Negotiations Appear Headed for the "Ditch"

There is a looming crisis in area of labour relations in this country. One only has to read the comments after any article remotely related to business, labour, or strikes to see any number of comments opposed to any form a labour activism. Most are ill-informed, some downright venomous. The point is, that they are the result of an active campaign by business, and the conservative elements of government that have gradually begun to take hold. When times were good, workers were told that they didn't need unions because the corporations would look after them. Individual actions versus collective activism were promoted. Now that the bubble has burst, we are told that unions are greedy, and society can't afford them. On the government side, labour legislation has gradually been watered down and programs meant to protect workers such as workman's compensation, and unemployment insurance have been gutted. Good luck trying to deal with an unfair employer, or a unsympathetic bureaucracy if you are a worker in need.
A good example of the tactics being used by business to destroy the effectiveness of unions can be seen in the actions of Vale Inco in their current negotiations with the USWA at the Sudbury and Port Colborne operations. The Company is demanding concessions in the areas of wages, and contract language as well as a major restructuring of the current pension plan. In the Sudbury Star article referenced below, it is reported that the company wants to reduce the nickel bonus paid to the workforce. In the Globe and Mail, the Company sites this as one of the reasons that the Sudbury Operations are not viable. Nickel Bonus is a misnomer. This is not a bonus based on the price of nickel, but a bonus based on the profits achieved by the company. As such it cannot have any impact on the viability of the Sudbury operations. No profit, no bonus. This is an area that is often commented on by the ill-informed union bashers as an example of union greed.

The issue of frequency of being able to change jobs is a clear attempt by the Company to gut the seniority provisions of the collective agreement. This seems on the surface a simple request by the company that would allow them to “streamline” the administration of their workplace. However, anyone who has any background in labour relations would see this as a bright red warning light that is clearly the thin edge of the wedge designed to destroy the seniority provisions of every aspect of the collective agreement. In conjunction with the proposed two tier pension plan, the effect would also be to pit the older and younger workers against each other.

The changes to the pension plan would allow the company to cap the current defined benefit pension plan and place any workers hired after 2010 into a defined contribution plan. The article by Jim Stanford explains the magnitude of this concession demanded by the company from its workforce.

On the other hand, in the face of these types of assaults on the unions by both management and companies, organized labour has been for all intents and purposes been asleep at the wheel. These are not the isolated skirmishes by individual employers or industry groups of years past. These are much more organized and widespread and with the support of the political right, more effective. They have been aided and abetted by a Canadian media that has over the past quarter century become more conservative and concentrated in the hands of a few. The Labour Movement must begin to react to these assaults quickly or face becoming an increasingly irrelevant force for social change. A key strategy that needs to be adopted by unions is the realization the unions are more than an organization that was formed to look after the economic needs of a group of workers in a workplace but part of a broader social movement. In other words, unions need to reach out to each other and organize their responses to the assaults made against the working classes. They also need to engage their own memberships. Once organized, a union cannot afford to become complacent and ignore their own members. An old tennet of the Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Union from the 1940's was the one of the chief duties of the union leadership was to organize themselves. Many in the modern labour movement have been overwhelmed or have lost sight of this aspect of the job.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/vale-ceo-calls-sudbury-unit-not-sustainable/article1209841/

http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1646633

Update: Vale Inco has posted their latest contract proposals online: http://www.northernlife.ca/News/LocalNews/2009/vale080709.asp?NLStory=vale080709