Worthy Fight for the Dignity of Labour

Windsor Salt Workers Hold the Line

International Women's Day rally at Windsor Salt picketline supports striking workers, March 8, 2023.

Workers at Windsor Salt in Windsor, Ontario are entering their fifth week on strike. By now, the company is clear that the workers' No means No! when it comes to union-busting through contracting out, and the company has agreed to return to negotiations which will resume on Wednesday, March 22. Despite this, the workers say they harbour no illusions that the company will stop dictating concessions.

Despite indications in the joint statement the union issued with the company which says conditions exist to come to an agreement, there is no public confirmation that the company has backed down demanding concessions. Nonetheless, since it was revealed that the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) is an investor in Stone Canyon Industries Holdings Inc., which owns Windsor Salt, and after the president of Unifor sent a letter to the OTPP urging it to get the company to negotiate, the tone of the company lawyer has undergone an 180 degree about face and he is now playing good cop, not bad cop. In other words, the company has been forced to change tack.

Workers all over the U.S. with experience with operations owned by Stone Canyon are writing to the Windsor workers about what is happening in Windsor and the role of the teachers' pension fund. They are sharing the experience of what many have gone through in negotiations with Stone Canyon, their law firm Jackson Lewis and their lead lawyer, and are following what happens in Windsor closely.

(EmpowerYourselfNow.ca. Photos: WF, EYN.)

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This article was published in

Number 15 - March 21, 2023

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10151.HTM

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