CANADIAN LABOUR TORONTO:
NORTEL RETIREES SUPPORT RALLY:

Here's another support rally coming up next week, this one from the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). The Nortel company has been using Canada's bankruptcy laws to avoid their pension obligations. Former Nortel workers are demanding that alternatives to the usual pension plan wind-up be found. One such alternative is the Financial Support Model as proposed by the Nortel Retiree's Protection Committee. Please go to their website for more details and also to see how you can support the Nortel pensioners. Here's the announcement.

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Nortel Workers Rally at Queen's Park: September 15
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The CAW national union is calling on all retired workers, local unions and other allies to come to Queen's Park in Toronto on Wednesday, September 15 at 12 noon to support former Nortel workers.

The rally is part of the on-going CAW and CLC campaign to demand "Retirement Security for All Workers."

The Nortel Retirees and former employees Protection Canada (NRPC) have been lobbying the Ontario government to explore alternatives to a conventional pension plan wind-up.

The CAW is asking that all local unions, Retired Workers chapters and area councils organize buses in their respective areas. Jenny Ahn, director of the CAW retired workers department, said the rally highlights the importance of government action on the issue.

"We need to keep the pressure on all levels of government to fulfill their moral obligation to ensure our pensions are funded and fully protected," said Ahn.

For more information and bus locations contact CAW National Coordinator Dean Lindsay at 1-800-268-5763, ext. 3791 or (416) 497-4110, ext. 3791.
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The Nortel retirees protection Association has a rather restricted mandate, mostly dealing only with ex-employees of Nortel in Ontario. There is, however, a new national organization of pensioners the Silver Fox Alliance that is more national and not company restricted. Check out their website, especially in regard to the following petition regarding the federal Bill C-501. This is a motion before Parliament that has passed second reading despite the fact that it has the support of only 12 Conservative MPs. It aims to reform federal bankruptcy legislation such that workers' pensions are secured during the bankruptcy process. Go to the Silver Fox website to sign the following petition.
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To: The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, The Hon. Jim Flaherty, The Hon. Tony Clement.
We the undersigned implore you to pass Bill C-501 third reading before Sept. 30. It is time to stop the unconscionable harm inflicted by current bankruptcy laws on Canadian pensioners. We have a voice.
Let it not be said, " Sirs, you had a choice"

CANADIAN LABOUR HAMILTON:

SIEMENS WORKERS RALLY AGAINST PLANT CLOSURE:

At the end of last month workers employed by Siemens Canada in Hamilton Ontario rallied at the Canadian corporate headquarters to protest the closing of a plant that has 100 years of history in that city and its relocation to North Carolina. NC essentially "bought" the plant with the promise of $22.75 million in grants and tax breaks and an additional $120 million in low cost loans. In return Siemens said that they would invest $135 million in their new facilities. Note that the government largess exceeds the promised investment by $7.75 million. Pretty sweet deal if you can get it. Oh, and don't forget that North Carolina is a so-called "right to work" state where it is much harder for workers to unionize.

The Siemens company has a long and not very glorious history. Leaving aside its "ancient history" as a supporter of the Nazi party in Germany in recent years it has been embroiled in multiple bribery scandals across the world. It has also, of course, as a "paragon of free enterprise" been the recipient of untold millions in government giveaways in many countries. Sometimes, however, they don't get away with the silverware. In 1999 they were ordered to repay 18 million pounds in grants in Britain after they closed one of their state sponsored "enterprises".

The Hamilton plant is probably doomed as Canadian governments are unlikely to offer up the amount of corporate welfare available stateside. Nor should they. The present dispute is more about severance conditions than anything else. In "response" to the demonstration reported below the company retaliated by moving up the date of closure from July 2011 to April 2011 when their present collective agreement runs out. There is, of course, little to be done from now to then except continue the argument between the union and the company. As the closure date draws nearer, however, workers at Siemens might look to how workers at GM in Windsor in 2009 , also represented by the CAW, managed to extract better conditions by occupying the plant that was due to close. This tactic has also been quite successful in many other workplaces in recent years.

The workers at Siemens are represented by Local 504 of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). Here's the story of the demonstration from their website.

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Mass Demonstration at Siemens Canada Head Office

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CAW Local 504 members who work at Siemens Canada's gas turbine facility in Hamilton, Ontario held a mass demonstration outside the company's headquarters to protest plans to close the plant and move work to North Carolina.

They urged the highly profitable company to reverse the decision or find alternate work for the long-time Hamilton facility. Failing those options they demanded the company sit down with the CAW to finalize an equitable settlement.

The company has announced plans to close the gas turbine plant in July 2011.

"We're getting increasingly frustrated at this company's callous attitude towards its workforce, so this could be the first of many similar events if things don't change," said CAW Local 504 President Randy Smith. "We continue to receive strong support from our brothers and sisters at IG Metall in Germany, the metalworkers' union which represents Siemens workers there, who believe there remains a strong future for the Hamilton facility as well as gas turbine facilities in Germany."

"After more than 100 years of commitment from this workforce in Hamilton it's a disgrace the way the company is treating these highly skilled workers," said CAW National Representative Tom Rooke. "They should treat these workers with the dignity they deserve - this is a corporation that's making billions in profits each year worldwide."

"It's time for this corporation to come back to the table and negotiate a fair and equitable agreement for these workers," said Rooke.

CAW President Ken Lewenza said Siemens is a world-wide producer that has benefited from government support and procurement contracts, including here in Canada. "Siemens should not forget that it owes its success to its productive workforce, including our members at the Hamilton facility," Lewenza said.

Failing the possibility of finding alternate work to keep the plant running, Lewenza said the union is demanding a fair settlement agreement, that to date Siemens has been unwilling to consider.

CAW Local 504 represents approximately 350 hourly and salaried members at Siemens in Hamilton.

CANADIAN POLITICS:
AUTOWORKERS CALL FOR PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO G20 SUMMIT:



More and more civil society groups are joining the call for a public inquiry into the police actions at the recent G20 summit in Toronto. All this while three days ago Conservative members of a parliamentary committee blocked it from recommending such an inquiry. The tactic was simple...keep on talking, and talking and talking until the committee had to adjourn.

One of the most recent groups to speak up is the Canadian Auto Workers' union (CAW). Here's their statement from their website.
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CAW Joins Call for Public Inquiry into G20 Police Actions


The CAW has joined with dozens of progressive organizations in condemning the curtailment of civil liberties during the G20 Summit and calling for a full, independent public inquiry into police actions in an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.

The detention of over 1000 citizens, many of whom were innocent bystanders, has been the subject of intense public criticism levied at the federal and provincial governments in recent weeks in the wake of G20 meetings held in Toronto on June 26-27. Of primary concern is the arbitrary nature in which these arrests took place, the extension of power granted to police in and around the security perimeter, along with the excessive force used by police and unsanitary and unsafe conditions for those detained.

The actions of police and a small group of protestors, unconnected with the People's First rally, and the excessively strong-armed police actions marred what was a very large and peaceful demonstration in Toronto that involved tens of thousands of labour union, student and social justice activists, including hundreds of CAW members from all across Ontario.

Demonstrators, representing a wide cross-section of Canadian civil society organizations and various progressive causes, called on G20 leaders to ensure the issues of decent work, environmental sustainability and action against global poverty were at the top of their meeting agenda, including the need to promote more extensive economic recovery efforts and prevent future economic crises by adopting a global tax on financial transactions.

A large contingent of women activists lead the peaceful march, demanding that Stephen Harper reverse his decision to exclude abortion among the various maternal health-promotion measures that G20 nations will support in developing countries around the world.

CAW President Ken Lewenza, who participated in the demonstration, called the rally a tremendous success. "I'm always inspired by the resolve of our activists who are willing to stand up against injustice and raise their voices to demand a better, more equal and humane world - especially in the face of an intimidating police presence."

Most national and international media attention of the day focused on events that transpired after the peaceful demonstration had wound its way back to Queen's Park, when a small group of protestors and self-identified anarchists were shown participating in acts of vandalism.

A full copy of the open letter can be found on the Canadian Federation of Students website: http://www.cfs-fcee.ca/html/english/campaigns/g20inquiry.php

CANADIAN LABOUR-TORONTO/OTTAWA:

SUPPORT NORTEL WORKERS AND PENSIONERS:

The following call for two upcoming demonstrations is from the website of the Canadian Auto Workers. As in most bankruptcies in our society it is the workers who get the short end of the stick. Molly urges her readers to go to the CAW website where there is wealth of information about what is happening around the closing down of Nortel. As that website says, "Bankruptcy law is designed to protect the banking and money lending system; it is not designed to protect those who have given their lives to the service of a company. Those few changes that have been made to better protect working people and those that have retired from work, have come at the insistance of unions, including the CAW."

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Support the Nortel Workers and Pensioners Rallies:
Nortel Networks initiated financial restructuring in Canada under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) earlier this year. As a result, the company stopped paying severance, transition allowances and deferred wages to all former employees and retirees.

The CAW is joining with the Nortel Retirees and former employee Protection Canada (NRPC) to demand that both the federal and provincial government ensure that Nortel workers get the benefits they were promised and not to allow a wind-up of the Nortel pension fund.

CAW members, Nortel retirees and supporters will be gathering for two rallies, demanding that both levels of government guarantee pensions and other promised benefits:

Wednesday, October 7 at 12 noon at Queen's Park in Toronto and Wednesday, October 21 at 12 noon on Parliament Hill.

"Governments in the U.S. and U.K. have acted on behalf of the Nortel workers in their countries, why is the Canadian government ignoring this potential tragedy," says CAW President Ken Lewenza.

Check the CAW website at www.caw.ca/en/5511 for more information or contact CAW Retired Workers Director Jenny Ahn at: 1-800-268-5763

CANADIAN LABOUR:

GENERAL MOTORS MOVES TOWARDS COURT INJUNCTION TO END BLOCKADE OF OSHAWA HEADQUARTERS:

As the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) blockade of the Oshawa Ontario headquarters of General Motors enters its second week the company has announced its intentions to seek a court injunction to end the blockade. So far the response of the union brass has been feeble at best. The present plans, if you can call them that, of the CAW involve lobbying for the federal government to insist that GM live up to the terms of of the Auto Pact. Can we say "snowball's chance in hell", particularly as the feds are getting geared up to award GM with yet another few hundreds of millions of dollars for technical development at other plants. One hopes that union head honcho Buzz Hargrove starts his lobbying efforts at his "commemoration dinner" where such horny handed proletarians as Frank Stronach and Brian Mulroney (quick- lock up the bar!!!) will be in attendance to fete him upon his past services. The lack of reality contained in the CAW "plan" is astounding, and it may be on a par with the Trotskyist "demand" to "nationalize the auto plants under 'workers' control' "(a more than slightly self contradictory statement as "government control is not "workers' control") In both cases such "demands" are made for press play rather than any realistic plan.

No one doubts that the workers of the Oshawa truck plant have a hard row to hoe. The type of vehicle produced at the plant is and will continue to be economically unviable. Gas guzzlers will soon become more museum pieces than actual transportation options. The amount of government slush money that would be necessary to bribe GM to keep the plant open (when they are closing other such plants in the USA as well) far exceeds the $200 million give-away that the feds are presently offering to GM for "technical development" of other lines.

Does Molly have a solution up her sleeve ? The basic answer is "no", and while I may decry the craven attitude of the CAW in this (and previous) situations I know that simple "militancy" can hardly solve this problem. What I would propose is as follows. That the Oshawa plant be indeed closed, but that the physical assets of the facility be retained as "partial payment" for previous subsidies to GM because the company has not fulfilled the terms of such 'contracts". I further propose that the plant be retooled for other production, if this is at all possible. being unfamiliar with the physical layout and technology I am uncertain that this is possible. Electric cars maybe ???? I further propose that about 1/4 to 1/2 of the presently planned reward to GM for its bad behavior be directed towards this retooling and the support of the workforce while this is underway- with priority, of course, towards employing the present workforce during the transition period. i further propose that upon re-opening that the GM plant be incorporated as a producers' cooperative and given all the tax advantages of such status. I also propose that the federal and Ontario government treat the new entity in the same way that they have treated GM in the past (and how they propose to treat it in the future). No better. No worse. If government monies are grants, then let the same flow to the new coop. If they are "easy term loans" then let the new coop receive the same terms.

"Nationalization under workers' control" is, of course, an oxymoron. It's one or the other, and the historical record of statist so-called "socialism" says very plainly that it means the control and ownership of the Marxist or social democratic ruling class. As such it means an enterprise where the sort of creativity and enterprise that could be brought forward under real workers' control is a non-starter. It would end up as a bureaucratic boondoggle with little to recommend it to customers or the long suffering taxpayer. The government, of various levels, will obviously have to be involved in a project of this magnitude, but their involvement and control should never exceed that of any other creditor. Banks don't dictate the fine details of the business operations of those whom they make loans to. They are also not in the business of handing out free money as governments are by the way.

Is such a scenario possible ? In some ways it shares the same sort of air of unreality as the present CAW proposal. Can you see Harper biting at such a thing ? On the other hand it is important to make such proposals in the here and now. In a different situation, with different governments and, most importantly, a different labour movement that would be willing to consider such solutions proposals such as this would be far more realistic than anyone's plans today. A different labour movement ? Decades ago, when I first became an anarchist, the idea that anarchist ideas could have an influence on the labour movement was a ridiculous pipe dream. Today the situation is quite different, and there are numerous labour activists with anarchist ideas. They may still be far too sparse to push unions in a consistently libertarian direction, but they do at least exist. What Molly proposes is that they cease to hold their anarchist views separate from their daily activity, that they abandon the ideological dream of "revolution" that translates, at its worst, into dog-tailing the "left" while making appeals to "militancy" at its best. That they begin to formulate long-term plans of action that are at least as possible as social democratic solutions.

As such a labour movement develops it will be the result of long and hard organizing efforts on the part of ordinary people involved in the labour movement. It will have many temporary victories and defeats, but it is a goal to work towards. It would be a labour movement that takes "class struggle" and "socialism" (not the class rule of government bureaucrats but rather producers' coops) seriously. This is obviously not the situation today, but it is the long term goal that we should work towards.

But enough of the opinions. Here's the news from the Canadian Press about the latest plans of GM and the "non-plans' of the CAW to oppose them. For the official take of these events from the Canadian Auto Workers see their website.

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CAW says not surprised by GM's move to end blockade through courts
OSHAWA, Ont.

— The Canadian Auto Workers union says it's not surprised General Motors is preparing to go to court in a bid to end the blockade of its Canadian headquarters in Oshawa.

CAW Local 222 president Chris Buckley said Monday the union anticipated the court fight and has no plans to back down from its roadblock, which was launched last week.

He said the union will wait to see just how aggressively GM pursues its legal battle before coming up with a plan.

Buckley wouldn't say whether the union would consider ignoring a court order to end the blockade.

But CAW president Buzz Hargrove said workers don't plan to stir up trouble.

"We have a rally on Thursday, and our local people have said they're going to follow the law," he said in Toronto after a CAW meeting. "They're not going to challenge the law, so if there's an injunction I assume that would mean they would live by the injunction."

Angry GM employees have spent the past week blocking the entrance to the company's Canadian offices to protest the pending closure of the city's truck plant.

GM has confirmed it will seek "collaborative or such necessary legal means" to end the blockade, which is hampering its Canadian operations.

The closure of the Oshawa plant, which will put 2,600 people out of work, is slated for 2009.
Buckley would not say what other measures the union might be planning to exert further pressure on GM.

"At this time I'll keep that to myself but we are not going to give up our fight to save the jobs of 2,600 of our members," he said.

"This is about our members, their families and all of our communities, and we're not going to stop."

Hargrove admitted prospects for the Oshawa workers appear bleak.

"Next week we're going to look at what are legal options are," he said. "Quite frankly, we're not overly enthused by that. In the history of courts or labour boards or arbitrators, we can't find anywhere they've forced a company to invest or keep a plant open once they've made the decision to get out."

Hargrove said taking the issue to Parliament may be the best chance to save the Oshawa facility.
"If we could get a resolution saying General Motors must live by the principles of the Canada-U.S. Auto Pact, then GM can't do that unless they keep the truck plant open," he said.

"One thing about General Motors and the companies is they don't like to violate the law. If the politicians are joining us on the issue here, I think it can make a difference. It may not - maybe GM will tell everybody to go to hell, who knows? There's an arrogance out there today that's unprecedented in my lifetime."

CANADIAN LABOUR:

GM HEADQUARTERS BLOCKADE ENTERS ITS FIFTH DAY:

As Molly writes this the blockade of the GM headquarters in Oshawa Ontario has entered its fifth day. The blockade has so far been supported by a "drive-by" protest that shut down production at the Oshawa truck plant yesterday, even though the union leadership has been quite reluctant to call for any more militant actions. Here's a story from the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press about the latest protests about this event.

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GM workers continue protest over Ontario truck plant plans
Associated Press
OSHAWA, Ontario

- General Motors Corp. workers took their protest on the road Saturday over plans to close an Ontario pickup truck factory, and the automaker's production was disrupted for part of the day.

A Canadian Auto Workers union blockade of GM's Oshawa offices that began Wednesday remained in effect. A vehicle convoy Saturday involving about 100 people circling the Oshawa truck and car plants prevented deliveries.

Trucks delivering parts could not get in, and union spokesman Keith Osborne says that forced a temporary shutdown at both the car and truck plants. The truck plant set to be closed employs 2,600 hourly and 300 salaried workers.

"General Motors experienced a little bit of heartburn today," said CAW Local 222 president Chris Buckley. "That's nothing compared to what 2,600 of my members feel every day right now. It's a lot more than heartburn."

Buckley said the union would only take legal protest measures for now.

GM spokesman Stew Low said the automaker lost a little bit of production Saturday at the plants, but not a substantial amount. He said Saturday afternoon that production was back up and running.

CAW President Buzz Hargrove met Friday with GM CEO Rick Wagoner in Detroit. Hargrove has said the automaker committed to keeping the Oshawa truck plant open in a contract agreement May 15. Hargrove said the agreement also included a promise that the Oshawa plant would build a new hybrid truck, keeping it running until at least 2011.

But GM announced Tuesday it would close the plant in 2009. GM says it's closing Oshawa and three other pickup and sport utility vehicle factories as $4 per gallon gas has caused sales to tumble.

GM said it can shut down factories if market conditions warrant and that the Oshawa truck was picked for idling because it makes the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra -- high-end pickups with costlier options, a segment of the market affected severely by the sales decline.

Hargrove said market conditions haven't changed in the 2 weeks since GM agreed to the new three-year deal with the CAW. Low said that at the time of negotiations, GM still believed that the slumping pickup market could recover. Since then, the trend away from trucks to cars has accelerated, he said.

CANADIAN LABOUR:

BUZZ STRIKES OUT:

Today's meeting of CAW officials with executives of the General Motors corporation in Detroit came out snake-eyes for Canadian auto workers. The meeting listed 90 minutes, and was "tense" according to Hargrove. Management, however, refused to back down one inch, and the CAW's Hargrove said that he would consider his options- a strike, arbitration or labour board complaint. Significantly absent was the possibility of the sort of plant occupations that have won Canadian workers workers victories in the past few years. The president of the union local involved, however, has said that the blockade of the GM headquarters in Oshawa will continue in light of the decision. Here's the story of the meeting as recently published in the Montreal Gazette (from the Windsor Star).

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Union to continue fight to save Oshawa plant
DETROIT - Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove said Friday he would continue fighting to save union jobs after General Motors Corp. refused to reverse a decision to close its Oshawa, Ont., truck plant in September 2009.

Emerging from a 90-minute meeting GM chief executive Rick Wagoner- which he described as "tense" - Hargrove said he was "incredibly disappointed" that GM won't honour a bargaining commitment made less than three weeks ago.

"We made a helluva case but they had their minds made up before the meeting and they weren't interested in changing," he said.

CAW president Buzz Hargrove: 'We made a helluva case but they had their minds made up before the meeting.'


GM spokesman Stew Low said the closure decision was prompted by a "fundamental shift away from large trucks and SUVs to cars which we believe is not cyclical and can't be reversed.

"There just isn't the market anymore and we see no reason to keep building vehicles that consumers don't want."

Ron Carlyle, a member of CAW Local 222 which represents workers at the plant, said: "It's a sickening feeling to realize that the company has ripped the heart and soul out of the collective bargaining process."

Carlyle also said a blockade by union members of GM's Canadian headquarters in Oshawa would continue.

Local 222 president Chris Buckley, speaking later to union members outside the GM building, said the vigil will go on until the company agrees to keep the truck plant open.

"They want their building back. They're not getting their building back," he said.

Before Friday's meeting, Hargrove said that nothing short of a reversal by General Motors of its decision to close the Oshawa truck plant would satisfy his members.

GM announced Tuesday that the plant would close in the third quarter of 2009 because of slumping truck sales, throwing 2,600 workers out of their jobs. Hargrove vowed the CAW would fight the closure, which he called a "betrayal" of the collective bargaining process.

During recently completed bargaining, Hargrove said, GM committed to keeping the plant open until the new labour agreement expired in 2011, to continue building hybrid versions of two pickup trucks in Oshawa and to making a new investment in 2011 that would launch the next generation of half-ton trucks.

While the agreement contained a clause addressing market conditions, Hargrove said that GM sold the same number of trucks in May that it sold in April, and added there had been no change in the market in two weeks.

"Someone (at GM) had to have known what was going on. You don't make a decision to close four plants in two weeks," he said.

On Wednesday, GM workers blocked access to GM's Canadian headquarters in Oshawa.

Following discussions between the company and the CAW, GM agreed to Friday's meeting.
Last month, GM announced it would close its Windsor transmission plant, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs.

The company and union recently reached a closure agreement for transmission plant workers calling for, among other things, retirement payouts of between $75,000 and $100,000.

CANADIAN LABOUR:

PLANT OCCUPATION IN KITCHENER ENDS:

How fast things move in galaxies far, far away. Despite vows to "stay as long as it takes", just as Molly was writing yesterday's article on the occupation of the Ledco Ltd. plant in Kitchener Ontario a court injunction was being passed declaring the factory occupation illegal. Workers occupying the plant decided to obey the injunction, and filed out from the plant yesterday afternoon. They were later allowed back in, accompanied by police, to retrieve tools and other personal effects from their lockers.

Not that this was a totally senseless decision. The occupation gained the support of perhaps 100s of community members over the days that it took place, but this is hardly reassuring when you have to look at the blunt alternatives of "losing by agreeing" and "losing by not agreeing while at the same time being beat up and criminally charged- all the way to assaulting a police officer's fist with your face, known in the legal trade as "resisting arrest". Hundreds are fine and comforting. Thousands are more effective. No doubt there were, as well, a few subtle hints dropped by the union reps that legal support from the union executive would not be overly generous. Very few people except the "summit-hoppers" amongst my mad comrades think that fighting with the police is "fun", and even fewer are under any delusions that losing such battles (as the summit-hoppers always do)actually accomplishes something.

The Canadian Auto Workers have maintained a picket outside the plant gate where they hope to talk to truck drivers contracted by the receivers to empty the premises of anything valuable. The union has said that the drivers will not be physically prevented from entering the plant, though there will be no help given in locating products presently stockpiled inside. Union head honcho Buzz Hargrove showed up at the factory gates the other day to try and offer some consolation and hope. He argued that big customers of Ledco such as GM, Ford and Chrysler have a moral obligation to cover the cost of the $1.2 million in severance pay that the company owes to the workers. In Canadian bankruptcy law such obligations take a distant place behind other creditors of a bankrupt. In at least one other case of a plant shutdown the CAW did indeed negotiate payment of severance on the part of the clients of the plant.

As Molly remarked in her previous blog on this occupation the takeover of plants is an important tactic in a long term struggle to change public perception of who actually "owns" a factory. In manager-speak those may be referred to as "stakeholders" even if they don't have legally protected property rights at this time. Law follows custom. Plant occupations may not always, or even usually, win their demands, particularly as they are too often taken as last ditch methods in the face of such things as closure of an operation. Carried out in other, less dramatic, situations they may prove even more effective than they have to date. They will be most effective, in the beginning at least, in the proverbial "company towns" where the average person in the community can see their own role as a "stakeholder", along with the workers at an enterprise, in a clearer fashion than many in larger centres can see it. Yet it is important that such actions be imitated, not because each and every one will result in success but because they build a climate of opinion where such things are increasingly seen as legitimate. Build this climate and the law will tail along behind it.

In many European countries such occupations are quite commonplace. Even in Germany the recent 'Strike Bike' takeover(see articles in this Blog's archives for Jan 6, 2008, and Oct. 20, Oct. 4 and Sept. 21 of 2007 for more info on 'Strike Bike')inspired such international solidarity that many others will be likely to imitate it in the future. Here in Canada there have been a number of such actions. The oldest that Molly can find, in the last two decades, is the occupation of the offices of PC World in Toronto in 1997. The most dramatic was the occupation of the Alcan plant in Arvida, Quebec in 2004. this was notable because the workers at that plant, like the Germans at Strike Bike, resumed production under self-management. Just last year there were numerous instances of such occupations, including the First Ontario Credit Union, the Colins and Aikman plant in Scarborough, Ontario, the Masonite Manufacturing premises in Mississauga and the Hamilton Speciality Bar (a metal working plant). These were initiated by various unions, and none of them went so far as the people in Arvida did in resuming production without bosses.

So why do these actions if they aren't guaranteed to win ? First of all because they raise the "threat level" in union/management negotiations, and their very possibility strengthens the hand of workers vis-a-vis the boss. It is also the case that, if played right, they can be virtually "costless" to the workers involved. They may not win, but neither do they contribute to a loss. They also serve to bind the people involved together in a much more obvious community than taking shifts on a picket line does. There is also the matter of the "long view". Though factory occupations are almost unknown in the USA today the time when "sit-down strikes", factory occupations in all but name, were common (the 30s, for instance) led in the long term to building the sort of unionism that won many of the gains for American labour that have been slowly eroding over the past two decades. Perhaps it's time to learn from the grandfathers and grandmothers.

CANADIAN LABOUR:

KITCHENER WORKERS OCCUPY FACTORY:

Ledco, a tool and die maker in Kitchener Ontario, has had a long history in that community since 1932, having once manufactured parts for the Avro Arrow project in the 1950s. Lately, however, due to the rising Canadian dollar and outsourcing of production to low wage countries, the company has fallen on hard times. Employment at the plant has fallen from over 100 to about 65 people in recent years. Rather than innovate, management opted to try and squeeze the workers at the plant- much easier than actually being creative in either one's production or one's sales. The management demanded a pay cut of 25% in wages and a 20% cut in benefits from its employees, an offer that the workers, represented by Canadian Auto Workers' Local 1524, rejected. The company's next move was to close its doors last Wednesday (Jan. 23) and declare bankruptcy the next day (Jan. 24). A note was taped to the door of the plant stating, :The employment of all employees of Ledco Limited is hereby terminated effective immediately".

The response of the workers affected was rapid. On the day of the bankruptcy declaration many employees of the plant moved to occupy the premises, bypassing two security guards who elected to do nothing. They were bolstered by people from other nearby Canadian Auto Workers locals. Contingents were split up between people inside the plant and those outside who succeeded in blocking trucks coming to pick up recent production (yes, the owners, the Arends family of Ottawa, continue to make money despite their putative bankruptcy). The union plans to have at least 100 people present at the site at all times, split between the inside and outside contingents. Those outside moved in a trailer and built fires in barrels to keep warm (see above photo). It ain't as bad as out here in the west, but it's still bloody cold. The Kitchener police parked a van across the street, along with two cruisers and began to take video of the strikers.

The workers have vowed to stay as long as it takes to get the severance pay that they are entitled to by law. As one worker said, "We own the building now. It's the only thing we can do to leverage for severance pay and other benefits". On Friday the union allowed representatives from Deloitte & Touche into the plant to conduct an inventory of remaining assets. Deloitte & Touche are the accounting firm appointed as bankruptcy trustees. Ledco had claimed total liabilities of $14.5 million and total assets of $ 7 million. No effort is being made to investigate possible transfer of liquid assets prior to the declaration of bankruptcy. Rather typical of many bankruptcy events actually. Deloitte & Touche have so far refused to issue any comment to the media. The CAW has also begun talks with customers of Ledco who are awaiting orders yet to be shipped.

Typically in bankruptcy cases in Canada workers come well down the list of preference in terms of creditors. The CAW has used plant occupations in previous closure cases. In 2005 workers occupied the VSA plant in Kitchener over the company's refusal to pay severance pay. this occupation lasted only 14 hours due to a court injunction that the workers decided to obey. The plant closed a month later, and the issue was lost. Last April, however, members of the CAW took over the Collins & Aikman auto parts plant in Scarborough. After two days, Daimler Chrysler, a major customer of the plant, agreed to provide the severance pay owed to the workers in order to obtain release of the parts that it had ordered from the plant. The pressure on the plant was increased by solidarity strikes across the province of Ontario. Soon afterwards a steel smelter in Hamilton announced that it would be closing its doors and not honouring severance agreement. The workers responded by occupying the plant, and within a day the company backed down.

A lot of this history and more can be found in an article by Julian Benson and Alex Grant entitled 'High Strike Rate and Factory Occupations in Canada'. Just a little public health warning here. The authors are unreconstructed commies, of which flavour Molly is unsure. As such anything they say should be considered as "provisional" until otherwise verified- commies being the most notorious liars that human history has ever produced. When checking the "strike rate" that they cite from their original reference, the 'UK Office for National Statistics', Molly found out, to her joy that they were only "partly bullshitting". Their main point was that strike activity was higher in Canada than in any other OECD country other than Iceland (I kid you not !). That is at least partially true, as averages from 1996 to 2005 show that "working days not worked per 1,000 employees" due to strikes and lockouts were quite high for Canada. Iceland came in at 401. Canada rated 208. The next highest numbers were Spain at 186 and Denmark at 165. What the authors of the report ignored during the process of grinding their axes was that these averages conceiled some very largen year to year fluctuations. They also ignored the effect of population on the statisgtics they cited. large strikes in small countries such as Denmark or Iceland can skew the numbers tremendously, as can large strikes in Canada when compared to countries with larger populations such as France or Italy.

This is hardly the place to argue how Marxists cherry pick their "facts" to support some already determined conclusion., What is interesting about the original reference is that, taken as a whole, it shows a remarkable consistancy in painting the Canadian industrial scene (and even more so the "service sector") as relatively militant even in comparison with countries such as France and Italy where labour militancy and factory occupations are pretty well standard fare. What it fails to prove, because it doesn't eneter into such territory at all, is that factory occupations in Canada are occuring at a higher rate than in other OECD countries, and that their rate is increasing.

That's too bad beacuse the subject is important. If you are not deluded enough to imagine, as the authors of the above report are, that all of this is some sort of "dialectical buildup" that will inevitably produce a revolution that will raise them up as a new ruling class, the subject of factory occupations is important because it relects on the subject of "property rights". In a realistic approach to socialism, without the grand drama of repeating the storming of the Winter Palace, cetain sets of "rights" are gradually transformed due to social struggle. "Property Rights" are often complete legal fictions. Nobody in their right mind believes, for instance, that "Crown Lands" are actually the property of the Queen of England to do with as she will. Constant battles are found out in boardrooms and the courts over "corporate governance" over whether assets of a corporation are the property of the managers who really control them or the stockholders who nominally own them. Ownership means control. factory occupations are important because they are small skirmishes in a long term battle to embody the concept that workers have "property rights" over their jobs. Just as communities should have "property rights" over the enterprises that are in their locality. The reform whereby workers would count much higher on the list of preffered creditors would be one milestone in the move to such an expansion of the idea of "property". Eventually social practice should make it plain that the "equity" of workers who have worked for a long time in a given enterprise would have firm legal (which depend upon customary) rights. Factory occupations are battles where such rights can be established. Political parties will only repond to enough "boots on the ground". They will not legislate such rights out of the kindness of their social-democratic hearts. they react. they don't initiate. It is useless to vote for the NDP because they exude a warm and cozy odour of "being friendly to labour".

For further updates on this occupation see the website of the CAW. The website of Local 1524 is, unfortuntately in great need of updating. The platformist site Linchpin, from Ontario, has reported on this occupation, and they promise further updates. See that site for further references as well.