Workers Demand
Arbitration and Intervention
by Quebec Premier
- Interview, Clément Masse,
President, United Steelworkers Local 9700 -
USW Local 9700 holds press conference to announce its demand for
expedited arbitration to end the lockout at the Aluminerie de
Bécancour, February 23, 2019 (D. Malette)
Workers' Forum: ABI workers held
a
general meeting on February 23 to assess the situation. Can
you
tell us how the meeting went and what decisions were taken?
Clément Masse:
Nearly 700 workers participated. We explained what happened
in the
negotiations in the last few weeks. The workers could see that we
want
to negotiate but that the employer is maintaining its position
and
shows no intention of negotiating. We asked the workers to give
us a
mandate to
request arbitration in the dispute. This was adopted unanimously.
We
are asking the government to put pressure on the employer to
accept
this process or to negotiate in good faith. We are also asking
Quebec
Premier François Legault to intervene on the issue of
energy
contracts as he promised to do during the election campaign.
These are
the latest developments.
In essence, the employer is maintaining its new
demands
for concessions despite the fact that these points were already
settled
in the final offer of December 2018. We agreed to review
them. We
accepted some of them but the employer refused to move on the
most
important concessions, even in a minimal way. All of the
employer's
demands are for concessions, and the company insists that for
negotiations to move forward we have to accept them.
Negotiations are not stalled because our demands
have
been rejected by the employer, but because we are facing an
employer
that is constantly asking for concessions. A settlement,
according to
Alcoa, requires that we submit to all their demands. Instead of
jobs
with good wages and conditions, Alcoa wants to create jobs with
lower
wages
and to send our jobs to subcontractors where workers will have no
conditions [of work] worthy of the name. Essentially, what Alcoa
wants
is to run the plant without the union, to be able to do whatever
it
wants without constraints from the union at the workplace. This
is
unacceptable as far as we are concerned.
WF: Can you elaborate on the
request
for arbitration?
CM: We are asking for expedited
arbitration, not something that will take a year. The government
should
establish a timetable for the parties to make their points and a
deadline for the arbitrator to make a decision. At the end of the
arbitration, the parties would be bound by the decision of the
arbitrator. This is a real issue
with this lockout, which has lasted too long.
If we go to arbitration, it will have to be very
precise, and of course the parties can still reach an agreement
while
arbitration is underway. The Minister of Labour continually says
that
he wants to put pressure on the parties. If he is pushing for
arbitration and the employer agrees, it will put pressure for a
settlement. It is certain that the
procedures for arbitration would have to be discussed. As well,
there
are points on which we will not ask the arbitrator to decide,
those
matters on which there is agreement.
The employer has to agree to the arbitration
first,
which so far they have refused even before our application, but
we are
still applying and we will put pressure on the government to
ensure it
happens.
WF: Can you explain your request
for
intervention by Premier François Legault?
CM: We are asking for a meeting
with
the Premier. He must intervene to correct the imbalance of
forces.
Hydro-Québec is financing the lockout of the U.S.
multinational
with $165 million in 2018 alone. We want the Premier to
get
involved, as he said he would during the election campaign. We
want
him to reopen the energy contract that allows the employer to
cause a
loss of $700,000 a day for Hydro-Québec. The employer
is
not obligated to pay for the block of energy that is reserved for
it,
yet still benefits from the contract. The company is still paying
low
rates in Baie-Comeau, in Deschambault, and even at ABI, because
Alcoa is still paying a special rate for the hydro it uses in the
section of the plant that is still in operation during the
lockout. It
does not make sense that the government has negotiated a contract
like
this. It hurts the workers and it is up to the government to
correct
this situation.
Alcoa talks about "culture change." We talked
about
this at the meeting. What culture? The culture the employer wants
to
change is that it no longer wants to operate with a union. That
is its
culture. Do we live in a dictatorship where the employers decide
everything? Is the government going to assist Alcoa or
the 1,000
families who
are locked out? We are asking the Premier if that is the Quebec
we
want? The Premier says that his first concern is the "economy."
He says
he wants a Quebec that creates quality jobs, but what the
employer
wants to do is create exactly the opposite. If the Premier wants
to
create quality jobs he has to prove it by intervening in this
dispute.
This article was published in
Number 7 - February
28,
2019
Article Link:
Workers Demand
Arbitration and Intervention
by Quebec Premier - Interview, Clément Masse,
President, United Steelworkers Local 9700
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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