Pugwash Salt Mine Workers on Strike
The
140 unionized workers at the Windsor Salt mine in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, members of
Unifor Local 823, went on strike on November 5. Their collective
agreement expired in October 2020. On August 26, workers massively
rejected the company's offer. Workers are saying that during
negotiations, the company began stockpiling salt in Halifax and Prince
Edward Island, to prepare to keep business going in the case of an
extended strike or lockout.
According to the union, the main points of contention are demands
for concessions related to work hours, layoff provisions, and pensions.
Workers have already experienced layoffs twice in the past
year. The first was during the winter, when the company used the
pretext of a mild winter to lay off of a large number of workers, under
the hoax that there would be a reduced need for deicing salt for
roads, one of the mine's main products. The second layoff took
place in the summer, during a shutdown to replace the mine's headframe.
The headframe is a structure above the mine that allows for
the hoisting of machinery, personnel and materials.
Windsor Salt was recently purchased by U.S.-based Stone Canyon
Holdings which acquired the Pugwash operation in April as part of its
acquisition of the North American salt assets of the previous owner,
Germany-based K+S Aktiengesellschaft AG. Union leaders at the
Pugwash mine reported that they have contacted the union
representatives at other company operations in North America and have
been informed that the company is demanding similar concessions from
workers at those operations.
With this new acquisition, Stone Canyon's salt business, SCI Salt,
is now considered one of the world's largest salt producers. On its
website, the company informs that SCI Salt is a producer and a supplier
for a variety of industries, including deicing and winter road
maintenance, food, animal nutrition, pharmaceutical, water softening
and pool supply, among others. It has an annual production capacity of
over 29 million tons in 24 salt production facilities, 15 processing
plants and 130 storage locations across North America, South America
and the Caribbean.
This article was published in
November 10, 2021 - No. 105
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO081053.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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