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ABI Workers Reject Alcoa's Dictated Contract and Back-to-Work Protocol 90 Per Cent Turnout, 82 Per Cent Rejection of Company Contract at Membership Meeting The President of USW Local 9700, Clément Masse, gave his impressions of the meeting to Workers' Forum: "The workers said that this is not a negotiated agreement and accepting such an agreement is like saying you do not have a union anymore, that the employer can do whatever it wants. The offer that the employer presented shows a lack of respect for us and it is the same as regards the back-to-work protocol. We have built our union and we have built our contracts over the years, and we do not agree that we should lose everything because the employer wants to smash the union. That is what came out of the interventions at the mic; that we are still able to stand up and will not accept just anything even after 14 months. It is not true that the employer can impose its way of doing things on us. They will have to sit down and negotiate and show respect for the workers. The workers have also targeted the energy deal with Alcoa that is hurting us and doing nothing but prolonging the conflict." The union president also made the following comment in a statement issued by the Quebec Steelworkers on the evening of March 11: "The offer represented a series of take-backs by
the
company. ABI has refused to negotiate, it has refused to accept
third-party arbitration. It just wanted to impose its will,
counting on
fatigue from its 14-month lockout. The answer from our members is
clear: it didn't work. The members don't want to go back on their
knees. Alcoa disrespects our Labour
Code by negotiating in bad faith, it disrespects
Quebeckers by
making them pay for its lockout, it disrespects workers by
closing the
door on negotiation as well as arbitration. The government of
Quebec
must intervene. The imbalance of power is unacceptable and the
behaviour of this multinational is unacceptable."
This article was published in   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
Smelter workers at
the
Aluminerie de Bécancour Inc. (ABI) held a general
membership
meeting on March 11, to discuss and vote on the latest contract
offer
of the Alcoa/Rio Tinto cartel. Eight hundred and thirty-one union
members participated in the meeting out of a current membership
of 926.
After serious discussion and presentations,
the 831 members in attendance voted 82 per cent to reject the
company's
proposed collective agreement. The workers, who have been locked
out by
the company for 14 long months, also rejected a company
back-to-work
protocol that had not been negotiated with the local union.