Unacceptable Moves to Do Away with
Collective Agreements
Alcoa's Unacceptable
Demand to Run
the ABI Smelter Without a Union
At a general membership meeting held on
February 23, workers at the ABI aluminum smelter in
Bécancour, Quebec launched the call for binding
arbitration to
reach a collective agreement that will put an end to their
lockout.
They demanded that Quebec Premier François Legault
intervene to
exert pressure on the
Alcoa/Rio Tinto cartel to accept arbitration. The workers also
insist
the Premier reopen the Hydro-Québec energy agreement that
declares the lockout a "force majeure" and frees the owners from
their
obligation to pay for a block of hydro power reserved for them at
a
preferential rate.
The owners of ABI have said the door to
arbitration as
a means to settle the dispute is closed. An ABI spokesperson in
an
email wrote, "Arbitration will not secure the future of ABI.
Alternative processes are not the appropriate solutions to
resolve the
conflict."
Dominic Lemieux, Assistant to the United
Steelworkers'
Quebec Director gave this rebuke to Alcoa's position at the
membership
meeting: "If arbitration is not an option, if the 'alternative'
processes are not a solution and the negotiations are canceled,
what's
left? The unilateral imposition of the employer's position. This
is
contrary to the
very principle of good faith bargaining. Quebec citizens are
being held
hostage by a multinational, fattened up by our [cheap]
electricity
rates, acting in bad faith in a lockout financed through our
taxes. The
government must intervene. François Legault must
intervene."
Labour Minister Jean Boulet declared he could not
exert
pressure on the owners to accept arbitration. He said he would
propose
a possible settlement to both parties in early March. The workers
consider the minister's remarks on arbitration unacceptable and
are not
supportive of a possible settlement, as it would be drafted
without
them
being able to present their concrete demands. Minister Boulet has
already declared that his possible settlement will be based on
neo-liberal positions put forward by the mediation council
appointed by
him and chaired by former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard, which
states:
"The objectives have been clearly identified [...]: operational
flexibility, productivity, job stability, plant sustainability
and a
climate of working relations."
Aluminum workers in Alma, members of United Steelworkers Local
9490,
stand in solidarity with locked-out workers at ABI.
These stock neo-liberal phrases are used to cover
up
the worst attacks on working conditions and the right of workers
to
wage an organized collective struggle in defence of their demands
and a
decisive say in determining their terms of employment and
enforcing any
collective agreement. Workers'
Forum
is publishing an article in this issue
on the situation facing Alcoa workers in Western Australia. The
struggle of Australian Alcoa workers reveals concretely where
such
neo-liberal nonsense spouted by Minister Boulet leads when the
global
monopolies impose it in practice in concert with the arbitrary
powers
of those states at their disposal.
Within the situation in Quebec where the
Alcoa/Rio
Tinto cartel completely refuses to negotiate with its smelter
employees, the workers are requesting arbitration and the
intervention
of the government so that they can present their views and
demands to
an impartial arbitrator who would also listen to the owners and
then
decide upon a
collective agreement. Workers' Forum calls upon all
Quebeckers
and Canadians to rally behind this just stand of the ABI workers
to end
the lockout.
This article was published in
Number 7 - February
28,
2019
Article Link:
Unacceptable Moves to Do Away with
Collective Agreements: Alcoa's Unacceptable
Demand to Run
the ABI Smelter Without a Union
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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