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October 6, 2016
Workers Defend Their Right to Speak
Out and
Organize in Defence of Their Interests
Air Canada Forced to Reinstate Editor
of New Horizons and Another
Flight Attendant Arbitrarily Fired
PDF
Colleagues and other supporters of the Air Canada grievors at
arbitration, September 16, 2016.
Workers
Defend
Their
Right
to
Speak
Out
and
Organize in Defence of Their Interests
• Air Canada Forced to Reinstate Editor of New
Horizons and Another Flight Attendant Arbitrarily Fired
• Mobilization of Workers Leads to
Reinstatement of Suspended Mineworker
• Nurses Denounce Conspiracy of Silence in
Health System
• Mass Picket in Solidarity with Locked-Out
MANA Workers
• Steelworker Killed at U.S. Steel Gary Works
• Statement from United Steelworkers Local 1014
Gary Works, October 1
Workers Defend Their Right to Speak Out
and
Organize in Defence of Their Interests
Air Canada Forced to Reinstate Editor of
New Horizons
and Another Flight Attendant
Arbitrarily Fired
Air Canada flight attendants demonstrate in Ottawa, October 21, 2011.
During the 2011 strike by
Air Canada workers New Horizons
provided a forum for the workers to discuss issues they faced,
including government back-to-work legislation criminalizing defence of
their rights.
People attending a September 16 arbitration
hearing at Air Canada
offices in Mississauga Ontario erupted into tumultuous applause upon
hearing the ruling of an arbitrator. She ruled that Air Canada had
unjustly fired two flight attendants in December of 2015 and must
reinstate them with full compensation and no mention of
the termination on their records. A third flight attendant, who was
also unjustly fired along with her two colleagues had previously signed
an agreement with Air Canada and decided to retire and thus was not
part of the arbitration ruling.
The ruling ended more than 9 months of persecution
and harassment
of these workers for defending their right to speak out and organize in
defence of the interests of Air Canada workers. One of the unjustly
fired workers, Garnet Colly, has been working for 31 years as a
flight
attendant for Air Canada. He is also the editor of the New Horizons
Bulletin, a publication by and for airline workers, particularly
In-Flight Service workers. New Horizons
has been published for 15 years and discusses issues pertaining to
the
living and working conditions of airline workers as well as broader
economic, political and social issues.
In November 2015, New Horizons published
articles
discussing the 10-year tentative agreement that was reached in
October
between Air Canada and the Air Canada Component of the Canadian Union
of Public Employees (CUPE). The bulletins criticized the tentative
agreement, which was ratified on November 17,
by a very small margin (50.4 per cent versus 49.6 per cent),
calling
for broad discussion on the agreement and on issues of concern for the
workers, as it has been doing consistently for the last 15 years.
Having just arrived in Rio de Janeiro from Toronto on
December 7,
where Garnet was scheduled to stay for 55 hours, Air Canada
officials
abruptly ordered him immediately to take a flight back to Toronto. They
said he was to be assessed for his overall performance and to answer
charges of spreading false information damaging
to Air Canada's brand and reputation. Removing a member of a crew from
his team in such an abrupt way is a dramatic move that is expected only
in the extreme case of someone who has threatened a passenger or the
company. Garnet was removed from Rio without notification to his
co-workers who were completely unaware that one of their
colleagues was literally being kidnapped by Air Canada officials.
Back in Toronto, Garnet was fired and charged with
having breached
both the company Code of Conduct and Social Media Guide. He was further
accused of misconduct bringing discredit to Air Canada, all of which,
according to officials justified immediate termination. None of this
was remotely true. He had expressed disagreement with the
tentative agreement and discussed its underpinnings with colleagues in
a factual and reasoned way.
Workers in many sectors are familiar with such attacks
of companies
and governments on the right of workers to speak out and organize in
defence of their interests. They have common experience of being
accused of bad behaviour and disloyalty to their employer or country
when they express their views about the problems they are
facing.
Air Canada officials discharged the two other workers
with similar
concocted justifications. One worker was fired because she posted a New
Horizons
Bulletin
on a non-public Facebook Page and the other
because he authorized New Horizons to publish an article he had
written about the tentative agreement and had it posted
as well on the non-public Facebook Page.
All three workers were fired, and left with no revenue
or any benefits including health insurance.
They refused to give up and agree that they were
required to submit
to whatever the company does or says and be silent about what had
happened to them. For months on end, they endured a process that lasted
far longer than the time it normally takes for a grievance to be
resolved or reach an arbitration hearing. At each step Air Canada
maintained its right to arbitrarily dismiss the workers.
Two days were booked for the arbitration hearing,
September 12 and
September 16, in Mississauga, Ontario. On both days around 40
colleagues and workers from other sectors of the economy came to
support the workers, defend their records as flight attendants, and
express their firm opposition to their discharge for
speaking out and creating a space for discussion on issues of concern
to the workers.
 The Air Canada workers
explained how the issue of
"rebranding" of
Air Canada has become a pretext for the company to systematically
harass and discipline workers in order to depress their working
conditions. This rebranding has been to the extent that workers'
ability to focus on their jobs with peace of mind and attend to the
needs of the
passengers has been compromised. Clearly, they felt a lot was at stake
in these proceedings as Air Canada wanted to make an example of the
fired workers and their so-called "lack of loyalty."
On September 16, the arbitrator convened the
formal hearing. The
Air Canada lawyer began by saying that the company was conceding it did
not have cause to terminate the employment of either worker and was
therefore reinstating both workers with full back pay and without loss
of seniority, and was expunging the discipline from the
workers' files.
The arbitrator then asked the workers to describe the
impact of the
dismissal on their lives. She asked both parties to make a statement on
the issue of freedom of expression, which she said is at the heart of
the dispute. In spite of the fact that the company had just conceded
that it had no cause to terminate the workers, the Air Canada lawyer
still argued that the policies of the company were just and would be
maintained.
After a short recess, the arbitrator made a verbal
ruling. She
declared that Air Canada had no just cause to terminate the workers'
employment and that the company must reinstate the two effective
immediately with full compensation made whole in all respects. She said
Air Canada records must be expunged of any reference to this
termination. In addition, she briefly discussed the issue of freedom of
expression, arguing that labour speech relating to collective
bargaining issues is protected by the Charter. She said she
would prepare a written decision on that aspect of the case.
As soon as the people attending heard the official
ruling of full
reinstatement of the fired workers, they applauded and went to
congratulate the workers for the stand they took during the nine months
of hardship.
In her written decision issued on September 20,
the arbitrator said
that the opinions expressed by these workers were protected speech
and could not be considered as discrediting Air Canada or defamation.
She said the material was "serious-minded, articulate, and
critical of the employer. The employer may have not liked
the commentary, but that was no reason to fire the two grievors. These
grievors were engaging in protected speech."
Workers' Forum
hails the determination of the workers
who stood up
to Air Canada's arbitrary dictate and of those who provided them with
the support they needed. New Horizons is part and parcel of the
journalism that defends the voice of the workers and creates a space
for this voice to be heard and further consolidated. Such
activity is part and parcel of the necessary work to solve problems in
the airline industry, and in the economy and society generally, by
involving the actual producers who do the work in thinking about the
problems and working and acting together to bring solutions into being.
Mobilization of Workers Leads to Reinstatement
of
Suspended Mineworker
A mineworker from Abitibi, Quebec, André
Racicot, a specialist in
health and safety issues in the mining sector was reinstated without
mention on his record on Monday, September 19. The IAMGOLD mining
company had suspended André for speaking out against poor safety
conditions in the mine at a joint working committee of
the CNESST (Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la
santé et de la
sécurité du travail: Labour Standards, Pay Equity and
Workplace Health
and Safety Board).[1]
André has been active for 20 years on
health and safety committees
where he has gained a reputation for outspokenness and integrity
regarding the defence of workers and improving mine safety. He is also
the president of Local 9291 of the United Steelworkers and works
at the
Westwood mine of IAMGOLD in Preissac in
Abitibi.
The company informed André on September 15,
that he was suspended
with pay because of comments on mine safety conditions he made at the
meeting of the Working Committee two days earlier. The IAMGOLD mining
company said the suspension was necessary so that it could verify
André's information suggesting that perhaps
some of it was "erroneous." The company appeared to want to set a
precedent that disciplinary action could be taken against an employee
for comments made to the commission.
People saw no logical connection between checking
whether
information is correct and suspending a worker. Immediately, the
steelworkers' local representing Westwood workers together with other
workers in the region held a demonstration outside the mine entrance.
They used social media to alert everyone about what had happened to
their
colleague and demanded his immediate reinstatement. Reports circulated
that members of the CNESST were also pushing for André's
reinstatement.
"It's unheard of, such sanctions against a trade union
activist who
participates in good faith in a committee of the CNESST," said USW
Quebec Director Alain Croteau. "Not so long ago, the mining sector was
known for being a death trap for workers. And even today there are
still too many serious accidents and fatalities in this sector. It has
improved, thanks to the work of people on the ground like André
Racicot
and many others who made recommendations in order to make workplaces
safer. There is no way we are going to let a company muzzle one of our
pioneers in health and safety," he added.
The Westwood mine of IAMGOLD has experienced a number
of incidents
that could have been devastating to the lives of miners. On
May 26, 2015 a collapse at the mine resulted in the mine exit
routes
being blocked. Nine workers were trapped in the mine for several hours.
On January 22 the same year, a collapse occurred, which also trapped
three workers for several hours. The problems raised by the workers are
not mental concoctions. To criminalize workers who speak out does not
solve problems but aggravates them.
André Racicot spoke to Workers' Forum shortly
after his
reinstatement: "The battle that we waged today will help all members of
other unions, whether the Steelworkers, the CSN whatever. This will
protect other health and safety representatives in the different unions
and workers taking part in CNESST committees so that there are no
reprisals following discussions which are held in closed meetings.
Public opinion does not accept this, that there be reprisals for
speaking out. How do you prevent a union president from worrying about
his members? We do not want other collapses to occur in the mining
sector. I think this is a victory for democracy and freedom of
expression.
The employer must respect that we do not always agree with the position
of the employer. If someone is not able to express their opinion
because we
are afraid of having sanctions then where are we heading?"
The workers are demanding among other things that the
protection
granted to the CNESST Board of Directors with respect to retaliation
should be extended to all workers who participate in the various
committees of the Board.
Note
1. The CNESST is a merger of the Labour Standards
Board, the Pay Equity Board and the Occupational Health and Safety
Board.
Nurses Denounce Conspiracy of Silence
in Health System
Healthcare workers demonstrate against Bill 10 at Quebec National
Assembly, October 1, 2015.
Nurses in Quebec are denouncing what they call a
"conspiracy of
silence" in the healthcare system, a silence the government and health
authorities are trying to impose on nursing staff through threats and
disciplinary measures. On September 22, the Quebec
Interprofessional
Health Federation in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Quebec,
learned that management of the Integrated Health and Social Services
Centre had demanded that employees stop circulating a petition asking
that the decision to close the mental health unit in La Sarre Hospital
be reconsidered. It was also revealed that management had gone around
the hospital seizing the petitions.
Management claims that circulating such a petition is
contrary to
the duty of staff loyalty to the institution, a pretext more and more
commonly used to harass and criminalize workers who denounce attacks
against their working conditions and the services they provide. Also,
in light of the fact that the petition is sponsored by a member of the
Opposition in the National Assembly, nurses claim that management is
actually acting against an elected representative of the National
Assembly. The nurses' union, FIQ, is demanding that hospital management
hand over the petitions immediately and is threatening legal action.
Earlier this year, the nurses' union revealed that
management in the health and social services sector was resorting more
and more to threats and scare tactics to stop health professionals from
speaking out against unacceptable conditions, which have a negative
impact on the quality and the safety of patient care. The union
denounced the fact that workers who dare to reveal such cases are
suspended without pay, subjected to disciplinary measures, and
sometimes fired.
''We are dealing with a very real conspiracy of silence
in the
healthcare system," says the FIQ. The union points out that the
situation has rapidly deteriorated since the majority Liberal
government in Quebec stepped up its anti-social restructuring of health
services. In February 2015, the Quebec government adopted
Bill 10,
which
among other things gives full powers to the Health minister to appoint
or
withdraw people in charge of health and social services in Quebec. The
FIQ says that this has resulted in an atmosphere of paranoia lying
heavily over those in charge of the system. They respond with threats
and disciplinary actions to any criticism from the workers in light of
the fact that the minister has full authority over them and can dismiss
them at will. Instead of airing problems, those in authority demand a
conspiracy of silence to make it appear as if no problems exist. This
is unacceptable, nurses say.
Mass Picket in Solidarity with Locked-Out
MANA Workers
The MANA gates in Hamilton, Ontario were a wall of
flags on
September 30, as workers from as far as Grimsby, Welland and
Brantford
responded to USW 1005's call for a rally in solidarity with
locked-out
MANA workers. In December 2012, the German company Max Aicher
North
America (MANA) laid off all its
workers to set the stage for demands for major concessions. On
June 28, 2013 it locked out the 118 workers when they
refused to submit
to the company's dictate.
Locked-out now for over three
years, the workers have
maintained
their picket line at the gates, as MANA carries on production with scab
labour. Using the courts and laws to weaken the picket line, MANA
received a court injunction against the locked-out workers restricting
the time they can prevent a vehicle from entering the plant
to 15 minutes. Both 1005 President Gary Howe and 1005's
representative
for the MANA workers Tim Blackborow highlighted the injustice of a law
that makes it illegal for locked-out workers to hold up a vehicle from
entering the plant for more than 15 minutes while no
law exists to take action against
MANA for throwing workers out of work and denying them their dignity,
rights and livelihood for over 3 years while carrying on
production
with scabs.
 
To add insult to injury, a provision was inserted in
the injunction
prohibiting "stacking." This means that if a second or more cars line
up behind the first scab car before its 15 minutes are up, the
locked-out workers have to let all the cars enter the grounds as soon
as the 15 minutes for the first car is up. For most of the rally
this
was no issue as very few scab cars arrived at the same time but as the
time approached 8 am, cars started to line up. The workers took
the
stand that each car would wait 15 minutes before being allowed to
pass. This drove the security guards into a frenzy, as they could be
blamed for not protecting MANA's scab production. They threatened to
call the police if the workers did not abide by the "no stacking"
provision.
 The workers held their
ground and the Hamilton police were called. Five officers arrived and
insisted they were not taking sides but were just there to enforce the
law. The law required the workers to let the whole line of cars in and
what the workers were doing was illegal, they said. The workers
countered by pointing out that this would mean that the locked out
workers could not prevent scabs from entering the plant for even 15
minutes, while the company and the anti-worker law have prevented the
actual MANA workers from going to work with their dignity and rights
intact for over three years! The workers stood their ground until
almost 8:00 am, when they allowed a line of cars to enter. The police
left and the workers again held up each vehicle for 15 minutes until
the last one entered the plant.
Unifor Local 504 and Local 87-M; the United
Food and Commercial
Workers Union Locals 175 & 633; the Teachers Federation
of Ontario,
Halton; CUPE Local 4207; Anthony Marco, President of the Hamilton
and
District Labour Council; the Steelworkers Organization of Active
Retirees; Rolf Gerstenberger,
former president of Local 1005 and President of the
Marxist-Leninist
Party of Canada along with Marxist-Leninist candidates in the region
all came out to stand with the MANA workers in their fight for justice.
The picket continued from 5:00 am to well
past 8:00 am protesting
against the attacks on the dignity and rights of the MANA workers in
the face of the total lack of a public authority that defends their
rights and ensures justice is done.
Steelworker Killed at U.S. Steel Gary Works
Jonathan Arrizola, a 30-year-old steelworker was
killed while
working at the U.S. Steel slab storage yard in Gary, Indiana.
Jonathan's tragic death on September 30, comes in the midst of
steelworker protests and grievances at Gary Works over the outsourcing
of maintenance work, layoffs of in-house maintenance workers,
elimination of training programs, lack of proper regular maintenance
and forced overtime of remaining workers. Gary Works' steelworkers
predicted that no good would come from these attacks occurring under
U.S. Steel's anti-worker Carnegie Way campaign. The regressive campaign
has put pressure on local managers to attack the rights of
workers such as by cutting corners on health and safety amongst other
dangerous practices.
Workers' Forum extends its deepest sympathies
to Jonathan's
family, friends and coworkers. The slaughter of workers in the U.S. and
Canada is a serious indictment of an economic system that cannot solve
its problems and instead lashes out at the rights of workers and
attacks them as a "cost of production," demanding concessions
and cutting corners on basic essentials at the workplace.
Jonathan Arrizola was a member of USW Local 1066
and worked in a
four-member crew of maintenance welders in the Gary hot strip mill. His
young widow Whitney told the local media that he leaves behind two
children and many broken hearts. She said Jonathan lately complained of
deteriorating conditions at the mill where
remaining maintenance workers are working 70 to 90 hours a
week.
Whitney said her husband and other workers had major concerns about
safety at the plant and the dangers they are facing, especially after
so many maintenance workers were laid off in August. "This shouldn't
have to happen to anyone," she told local media. "Please
help keep this from happening to others. I cannot even begin to explain
the hole in my heart."
A Gary Works' steelworker told local media that
maintenance crews
are so short-staffed that preventive maintenance is not being
performed. Repairing breakdowns that slow down output is the only work
that crews are currently doing. Maintenance workers are also receiving
only minimal training after being transferred and required to work
on some of the most dangerous jobs, which require heavy lifting and
exposure to high temperatures. Workers are being moved within the plant
to work on unfamiliar jobs before they have had the chance to complete
training programs because the company has shut down those programs. The
worker said that remaining maintenance workers are being forced to work
double shifts on
irregular schedules that change with only three days' notice, all of
which creates dangerous unhealthy working conditions. The cuts are
putting workers at risk by putting off preventative maintenance and
causing repair work orders to pile up. Jonathan's death was a terrible
outcome of the attacks on workers' rights and the deterioration of
working conditions at North America's largest steel mill.
Statement from United Steelworkers Local 1014
Gary
Works, October 1
A Brother from USW Local Union 1066, Jonathan
Arrizola, perished
yesterday while working in our mill. He was part of a four man crew
assigned to troubleshoot a crane. While all the details are being
sorted out one thing is indisputable: this is horrible news and this
young man who was a Husband, a Brother, and a Father, didn't
make it home last night. Until we know exactly what transpired I won't
jump to conclusions but I will repeat something that has been said
constantly in the past weeks. WE HAVE TO WATCH EACH OTHERS' BACKS!! Our
company has decided that, to save a dollar, they'll farm people out all
over this mill which only increases the chances
for accidents like these happening. McKinsey Consulting doesn't care.
You'll see some quote later from USS corporate about
how sad they
are and what a tragedy this is. They should instead be asking
themselves if it's high time they started listening to what we've been
saying all along. Moving people all around a mill like chess pieces
only promises to result in something tragic. Shutting down training
when
you need it the most is just bad business when you consider that we are
"the company's most important asset." Working with bare bones crews
ain't cutting it. Bad news is not an if, but a WHEN. As terrible as it
sounds haven't we been saying that something was coming?? Make a
promise to yourself that not only will you refuse to work
unsafely, you will take a stand with the Brother/Sister next to you to
keep THEM safe as well. We really are all we've got! Prayers and
condolences to the Arrizola family. May God bless them. This should
NEVER happen.
In Solidarity,
Rodney D. Lewis Sr.
President USW
L.U. 1014
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