CANADIAN LABOUR - QUÉBEC:

LAID OFF ABITIBI WORKERS BLOCKADE PLANT:

Since last Monday laid off workers at the AbitibiBowater plant in Beaupré Québec began a blockade of the mill that they say they will maintain until they get severance pay due to them. the blockade prevents the company from removing equipment and materials from the plant. The blockade is still on. Here`s the story from the CBC.

QLQLQLQLQLQLQLQL
Abitibi workers to maintain blockade
The 300 hundred employees of the AbitibiBowater paper mill in Beaupré say they will maintain a blockade at the plant, north of Quebec City, until they get their severance pay.

The workers, who said they are owed a total of $12 million, set up a trailer blocking the road leading into the mill on Monday.

The severance pay is required according to the workers collective agreement, said union local president Mario Leclerc.

The workers are owed between $40,000 to $60,000 each, said Leclerc.

The company cannot afford to make the payments, because it is under bankruptcy protection, said AbitibiBowater spokesman Pierre Choquette.

Each worker must file a request for compensation through the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, he said.

"Already a package has been sent to them with forms, and all of these forms have to be completed by each of the employees, with the amount according to their personal situation," said Choquette.

The deadline for the forms to be submitted is April 7, he said.

Leclerc, however, said the workers have already submitted their claims.

The barricade will stay put until the workers are offered the full amount of their severance packages, he said.
Agreement with union
AbitibiBowater announced plans to shut down its Beaupré plant and to suspend operations at three other Canadian plants in September.

The company blamed the move on a worldwide drop in demand for all types of paper.

Earlier this month, AbitibiBowater reached a tentative deal with its union that could allow the company to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

The agreement, which includes concessions from workers, is currently going through the ratification process. Pension regulators in Quebec and Ontario must also give their nod.

The company has been operating under creditor protection in both Canada and the United States for almost a year. It filed to restructure after struggling amid slumping newsprint demand and debts approaching $5 billion.

QLQLQLQLQLQLQLQL

Here's some relevant comment translated from the french at the Voix De Faits blog in Québec City.

QLQLQLQLQLQLQLQL

Factory Blockade In Beaupré

According to regional media, hundreds of AbitibiBowwater workers have been blockading the entrance to the Beaupré plant since 6am this morning. The blockade is to prevent the company from leaving with the factory's equipment. The most recent report said that about twenty persons were still on the scene in the evening. Constant vigilance is maintained on the premises.

The factory is closed but the company still owes money to its former employees ($ 12 million in various bonuses!). As AbitibiBowater was placed under the protection of the Creditors Arrangement , the only guarantee that people have of the region to be paid one day is to prevent the dismantling of the machines. That is their ultimate balance of power.

The gesture is described by the symbolic local union president. It is indeed, however, direct action. Such blockades - sometimes embellished with threatening to destroy the material - have brought results around the world (from France to Ontario). Maybe it's not "legal" but it's perfectly legitimate! Don't let any piece go.

There's videos on the site of the LCN and Radio-Canada (The Sun also did a story on the subject).

Note that the resumption of the plant under capitalist control is very unlikely (but not for lack of trying, including a revitalization committee supported by local elites!). Strangely (!), Nobody seems to have thought about a relaunch under workers' control, as in Argentina, at least until the payment of sums due. An idea to consider?

CANADIAN LABOUR-NEWFOUNDLAND:

FORMER WORKERS OCCUPY ABITIBI PLANT IN GRAND FALLS:

People who used to work at the AbitibiBowater plant in Grand Falls-Windsor in Newfoundland have reacted to government actions in not hiring former workers since they took control of the plant on its closing. No doubt the complaints of the workers involved are justified, but it shows perhaps "desperation" in that all they demand is that they be hired as security guards for the shuttered plant. It's possible that there is no other alternative, especially in an out-of-the-way place in Newfoundland. Still, in other places it might be considered that such exemplary actions as workplace occupations could have goals that were more expansive. Here's the story from the CBC. Good luck to the people involved. perhaps this is a cautionary tale as to why nobody should depend too much on government, as the Newfoundland government made the necessary "progressive noise" in taking over the plant while caring not a whit for the workers involved.

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL
Former Abitibi workers occupy mill
Frustrated former workers took over a central Newfoundland newsprint mill in Thursday, in a bid to win jobs as security guards.

AbitibiBowater shut down its mill in Grand Falls-Windsor last year, ending a century of newsprint production in the community and putting hundreds out of work.

On Thursday, about a dozen men snuck through a giant wire fence and into the mill.

"These people behind me are workers who worked here all their lives and they don't see it as trespass," said Gary Healey, a Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union official, who spoke to CBC News through the wire fence on their behalf.

"They see it as successorship and jurisdiction, and [that they] have a right to work."

The former workers' complaint is with the Newfoundland and Labrador government, which took control of AbitibiBowater's assets when the mill closed.

The men are demanding that the government hire them for any work that involves the mill, including a handful of security positions. None of the people hired at the facility now is a former mill worker.

"This is about people who lost just about everything they ever had, and they're frustrated, and they just want to be able to go to work, if there is any work," Healey said.

The CEP said the protesters will not budge until the provincial government commits to helping them out.

RCMP spent the morning on the site, but left after the security staff at the mill assured police that the protest was peaceful.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/03/04/abitibi-occupation-504.html#ixzz0hMow23QV

CANADIAN POLITICS/CANADIAN LABOUR:

A GOVERNMENT WITH GUTS:

I can scarcely believe it. A government with guts ! If there is one set of rulers that could be described by this phrase in Canada today it would be the government of the Province of Newfoundland, headed by Premier Danny Williams. The Premier is no stranger to firm stands. Because of the policy of the federal government of Sneaky Stevie Harper Williams openly campaigned for an "anything but Conservative" strategic vote in the last federal election, and his campaign paid off in spades. Unfortunately Newfoundland is hardly a heavy hitter in the federal boxing ring. The entire province has fewer people than the city of Winnipeg. But it at least showed Sneaky Stevie that people will fight back if pushed too far.

Speaking of pushed too far ,timber giant AbitibiBowwater recently announced that they were closing up shop in their Grand Falls-Windsor mills, putting 750 workers out of job. The Premier retaliated with a premptory nationalization of Abitibi's other assets in the province, assets that were granted over 100 years ago on the presumption of Abitibi's ancestor company continuing to provide employment to the people of Newfoundland. To me this seems only just. If you enter into a contract with another individual, promising certain things in return for other things, and if the other party to the contract reneges on it then you certainly don't have to continue giving the things you promised in exchange. The contract is null and void. Corporate America (Abitibi is American) thinks otherwise, but I guess they are too used to pillaging with a blank cheque.

The following is an article from the Globe and Mail on this story. You may also find other comment on this matter at Eugene Plawiuk's La Revue Gauche blog. Molly's feelings...there is no reason that the mill couldn't reopen as a producers' co-op with government loan guarantees, municipal, provincial and, by some miracle tied to public opinion, federal as well. The physical assets should be frozen so that the company cannot strip them any further in the weeks to come. The Newfoundland government has shown courage in going as far as it has. It's time to show even more and go the extra mile in defense of the workers and community concerned.

..............................

Newfoundland seizes assets of AbitibiBowater:
Government responds to impending mill closing by ordering forestry giant to surrender timber and water rights, hydro plants
OLIVER MOORE
With reports from Konrad Yakabuski and David Ebner
December 17, 2008
Forestry giant AbitibiBowater was stunned and warned of a possible NAFTA challenge after Newfoundland and Labrador moved yesterday to take over its hydro assets and resource rights.

Premier Danny Williams announced legislation to enforce the change four days after the company says the provincial government sent it an e-mail demanding that it "surrender forthwith entitlement to [all] resources" in the province.

Company spokesman Jean-Philippe Côté said the message from Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale arrived after hours on Friday and demanded a response by midday on Monday.

Mr. Côté said AbitibiBowater sent a reply, suggesting that a working group be created to address issues related to the pending shutdown of a money-losing mill in central Newfoundland. Then came Mr. Williams's bombshell.

"Abitibi has reneged on the bargain struck between it and the province over the industrial development of the province's timber and water resources for the benefit of the residents of the province," the Premier told the legislature yesterday.

The legislation, which was rushed through the House after the Opposition raised no objections, would give the provincial government control of AbitibiBowater's timber rights, water rights and hydroelectric plants. The company will receive unspecified compensation for physical assets taken over.

The cash-strapped company had been hoping to sell the hydro assets, along with assets in Ontario and Quebec, to help make a crucial debt repayment in March. But any legal dispute with the province would likely drag on well past then.

Mr. Côté called yesterday's legislation a "destabilizing precedent [that] opens the door to some potential Canada-U.S. trade issues."

The company is legally a U.S. entity, which could make the province's move vulnerable to a challenge from Washington under the North American free-trade agreement.(More reason to abrogate the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement-Molly)

The Premier quoted century-old documents to the legislature. He cited a 1903 letter from the president of the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company Limited, a predecessor to AbitibiBowater, and a 1905 lease agreement to argue that the company's rights were dependent on operating a mill in the province.

He said that cabinet has the right to determine compensation.(How about NONE-Molly)

"If there's no agreement, we will in fact impose an agreement," he said, according to The Canadian Press. "Under the legislation, cabinet will have the power to say, 'Here's the formula, here's what the compensation is, here's your cheque.' "

Other companies operating in Newfoundland shrugged off the legislation, including Petro-Canada, which has stakes in the offshore oil projects Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose and a piece of the proposed $7-billion Hebron operation.

"[It] is a different sector ... and Petro-Canada enjoys a good relationship with the government of Newfoundland," company spokeswoman Andrea Ranson said.

Husky Energy Inc., majority owner and operator of White Rose, said the Abitibi situation has no impact on its business. It is expanding in the province, and in September committed to spend $130-million exploring and drilling off Labrador.

The paper mill in Grand Falls-Windsor is to close in March after unionized workers twice rejected restructuring plans that involved some contracting out. Hundreds of jobs will be lost as a result.

There was no indication that yesterday's legislation would prevent those losses. But Gary Healey, a Communications, Energy & Paperworkers representative at the mill, called it "an early Christmas gift."

"If Abitibi's not interested in staying in the province, at least we have something to offer," he said. "But losing the big employer in central Newfoundland is not what we want. I'm sure if Abitibi wanted to reconsider their plans, they'd be listened to."

Grand Falls-Windsor Mayor Rex Barnes had a similar reaction.

"We would hope that Abitibi would reflect on what's just happened and come to a resolution with the unions to work this out," he said.

Less than two weeks ago, Mr. Healey was thinking about a possible move to Alberta. Yesterday's announcement isn't a cure-all, he said, but at least it shows the government is on the workers' side.

Without a mill, the local market for wood will be limited, giving the timber rights little immediate value. But the government's move is still logical, said Keta Kosman, publisher of Madison's Lumber Reporter.

"In the best-case scenario, where somebody comes along and is interested in the mill, the rights will be held by the government," she said. "If nothing happens and those trees are just left, then they're more valuable when this finally turns around."
*****
AbitibiBowater's Newfoundland assets:
Less than two weeks after AbitibiBowater Inc. announced it would close its century-old Grand Falls-Windsor newsprint mill, the Newfoundland and Labrador government has tabled legislation aiming to expropriate the company's other assets in the province.
LOGGING RIGHTS
Crown land administered by AbitibiBowater
MILLS
Stephenville (Closed December 2005)
Annual capacity: 193,000 tonnes
Grand Falls-Windsor (Closing March 28, 2009)
Annual capacity: 213,000 tonnes
HYDROELECTRIC PLANTS
-Grand Falls
Capacity: 61 megawatts
-Star Lake
Capacity: 18 megawatts
-Exploits River
Capacity: 37 megawatts

INTERESTING ITEMS FROM ANOTHER LOCAL BLOG:
Another local blog from here in the world's freezer box, good ol' Winnipeg, Ecology and Participatory Democracy, has published a couple of interesting articles on the continuing struggle by the people of the community of Grassy Narrows to prevent industrial clearcut logging on their traditional lands. Grassy Narrows is a small native community of about 1,000 band members located about 80 kilometers north of Kenora, Ontario. Over the years they have endured a lot including violations of their treaty rights, the theft of their children by residential schools, forced relocation, flooding of their traditional burial grounds and wild rice gathering sites by hydroelectric dams and mercury poisoning due to the actions of a paper mill upstream from their community. The latest assault on these people is that the Ontario government has leased their traditional lands for logging by corporations such as Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi. About 50% of their traditional lands have now been clearcut. After logging the cut areas are sprayed with herbicides and replanted by a monoculture of tree farms. These "replacement forests" are devoid of the plants and even the wildlife that the people of Grassy Narrows have traditionally relied upon to support themselves.




Last July the people of Grassy Narrows and their supporters took to blocking highways to protest this continuing attack on their way of life. A total of 21 people were charged with "mischief" because of the two blockades. Ecology and Participatory Democracy gives a report about the latest charges against 5 of these protesters. The trial of two of them has been set over to March 12th. The other three, all from one local family resident in Grassy Narrows, have refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the court. Their case has been adjourned to Feb 26th. For further details see Ecology and Participatory Democracy.




If you want to learn more about the history and struggles of the people of Grassy Narrows go to the Friends of Grassy Narrows site or the Free Grassy Narrows site.





In a totally different vein another local blogger, The Vindicated Anarchist, has a hilarious blog on 'No Fashion at 40 Below'. There's no fashion in Winnipeg at any time, but our sartorial habits get even more ridiculous as we approach the point where carbon dioxide may precipitate out of the air. Ah..."but its a dry ice cold". Go over for a chuckle.
Molly