CANADIAN LABOUR- THE MARITIMES:

SUPPORT LOCKED OUT WORKERS AT ACADIAN COACH LINES:

Last November workers at Acadian/ien Bus Lines in the Maritimes were locked out by their employer when they refused a concessionary contract offer. The workers involved have been locked out for three months, and they are asking supporters to pressure management to accept arbitration. Here is the story

from Labour Start.

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Canada: End the lockout at Acadian Coach Lines


The 3-month long lockout, affecting the areas of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, began in December 2011 when Acadian Coach Lines, a subsidiary of French multinational Keolis, locked out their employees because of a labour dispute. This has resulted in no intercity bus service in these provinces of Canada leaving many who rely on buses to get to and from cities in these provinces stranded.

The dispute began in late November 2011 when Acadian presented a concessionary contact to the workers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1229. The bus drivers, mechanics and sales agents had been working without a contract for months. The insulting contract was overwhelmingly rejected by 88% and workers gave their 72-hour strike notice to the company. Acadian then decided to lock out the workers.

The union has made numerous offers, most recently on February 12, 2012, to go back to the table with the help of a federally appointed mediator and return to work immediately, but Acadian has rejected all offers. The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) and French transportation unions in CGT, CFDT and FO federations have expressed their solidarity with the ATU and its locked out workers.

The Amalgamated Transit Union has been waging a campaign working to build coalitions with transit advocates, labour organizations and other groups to bring attention to the corporate greed at Acadian and bring and end this lock out that has a major impact on working people and their families throughout New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
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THE LETTER
Please go to this link to send the following letter to Acadian Coach Lines management.

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It’s time to stop the corporate greed at Acadian Coach Bus Lines in Canada. I join the global protest in calling on French multinational Keolis to intervene with its Canadian subsidiary Acadian to end the 3-month lockout of bus drivers and call for a negotiated solution. The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) and French transportation unions in CGT, CFDT and FO federations have expressed their solidarity.

Recognizing that many rely on this critical bus service the workers, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), were willing to return to work 12 days into the lock out when the Union applied to Acadian to go to binding interest arbitration, but Acadian refused leaving the public out in the cold for the holiday season.

Then on February 15, 2012, the Union once again asked to go to binding interest arbitration and return to work immediately, but the Company again rejected the workers’ attempt to put an end to this labor dispute for the better of the riding public.

This is another case of corporate greed that has brought the global economy to its knees and decimated working people and their families across Canada and the world.

It’s time for Acadian to bargain fairly and give workers the cost-of-living increase they deserve. I stand in solidarity with Acadian bus drivers and mechanics and demand that Acadian bring back service to Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

CANADIAN LABOUR-CHARLOTTETOWN PEI:

SOLIDARITY DEMO FOR CHARLOTTETOWN SEWAGE WORKERS:

It's Canada's smallest province, and it's the smallest capital city in the country, but no situation is too small for solidarity. The number of strikers- five, but the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is standing behind their members. The sewage treatment workers of the City of Charlottetown have been on strike for a week now, and CUPE organized a demonstration in solidarity with their members. Here's the story from CUPE.

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CUPE backs Charlottetown strikers:

More than 100 CUPE members from across PEI, rallied in front of Charlottetown’s city hall Oct. 24, to support CUPE 501's week-old strike.

Paul Moist told the crowd this strike is about fairness and respect. “The solidarity evident in the community tells me that these members have broad support. Our five striking members are not alone; they have the full support of 570,000 CUPE members from coast to coast.”

Moist urged the city to return to the table. “Our waste water treatment plant workers provide an important service, one that deserves to be fairly recognized at the bargaining table.”

CUPE PEI President, Milo Murray said “This strike is about the City of Charlottetown spending $20 million renovating their waste water treatment plant, bringing it from a Level 2 to a Level 4 operation, but refusing to pay five highly skilled workers accordingly.”

The president of the PEI Federation of Labour, Carl Pursey, also stressed the solidarity amongst unionized workers on the Island, and brought along the support of the Federation.

The five members of CUPE 501 have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2006. Negotiations began in Feb. 2008.

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Here's how the event was reported in the local newspaper 'The Guardian'.

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Union stages protest in Charlottetown to support striking treatment plant workers :

TERESA WRIGHT

The Guardian

In a dramatic show of solidarity, the union representing five workers on strike from the Charlottetown wastewater treatment plant staged a protest in front of City Hall Friday afternoon.

About a hundred members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), including its national president, as well as members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the P.E.I. Federation of Labour brought flags, balloons and whistles to the protest to make noise in support of the striking plant workers.

The five members of CUPE local 501 have been without a contract since December 2006. Negotiations for a new contract began in February of this year, but those negotiations broke down recently.

The workers have been on strike for a week.

“There is no negotiations at this point,” said the striking workers' local CUPE representative Bill MacKinnon. “The conciliator phoned me in the middle of the week and tried to go for some sort of settlement and we did make an offer in terms of creating steps in our collective agreement to allow them the wage increase they want and also get the adjustment we're looking for but it was dismissed, so we're back at the picket line.”

The workers are looking for a two per cent wage adjustment to recognize they have been raised two levels in their training and classification.

That would cost the city only about $7,900 more than they are offering, MacKinnon said.

When CUPE representatives told the crowd of protesting members this figure, they booed, jeered and blew squealing whistles in discontent.

Carl Pursey, president of the P.E.I. Federation of Labour, said the strike was about more than just respect for CUPE members, but for the whole labour movement.

“We'll show the city that they're not just taking CUPE on, but everybody.”

Roland Ford, one of the five plant workers on strike, said he and his co-workers are looking for an acknowledgement of respect for their work.

“We want city council to come back to the table and give us a fair settlement,” Ford told the crowd who cheered and chanted for him.

National CUPE president Paul Moist travelled to Charlottetown for the protest Friday.

“We're here today as a union that probably represents 570,000 workers from coast to coast,” Moist told the rally. “These five members will have the weight of our union behind them until their work is respected, and until they get a good collective agreement.”

Moist stressed the important services provided by the striking plant workers, and that they deserve the marginal increases they are asking for.

MacKinnon agreed.

“These people have lived and died the renovations of that plant, starting in 2005 until the renovations were complete,” MacKinnon said. “And they were hired for a level-2 plant, but they're now operating a level-4 plant. We're simply looking for some recognition that this has value attached to it — is that too much to ask?”

He said the $7,900 difference between what the workers are looking for and what the city is offering represents about half the amount the city spent on new sculptures of chairs in one city park.

“Not only that, they've hired 24/7 security guards (at the plant) and they've got a company in there contracting in to attempt to do our work — they can afford our offer?”