27 January, 2011To support 900 steelworkers locked out by U.S. Steel last year and to protect conditions of 9,000 retirees affiliated to United Steelworkers Local 1005 in Hamilton, the Ontario Federation of Labour (CLC) is holding a protest rally on January 29, 2011.
CANADA: On January 29 thousands of Canadian trade unionists will rally in Hamilton, Ontario to support 900 members of the IMF affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 locked out by U.S. Steel and to protect conditions for 9,000 retirees.
On November 7, 2010 U.S. Steel locked out the 900 workers at its steel mills in Hamilton after the union refused to submit for vote a renewal contract with drastic cuts forced through by the company.
The previous labour agreement expired last summer and since then the transnational tried to impose different concessions on the union including closing the plan of defined benefits for new comers, ending pension indexing for 9,000 retirees, and different cuts slashing 80 per cent of the value of cost-of-living adjustments for active workers and the elimination of two weeks vacation time.
The manifestation, organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour (CLC), will start at 13h00 on Saturday, 29 January, at Hamilton City Hall, 71 Main Street West, where trade unionists and supporters will march through the streets of the city.
The ten-week lockout is the latest affront by a multinational to the Investment Canada Act. When U.S. Steel received Canadian government approval to buy Ontario-based steelmaker Stelco three years ago, it pledged to maintain job and production levels. But within a year, it had levied layoffs on USW members at both of Stelco's mills, in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ontario, and began supplying Canadian customers with products made in its U.S. mills.
At a union meeting on 8 December, when a motion was put forward to put the company's proposals to a vote, a full 90 per cent of Local 1005's members defeated it.
The union already has received overwhelming support from Canadian unions, including the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Union.
The International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) delivered a joint message of solidarity to the USW local 1005 accusing the transnational of "trampling not only the rule of law in Canada, but more importantly the lives and livelihoods of ordinary workers and retirees".