Lockout Lifted at ABI Smelter in
Bécancour, Quebec
ABI Workers Return to Work with Their Heads High
ABI workers in Bécancour, Quebec are returning
to work after they
agreed to a new collective agreement. During the unjust 18-month
lockout, the aluminum smelter workers through their determined
resistance in defence of their rights made a valuable contribution to
the dignity of all workers across Quebec and Canada. Their collective
actions exposed those in control of the Alcoa/Rio Tinto cartel as
modern day robber barons who abscond with increasing amounts of
the social wealth ABI workers produce at their smelter, along with
Quebec's electricity.
The courageous struggle of the ABI workers revealed the
disgraceful
role of the Quebec government as an ally and representative of the
global oligarchs in opposition to the collective interests of the
Quebec people and their natural resources. The Quebec government
constantly distorted and attacked the just struggle of the ABI workers
and
allowed the global cartel to renege on its electricity contract with
Hydro-Québec. These shameful actions encouraged the Alcoa cartel
to
refuse to negotiate with the workers and prolong the conflict. Working
people are determined to hold the Quebec government to account for its
anti-worker actions on behalf of the international financial
oligarchy.
 Workers' Forum
hails the courageous struggle of the ABI workers, their union and
leadership, in defending the dignity of labour, and the collective
interests of the community and society. They accepted a most difficult
task in this fight with the Alcoa/Rio Tinto global cartel, and the
quisling governments at its disposal. The workers
faced a refusal of the cartel to negotiate and instead it dictated
concessionary terms to serve their narrow interests of increased
profits at the expense of the working people. They defended the need
for equilibrium in relations of production based on workers' rights,
including the right to negotiate collectively the terms of employment,
which the
workers themselves must deem acceptable, rather than have those terms
imposed on them through dictate.
At this historical juncture the labour relations regime
of the past
no longer exists. The ABI contract was not achieved through
negotiations at the bargaining table but as a result of the workers'
united firm resistance to the impunity of those in control of their
workplace. They recognized that in the conditions of today, monopolies
will not
negotiate in good faith. Those in control believe they can simply
dictate concessionary terms and destroy unions, collective agreements
and pension regimes at their whim by declaring that workers are a cost
of production and if they want to keep their jobs they must agree to
whatever the employers declare is necessary. The ABI workers stood as
an example for other contingents of workers across the country who are
putting up serious resistance to this new regime the employers seek to
impose.
These employers are acting with the state in their
pockets, not only
in terms of governments and their ministries of labour but more and
more also the labour boards and courts long said to be neutral and
above taking sides in disputes between the working class and those in
control of the workplaces and social wealth. Thus, the ABI workers'
resistance was not only to the employers' unacceptable dictate but to
the role of the state itself. This makes their struggle primarily
political, as well as economic. It reveals that the fight for people's
empowerment is at the centre of the battles for justice today and that
the workers recognize this and are rising to the occasion to lead this
fight.
In this regard, the courageous resistance of the ABI
smelter workers
was waged using non-traditional methods of support from the entire
labour movement in Quebec as well as other places across Canada and
even internationally. It was waged in the court of public opinion where
the workers stood as one in defence of their just cause. They
showed to the entire world that the Quebec government's electricity
agreement with Rio Tinto/Alcoa and the reneging on it during the
lockout based on an unconscionable definition of "force majeure" is
utterly self-serving and a fraud and that the aims of the company in
Quebec, as in Australia, are beyond the pale.
The methods of the ABI local to wage the fight against
the company
achieved the results the workers were seeking. The company's final
version of yet another "final offer" it refused to negotiate was thus a
retraction of many of the unacceptable concessionary demands the
company was making and was deemed acceptable by a majority of
workers.
 The
ABI struggle shows that no force can act in the old way because the
conditions of the past no longer exist. Today, the monopolies and
global cartels do everything to deprive the workers of what belongs to
them by right. They have governments in their pockets as well as state
agencies and the courts. Workers are not impressed with this
mighty force arrayed against them. The tactics used by the workers
today are directed at depriving the monopolies of their ability to do
as they please. All over the country and even the world, workers are
rising to fight in a new way to defend what belongs to them by right
and in this way defend the rights of all and open a path for society's
progress.
The ABI workers stand second to none. They have done
themselves,
their families and their Quebec nation proud, as well as the entire
Canadian working class. Bravo to them and to the union leadership that
did not flinch but led them every step of the way through thick and
thin!
We wish the ABI workers success as they return to work,
united
behind their union in the conditions they face where the company will
continue trying to impose its dictate using the state institutions to
achieve its self-serving aims.
The struggle of the ABI workers against this unjust
lockout to
impose a concessionary contract has been a valuable contribution in the
defence of the rights and dignity of workers throughout Quebec, Canada
and the world. Workers' Forum salutes the ABI workers for
having waged an audacious struggle not only for themselves but for
all working people and their communities.
This article was published in
Number 25 - July 18, 2019
Article Link:
Lockout Lifted at ABI Smelter in
Bécancour, Quebec: ABI Workers Return to Work with Their Heads High
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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