Quebec Workers Continue Fight for
Rights
Workers Mark First
Anniversary of
ABI Aluminum Smelter Lockout
Mass picket as Bécancour aluminum smelter workers mark one
year
anniversary of lockout.
Bécancour aluminum smelter workers,
alongside
Quebec workers, marked the first anniversary of the ABI lockout
through
militant actions in defence of locked out workers and the dignity
of
labour. Hundreds of workers hailing from various regions,
including an
important contingent of workers from Sanguenay-Lac-Saint Jean,
formed
picket lines and then demonstrated outside the constituency
office of
the local member of the National Assembly for
Nicolet-Bécancour.
Demonstration outside the constituency office of the National
Assembly
member for
Nicolet-Bécancour.
They reiterated their two demands: that the
Premier meet
directly with company officials and demand that they return to
the
table to negotiate a collective agreement acceptable to the
workers;
that the government re-open its energy agreement with Alcoa by
virtue
of which the lockout is considered a "force majeure" that frees
the
Alcoa/Rio
Tinto cartel from paying for the block of hydro-electricity
reserved
for it and from paying fines when that energy is not used.
Workers are
demanding that the clause be annulled. They point out that the
agreement is one of the reasons why the company's owners not only
refuse to negotiate with them, but are getting Quebeckers to pay
for
the
lockout, while Hydro-Québec and Quebec are deprived of
important
revenue.
 "There was little
separation between the parties last January when the dispute
broke out.
The gap has widened since then and more than 1,000 families
have
suffered for an entire year due to the greed of a multinational,"
noted
Clément Masse, President of United Steelworkers
Local 9700
that represents the ABI workers, at the
rally outside the constituency office. "We need the government to
get
out of its pseudo-neutrality and restore some balance to this
process.
ABI is abusing the process and keeping hundreds of families in a
state
of insecurity, with the complicit silence of the Quebec
government."
Workers note that so-called government assistance
in
the negotiation process, such as with mediation, the mediation
council
and now the working group which the Minister of Labour is
proposing to
set up, is a figment of the government's imagination, as the
cartel of
company owners has the utmost contempt for such arrangements. On
December 19, 2018, two days before the negotiation
deadline
set by the Minister of Labour, the company owners announced the
shutdown of half of the pot lines still in operation at the
smelter,
demonstrating that they do not recognize that negotiation
process.
Restarting those pot lines is a long and costly process and
anyone
wanting
to negotiate would not behave in such a manner.
The Minister's latest invention is the
establishment of
a working group which would use the ministry's resources as
"support"
for the parties to reach a negotiated settlement. The Minister
did not
explain how one supports a party which refuses to budge and only
recognizes its own dictate.
Meanwhile, workers are exposing the difficulties
they
are experiencing, despite United Steelworkers union allocations
and the
extraordinary support, including financial, they are receiving
from
workers in Quebec, Canada and elsewhere. They are also reporting
on the
difficulties being created for the local economy, such as jobs
being
cut by
suppliers, loss of revenue by merchants, and the Mayor of
Bécancour noting that approximately 14 per cent of
the
municipality's budget comes from tax revenue provided by the
plant.
Workers face difficulties in maintaining their stand that they
want to
go back to work with their heads held high, through a
successfully
negotiated agreement
acceptable to them. That stand is in everyone's interest, as
without
opposition to dictate and insistence on having a decisive say
over
decision-making, insecurity for workers and for all would be
complete.
In that respect, ABI workers are intensifying
their
work to mobilize the organized support of workers in Quebec and
Canada,
as well as elsewhere. At the end of 2018, more than 300
union
locals in Quebec, Canada, the U.S. and Australia were sending
financial
assistance to ABI workers in support of their struggle and that
mobilization is being stepped up.
Workers are turning their attention towards ABI,
as
this struggle is everyone's struggle, for their rights as well as
their
dignity.
   
 
This article was published in
Number 2 - January 24, 2019
Article Link:
Quebec Workers Continue Fight for
Rights: Workers Mark First
Anniversary of
ABI Aluminum Smelter Lockout
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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