U.S. imperialism that has
enacted 10 per cent tariffs on aluminum imports. This has
increased the market price of aluminum dramatically in the U.S. and
worldwide, allowing the Alcoa oligarchs to restart idled aluminum
production facilities that had
been unproductive compared with their Quebec smelters.
Adding to the global intrigue is the doubling of the
market price of alumina since 2016. To make one ton of aluminum
requires two tons of alumina. Alcoa specifically is benefitting from
these price rises as its workers also produce alumina. Alcoa's global
profits from refining alumina now account for 70 per cent of its
aluminum
business according to the Financial Post. While profiting
already from the 10 per cent U.S. tariffs, Alcoa has cynically
said it opposes them and has applied to the U.S. for exemptions on
imports from one of the three smelters in Quebec that it operates, but
not Bécancour. While Rio Tinto owns 30 per cent of the
Bécancour
smelter, Alcoa with its 70 per cent control is the operator.
The Alcoa/Rio Tinto dictators want to fatten their
coffers even more and expand their global empire with these attacks on
the Bécancour workers. If successful, the concessions it seeks
from them will undoubtedly be sought from other aluminum workers in
Quebec and BC.
Within the battle, the oligarchs have engaged in a
social media campaign to demoralize the locked out
workers and force them to give in to the concessions but the
Bécancour workers are standing firm. The workers denounce the
rants in Facebook and elsewhere that call on them to drop to their
knees and accept a minimum wage
and no pension if that is what it takes for the oligarchs to allow them
to work.
The Bécancour workers denounce the slurs and are
maintaining their 24-hour-a-day picket line and mobile pickets
wherever and whenever company managers show their faces. They have
called upon the Québec and Canadian working class to go all out
in their support for their just cause, as the struggle of one section
of the class is a
crucial part of the struggle of all. They refuse to have their and
their community's dignity besmirched and their standard of living and
working conditions dragged into the mud. Within this struggle for their
rights, a special target is the Quebec government, which has pointedly
sided with the global oligarchs' private interests in opposition
to the
interests of its own working people and the national and public
interest.
All Out to Support the Bécancour
Aluminum Workers!
Their Struggle Is
the Struggle of the Entire Working People for Dignity and Rights!
Quebec Liquor Board Workers' Fight for
Modern Working Conditions
Unannounced Strike Against Unjust Disciplinary Measures
and for Meaningful Negotiations
During the afternoon of October 26, the 5,500
or so members of the Syndicat des employé(e)s de magasins et de
bureaux de la SAQ staged a half-day strike. The unannounced strike is
part of the fight that SAQ workers have been waging since
January 2017 to oppose precarious working conditions and demand
wages corresponding to a modern standard. Their collective agreement
expired January 2017 and no significant headway has been made
at the bargaining table.
The strike action was staged in response to
disciplinary measures undertaken by the SAQ against union members'
tactics in various outlets to draw attention to their just
demands. For example, some of them had donned Halloween costumes
denouncing the holding of "ghost" negotiations instead of genuine
discussions based on their
demands. The union decided that enough was enough and that rather than
fighting the penalties imposed on individual members, in a show of
solidarity all SAQ workers in all of Quebec's outlets would walk out.
The union is demanding that management engage in serious
negotiations so that a collective agreement acceptable to its
members can be signed.
Close to 70 per cent of SAQ workers are employed
on a
part-time or casual basis, often working for only a few hours every
week, while being on call almost every day. This causes a lot of issues
with family life. Instead of presenting an offer that would reduce such
instability, SAQ management is also trying to impose precarious working
conditions on regular employees.
Wages on the other hand are being eroded, as they are
not even being kept on par with the cost of living. The union reports
that since January of 2018, over 500 SAQ workers have left
their jobs, in search of more stable working conditions and better
wages. Management claims it cannot offer more as it has not been
mandated to
do so, forced as it is to respect the government-imposed "financial
framework." This spiral of irresponsibility is unacceptable for SAQ
workers as well as for society as a whole. It only intensifies the
increasing penetration of precarious working conditions in the economy.
It is simply unacceptable that a suitable arrangement cannot be found
in a
modern society that would allow all workers to live in dignity. First
and foremost, it is those who do the work who must be the ones
determining such conditions.
Added to all this is the threat of the privatization of
the Quebec Liquor Board, as the Party which now forms the majority
Quebec government, Coalition Avenir Québec, made no secret over
the years of its intent to privatize the SAQ, either partly or fully.
Determined to fight against the precariousness of their
conditions, over 2,500 SAQ union outlet and office members held a
general membership meeting on September 28, where they
voted 96 per cent in favour of a new 18-day strike mandate,
to be used when the union deems necessary.
Rotating Strikes at Post Office
Postal Workers Ready to Strike When Called
Hospital Employees Union members join postal workers on Burnaby, BC
picket line,
October 26, 2018.
Across the country, postal workers are into their
second week of rotating strikes. The October 30 negotiations
update from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) points out that
while workers are holding their pickets for "improved health and
safety, better working conditions, more permanent work and less
precarious
employment, improved staffing, fair compensation for all and equality,
your negotiating committee has been battling hard and working long
hours to make this happen. So far, none of these important demands have
been resolved." The union reiterates that workers' "health and safety
is not negotiable. We must have improved working conditions so
that Canada Post no longer has over five times the number of disabling
injuries as the rest of the federal sector." Workers' health and safety
is a longstanding and significant issue that contributed to workers
going on strike in 2011. Workers'
Forum calls on everyone to
continue their support for the postal workers' just demands.
 
Saint John, New Brunswick
 
Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec; Sherbrooke, Quebec
Magog, Quebec
 Montreal, Quebec
  Ottawa, Ontario
Peterborough, Ontario
Oshawa, Ontario
 
Pickering, Ontario
Sudbury, Ontario
 
Sudbury, Ontario: Chelmsford, Ontario
 
Espanola, Ontario; Garson, Ontario
 
Wikwemkoong, Ontario; Innisfil, Ontario
Durham East, Ontario
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Manitoba Federation of Labour joins CUPW
on Winnipeg picket line
Brandon, Manitoba
 
Virden, Manitoba
Saskatchewan Federation of Labour
Convention
Red Deer, Alberta
North Fraser, BC
Kelowna, BC
Mission, BC
Richmond, BC
Vancouver, BC
Coquitlam, CUPW solidarity action -- We are ready to strike when we are
called
Pacific Region solidarity action
For Your Information
Data on Nova Scotia's Economy and Workforce
Workers'
Forum is providing below information on Nova Scotia's economy
and
workforce, as well as that of neighbouring Maritime provinces. The aim
is to combat the disinformation spread by the monopoly media and cartel
political parties about the economy which obscures the integral role of
workers in producing all the social wealth.
***
The
Nova
Scotia
gross
domestic
product
in
2017
was
$33.470
billion at basic
prices calculated in 2007 dollars.
The
GDPs
of
the
individual
Maritime
provinces
are
by
far
the smallest in
Canada (all figures from 2017):
Nova
Scotia
=
$33.470
billion
New
Brunswick
=
$27.363
billion
Newfoundland
and
Labrador
=
$26.773
billion
Prince
Edward
Island
=
$4.883
billion
Combined
Maritime
GDP
=
$92.489
billion
The
combined
Maritime
GDP
is
larger
than
the
individual
GDPs
of
Saskatchewan ($60.591 billion) and Manitoba ($57.250 billion).
The
total
GDP
for
Canada
=
$1.732
trillion
Nova
Scotia's
per
cent
of
Canada's
GDP
=
1.9
per
cent
Division
of
Nova
Scotia's
economy
into
sectors
reported
as
GDP
-- 2017[1]
Goods-Producing
Industries'
GDP
This
category
includes
all
sectors
within
the
North
American
Industry
Classification
System (NAICS) from 11 to 33.[2]
Nova
Scotia
goods-producing
GDP
=
$6.540
billion
Goods-producing
industries'
GDP
is
19.5
per
cent
of
the
total
Nova Scotia GDP of $33.47
billion
Service-producing
industries'
GDP
makes
up
the
other
main
category
at
80.5 per cent.
Although
Nova
Scotia's
total
GDP
is
the
largest
of
the
Maritime provinces, its
goods-producing GDP is second smallest.
Largest
goods
producing
GDP
is
Newfoundland
and
Labrador
=
$13.234
billion
Second
largest
is
New
Brunswick
=
$6.659
billion
Third
is
Nova
Scotia
=
$6.540
billion
Smallest
is
Prince
Edward
Island
=
$1.143
billion
Main
Goods-Producing Sectors
Energy sector
Much
of
the
goods-producing
sector
in
Newfoundland
and
Labrador
and
to a
lesser extent New Brunswick is the energy sector, which includes oil
and gas extraction, petroleum refineries and utilities, mainly electric
power generation and transmission. (North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) codes 211, 2121, 21229, 213111, 213118,
2211, 2212, 32411, 486)
Newfoundland
and
Labrador
=
$7.233
billion
(Of
this
$6.077
billion
is oil and gas
extraction; $338 million petroleum refineries; and, $577 million
electric power generation and transmission.)
New
Brunswick
=
$1.731
billion
(negligible
oil
and
gas
extraction
while
petroleum refineries is $770 million; and, electric power generation
and transmission is $969 million.)
Nova
Scotia
=
$983
million
or
2.9
per
cent
of
total NS GDP (Of this energy
sector $278 million is oil and gas extraction while petroleum
refineries is $0 with the last reported refinery production in 2013;
and, electric power generation and transmission = $490 million.)
Manufacturing
GDP
(2017)
--
This
includes
all manufacturing classifications from 31
through 33 in the NAICS.
Nova
Scotia
manufacturing
GDP
=
$2.644
billion
or
7.9
per
cent of total GDP -- second largest in Maritimes
New
Brunswick
manufacturing
GDP
=
$3.041
billion
Newfoundland
and
Labrador
=
$968.2
million
Prince
Edward
Island
=
$522.8
million
Construction
GDP
(NAICS
23
--
note
that construction has its own classification
within the goods-producing category and is not considered a subsection
of manufacturing)
Nova
Scotia
=
$1.905
billion
(5.69
per
cent
of
total
NS GDP and second
largest in Maritimes)
Newfoundland
and
Labrador
=
$2.54
billion
New
Brunswick
=
$1.519
billion
Prince
Edward
Island
=
$261.8
million
Agriculture,
forestry,
fishing
and
hunting
GDP
(NAICS 11)
Nova
Scotia
=
$746.6
million
(2.23
per
cent
of
total
GDP and second largest
in Maritimes behind New Brunswick)
New
Brunswick
=
$890.2
million
Newfoundland
and
Labrador
=
$307.5
million
Prince
Edward
Island
=
$276.7
million
Population
and
Workforce
Nova
Scotia
population
=
959,942
or
2.6
per
cent
of
the Canadian population
of 37,058,856.
Nova
Scotia's
population
is
2.6
per
cent
of
Canada's
population
yet its GDP
is only 1.9 per cent of the total GDP. This reveals a structural
economic weakness.
Nova
Scotia
workforce
(all
figures
from
2017)
Total
workforce
=
490,100
Total
employed
workers
=
449,000
The
workforce
number
from
Statscan
includes
all
civilians,
non-institutionalized
persons
15
years of age and over who, during the
reference week, were employed or unemployed and had looked for work in
the last four weeks.
Nova
Scotia
workforce
participation
rate
=
61.8
per
cent
National
Canada-wide
average
workforce
participation
rate
=
65.8
per
cent
Participation
rate
is
the
total
number
of
individuals
15
years
and older who are
employed plus all unemployed who have looked for work in the past four
weeks when the survey was completed, as a proportion of the total
population 15 years and older.
Unemployed
Nova
Scotia
workers
(Unemployed
in
the
workforce
who
have
searched for
work in the last four weeks) = 41,000
Unemployed
total
definition
from
Statscan:
Number
of
persons
who,
during
the
reference week, were without work, had looked for work in the past four
weeks, and were available for work.
Unemployment
rate
for
the
Nova
Scotia
workforce
=
8.4
per
cent
Unemployment
rate
for
Canadian
workforce
=
6.3
per
cent
(To
be
continued:
The
Nova
Scotia
service-producing industries and its
sectors, which total $26.9 billion or 80.5 per cent of the NS GDP:
service-producing NAICS codes 41-91; also explored is the division of
work within the Nova Scotia economy according to employment numbers in
each sector.)
Notes
1.
Caution has to be exercised when using Gross Domestic Product as
identifying productive activity. For example, Statscan lists Nova
Scotia retail trade as contributing $2.392 billion to the Nova Scotia
GDP as part of the service-producing category. This makes it 7.15 per
cent of the total GDP quite similar to that of the manufacturing
sector. But the retail sector in the main circulates already produced
social product and does not produce anything new, any "gross domestic
product."
The
retail
sector
along
with many other sectors considered
contributing to the gross domestic product are features of the current
transitional economic system, where production is under the control of
a financial oligarchy and meant for exchange for money in a domestic
and international market and not directly for use and certainly not
according to a plan the actual producers devise. The unproductive
sectors are necessary within this particular economic commodity stage
in the development of the economy of industrial mass production. The
unproductive sectors survive by consuming social product transferred
from the productive sectors.
The
unproductive
sectors
have
exploded
in
size
during
the
twentieth
and
twenty-first centuries, as the imperialist system has degenerated into
parasitism and decay. Trading of so-called derivatives, which are
supposed to represent already produced social product, totals trillions
of dollars a day on markets around the world most of it now done using
powerful computers. The traders compound the problems by borrowing to
make trades. All this intensifies the contradictions of a socialized
economy whose parts are owned and controlled by competing private
interests whose aim is their narrow self-interest. This unresolved
contradiction is propelling the world towards increasingly more
dangerous economic crises and wars.
Production
of
social
product
for
use
and
its
direct
distribution
as means of
production and consumption under the control of the working people
themselves is the next stage in development of the economy. This
requires the empowerment of the people through democratic renewal of
the political process so that they can deprive the global oligarchs who
now own and control the socialized economy of their power to block
progress and stop people from finding and implementing solutions for
society's economic and social problems, and from developing new human
relations in conformity with the socialized economy and modern era.
2.
The NAICS divides and groups the economy into broad sectors from All
industries T001 through to Aboriginal public administration 914, with
multiple sub-sectors, industry groups, industries and Canadian
industries each with their own number.
Statscan
writes,
"NAICS
Canada
2017
Version
1.0
consists
of
20
sectors, 102
subsectors, 322 industry groups, 708 industries and 923 Canadian
industries."
Sectors
within
the
goods-producing
industries
sector
(T002)
Sector
11
--
Agriculture,
forestry,
fishing
and
hunting
Sector
21
--
Mining,
quarrying,
and
oil
and
gas
extraction
Sector
22
--
Utilities
Sector
23
--
Construction
Sector
31-33
--
Manufacturing
For
the
complete
list
and
explanation
of
the
sectors
click
here.
PREVIOUS
ISSUES | HOME
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: office@cpcml.ca
|
