Mining
Salt Miners Strike in Windsor
Miners and community supporters block the movement of salt out
of the mine, February 23, 2022.
On February 17, 250 Windsor Salt miners represented by Unifor Local 1959 and clerical staff represented by Unifor Local 240 went on strike in Windsor, Ontario. The striking workers include miners from the Windsor Salt Ojibway Mine, which makes road salt, and workers at the evaporation processing plant, which makes food grade table salt by evaporation of brine extracted from wells.
These are the first negotiations with the company's new owners, the Los Angeles, California-based Stone Canyon Industries Holding Ltd., Mark Demetree and Affiliates which purchased all Windsor Salt operations in 2021 from K+S Aktiengesellschaft. The new owners started these negotiations with demands for contracting out of unionized jobs and then refused to negotiate, resulting in the workers going out on strike. The workers are in no mood to accept dictated concessions given concessions they have already made with the previous owners in 2014. At that time they agreed to give up their defined-benefit pension plan in return for a $300-million investment in the operation which was meant to expand production and jobs for future generations with an expansion of both the rock salt and table salt operations.
In 2016, the Ojibway Mine was expanded to extend production by
an estimated 50 years and in April 2022 the City of Windsor gave
the new owners approval to dig new brine wells for salt
extraction under Malden Park in the city's west end, extending
production at those operations for at least 30 years. When the
workers agreed to change their pension plans to a
defined-contribution plan, it was on the basis that future
generations of workers would be able to sustain the pensions
from continued and expanded production. The workers inform that
they are ready and willing to negotiate, but are not prepared to
accept the loss of workers to contracting out which will only
mean a weakening of their union and harming of the community
through the loss of union jobs.
When Stone Canyon purchased German-owned K+S Group Americas
operations in 2021 they took control of K+S Chile that operated
the open-pit Salar Grande de Tarapaca Mine in Chile's Iquique
province and Morton Salt that has operations all over the U.S.,
Canada and the Caribbean. Morton Salt was the parent company of
Windsor Salt Ltd. which besides the operations in Windsor,
Ontario has operations in other parts of Canada and Quebec.
Stone Canyon's purchase of K+S Group Americas came one year
after it purchased Kissner Group Holdings LP -- the owner of
another group of major salt operations in North America -- in
its bid to establish a larger conglomerate in the salt industry.
The new owners have set out to try and use their power over
critical salt supplies to demand concessions. Miners who worked
at Windsor Salt's mine in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, represented by
Unifor Local 823, were in negotiations when Stone Canyon bought
Windsor Salt. They reported at that time that the company began
demanding concessions to work hours, new layoff language and
changes to the pension plan. As a result of the company's
refusal to negotiate, the workers went out on strike in November
2021. Instead of negotiating, the company began stockpiling salt
in Halifax and Prince Edward Island from its other operations to
try to use their control over the salt industry in North America
to break the strike. At that time, the company claimed that it
now had "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."
After two weeks on strike the Pugwash workers accepted a
tentative agreement, the terms of which were not made public.
Reports indicate that the new contract was similar to the offer
the workers initially rejected. "We had no choice. The company
kept bringing in salt the whole time we were negotiating," one
worker was quoted as saying about the new contract. Nova Scotia
MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin raised concerns at the time saying
"The salt mine in Pugwash supplies road salt for the entire
province [...] I want the government to ensure in future
contracts that the salt that is used on Nova Scotia roads is
salt that is mined here in Nova Scotia. That's important because
some of the salt right now was brought in from Quebec in
anticipation [that] the strike had gone on too long."
Clearly the striking workers in Windsor, Ontario are facing an
emboldened employer which thinks it can do as it pleases in
Canada. What is most important however is that the workers are
clear that they are defending not just themselves, but future
generations and the community itself by refusing to accept the
company's dictate. They deserve everyone's support, including
local elected officials who approved the Ojibway Mine's
expansion, to make it clear that dictate will not be accepted
and that the workers and their communities must be respected.
Their claims are just and must be met!
Below is an interview with a representative of the striking workers, by Empower Yourself Now.
(Photos: Unifor)
This article was published in
Number 8 - February 27, 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10081.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca