It's Our Turn -- No Concessions!
The locked-out New Brunswick smelter workers are not
intimidated by the actions of Glencore. They have put the slogan "It's
Our Turn -- No Concessions" on their website and are calling on the
working people to unite behind their just cause. They
say that they have already made huge concessions over the last three
contracts, especially in the 2014 contract, just after the Glencore
empire seized
control of the former owners, Xstrata. The increased global power and
the concessions reluctantly accepted by workers in recent contracts,
workers say have emboldened the oligarchs not only to demand more and
more but to crush the union, silence their voice and establish a labour
relations climate marked by open hostility towards the workers
and contempt for their health and safety.
" Years of sacrifices by
workers and their families have not been reciprocated with good-faith
behaviour by Glencore, at the bargaining table or in the workplace,"
said USW Local 7085 President Bart Dempsey. "For years our members have
accepted concessions and worked with Glencore to help make our smelter
a success. In return, Glencore
has responded with a management culture that has become increasingly
hostile towards its workers and, of course, demands for more
concessions," he added.
Dempsey told Workers' Forum that experience has
shown that in no way can workers entrust their health and safety to
Glencore management. This has been proven once again in practice by the
company's demand that the fulltime position of the union's health and
safety representative be reduced to a parttime position and deprived
of
his current office in the plant to meet fellow workers.
Workers reject the company slander that workers with
their resistance against further concessions are "disconnected from the
global market in which the smelter is trying to survive." Workers have
direct experience that concessions imposed by the company have worsened
all aspects of life at the plant and in retirement and that those
concessions have whetted the appetite of the beast for more. Besides,
workers point out, they have no control over the global market, its
mindless anti-people competition and the adventures of the oligopolies
to realize their aim of narrow private profit. The anti-people aim and
actions of the global oligopolies such as Alcoa, GM and Glencore have
nothing to do with bringing prosperity to any nation. They merely
enrich those whose unscrupulous swindles win out in the short-term and
then they need another swindle to remain "in business." Workers can in
no way base their aspirations, actions and demands for security and
what belongs to them by right on the anarchy and violence which
accompanies the global competition of the oligopolies. Glencore's
refusal to negotiate is a form of violence as well. With the connivance
of the courts and other state institutions, as well as governments,
such narrow private interests extort what they want without any regard
for the lives of the people whose safety they threaten. The workers'
cause is just and deserves the support of all Canadians.
This article was published in
Number 17 - May 9, 2019
Article Link:
It's Our Turn -- No Concessions!
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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