Workers mowed down by scabwagon
From the Toronto Star:
Striking workers hurt at Navistar plant
Driver of security vehicle charged; one worker in critical condition
CHATHAM, Ont. (CP) - At least three workers were hurt this morning in a labour-related confrontation at this southern Ontario city's Navistar International Truck and Engine plant.
The members of the Canadian Auto Workers were trying to prevent a busload of replacement workers from getting to the strike-bound factory.
The men were hurt when they were struck by a security vehicle hired by the company, a union official said.
One of the men was airlifted to a London, Ont., hospital in critical condition.
The bus full of replacement workers returned to London.
The driver of the van, a 21-year-old employee of London Protection Incorporated, was charged with dangerous driving.
Violence at the site Friday left two protesters with minor injuries and a striking auto worker facing a criminal charge.
More than 600 workers represented by CAW Local 127 walked off the job June 1 over a dispute with the company's plan to cut costs by $28 million (U.S.).
Navistar has threatened to close the plant - the city's largest employer - if workers refuse to accept pay cuts.
EYE on Strike Busters
Balaclavas and Jackboots Private Security Armies on the Picket Lines
What the hell are these scabs thinking?
quote:
Advertisements for temporary workers were placed in newspapers in Kenora and Fort Frances.
Oswald-Felker had said Thursday the step was precautionary one, but necessary, as the company intended to keep the stores open if a strike occurred.
Safeway Ontario was looking to hire too.
How does hiring scabs equate to "we pride ourselves on strengthening our workforce and giving all our employees the opportunity for advancement"???
quote:
What the hell are these scabs thinking?
I don't believe any thought process is going on inside their little heads. It seems history does repeat itself over and over again when we don't learn anything from past mistakes. There are so many instances of violence and massacres.
Herrin Massacre
Ludlow Massacre
Memorial Day Massacre
Navistar you big bully, hire a bunch of cement heads to break the right,s of the working people, that,s right working people have the right to fair a contract, working people have the right to negotiate with the company, So Navistar get back to the table put an end to the viloence on the strike line and negotiate with the union a fair deal. Message for Scab workers you want to work @ Navistar in Chatham then go to the HR department get an application and apply for a job like everyone else has to do. GO HOME SCABS.
There's a huge difference of what Buzz Hargrove does and says when CAW members are harmed and what a UFCW president does and says when UFCW members are screwed around.
One says, "Call out the troops!" and the other says, "Phone the lawyers."
What is the clc doing about this? An attack on labour of this magnitude should receive national and international support.
Where's the voice of working people? Where's solidaritys' outrage?
The CLC boys are mad at Buzz. That, in my humble opinion, is a plausible explanation for their surprising lack of outrage on this issue.
Oops, I am sorry. I spoke too soon. I see a media release has been issued.
quote:
Attention News/Labour Editors/See CP Wire Photo:
This is Globalization at Work?
G-8 Activists send solidarity message to striking Navistar workers
CALGARY, June 26 /CNW/ - Horrified by the images they saw on the news and the stories relayed through local unions, activists from around the world in Calgary this week to protest the G-8 Summit have passed a unanimous statement
of support and solidarity for workers picketing the Navistar truck plant in Chatham, Ontario.
"People were just floored," says Barb Byers, an Executive Vice President of the Canadian Labour Congress. "After listening to horror stories about what corporations are doing to workers in places like Africa and Central America, people couldn't believe their ears when they heard about what was going on in Southwestern Ontario."
At their spokescouncil Monday night, representatives from every protest group signed a message of support. Those large sheets are being shipped to the picket lines in Chatham to let workers there know they've got global support.
"This is corporate globalization at work," says Byers. "Right-wing governments enraptured by the corporate agenda, like the one in Ontario, that
legalize scab labour and facilitate union busting need to be held to account... this is not the global village we want to live in."
The Canadian Labour Congress represents 2.5 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together the majority of the country's international and national unions along with provincial and territorial labour federations and 137 district labour councils.
At the risk of sounding ungrateful though, I am wondering if the outraged leaders of the movement plan to do more than just issue media releases and send pieces of paper to the picket line. Why are they not going there themselves to show support? People make an impact. Pieces of paper are just pieces of paper.
I am also wondering why the great umbrella org is not protesting on the doorsteps of these strike busting companies?
So who are the union scabs? Which local do they belong to?
quote:
The volatile situation prompted Navistar to keep buses with replacement workers and managers away yesterday. The company also instructed more than 100 office employees in another union local not to report for work.
CAW and Navistar (International Truck) Return to Bargaining Table
quote:
TORONTO, July 13 /CNW/ - On Friday, CAW president Buzz Hargrove led top members of the CAW bargaining committee to meet with Navistar (International Truck) high-level officials in Detroit at which time agreement was reached to return to the bargaining table Saturday at 3 pm.
Talks resume at the Holiday Inn Select at Huron Church Rd in Windsor, Ontario, and will continue throughout the weekend in an effort to reach a collective agreement.
Approximately 600 members of the Canadian Auto Workers union Local 127 have been on strike since June 1, 2002.
Navistar and auto union agree on new contract, ending bitter strike
quote:
Canadian Press
Sunday, July 14, 2002
CHATHAM, Ont. (CP) - Unionized auto workers and Navistar International Corp. have reached a tentative contract deal, ending a bitter six-week strike at a truck plant in southwestern Ontario.
Navistar subsidiary International Truck and Engine Corp, announced Sunday it had reached a tentative agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union on a new two-year contract. Details of the deal were not released pending a ratification vote Monday, but CAW spokeswoman Jane Armstrong said the union and the local have both recommended that their members accept the company's offer.
The new contract covers about 645 CAW-represented production and maintenance employees at the Chatham plant, where the company's attempts to use replacement workers during the strike produced a tense standoff between the truck maker and striking employees.
Negotiations towards a new labour agreement began April 26, with the company seeking cuts that would lower operating costs at the plant. The CAW went on strike June 1.
The most recent negotiations resumed Saturday, after CAW president Buzz Hargrove led a top-level leadership group to Detroit to meet with senior company officials, including Stephen Keates, president of the Chatham plant.
"It has been an extremely tense situation but we believe we have a resolve to present to the membership on Monday," Hargrove said in a news release.
Production at the Chatham factory - a major employer in the southwestern Ontario city - has been averaging 39 trucks per day on one shift.
Navistar International (NYSE: NAV) is based in Warrenville, Ill.
Well that was fast. The co seems to have settled up in a hurry after taking such a hard line. I bet they didn't get any of the concessions they were looking for. Do you think public reaction to the scabwagon mowing down picketers had anything to do with this turn of events?