August 25, 2000
Volume 30, No. 23
Falconbridge CAW Members On Strike
More than 1,200 Canadian Auto Workers union members at Falconbridge, Sudbury's large nickel, copper and precious metals producer, have been on strike since August 1, fighting company demands for concessions and fighting to make important contract gains. The company continues to demand massive concessions in union representation, contract language and sub-contracting. Rolly Gauthier, the president of CAW Local 598, said that mine mill workers will not walk backwards. Letters of support should be directed to CAW/Mine Mill Local 598, 19 Regent Street South, Sudbury, ON, P3C 4B7, or e-mailed to: marianne_delbosco@on.aibn.com.
CAW's Hargrove Challenges Ontario's Move To Longer Work Hours
CAW president Buzz Hargrove appeared before the committee looking at Ontario's Employment Standards legislation to outline major problems with Harris government plans to rollback laws regulating workers and workplace issues. Hargrove presented a CAW brief August 23 that is critical of the direction the government is headed. "When Europe is legislating shorter work time, when other provinces have shorter work time, when the papers are filled with the crisis working families face with the strain of overwork, to bring in a paper suggesting longer hours, less holidays and "flexibility" - often the industry word for mandatory overtime - is incredibly insensitive to working peoples' lives." The CAW's written brief outlines serious concerns and lists dozens of rollbacks to existing laws and regulations being proposed by the Harris government. If approved, the Harris proposals will result in a major step back in time for Ontario workplaces and workers. Instead, the CAW brief calls for change that will truly modernize the working conditions of employees across the province, for example: - move to an eight hour day and 40 hour week, with overtime pay thereafter and the right to refuse overtime; - raise the minimum wage; - provide a three-week vacation entitlement; - an additional 17 weeks of parental leave for new parents; - a minimum of one week of employer-paid annual leave for training and learning. "...European standards are actually moving slowly but surely towards the 35 hour work week...and even junior workers in EU countries can expect four weeks or more paid vacation annually." To read the entire brief go to the CAW's web page, www.caw.ca, under New This Week or call CAW national representative Laurell Ritchie at 1-800-268-5763 for a hard copy of New Rights For A New Century.
The Canadian Air Traffic Controllers Vote To Join CAW
The 2,200 members of the Canadian Air Traffic Controllers Association have voted by 52.7 percent to join the Canadian Auto Workers union. The air traffic controllers provide direction to aircraft and also control air safety in airports across Canada. These very highly skilled professional employees, formerly employed by the federal government, now work for a non-profit corporation, NAV-Canada. "We know the air traffic controllers voted for the CAW to send the employer a message that the CAW does not bargain concessions," said CAW president Buzz Hargrove. CATCA president Fazal Bhimji stated the merger with the CAW is a new approach to building better labour relations and to improving working conditions for members at NAV-Canada as our next round of collective bargaining begins December 1, 2000.
