…three. The administration rejected the offer and reverted to its original proposal that triggered the strike. In addition, the Administration has lied that its offer was 9.5 percent over two…

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Student Organizing 101 at the UMFA strike

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By James Wilt

Since November 2, more than 1,200 members of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA)—including professors, librarians, lecturers, and instructors—have been on strike following a strong 85 percent strike mandate in mid-October. This strike comes only five years after the last by UMFA in 2016.

The main issue is salaries. Since 2016, inflation has eroded 8 percent of wages and faculty salaries are now the second-lowest of 15 research universities in Canada, massively undermining recruitment and retention. Despite posting a $94 million surplus in 2020-21 following several years of tuition hikes, the University of Manitoba administration continues to lowball workers with below-inflation proposed increases over a two-year agreement: 1.25 percent in year one and 1.5 percent in year two. 

An offer tabled by UMFA on November 4 proposed a three-year agreement with 2 percent increases in year one and two and a 2.5 percent increase in year three. The administration rejected the offer and reverted to its original proposal that triggered the strike. In addition, the Administration has lied that its offer was 9.5 percent over two years and has locked students out from the university’s online education system.

The dispute is taking place within the context of the provincial public sector wage freeze legislation of 2017, which was recently upheld on appeal. While wage freeze never actually became law, contract negotiations have been repeatedly undercut by provincial interference. For example, in response to faculty receiving a small compensation adjustment for online teaching during COVID-19, the provincial government retaliated by cutting University of Manitoba operating funding for 2021-22 by $5.9 million (1.75 percent). 

As a consequence UMFA is targeting the provincial government as well as the University of Manitoba administration, and has faced down several instances of vehicular attacks and police intimidation, too. There have been pickets outside the Legislature, an attempted sit-in at Premier Heather Stefanson’s constituency office, and mass leafleting of residences in ridings of high-ranking provincial MLAs. UMFA has also highlighted the role of poor compensation in impeding the province’s supposed goal of rectifying the catastrophic nursing shortage which is a consequence of several years of crushing austerity cuts to healthcare.

From the very beginning of the strike, a strong contingent of university students have been organizing under the newly-formed banner of Students Support UMFA, playing a major role in educating other students, countering employer disinformation, and getting people out to actions. Rankandfile.ca spoke with Travis Hunnie, a second year fine arts student and organizer with Students Supporting UMFA, about the group’s work.

How did Students Supporting UMFA come into being?

I heard that when UMFA went on strike in 2016, there had been a similar group. I wanted to make sure that there was some group that was going to be clearly vocal in support of UMFA because the information that was being given to students was directly from the administration. I knew that there were a lot of students that would support UMFA, but also would just be supportive of collective action in general. I wanted to make sure there was a centralized group for that.

I also wanted to make sure that there was a group that was going to keep students informed, and I didn’t trust the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) to be able to do that, due to their relationships with admin [university administration – the employer]. I wanted to make sure there was a group that could act independently and effectively.

Why is it important that students are organizing independently in support of the strike?

There’s less likelihood that student organizers would get caught up in too much bureaucracy when they’re working independently, and that’s important because we have a really short timeframe to work with.

We’ve seen a lot of talk about students being used as pawns by the administration and since they are downstream of any of these major issues, students will bear the brunt of whatever happens. They should recognize that they have the power to voice their support for UMFA, which puts pressure on the university administration and the government. 

What have been some of the highlights for the group so far?

We’ve become a source of information for a lot of students. If we didn’t exist, students would be only be getting information from mass emails that are sent by admin. There have been a couple of instances where the things that admin has sent out in emails has been false or a spin on something. We’ve been critical of that stuff.

Right when the strike started, we had been slowly building a social media following: we were at about 300 followers on Instagram. On the day of the strike, we doubled our followers and a week later we are up to 1,800. It’s nice, because that was a goal of ours: to just keep each other informed.

Another thing we’ve been doing is helping UMFA on the picket lines: just being there but also some people have been delivering snacks and things like that. We participated in a sit-in at Heather Stefanson’s constituency office, which ended up being more of a picket because of Heather closing her office and disconnecting the phone. That was something where it was a small group within Students Supporting UMFA being more focused on the direct action.

Those are the main highlights: keeping people informed, presence on the picket line, and those kind of actions like sit-ins. We have more stuff like that planned.

Also, really early on—a week or so before the strike—there had still been silence from UMSU: our student union that’s quite centrist. Some of us in the group are members of the board of directors on UMSU so we were able to pass an emergency motion that pressured UMSU to make a statement and ally themselves with UMFA, and also our group. That was a really big win.

The motion was drafted by a bunch of people from the [student solidarity] group and it was a group effort to make that happen.

It’s been interesting to see the ways that they have not adhered to that motion, but that’s another discussion. Part of our work going forward will be to push for accountability in such groups that came out as allies.

There’s also been a lot of work to get statements of support from various student groups and organizations. What’s the process behind that?

We have working groups: a few people working on outreach were contacting student groups at the school and asking if they would release a statement.

A lot of times, these groups might have already released some sort of statement in support of UMFA, but we asked them to sign onto our joint statement as well. It was over 20 groups that ended up being on that joint statement, and more groups have been subsequently coming forward to add their names to it. That’s a powerful thing.

Many organizers from Students Supporting UMFA are members of other student councils, so inside our own councils we have been doing work to up the ante.

Can you talk about the new speaker series?

Someone who had been doing some organizing in the 2016 strike told us about their teach-ins that they did and we wanted to run with that idea.

Basically, the way I see it is that the strike is  a major event but it’s also a really great opportunity for people who don’t necessarily care about labour issues—or issues in areas like politics, economics, or gender studies that would tie into the strike—to expand their knowledge and range of interests.

We’re getting professors and educators to do talks based around ideas surrounding the strike, rooted in their own research and work, so that students can take this moment to shift their perspectives.

For example, on Thursday we had a talk by David Camfield—a labour studies professor—focused on capitalism. That’s an example where people hear the word capitalism a lot: students my age throw it around on Twitter a lot and stuff. But they might not understand how capitalism ties so deeply with what’s going on on our campus, the neoliberalizing of universities in Canada, and beyond.

It’s a nice chance for people—since we’re not in class—to tune in and learn a little bit more.

We’re getting a range of professors from different faculties and areas of research to get lots of different angles on the issue. I’m really excited about the teach-ins: I think it’s going to be a good thing to look back on.

How is it going so far with bringing students into the group and organizing actions?

It’s awesome. Obviously there are a lot of people who have a stake in this, whether they would see themselves as being politically active or not.

A lot of the time, people get involved in the group just to keep up to date and have their voices heard in a meaningful way.

The group is really diverse as far as people’s backgrounds, skills, and interests, so organizing has been going great because we each have a lot of things to offer that we might not typically have an outlet for. Now, all of a sudden, we can be really effective organizers because of the group, and have real impact on campus.

What’s it like bringing in new people who may not have organizing experience or may be new to this type of organizing?

I’d say it’s been good but there have been lessons learned. Just on a logistical level, a lot of our organizing has been going on in [online messaging platform] Discord. Because it’s different than meeting in person where you can get a sense of  who people are, we wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page before being able to make decisions and get involved. So early on, we drafted a Basis of Unity as a group. New people would need to agree to that to have access to all of our channels on Discord.

It’s kind of tricky in this short timeframe, with all of us who don’t have organizing experience, to be able to make sure that the group doesn’t get distracted or disrupted. Everyone has to be on the same page.

It’s been rewarding to see new people join with little-to-no experience, and watch them find their places to make contributions to the group.

It’s all possible because we all want each other to succeed, and we encourage each other to try new things. People who joined out of sheer curiosity are now facilitating meetings, speaking to media, speaking at rallies, and more.

On social media, there’s a lot of UMFA members express gratitude for the work that Students Supporting UMFA is doing. How has it been working with or alongside UMFA?

It’s been great because—and this may be obvious—they’re just really glad that we’re doing what we’re doing. They trust us to help out and are on board with all the things we’re doing.

It’s good, too, to have that close connection because when we know about things ahead of time we can have input and offer our skills.

Based on the administration’s response to UMFA’s latest counter-offer, it sounds like this strike might continue for a long while: potentially into the winter. What does it look like from an organizational point of view looking forward in terms of retaining momentum and involvement by students?

That’s definitely going to be a challenge. One thing that’s happening with the group is people are settling into their roles in a way.

A lot of the time, it’s a core group of maybe 20 to 25 people that have their hands in a lot of different aspects of the organizing. But at this point, people are getting used to what they’re really good at and what they like to do in smaller working groups.

As the strike goes and we get more people on board, it’s going to be about finding out what people are actually passionate about—aside from just supporting UMFA—to get that momentum so that people are still willing to put in all these sleepless days and nights of work. 

We have to make sure we don’t burnout either. We’re hoping to bring in more people that don’t necessarily want to offer all their time and energy to that type of work but that would like to just show their support in general. 

You’ve already mentioned a few reflections but are there other lessons or things that you’d offer to other people wanting to do similar work?

Just trust your peers to do good things. And trust yourself.

Much of the work that’s been done so far has only been possible because each of us is willing to take risks, try new things, and learn from each other.

We’ve also learned that sometimes it’s necessary  to ask for help. We’ve been lucky to have support from the Canadian Federation of Students – Manitoba. When we can ask advice of the organizers from CFS–MB, or even some of our educators that have years of organizing experience, it helps us resist that impulse to try to reinvent the wheel.

Any final thoughts?

No matter what happens with the strike itself, which is obviously our main focus, at the end of the day there are now upwards of 50 students in our group that have organizing experience and probably a better understanding of labour issues.

More students are going to feel empowered to use their voice and collective power the next time that the ruling class is trying to screw with them.

Photo credit: Olivia Macdonald Mager
Photo description: University of Manitoba students march to join a large pro-UMFA rally on campus on Nov. 5, 2021.

Stories from the inside: Cargill workers speak

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By Jeremy Appel
Cargill correspondent for Rankandfile.ca

Whether or not workers at Cargill’s High River, Alberta, plant go on strike Monday, there’s no question the past 20 months have been a long, painful journey.

Jamie Welsh-Rollo has worked at Cargill since June 2018. She is a cryovac operator and serves as a liaison between the bargaining committee and broader membership of the union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401.

A single mother, Welsh-Rollo told Rankandfile.ca that she was initially attracted to working at Cargill due to the child care benefits the company offers.

She said morale was much stronger before the pandemic, but workers often felt pressured to come into work sick. It was a dynamic that would have dire consequences once COVID-19 came into the picture.

“It was normal for somebody to be puking next to you in the bathroom stall,” recalls Welsh-Rollo.

She was fortunate not to be one of the 950 workers at the High River plant who tested positive for COVID-19 in mid-April 2020. It was the single largest outbreak in North America at the time.

Strike preparation outside the Cargill plant in High River. Source: UFCW 401

Alberta government lied to Cargill workers

At the outset of the pandemic, Cargill initially encouraged workers to come in sick with a $500 bonus for perfect attendance. Welsh-Rollo says the company later clarified the bonus would still be given to employees who called in sick with COVID-19 symptoms.

Welsh-Rollo also said she had to be separated from her child during the week, sending them to live with her parents, while she continued working through the pandemic.

“It was really, really hard, especially mentally. You’re stressed out because you want to be there for your co-workers and support them, but at the same time you’re terrified for your own family,” she recalled.

After the first COVID-19 cases were detected at the plant, the government held a telephone town hall with Cargill workers on April 18, 2020. Government officials told them it was safe to work. The union, UFCW Local 401, was not invited to the town hall.

Documents obtained by the Alberta Federation of Labour reveal that the government knew it was not safe to work.

The day after the government’s town hall meeting, 67-year-old Hiep Bui, who had worked 18-hour shifts at Cargill for 23 years, died of COVID-19, becoming the plant’s first pandemic fatality.

After Hiep’s death, Cargill agreed to close the plant down for two weeks, which the union had urged the company to do two weeks earlier.

When the plant reopened from the two-week shutdown, Welsh-Rollo said the company began to take health and safety more seriously.

“You’re still shoulder-to-shoulder, but you have a plastic barrier between you, as well as a face shield and a mask,” Welsh-Rollo said.

“I was with him the last day he went home”

On May 7, Benito Quesada, 51, died from COVID-19 after being in a coma and on a ventilator for a few weeks. Quesada’s death is being investigated by the RCMP as potentially resulting from criminal negligence on Cargill’s part.

Welsh-Rollo, who was friends with Quesada, found out about his death through the media. Initially, Quesada wasn’t identified in news reports, so she asked a colleague if it was him. That colleague said they didn’t know.

“I just started bawling,” she said. “It was really hard not to know for sure, but to have that gut feeling that that was your friend.”

Joseph Kog, who works on the kill floor, was also friends with Quesada. He said he remembers seeing Quesada leave work on what would ultimately be his final shift.

“I was with him the last day he went home,” said Kog, who was also part of the workforce that didn’t test positive for COVID-19.

“A small United Nations”

Kog, who came to Canada as a refugee from Sudan, was brought to Cargill by some who were applying for jobs and needed someone with his level of English proficiency to translate the application for them.

Although he was studying early childhood education at the time, Kog was attracted by the pay and diversity of the workforce.

“I call it a small UN,” he said. “It’s a very diverse workplace [where] you can find different people from different backgrounds.” 

After a year on the job, Kog became a shop steward with UFCW Local 401.

“I saw there are many people who aren’t educated here, don’t know their rights or how to read,” he said. “Nobody stood up for them, so some of them told me, ‘You can help us.’”

Getting media coverage in the early days of the pandemic was important for putting pressure on the government and company, who were in cahoots to keep the plant open at all costs, Kog added.

All the improvements in working conditions that came after the two-week shutdown were the result of union agitation, he said.

“Everybody here needs more protection,” said Kog. “They need more recognition that they worked hard during COVID.”

Cargill workers in High River deliver a 97% strike vote. Source: UFCW 401.

Bargaining committee supports latest offer

Workers are in the midst of voting on a new offer from Cargill that has the bargaining committee’s support.

Welsh-Rollo said the latest offer is a significant improvement from the previous one, which membership rejected by a 98 percent margin.

It offers a 21% pay increase throughout the contract’s duration, a $1,000 signing bonus, $1,000 COVID-19 bonus and enhanced benefits, such as massage therapy and psychological counseling, among others.

Although the company’s previous offer included a $1,200 COVID-19 bonus, which members rejected as insufficient, the pay increase more than makes up for the difference, said Welsh-Rollo.

“We want to get better wages overall, because the reality is that this is a very hard workplace to work in, so we should get paid for the dangers that we face everyday,” she said.

In a statement, UFCW 401 president Tom Hesse said he had “mixed feelings” about the offer, but deferred to the membership’s will.

“Our members may or may not accept the offer. If they don’t, I’ll join them on the picket lines in solidarity and on strike. If they do accept it, I’ll work with them every day to make Cargill a better workplace,” vowed Hesse.

“I will do as our members ask me to do. I respect all of the emotions that they feel and the suffering that they have experienced.”

UFCW 401’s Secretary-Treasurer Richelle Stewart said that since the union is “an open and democratic organization,” it will do whatever the plant’s workers tell it to do.

If members vote against the offer, they’ll be hitting the picket lines Monday.

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Labour at the Bat: Manitoba’s new labour reforms

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By Doug Nesbitt and Scott Price

While organized labour has loudly pronounced the triumph of anti-scab legislation in federal parliament, Manitoba’s recently-elected New Democratic government has introduced two major labour law reforms that have largely flown under the radar, even in Manitoba. Automatic card check certification and anti-scab reforms are now in second reading in the Manitoba legislature. Only British Columbia and Quebec have anti-scab laws.

Automatic card check certification, or simply “card check” means the labour board will certify a union as the sole collective bargaining agent in a workplace if a majority (or super-majority)  of workers in a workplace sign union membership cards. This method bypasses the board-supervised vote that takes place after the employer has an opportunity to wage an anti-union campaign. It is why the business class consistently lobbies against “card check”.

Card check in Manitoba now requires a simple majority to be certified, down from a 65 percent super-majority. This is an improvement on the British Columbia card check law of 2022 which requires a 55 percent super-majority to be automatically certified without a board-supervised election. Manitoba now joins Prince Edward Island and Quebec as the only provinces with true, unconditional majority card check.

Manitoba’s anti-scab law is a long time coming. During Manitoba’s previous three eras of NDP governments, anti-scab legislation was never introduced despite mandates from party convention and organized labour. Beginning with its shameful acceptance of strikebreaking at Griffin Steel in 1977, the Manitoba NDP has championed dubious alternatives to anti-scab, such as the divisive Final Offer Selection in the 1980s and Gary Doer’s strikebreaking 60-day arbitration law.

Labour reforms buried in omnibus budget bill

Manitoba’s Premier Wab Kinew was at the recent Manitoba Federation of Labour convention championing these new labour reforms. Kinew received applause and praise from union members, but the government has done its best to keep the reforms out of the public limelight.

The labour reforms are buried in the so-called Budget Implementation and Tax Statutes Amendment Act, or Bill 37. It is a large 89-page “omnibus” bill that changes all sorts of different laws.

By burying the labour reforms in this omnibus bill, Kinew’s NDP government does not have to present separate labour legislation to the public, and helps the government avoid opposition and public scrutiny in legislative committees. The opposition PCs are hypocrites, but they are right in calling the omnibus bill undemocratic, just as Harper’s omnibus bills were undemocratic.

Lack of confidence

The government’s omnibus tactic betrays a lack of confidence in the labour reforms, and sends a clear signal that organized labour is, at best, a junior partner in the Manitoba NDP.

At the Manitoba NDP’s convention in October 2022, delegates voted unanimously for anti-scab as party policy. Immediately afterwards, Kinew was in front of the media downplaying anti-scab by claiming that the public didn’t understand it. Over the following year, leading up to his party’s victory in October 2023, Kinew did not campaign on anti-scab or card check.

In December 2023, Minister Marcelino directed its appointed Labour-Management Committee to review anti-scab and card check. No further details were shared to the public. Three months later, the NDP attacked the opposition PCs, claiming they had filibustered the labour bills being introduced. Still, the draft bills were kept under wraps. Radio silence resumed for a month until the omnibus budget legislation, Bill 37, was introduced on May 6 by Finance Minister, Adrien Sala. The buried labour reforms were not mentioned when Sala brought forward Bill 37 in the legislature.

Why are Kinew, Sala and Marcelino afraid of defending automatic card check and anti-scab against the opposition Tories and their anti-union friends in the business community and establishment press? In debate over the Second Reading of Bill 37 on May 27, Mark Wasyliw was the only NDP MLA to defend the labour reforms, stating that anti-scab stopped employers from starving out strikers and placed an emphasis on anti-scab stopping strikes altogether. Wasyliw briefly mentioned card check, stating union membership is “the path in Manitoba for middle class.”

The NDP’s conduct on the labour file has meant that these two very important labour law reforms have been pushed through without any effort to educate Manitoba’s working majority, or initiate a new round of labour organizing. They are reforms without power.

Targets for union organizing

With Kinew’s government focused on passing Bill 37 into law, organized labour must now make the most of anti-scab and card check. The success of card check is now entirely dependent on whether or not the unions have the resources and leadership required to begin unrolling serious organizing strategies.

With card check, union wins will increase, as they are now in British Columbia. However, without plowing new resources into organizing programs, the gains will be more easily contained by employers and their allies.

There is no lack of organizing targets in the province. Sobeys supermarkets in Manitoba are non-union. If UFCW 832 has no strategy to organize Sobeys, now is the time to develop a plan and put it into motion.

The popular Winnipeg coffee and bakery chain, Stella’s, is another target to consider. Four years ago it closed down its flagship store after scabbing failed to deter a first contract strike. During the strike, Stella’s also collected taxpayer money from the so-called Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the notorious pandemic slush fund for the business class.

Also in 2020, union-busting scabs were used at a unionized Tim Hortons owned by rich franchisee, JP Shearer, who owns at least five other Tim Hortons stores in Winnipeg. The workers had organized with Workers United and were locked out over a 10 cent pay increase.

In addition to organizing larger non-union workplaces such as Sobeys and Amazon, workers and the unions have an opportunity to employ company-wide, multi-store organizing strategies instead of the failed route of single-store “hot shop” organizing.

The costs of labour peace

The last time the NDP was in office in Manitoba, labour peace took precedence over building union power. Strike levels fell to zero in some of the later years of the NDP’s 1999-2016 dynasty. All the while, union density flat-lined and even declined in these years.

The costs of labour peace during these years was raised by Jim Silver and the late Errol Black early in Premier Gary Doer’s second term (2003-2007). In the CCPA’s Monitor magazine, Silver and Black pointed out that organized labour needed to be ready for the next Tory government by organizing and running campaigns while the NDP were in power. Those words were not heeded.

It is not obvious that senior union leaders intend to create new organizing programs and lead new organizing offensives. The Manitoba Federation of Labour has done very little to promote the new labour laws. Union members who want action will have to push inside their unions for directing union resources into organizing programs. Labour Council delegates can also conduct educational work and begin necessary networking and information-gathering required for union drives.

The astute observations raised by Jim Silver and Errol Black must be learned so the mistake of “labour peace” under the NDP is not repeated. Even with new labour laws, an organizing offensive will certainly lead to first contract strikes and nasty counter-attacks from employers. Even if the NDP are defeated in Manitoba’s next election, it does not mean organized labour has to be unprepared for job action. When labour’s most powerful weapon lays idle in favour of so-called labour peace, union power weakens. The strength of organized labour will require rank-and-file action that drags the labour leaders into taking on the union-busting business class.

Credits:
Feature photo by Colin Slark (Brandon Sun) available here.

Labour News Update, December 19 2016

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Essex County library strike | Canada Post door-to-door | Woodward reflags ships | GE Peterborough | Poverty wages for ECEs | Childcare costs | Teamster election in Canada | Basic Income protest in Sudbury | New Brunswick poverty and austerity | Asbestos ban in 2018 | Phoenix pay fiasco | BC migrant workers | Trudeau’s cash-for-access | Stelco pensions | Privatized road clearing

Essex library workers vote down “final offer”; Library Board plans scab operation
Windsor Star
December 13 2016

Canada Post should restore door-to-door mail, Commons panel says
Toronto Star
December 13 2016

15439793_1385370404840867_7243572380547747456_nWoodward workers rally against reflagged vessels and layoffs in Lewisporte, NL
Chris Ensing, CBC News
December 13 2016

Toxic Legacy: General Electric in Peterborough
Sara Mojtehedzadeh, Toronto Star
December 17 2016

Early Childhood Education students sound alarm on low wages
May Warren, Metro Toronto
December 14 2016

Childcare costs rising rapidly in Canada’s biggest cities
Jacqueline Hansen, CBC News
December 12 2016

Explaining the Teamster vote for Hoffa-Hall in Canada
Ritch Whyman, Rankandfile.ca
December 13 2016

Demonstrators disrupt Ontario Basic Income “consultation” in Sudbury
Olivia Stefanovish, CBC News
December 13 2016

Property tax rebates cost New Brunswick hundreds of millions
Robert Jones, CBC News
December 12 2016

Nearly half of New Brunswick families can’t afford healthy diet
Gabrielle Fahmey, CBC News
December 16 2016

Canada to ban asbestos use by 2018
Peter Goffin, Toronto Star
December 15 2016

Single mom loses home because of Phoenix pay fiasco
Katie Simpson, CBC News
December 15 2016

Nelson House personal care workers end strike
CBC News
December 15 2016

A report on the Lives of the Migrant Agricultural Workers of BC
Daniel Tseghay, Rankandfile.ca
December 16 2016

15401049_1392945980749976_8430258724890754440_nTrudeau says he uses cash-for-access fundraisers to champion “middle class”
Robert Fife and Steven Chase, Globe and Mail
December 13 2016

The battle over Stelco pension funds, explained
Kelly Bennett, CBC News
December 14 2016

New Brunswick budget cuts lead to Dangerous Roads
CUPE Local 1190
December 14 2016

Companies plowing Ontario highways owe $2.5m in fines
Mike Crawley, CBC News
December 13 2016

Cargill prepares lockout & scabs as workers reject offer

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By Jeremy Appel
Cargill correspondent for Rankandfile.ca

Workers at Cargill’s High River, Alberta meatpacking facility have overwhelmingly rejected the company’s latest contract offer and management has escalated tensions by serving a lockout notice. 

The Cargill plant was the site of the largest COVID outbreak in North America in April 2020, with 950 workers — almost half its workforce — testing positive for the virus. The outbreak led to the deaths of workers Benito Quesada, 51, and Hiep Bui, 67. A father of a worker, Armando Sallegue, 71, also died while visiting from the Philippines.

Cargill, which is responsible for 40 percent of Canada’s beef production, is being criminally investigated by the RCMP for negligence in Quesada’s death. 

In a November 25 letter signed by Cargill vice president of labour relations Tanya Teeter, the corporation announced a “complete lockout” of the workers starting 12:01 am, December 6, if an agreement isn’t hashed out by then.

That date coincides with the union’s legal strike date. The High River members of United Food and Commercial Workers local 401 voted to authorize a strike two weeks ago. 

Employer trying “to force the union’s hand” 

Jason Foster, a labour studies professor at Athabasca University who wrote the book Defying Expectations: The Case of UFCW Local 401, says management has crossed the rubicon.

“Oh, [they’re] going on strike. This is not going to be settled by December 6,” he said.

The purpose of the lockout notice was “to force the union’s hand,” Foster added. 

Just as a strike is a union’s means of pressuring management to accept a better deal for workers, a lockout is a company’s means of pressuring workers to accept a better deal for management. 

“Often you find yourself in a situation where a strike is both a strike and a lockout,” explained Foster. “Usually, it’s the other way around. The employer declares a lockout and then the union needs to quickly hold a strike vote to protect their rights under the law.” 

Foster described it as a fool’s errand to predict how long a strike would last, “because these things usually take on a life of their own,” but suspects it might be relatively brief due to pressure from government and industry to resolve the dispute.

Worker demands during record profits

On November 24, workers voted down management’s latest offer by a margin of 98 percent, while the initial strike vote on November 10 passed with 97 percent support.

“Any union will tell you that engagement starts to escalate during the time of crisis, when decisions have to be made,” said Thomas Hesse, president of UFCW 401. “People do develop a keener interest in their union at collective bargaining time. It’s where the rubber meets the road.” 

He said that although the company is offering what it’s billing as a 19% pay increase, the workers have deemed it insufficient to compensate for what they’ve gone through over the past 20 months. 

“In a sense, we have a win already, but the massive rejection of that offer suggests there’s something considerably more at play here,” Hesse said.

“Money means a lot. [The workers] are not there for the social life. It’s a very hard job. They don’t even get to really interact with each other. They just stand there in a line, the noise is so loud, the floor is wet, there’s blood, it’s cold. There’s no social interaction at this workplace, essentially. You just stand there at this isolated disassembly line.

“The rejection of this money by that number really underscores the fact that people aren’t feeling safe, they aren’t feeling respected and they don’t trust their employer.”

The union is looking for a $3,000 COVID bonus per employee, adding up to $6 million total, which Hesse pointed out is pocket change for a company that made $4.93 billion in profits this year. “They can absorb that cost,” he said. 

Cargill is instead offering a $1,200 bonus per employee.  

Hesse emphasized, however, that you can’t put a price on workers’ right to dignity and safety, and that any dollar numbers are members’ decision to make. 

Cargill interested in “keeping markets moving” 

In a statement to CBC News, Cargill spokesperson Daniel Sullivan called the workers the company is locking out “one of the best workforces across Canada,” arguing the company’s offer “reflects their tremendous skill and dedication.”

“We are willing to keep meeting to avoid any labour disruption which is in no one’s best interest during an already challenging time,” said Sullivan. 

“While we navigate this negotiation, we continue to focus on fulfilling food manufacturer, retail and food service customer orders while keeping markets moving for farmers and ranchers. If necessary, we will shift production to other facilities within our broad supply chain footprint to minimize any disruptions.”

New Cargill advertisements are appearing in southern Alberta, including here at the Shawnessy LRT stop in Calgary. Source.

Cargill is preparing to hire scabs 

Calgarians may have noticed Cargill job ads appearing on public transit throughout the city, including at the Shawnessy LRT Station in southern Calgary, offering a starting wage of $19.55 an hour, as well as an unspecified signing bonus.

Foster says this isn’t a coincidence.   

“I am not surprised to hear that Cargill is attempting to staff up workers to cross the picket line. It is a standard strategy by employees in this industry,” he said. 

The company will “try to find other desperate, low-wage workers who might be prepared to do this in order to be able to earn a paycheque and they’ll run busses across the line as best they can, which is why we can anticipate it will be a very tense picket line, because of the determination of employers in this industry generally to keep production going,” said Foster.    

Under the current legal framework in Alberta, hiring scab workers is entirely legal, which always has been the case in the private sector. 

“The research is really quite clear — that replacement workers prolong the length of strikes and they do make the picket lines tend to be more rancorous,” Foster said. 

Labour action would also put to test the UCP government’s Bill 32, which requires unions to receive government permission to picket at sites beyond the workplace itself, such as grocery stores or fast food restaurants. 

Don’t underestimate the workers’ determination 

Generally speaking, the longer a strike continues, the more likely the union is to cave to the employer’s demands. “The good news is [UFCW] 401 pays unprecedented levels of strike pay for unions in Canada,” Foster said.

The demographics of Cargill’s workforce could also work in its favour. 

“They’re migrant workers, they’re immigrants, they’re refugees. People should not underestimate their determination,” said Foster. “We often talk about these workers being vulnerable, and there’s many aspects in which they are, but there’s an intense solidarity there, which I think we often overlook.”  

Two-thirds of workers at Alberta’s meatpacking plants are immigrants, compared to more than a quarter of the province’s population, and 18 percent are refugees, compared to 3 percent of the population, according to a study from Toronto’s York University recently reported by the Calgary Herald. 

Another “key variable” is that this job action is at its heart a pandemic strike, Foster added. 

“These workers have been galvanized around the outbreak that happened in 2020 and they’re fighting for their lives right now, in terms of health and safety protections in the workplace and dealing with an employer who made it extremely clear to them that they didn’t care if they died,” Foster said. 

UFCW 401 and Cargill are back at the table November 30, according to Hesse. 

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Supreme Steel workers left in the cold following pre-Christmas plant closure

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By Emily Leedham

Supreme Steel CEO John Leder always encouraged his employees to donate gifts to the Salvation Army at company holiday parties. This year, however, he’s left nearly 50 of his workers out in the cold after shutting down Winnipeg’s steel plant several weeks before Christmas and offering severance of $950.00 per employee.

United Steel Workers Local 9074 President Paul Lussier, who represents Supreme Steel employees, has been through several plant closures at other companies, and says he’s never seen a severance offer this disrespectful.

“We’ve been trying to get some dental benefits out of them, health and dental benefits, we were looking for extra life insurance, and mainly we were looking for a severance package – where they’ve more or less just told us to go pound salt,” he tells RankandFile.ca.

Lussier recalls a previous plant closure with a different company that resulted in workers’ marriages breaking up and several suicides. He doesn’t want to see any of his members endure any traumatic experiences through the holidays and the harsh Winnipeg winter.

“I made sure, when I had meetings with people there, I said, “Listen, if anybody needs help, let me know – we’ll get you whatever help you need, cause we don’t want anybody to fall through the cracks, right?”

Steel Workers have built Winnipeg’s major infrastructure

The Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Inuit Art Centre, currently under construction

USW members at Supreme Steel have built much of Winnipeg’s major infrastructure. In the past 10 years alone, Supreme Steel has brought in 114 million dollars of revenue working on projects like the Investors Group Field, Manitoba Hydro’s Keewatinohk Station, BBE Hydro’s Spillway Gates, IKEA, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Inuit Art Centre which is still under construction.

The Supreme Steel logo is featured prominently at the construction site for the Inuit Art Centre. RankandFile.ca reached out to the Winnipeg Art Gallery for comment. We received this statement from Engagement Officer Amber O’Reilly November 21, 2019:

“Supreme Steel is a sub-contractor to PCL Construction Ltd. and as such there is no direct contractual relationship between Supreme Steel and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Therefore we would like to politely decline providing a comment at this time.”

Workers suspect plant closure as Supreme delays bargaining

Lussier says the trouble started earlier this year when Supreme Steel kept delaying bargaining after the last agreement expired April 30, 2019. When the Supreme finally came to the table, the company said nothing to indicate a plant closure. Then, as soon as the parties started talking finances, the company delayed bargaining again. 

The union and the company always had a good relationship, he explains, so these delays became red flags. Eventually, speculation about a plant closure circulated among workers. Then, in late August, Supreme Group President Kevin Guile called up Lussier, delaying bargaining yet again, and told him to come to the plant that day for an announcement:

The plant would begin shutting down on September 30, 2019, with the final closure date set for December 13, 2019.

Despite offering a robust severance package for its managers. the company offered nothing to its unionized workers. When the union pushed back, the company offered workers $500 each as backpay from the collective agreement’s April 30 expiration, with an additional $450.00 for “retraining” to help workers transition into new employment.

According to Lussier, his members were furious at the offer, saying, “If that’s all they have to offer, and if that’s the way they want to treat us, they can shove it, cause we’re ready for the fight. We’re more than willing to take the fight on.”

The previous collective agreement said employees can continue to collect health and dental benefits for 60 days in case of a layoff – which the company has also refused to honour.

Lussier says the company is also trying to circumvent Employment Standards Section 61 by treating the plant closure as layoffs, instead of layoffs and a plant closure. These are two separate issues that must be addressed, but Supreme is treating it like one.

“We’ve filed 46 grievances as per their interpretation of health and benefits, another 46 based upon their interpretation of what they think the employment standards code means,” he explains.

Many of the plant workers are older immigrants who are highly skilled welders, and some have worked at the plant for decades, even before Supreme bought the plant ten years ago.

“They had the highest quality of work in all of their plants in Western Canada,” Lussier points out, “Their defects were so small compared to most plants. Then, when some of their other plants were not able to do the work, what did they do? They shipped it to Winnipeg.”

After years of highly skilled work and dedication, Supreme Steel’s stingy severance stings.

Despite sending out a press release, USW 9074’s concerns have not received any mainstream media attention. Lussier says the union is considering running information pickets at sites that have used Supreme Steel to draw attention to the workers’ plight.

“They’re depressed,” Lussier says of his members, “but more than being depressed, they’re pissed.”

Putting the long-term care profiteers out of business

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By Doug Nesbitt

As COVID-19 took hold through the spring of 2020, it ravaged the elderly, particularly those in congregate settings such as long-term care homes. By late spring, it was apparent that the infection and death rates in Ontario’s long-term care homes were among the worst in the world. Of all COVID-19 deaths in Ontario in 2020, 61 per cent were long-term care residents. By the end of April 2021, 11 staff and almost 4,000 residents in Ontario’s long-term care homes had died.

These words introduce the Executive Summary of the Ontario Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission’s Final Report, published April 30, 2021. The Final Report documents the comprehensive failures and inferiority of for-profit long-term care in Ontario, but makes no recommendations in favour of a public LTC system. In fact, the Report rehabilitates for-profit long-term care operators and proposes a system where they can flourish.

This is a disappointing but unsurprising conclusion. Doug Ford’s government is not going to create a special investigation that fundamentally opposes their vision of a publicly-subsidized, privately-profitable LTC system.

But weaknesses in the long-term care system are all across Canada, not just Ontario. About 70 percent of all Canadian COVID-19 deaths are in long-term care. The failure of governments to reform LTC after the first wave has led to an even more devastating second wave. Only prioritized vaccinations have prevented the huge third wave from hitting long-term care homes like before.

The rot is deep, and the thousands of LTC deaths during this pandemic is all the reason we need to justify sweeping changes to the healthcare system and the expulsion of profiteers.

Long-term care has been subject to study for many decades, and the problems are well documented. However, there’s a coalition of for-profit healthcare corporations and establishment politicians preventing changes from happening.

Austerity and the profit motive

In the long-term care system there are two sources of rot, and they are related to each other. The first kind of rot is austerity. Government funding of long-term care has been insufficient since federal and provincial governments began introducing austerity budgets in the 1980s and 1990s. Care and labour standards have suffered immensely, especially as hospital beds were cut by the thousands and demand for long-term care grew.

The second source of rot is the profit motive. Just over a quarter of all long-term care homes in Canada are run for profit. It’s highest in Ontario where 57 percent are run for profit. The profit motive in long-term care is what drives ownership to lower the quality of food, cleaning, equipment, and building design. The profit motive is what compels ownership to keep labour costs down and fight unions.

The solution to the austerity rot is obvious: more government funding. Even the long-term care profiteers and their business associations are calling for more government funding. The profiteers collect substantial public subsidies to deliver long-term care.

The solution to the profit rot is getting rid of the profit motive in long-term care. This is where Canada’s corporate political parties won’t go.

Profits and power

The Ontario LTC Commission’s report is only the latest institution calling for change but refusing to kick out the profiteers. Profiteers, we are told, are more efficient. This is a dishonest view because every healthcare dollar going to executive bonuses, company profits, and shareholder dividends is a dollar less going to frontline workers, patient services, and building maintenance.

But the profiteer problem is even deeper. It’s a problem of power. The private healthcare profiteers have organized themselves into a powerful political force. In Ontario, where their power is strongest, they’re organized into the Ontario Long-Term Care Association which represents mainly for-profit corporations.

The OLTCA has a long, consistent record of demanding more government funding for both capital and labour costs. They are happy to make this known. However, they are publicly silent around their other demands, such as greater managerial powers over healthcare workers, and special protections against lawsuits. For years they’ve consistently resisted minimum care standards and routinely conduct union-busting campaigns against workers.

As Rankandfile.ca correspondent Zaid Noorsumar has carefully documented, OLTCA lobbyists and senior industry officials have served as powerful party staff and government advisors to both the Ontario PC Party and the Ontario Liberals. This extends to politicians themselves, with former Ontario Premiers Mike Harris and Bill Davis profiting handsomely as they sit on the boards of large long-term care profiteers.

What is “regulatory capture”?

This revolving door of corruption leads to what’s called regulatory capture. As Bruce Campbell writes in his book on the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster,

Regulatory capture embodies a fundamental conflict between the primary obligation of government to protect the health and safety of its citizens and the interest of corporations to maximize shareholder value. If a regulator is captured – Canada’s National Energy Board is a notorious example – industry removes or dilutes existing regulations it deems too expensive, shapes new regulations to suit its interests and blocks the prospect of more aggressive interventions.

This is exactly what has played out during the pandemic in Ontario. Instead of having their operating licenses pulled, the OLTCA has achieved two major goals since the pandemic started.

First, a directive by Premier Doug Ford in the first weeks of the pandemic gave LTC management new sweeping powers over staffing, training and reporting requirements. OLTCA has been demanding these powers for years now, but they’ve been resisted by unions.

Second, Doug Ford passed Bill 218 in November 2020, creating greater COVID-specific protections for Ontario long-term care operators against residents and their families.

But wait! Didn’t Ford also introduce minimum care standards in late 2020? In the face of public outrage and union pressure, Doug Ford committed to minimum care standards – but the commitment isn’t until 2024-25! It’s a sick joke.

Expanding corporate empires

The power of the for-profits extends further with their role in managing long-term care centres which they don’t own. For example, the profiteer Extendicare owns 34 LTC facilities in Ontario, and is contracted to manage another 19. Eight of these are private non-profit LTCs, and two of them are municipally-owned public LTCs. As a result, Extendicare is managing 1 in every 10 of Ontario’s long-term care beds.

The for-profit LTC operators extend their reach into retirement homes and home care. Both these sectors are dominated by for-profit companies. Extendicare, for example, owns Paramed, one of the largest home care agencies. Paramed lives off public contracts. Chartwell, Sienna Senior Living, Revera, Southbridge, Schlegel, and other large for-profits LTC corporations also operate large numbers of retirement homes, too.

This isn’t just an Ontario problem. These companies are based in most provinces, operating retirement homes, home care agencies, and long-term care facilities. Ontario is where the profiteers have made the greatest advances, and they are working hard to replicate their achievements in other provinces.

Federal and provincial routes to public LTC

The political power of the for-profit LTC operators has proven a disaster and is far too dangerous to allow. Public ownership is the alternative. There are two legislative routes towards achieving this.

First, the federal Canada Health Act can be amended by Parliament in Ottawa to mandate public ownership of long-term care. The Canada Health Act already does this for hospitals, but does not do this for long-term care (or home care).

Second, the provinces can enact legislation to bring for-profit LTC facilities under public ownership. This can be done independently of the federal government. Provincial governments do not have to wait for the federal government to act.

Both routes are of course immensely difficult, but if the achievement of medicare is any guide, the provincial route will be the most fruitful. A breakthrough in one province can build pressure on other provincial governments and the federal government.

There is also the potential of bringing Revera, the second-largest long-term care profiteer in Canada, under public ownership. The corporation is owned entirely by the federal crown corporation, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. A petition is circulating to make this happen, and many union and healthcare activists have spoken about the case of Revera, such as CUPE pensions researcher Kevin Skerrett.

https://youtu.be/VCYIzUPe9ig

Is there a party who can do this? The federal NDP and the Ontario NDP have both called for an end to for-profit long-term care. However, the timelines from both parties are so long, they’re hard to take seriously.

The Ontario NDP plan would take 8 years. This timeline is based on not renewing the operating licenses of for-profit operators. Eight years would require back-to-back NDP majority governments. How realistic is this?

Given the political power of these companies and their integration into the Ontario Liberals and PCs, a credible plan would bring LTC under public ownership in a single four-year term. The awful pandemic performance and the corrosive political power of the profiteers is the justification for such speed. Their political and economic power must be removed as soon as possible. Public ownership must be entrenched quickly and deeply so it is extremely difficult to reverse.

The federal NDP has a public LTC plan that would take 10 years. This would require electing the NDP three times in a row! This has only happened twice since World War Two! The federal NDP says they would implement a task force to study the problem, amend the Canada Health Act and carry out the transition, which they believe would take a decade.

The Campaign for Public LTC Ownership

Millions of people are sick and tired and ready for change. Millions of us want the profiteers out of healthcare. However, the understanding of how the LTC system works, and how the profiteers wield power, is not well known. There is much we have to learn ourselves, and models of healthcare around the world that we can study. We can’t fight them without major education efforts, and the patient construction of organizations in every community capable of educating, organizing and focusing our power.

Rather than contracting out the question of political power to the NDP, fighters for public healthcare have an opportunity to build the organizations required to do this work, including our health coalitions across the country. But what we are talking about is a long-term campaign which will take many years, perhaps decades of work.

It is sobering to consider how long it took for farmers and workers to win the great healthcare victories of the 1960s. Nor can it be forgotten that the achievement of medicare in Saskatchewan in 1962 came eighteen years after Tommy Douglas and the CCF (precursor to the NDP) were elected to office in 1944.

In the same era that medicare was achieved in Canada, Martin Luther King Jr. observed,

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

About the author

Doug Nesbitt is co-founder and editor of Rankandfile.ca and a former union organizer. He most recently was involved in home care organizing in eastern Ontario, and is currently writing a book on the Mike Harris years in Ontario.

Cost of Living Crisis: Fight or Crawl?

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By Lee Gilchrist

On October 25, City of Winnipeg workers in CUPE Local 500 ratified a tentative agreement recommended by their bargaining team. The union negotiating committee’s email to members on October 25 announced that the deal was ratified by 75 percent of members, although how many members voted was not disclosed.

Some members have expressed anger at the contract and the union leadership. Manitoba’s inflation is above 7 percent but the wage offer was 10.2% over 4 years, plus a $900 signing bonus. The contract is retroactive to March 1, 2021 and expires February 28 2025.

The contract was described as “status quo” by several Local 500 members who spoke to Rankandfile.ca. The last contract was ratified by only 60 percent of members. One member explained that the $900 signing bonus “got a lot of people to vote yes.”

CUPE Local 500 members had little opportunity to study the contract let alone organize a “No” campaign. The tentative agreement was announced on October 11, but the wage offer and other “agreement highlights” were not distributed to members until October 24, one day before the vote.

The local held two information meetings on October 24, one in the morning and another in the evening. Several members reported the union leadership using “scare tactics” at the meetings to encourage ratification. This included the scenario of a 60-day strike going to arbitration and resulting in a worse wage settlement. Manitoba labour law says that 60-day strikes are sent to arbitration. Local 500’s negotiating team also said the contract was a better deal than Winnipeg Police Services, Winnipeg Fire Department.

Bargaining with the City had dragged on since March 2021 with a 93% strike mandate secured by the union in July 2022. A strike headquarters was opened up in September. The tentative agreement came four hours before the strike deadline.

BCGEU Blues

The CUPE Local 500 ratification follows closely on the heels of the narrow 53.4% ratification of the BCGEU tentative agreement for 33,000 provincial workers in British Columbia.

With a solid 94.6% strike mandate, BCGEU members struck over the last week of August and first week of September until a tentative agreement was signed on September 7.

The tentative agreement contained wage increases over 3 years of between 10.74 and 12.99 percent. The wage offer is almost identical to the NDP government’s pre-strike offer of 10.99% over three years. BCGEU’s bargaining committee was pushing for 10% over 2 years with a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). Inflation in BC is running above 8 percent.

Unlike CUPE Local 500 members, BCGEU members had a full month to prepare for the ratification vote. During this period, Rankandfile.ca spoke with several BCGEU members around the province but could not find any organized “No” campaign, despite widespread opposition to the deal. “This doesn’t fly,” said one member before the vote. “It might not go through.”

However, with ratification, the BCGEU wage settlement sets a precedent for tens of thousands of other BC public sector workers, including the Hospital Employees Union now in bargaining. Established by the BC NDP government in 1993, the Public Sector Employers Council now conducts de facto pattern bargaining with over 300,000 public sector workers. Under the BC Liberal regime of 2001-2017, the PSEC became incredibly powerful, expanding beyond its mandate without much challenge. It even becoming a vehicle for union-busting, as in the case of its attacks on the BC Teachers’ Federation in 2012.

As union activist Wael Afifi argued in Rankandfile.ca in 2014, the push for a return to local bargaining has become a “forgotten struggle” among BC Federal of Labour affiliates due to the PSEC’s origins in the labour-backed NDP. Afifi also wrote that the PSEC’s brutal mandates under the Liberals provided union leaders leverage against their own members to vote the NDP back into power. With the BC NDP now enjoying its fifth year in power, the PSEC has not been restructured.

Private sector settlements

Rankandfile.ca has reported several key inflation wage strikes in detail in the private sector. These strikes have been popping off up and down the Windsor-Quebec corridor and beyond.

With inflation hitting hard, workers in logistics, manufacturing, food processing and custodial services have fought back and have begin scoring wage increases unseen in many years.

Since the summer of 2021, we have seen settlements in bargaining and strikes that include 25% over 6 years at the Olymel pork plant in Quebec. Arcellor Mittal workers outside Montreal won 26% over 6 years, or $9/hour.

Sobeys warehouse workers in Terrebonne, Quebec won an immediate 28% wage increase and an additional 12% over 3 years. Their counterparts in Whitby secured 19.5% over 4 years without a strike. Custodians across Toronto secured 15% over 3 years.

Ontario faced a near general strike of the skilled trades this past May. Over 40,000 were out and residential, commercial and industrial builds were shut down. Angry member rejected offers recommended by union leaders. Wage and benefit gains were the highest in decades. Where leaders settled for “me too” clauses, those leaders have felt the heat from members.

With no coordinated movement behind these contract fights, some of which have culminated in strikes, workers have been winning 4-5% per year wage increases. Inflation has, without question, been the decisive element in fuelling militancy.

However, there is very clearly a diverging trend between private and public sector wage settlements. With a recession on the horizon, and elite institutions like the banks and IMF counseling Canadian governments to prepare austerity measures, public sector workers will be coming into the firing line if they aren’t already. Lower public sector wage settlements will have the added effect of encouraging private sector employers to hold a firmer line.

$39,000 is not enough

However, the future is unwritten. Another massive public sector confrontation is shaping up in Ontario. 55,000 education workers are looking at a November 4 strike deadline. The Ontario School Board Council of Unions (CUPE) represents school workers of many kinds, from EAs and ECEs to the trades, custodians, social workers, office staff, library workers and more.

On October 31, Ford’s government tabled pre-emptive strikebreaking law against the education workers with an imposed contract. It remains to be seen if CUPE leaders have any plans for defiance against these authoritarian laws that violate the right to strike. The government has refused to bargain in good faith, and Minister of Education Stephen Lecce has peddled outright lies, such as the recent claim that the union is demanding 50 percent wage increases.

Education workers have been fired up and look solid. In early October, an impressive 45,000 of 55,000 members voted 96.5% in favour of a strike mandate.

The union campaign has centred on wages with the slogan of “$39,000 is not enough”. The figure is the average wage of the 55,000 workers, 60 percent of whom are laid off every summer.

Having accepted the Bill 124 wage cap of 1% per year in its last round of bargaining, OSBCU is fighting for significant wage increases after a long decade of wage-cutting freezes and below-inflation increases.

The dispute is the first real direct labour dispute it has faced since the teacher strikes of early 2020 were abandoned in favour of a quick settlement a month into the pandemic.

There’s a huge reservoir of hatred for the Tory government in Ontario. The problem is that such sentiment has not been organized to confront Doug Ford’s Open For Business austerity agenda. Will OSBCU’s fight become a catalyst for change?

Fighting the Cost of Living Crisis

With a recession looming, there is still little prospect of inflation being tamed. Despite what politicians in Canada say, the inflation crisis is a problem of globalized capitalism. Inflation is happening everywhere around the world and can’t be boiled down to government spending, as federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would have you believe, or “greedflation” as federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh puts it.

Price gouging is an indisputable factor in the inflation crisis, but the source of inflation remains the shattering of lean and brittle profits-first global supply chains during the first months of the pandemic. The shipping and distribution of raw materials, semi-finished and finished goods has not recovered.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is another factor that is boosting inflation, and the massive increases in arms spending will be another major factor in boosting inflation (just as the 1970s inflation crisis also had roots in America’s brutal war against Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia).

To fight the cost of living crisis, the necessity of coordination and solidarity across unions is becoming absolutely critical.

Despite inflation beginning to pinch in late 2021, no provincial federation of labour has moved to organize a common front against inflation wage cuts and the corporate profiteering involved.

Once again, union activists are pushing a stagnant union bureaucracy to act. This past week, the Hamilton & District Labour Council passed a motion pressing the Ontario Federation of Labour and Canadian Labour Congress to organize a fight against the cost of living crisis by:

  • Preparing to organise local forums to discuss how to build a broader fight back against the cost of living crisis
  • Organising mass pickets in support of striking workers and mobilise its affiliates to oppose any back to work legislation or attempts to legislate away the right to strike
  • Building towards a national day of action on May Day demanding price controls, mass funding for geared-to-income housing, and taxation of the pandemic profiteers

HDLC is taking the lead on their own motion by organising their own forum in December.

Labour militancy has increased in the private sector, but the ramping up of interest rates to discipline workers is going to be a damper on that militancy. As with BCGEU and CUPE Local 500, permanent austerity in the public sector has already had a damaging effect on union power.

Although high interest rates are the harbinger of a recession that will break up the tight labour market and drive up unemployment, there is little hope high interest rates will actually tame inflation. We are facing a dual crisis of high unemployment and high inflation. Employers in the private and public sector will find union-busting opportunities irresistible.

After all the sacrifice during the pandemic, will organized labour fight or crawl against the cost of living crisis?

How ECEs formed a union during COVID-19

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By Ryan Hayes

A group of Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) with the Halton District School Board (HDSB) were in the midst of a union drive when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With schools closed and physical distancing rules in effect, workers had to quickly shift gears and experiment with new approaches in order to win their campaign. 

Already isolated? Bridging the gaps between precarious workers 

“I wanted to stand with my co-workers and have a collective voice, so the employer could understand that we are together and deserve more respect,” said Lesia Carlson, a Designated Early Childhood Educator (DECE) with 18 years of experience. 

DECEs are paired with elementary school teachers to provide all-day kindergarten in Ontario. Carlson has worked for the Halton board for the past five years. She is part of a group of 160 DECEs with the HDSB who are classified as “occasionals”. Occasionals wait on-call to receive their next assignment, which is often only the night before or on the day of.

The Halton board pays occasionals at the lowest rate on their DECE wage grid regardless of their experience, including those completing long-term assignments. If they are called-in to work, occasional DECEs earn $21.23 per hour. “Most of us need two jobs just to meet our basic expenses,” said Sarvath Fatima, an occasional DECE with eight years of experience in Canada. Prior to that, she worked as an ECE in Qatar and India for five years. 

“We’re underpaid and we don’t get benefits or a pension,” said Fatima, highlighting a familiar reality in care and service professions where the workers are predominantly women and lack unions. Less than 2% of the full-time and occasional DECEs with the Halton board are men. 

Due to the nature of their work, occasionals are rarely in the same place at the same time. According to Aminah Sheikh, an organizer with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), workers who previously felt like they were alone found a sense of connection through the union drive.

Adapting to the crisis: Organizing never stops

Sheikh wasn’t sure if the campaign could continue after school closures were announced for the period following March Break. But when nearly 70 workers turned out for their first Zoom webinar, it was clear that they were gaining rather than losing momentum due to the pandemic. “People who we’d never heard from before were coming out and asking questions,” said Sheikh. 

The organizing committee decided to move forward with their campaign under new guidelines issued by the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) on March 29. The OLRB permitted applications to be submitted via email, including scanned copies of signed union cards, on the condition that the employer is still operating. Construction industry employers unsuccessfully tried to have all new union certifications suspended, as was done by the NLRB in the United States from March 19 until resuming on April 6. 

On April 3, ETFO filed for certification and the OLRB scheduled a 48 hour online vote to begin on April 15. Under normal circumstances, votes are held within five working days. Employers often use this window to launch anti-union propaganda campaigns, including “captive audience” meetings where managers discourage workers from voting yes. However in this case, the HDSB did not mount an “anti” campaign, and workers used the extended lead time to their advantage. 

ETFO filed with just over 50% of cards signed – safely above the 40% minimum to trigger a vote – but lower than the threshold organizers normally use to fortify against a potential anti-union campaign that could jeopardize their ability to win a majority vote. The organizing committee had momentum on their side, and after filing they received a full employee list for the first time, which allowed them to expand their reach.  

Making it personal: The strength of organic leaders

Zoom calls became a regular feature of the campaign. Though sometimes unwieldy, online meetings enabled workers to experience a sense of unity and see their collective strength while remaining within the confines of their homes. Sheikh said that “Zoom fatigue” was not a concern. “People prioritized getting on the calls because they were concerned about their work and livelihoods.”

Worker leaders like Carlson and Fatima helped generate excitement and maintain focus during online meetings. They also connected with colleagues individually to explain the case for unionizing and discuss any questions they had. Members of the organizing committee enrolled in the online Organizing for Power training series led by Jane McAlevey to help hone their skills.

When workers reviewed the employee list, they realized that they had more connections than they had initially thought, and assigned point people based on their shared ties. “I was open and honest about work and my day-to-day struggles. I made it personal and my colleagues connected with that. Our discussions brought us closer together. I think the 1-on-1 calls made the biggest difference,” said Carlson, a mother of two who has been sewing masks for front-line workers.

“As a woman and a Muslim, I want our voices to be heard. When I spoke with my co-workers, there was a similar feeling that life was getting harder with less work and sometimes no jobs for days or even weeks,” said Fatima, a trusted colleague who was ready to offer a way to address their shared concerns. “A union is how working people gain a voice at work and the power to shape their working lives.”

“I made phone calls, I texted co-workers and used social media to encourage my colleagues to vote,” said Carlson. Even though they were physically distant, Carlson and her co-workers “shared photos of ourselves after we voted online, which was fun. We were passionate and we acted together and that was powerful.”

Building power one tough conversation at a time

By Sheikh’s calculation, the organizing committee convinced 40 workers who had not already signed union cards to vote yes during the period of physical distancing. “It wasn’t easy,” said Sheikh. “We built an organizing committee of strong women. We Zoomed and Zoomed some more. Many DECEs made calls all day long. People who didn’t know about unions were hard to move. It required multiple conversations. Lots of workers had sick family members and were struggling under the pandemic.” 

The final result was a 99% “yes” vote with 126 of the 127 workers who voted online casting ballots in favour of unionizing. “Workers didn’t have much time to talk to each other before. We actually built stronger relationships in a time of social isolation,” says Sheikh. “The campaign gave us a feeling of comradery and allowed us to connect with each other,” added Carlson.

“But how deep can it go?” asked Sheikh. “It’s still hard to form a real connection and open-up when you are meeting for the first time through a screen. If our next campaign is entirely online, we’ll need to build a larger organizing committee, and spend even more time training for tough 1-on-1 conversations.”

Lifting everyone up: Organizing the unorganized

Amy Korzack is a full-time DECE in Halton region and played a key role in supporting the organizing campaign by her occasional colleagues. 

Korzack is the president of her ETFO local and recalls when she and her colleagues negotiated their first union contract with the HDSB in 2011. The board refused to voluntarily recognize occasional DECEs as members of the bargaining unit, telling the union not to worry about a group of only a dozen or so workers. Soon after, the number of non-union occasionals ballooned by a factor of ten.

In 2016, Korzack’s local helped pass a motion at their union’s convention that called on ETFO to invest its resources in organizing the unorganized. Korzack comes from a union family, her father worked at a Ford plant for nearly 37 years. But when Korzack was in school, she didn’t expect that being an ECE would be a unionized profession. ECEs didn’t have the same public association with unions as autoworkers or teachers.

The motion resulted in Sheikh, who previously worked as an organizer with COPE Ontario and SEIU Local 2’s Justice for Janitors campaign, being hired as the union’s first staff person solely responsible for new organizing. Before the Halton campaign, Sheikh helped 180 occasional Toronto DECEs unionize with ETFO. 

“All unions need to organize,” said Korzack. “In these difficult times of shared vulnerability, our compassion for our fellow human being and fellow worker grows. Now more than ever, organizing is what we need to do to confront the massive inequality and corporate greed in our society.”

Workers’ gains at Cargill set stage for JBS bargaining

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By Jeremy Appel
Rankandfile.ca’s Cargill correspondent

The new agreement won by workers at Cargill’s High River, Alberta meatpacking plant is a significant improvement over its previous iteration and could provide a template for labour struggles in the industry, according to labour relations experts.

Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 voted 71% in favour of Cargill’s most recent offer on December 4, two days before the union was in a legal strike position. The company had also threatened to lock the workers out on December 6 if an agreement wasn’t reached.

This came 20 months after the Cargill plant was the site of the worst COVID-19 outbreak in North America at the time, with almost half its workforce getting infected and three people dying.

One of those fatalities — worker Benito Quesada — led to the RCMP launching a criminal investigation against Cargill for negligence.

Predictions are a “crapshoot“

Bob Barnetson, a labour studies professor at Athabasca University, told Rankandfile.ca he was “a bit surprised we didn’t have some kind of job action.”

“The whole point of this, for both sides, is to get a deal they can live with, but there are costs whenever job action is imminent or happens, so they have an incentive to work towards some sort of resolution,” he said.

“It’s always kind of a crapshoot. Everyone gets the vapours as you approach any kind of deadline and it causes a lot of sober second thought from both sides.”

The deal accepted by UFCW membership included a 21% wage increase over the duration of the contract, thousands of dollars in bonuses, increased health benefits, including counselling and massage therapy, as well as “ contract provisions to facilitate a new culture of health, safety, dignity, and respect in the workplace.”

“Standing cheek-to-jowl in lumps of gore”

Barnetson said these are all good stipulations for workers, but “whether Cargill is going to make their jobs less difficult or horrendous is an open question.” 

“They’re processing a couple thousand of animals a day. It’s a high-pace line, you’re standing cheek-to-jowl in lumps of gore [and] working with sharp knives in the cold,” he explained.

“Even though they got more money and maybe more input into health and safety, that doesn’t necessarily alter the fundamental job design that the employer’s created.” 

It’s likely the company was intimidated by the prospect of having its largest plant, responsible for upwards of 40% of Canada’s beef production, go idle indefinitely, especially at a time when beef prices are high and demand isn’t slowing down, Barnetson added. 

“There would be a significant economic penalty for the employer if there were a work stoppage,” he said, adding that the company would have had trouble attracting scabs for such an inherently taxing job, although not for lack of trying.

Too big not to settle

Sean Tucker, a professor of human resources at the University of Regina focusing on occupational health and safety, told Rankandfile.ca he expected the two parties to avoid job action at all costs.

Part of this has to do with all the negative press Cargill received as an employer last year for the COVID-19 outbreak. They couldn’t afford to have the public reminded of it through job action, he said.

The optics of a company like Cargill, which made a record $4.93 billion in profits this year, rejecting UFCW’s financial requests for a workforce scarred by sickness and death, would have added further negative publicity, Tucker added.

“It seemed like a no-brainer to me that they would just meet the union more than half way on what the union was demanding,” he said.

Tucker noted the relatively low 71% vote in favour of the offer, compared with the 98% who rejected Cargill’s initial offer, suggests there are a significant fraction of Cargill workers unsatisfied with the deal who were willing to walk the picket line.

“This was more than monetary”

Often health and safety considerations take a backseat to financial considerations during labour negotiations, but Tucker said the case of Cargill is unique in that health and safety was front and centre as a result of the outbreak.

Of the 950 Cargill workers who tested positive, there are undoubtedly some who have long-COVID symptoms, as well as the three deaths, which kept these considerations at the forefront of negotiations, he said. “This was more than monetary,” said Tucker.

In order to truly create a “new culture” surrounding health and safety, Tucker said the union should demand an independent consultant come to the plant to establish benchmarks for tracking progress on health and safety concerns, and follow up to track the company’s progress.

He said much depends on the specific language surrounding these issues and what enforcement mechanisms the union has at its disposal.

Tucker also suggested that some of the managers who were around during the outbreak should be shown the door if the company is serious about improvements. “If you’re going to have your culture changed, you can’t help but address the senior leadership in the plant, and also at the supervisor level,” he said.

It would be prudent for the company to put people in charge who will engage with the union, whose demands that the plant close down for two weeks during the outbreak fell on deaf ears until the worst happened.

“If they’d listened to the union, they would have saved lives and it would have been better for the bottom line, but [Cargill] assumed they knew best,” said Tucker.

Scene from the famous 2005 strike at Lakeside Packers, now JBS, in Brooks, Alberta. Source: Alberta Labour History Institute

From Cargill High River to JBS Brooks

Tucker said he anticipates the Cargill deal will have reverberations across the meatpacking industry.

“It’s not like it was isolated at Cargill, there’s just more public attention on this,” he said. “I don’t think this industry is too keen to have a lot of public attention on it. They’re not keen to have attention on animal treatment, which is part of it, but also on the treatment of workers at these plants.” 

In the new year, 2,500 workers at the JBS meatpacking plant in Brooks, who are also represented by UFCW 401, will be negotiating a new contract, which UFCW alluded to in its statement announcing the acceptance of a deal.

The JBS plant was also the site of a major COVID outbreak in April 2020, in which 650 workers tested positive.

“I would think [JBS] workers are looking at least at this as a starting point for a deal,” predicted Barnetson. 

Labour tensions are rising as inflation cuts wages

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By Doug Nesbitt

On Saturday, April 2, 900 workers went on strike at the massive Metro Distribution Centre in Etobicoke. The facility supplies all of the Metro and Food Basics stores between Windsor and Kingston, including the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton and Niagara. That’s 10+ million people. It’s the latest fight by union workers to win wage increases that won’t get wiped out by the highest inflation rates in 30 years.

The hundreds of thousands of unionized manufacturing, food processing, and logistics workers in the Windsor-Quebec corridor are heading into a second year of rising tensions and open fights with their private sector bosses.

Most people employed in manufacturing, food processing, and logistics have worked straight through the pandemic. Initially celebrated as heroes by the media, politicians and even employers, these essential workers are fighting to correct a long list of unresolved pandemic grievances.

As inflation climbs rapidly, the stakes of these labour disputes become greater. Paycheques are getting thin as prices go up. Many businesses are looking at inflation as a weapon to lower labour costs.

But a lot of workers aren’t having it. Two years of working through the pandemic and now the fears and restrictions are all but gone for most. As soon as vaccinations started rolling out last year, labour disputes started popping off.

The fight is on again and the Metro warehouse strike is just the tip of the iceberg.

Source: Twitter user @JoeSupreme2015

Warehouse workers

Back in January, grocery giant Sobeys made a stunning concession to its 500 employees at its Whitby Distribution Centre.

The warehouse workers secured 19.5 percent over four years for full-timers. Part-timers won wage parity and $7-$14/hour wage increases over the four-year contract. Bonuses and pensions gains were also made. It was reportedly a no-concessions contract.

By comparison, the striking Metro workers rejected 14 percent over four years. Rightly so, given that Metro’s profits from 2019 to 2021 are up 15 percent!

But even Sobeys has not been able to maintain labour peace. Only a couple weeks after the deal in Whitby, two hundred workers at the heavily-automated Sobeys warehouse in Terrebonne, Quebec walked on February 8. It is the first strike at a Sobeys facility in over a decade, and the corporation has scrambled to reorganize their Quebec distribution network.

After two months, the strike may end soon. There is a tentative agreement between Sobeys and the union, TUAC/UFCW Local 401. The ratification vote is on April 8, although union officials won’t discuss contract details in public.

All through COVID they worked in person, they worked from home, they had to work with PPE, they had new equipment, they had shifts changed, new lunch breaks and on top of that, inflation, with gas and food prices rising. In other words, they are fed up and willing to fight.

Sam Caetano, Director, UFCW Local 175

London Food Fights

In 2018, the new Dr. Oetker frozen pizza factory in London, Ontario was unionized by UFCW Local 175. After their first contract expired, 250 workers struck on February 16. The strike mandate was very narrow. There were just 91 of 160 votes in favour of the strike, but no scabbing was reported.

“We’re definitely determined,” said one striker. “The offer wasn’t fair money-wise. Everything is going up, groceries are insane and I have a mortgage and a car. I’m living paycheque to paycheque.”

The strike lasted a week, and a new deal was ratified with only 62 percent as general production and warehouse workers only saw a $0.50/hour increase in the first year on positions that paid $18.52-$19.72.

On Sunday, March 27, another tentative agreement in London, Ontario was rejected by UFCW members. This time, a strike was averted. Cargill was facing a strike by 900 workers at its poultry processing plant (formerly Cuddy Foods). With a 62 percent vote to reject the offer, Cargill was back at the bargaining table on Monday and a deal secured by the end of the day. The contract was ratified on March 30.

Sam Caetano, Director of UFCW 175, explained:

“We are seeing the same thing at all of these industrial food suppliers. All through COVID they worked in person, they worked from home, they had to work with PPE, they had new equipment, they had shifts changed, new lunch breaks and on top of that, inflation, with gas and food prices rising.

“In other words, they are fed up and willing to fight.”

Source: UFCW Local 175&633

Pouring it on

In Montreal, furious Molson Coors workers with Teamsters Local 1999 went on strike March 26. The 420 brewery workers are on strike against a below-inflation wage offer and an attack on seniority with regards to layoffs.

The strike is a real turnaround from last year’s six-week lockout of Molson Coors brewery workers in Toronto. There, workers had demanded a phase out of a two-tier contract that had been accepted in 2010. The agreement that ended that strike was only narrowly accepted by the membership because many key issues went unresolved.

Molson Coors used their 2020 pandemic losses as an excuse for the Toronto lockout, but in 2021 the multinational bounced back with profits quadrupling those of pre-pandemic 2019. Montreal brewery workers are right to strike for higher wages and against management injustices.

In mid-March, about two thousand aggregate haulers with the Ontario Aggregate Trucking Association went on strike against the multinational giant Lafarge as well as Dufferin and other quarry operators. The strike was waged by both employee drivers and owner-operators facing major losses due to rising gas costs and prices in general.

With pickets at 20 locations through southern Ontario, the strike was putting a pinch on cement-pouring at construction sites. A deal was hammered out after two weeks. The aggregate haulers demanded a 40 percent rate increase but but settled for 20 percent.

Source: Teamsters Local 1999

Public sector blues

Other strikes of note in recent months include the sixteen-day Oakville Transit strike and the five-month Lennox & Addington Interval House strike which appears to be over, although the board has yet to ratify the contract.

Both strikes, however, highlight the stark differences in wage settlements between the private and public sector. Oakville Transit workers won an expansion of health benefits and converted over two dozen jobs to full-time status. The wage gain, however, was 2 percent per year over three years. A similar wage gain is reported at LAIH.

The anchor on public sector wage increases is in healthcare where tens of thousands of hospital and long-term care workers are having their wages decimated by inflation thanks to Bill 124‘s wage cap of 1 percent per year. The workers also operate under a long-standing anti-strike law.

While there has been a recent round of organizing in the hospitals against Bill 124, there is no sign of a so-called “illegal” strike against Bill 124, despite the immense leverage the workers have in the context of the pandemic. At this point in time, it appears the strategy is entirely electoral: defeat Doug Ford and have Bill 124 lifted.

In the past, differences between public and private sector unions have been disastrous. The Social Contract and Rae Days still loom as an ugly warning. A challenge for principled trade unionists is bridging this divide and trying to redevelop a combined and complementary strategy to combat inflation.

Striking truckers picketing a quarry in Milton on March 21. Photo: Leo Barros.

Inflation is a global problem

Demagogues like wannabe Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre blame Trudeau and the Liberals for high inflation. But the problem of inflation was not caused by Trudeau. The problem is global and isn’t contained to Canada.

Inflation is being driven by the massive pandemic disruption of global production and supply chains. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has compounded the issue by disrupting global energy and food distribution. Major corporations are taking advantage of the crisis with price gouging, which is also driving inflation. But price-gouging isn’t the root cause.

Inflation has also been blamed on major government expenditures during the pandemic. There has been some effort made in the press to point the finger at emergency unemployment benefits like CERB/CRB, as well as the federal childcare program.

Emergency pandemic expenditures, however, were never a radical redistribution of wealth to workers or a massive investment in much-needed public and green infrastructure. They were temporary measures and not an effort to repair the social safety net slashed by government after government. Unlike the numerous federal and provincial pandemic business subsidies, CERB/CRB was stingy, short-lived and free of rampant corruption like we see the so-called “wage subsidy” CEWS.

Despite the fact that workers bear no responsibility for the inflation crisis, the Poilievres and Trudeaus will be taking cues from the bankers and corporate powerplayers. They may toss us a few crumbs, but their goal will be making workers pay for the crisis.

Talking labour strategy

With workers already showing signs of fighting for higher wages, there are two dangers that lie ahead.

First, it would be a major defeat if wage fights remain isolated from each other. Not only does labour need to build support campaigns around specific disputes, but these fights need to be brought together. Wherever trade unionists meet, it’s time we discuss a common front on wage demands.

Breaking this isolation also means new organizing efforts up and down supply chains. The great Amazon breakthrough on Staten Island shows this can be done. Union strength in warehousing is a springboard into non-union trucking, retail, delivery, and related sectors. Building power means being organized at the economy’s critical chokepoints.

A second danger is new government austerity programs derailing a wages offensive. Cuts to public services, privatization, wage caps and layoffs will put downward pressure on private sector wage settlements. This is already the case in much of the country. A strategy to divide and conquer public and private sector unions is an old game and labour can’t let itself get caught in this trap.

Tackling the threat of further austerity and union-busting privatization requires labour to demand the rich and corporations pay for the crisis. They’ve enjoyed two years of pandemic profiteering, much of it on the working-class tax dollar. Calling for the rich and corporations to pay substantial tax increases to maintain and expand the “social wage” – critical essential services paid for with our taxes – is the route to pursue. There are also new openings emerging for labour to demand public ownership of key industries.

However, without a wages offensive underpinning it, the strategy of challenging corporate and elite wealth through social policy will backfire. Labour’s strength to dictate terms remains in our collective ability to withdraw labour and control workplaces.

About the author: Doug Nesbitt is editor of Rankandfile.ca, a former union organizer and researcher, and a labour historian. He is currently writing his first book about Mike Harris, the Common Sense Revolution and the Days of Action in Ontario.

Alto: High-speed privatization

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By Doug Nesbitt

The crown corporation, Alto, is now holding public consultations in the regions where it is proposing to build a high-speed rail between Quebec City and Toronto. The project costs are estimated between $80 billion and $120 billion, and have ignited opposition along the entire corridor.

Numerous townships have voted outright opposition. Local organization and networks have been activated around a series of concerns centred on lowering land values, environmental destruction and the enormous costs. There is also disappointment and resentment along the “401 corridor” because the proposed high-speed rail bypasses numerous cities, big and small, that are served by the 401 and throttled VIA Rail passenger service on CN privatized rails.

Alto’s main proposal is to run a high-speed rail from Quebec City through Montreal to Ottawa, and then down the sparsely-populated Highway 7 corridor to Peterborough before connecting to Toronto. Alto has also floated an option of running a southern route to serve Kingston, although Alto representatives have said at public consultations that no stop will exist between Ottawa and Peterborough. Alto engineers say it would be cheaper to build along the southern route to avoid Canadian Shield granite. Kingston is the largest centre between Ottawa and Oshawa and a major junction for existing VIA Rail passenger service. Kingston is in fact the fifth busiest VIA Rail stop in Canada, behind Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec, all of which will be served by the high-speed proposal.

Proposed corridors for the Alto high-speed rail system.

South Frontenac, the rural township north of Kingston, was the first local government to oppose Alto. The Township’s council vote was unanimous. Unanimous votes of opposition followed in the neighbouring townships of Stone Mills and Rideau Lakes. Tyendinaga and Belleville also oppose Alto. The Cataraqui Conservation board around Kingston is now calling for a study to expand the 401 rail corridor to protect the local environment and water systems. In Quebec, the farmers union mobilized a tractor protest that rolled through Montreal’s Mirabel airport area, opposing further expropriation of lands following expropriations for the airport.

Kingston City Council has voted 9-2 in support of the southern route while Kingston’s Member of Parliament, Mark Gerretsen, and his provincial counterpart, Ted Hsu, both Liberals, support the southern route that would provide a stop close to Kingston. Gerretsen is reportedly lobbying for the southern route and Kingston stop within the Liberal cabinet. Rural provincial and federal representatives aligned with the federal Conservatives or Ontario Progressive Conservatives have followed the lead of the townships and now oppose Alto.

Alto’s CEO, Martin Imbleau, spoke to the Senate Committee on National Finance in Ottawa on February 26. He claimed that too many changes to the original proposal would likely kill the project. Alto’s plan, said Imbleau, was to complete its public consultations and put out a final proposal at the end of 2026.

Rural concerns are centred upon land values, expropriated and bi-sected properties, and environmental destruction. There is also great concern about the costs. How and why will the project cost between $80 and $120 billion? Many are calling for this taxpayer-funded proposal to disclose its cost calculations in what amounts to a demand for an open budget.

The corporate agenda behind Alto

The structure of Alto has not been addressed in the media or debated by elected representatives in municipal, provincial or federal government. The political and media establishment are silent on this question despite Alto being a dangerous privatization project that will put corporate profits ahead of a wide range of public democratic concerns.

Alto was one of Justin Trudeau’s last acts as Prime Minister. It was created in early 2025 to take over the project from VIA Rail, which has a public service mandate. VIA has been reduced to a consulting role on technical and operational matters. At the time, the union representing VIA Rail workers, Unifor, said the Alto takeover “means public funds being used to build a system that will strip public oversight and hand the corridor over to private operators.”

Unifor’s analysis is correct. Although Alto is a federal crown corporation, it is not like VIA. It is in fact a shell corporation – a “Project and Contracting Authority” – to oversee a multinational corporate consortium called Cadence. The current “co-development” contract awarded to Cadence is worth $3.9 billion. At the centre of Cadence is AtkinsRéalis which is the new name for SNC-Lavalin. Many Canadians will know SNC-Lavalin for its long history of corruption scandals. In the past few years alone, SNC-Lavalin was at the centre of the corruption scandal involving the Prime Minister’s Office of Justin Trudeau, and the criminal convictions of former corporate executives. SNC-Lavalin rebranded 2023 as AtkinsRéalis.

Other multinationals in the Cadence consortium include CPDQ Infra, Keolis, Systra, SNCF Voyageurs and Air Canada. Air Canada was privatized in 1988 by the corrupt Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and has since become one of the most unpopular corporate monopolies in Canada. Only last year, the public rallied behind the rebellion of Air Canada flight attendants combating unpaid work.

Systra, a public transit engineering corporation, was accused in 2021 of corruption in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan and paid fines to avoid trial. In 2019, one of Systra’s subsidiaries was sanctioned by the World Bank for corruption with infrastructure projects in Tanzania, Mozambique and Ghana. Keolis is another multinational corporation that is contracted to operate public transit systems around the world while taking a profit.

SNCF Voyageurs is France’s state-owned passenger rail service, which includes its famous high-speed trains. Both Systra and Keolis commonly work with SNCF Voyageurs. There is good reason for Canada to seek the expertise of a successful high-speed rail operator like SNCF Voyageurs, but allowing it to extract profits from Canadians is an absurd proposition.

What are P3s?

Trade unionists and those supporting public infrastructure projects may already recognize Alto as a “Public-Private Partnership” or “P3”. It is the organizational form of infrastructure development that has become dominant in Canada over the past forty years. There are various forms of P3s, but they typically award lucrative multi-decade contracts to whatever aspect of the project is deemed to be an acceptable source of profits.

Typical P3 contracts include service and operations and maintenance (O&M) contracts. Other contracts, which are more likely with Alto, include design-build, design-build-operate, design-finance-build-lease, and design-build-own-operate. It is unclear what kind of P3 contracts Alto will be awarding.

The problems with the P3 model are numerous. Costs are a major problem. Private financing and corporate budgeting practices almost always lead to costs much greater than originally promised. Risk is taken on by the public taxpayer while contracts are hidden from public view under the guise of “trade secrets” and “intellectual property” in order to protect corporate profit streams. There is no reason such contracts need to be drawn up, but the consensus among Canada’s political elites is to allow this legalized corruption.

The typical results of P3 builds are cost over-runs, extended timelines, inferior services and equipment, downward pressure on working conditions, and problems with workplace safety, public health and environmental damages.

Costly privatization disasters are routine

One does not have to look far to find concrete examples of privatization failures. Deteriorating recycling services in across Ontario are a direct result of Premier Doug Ford’s privatization of all local recycling programs under the power of Circular Materials, a private “non-profit” corporate consortium founded by Loblaws, Metro, Coca-Cola, McDonalds and a host of other food industry multinationals busy gouging customers and busting unions.

Alto is also like Metrolinx, the Ontario transit crown corporation mandated to drive privatized transit projects like the disastrous Eglinton LRT in Toronto. The Eglinton LRT opened six years late and at least a billion dollars over budget. A similar P3 transit project is the catastrophic Ottawa LRT which has cost hundreds of millions more than projected and suffered constant equipment failures since it opened in 2019. Just last week, it was announced that 41 of its trains have to be taken out of service for more repairs. The entire Ottawa LRT fleet is a bag of lemons.

The existing 401 rail corridor, on which VIA currently operates, is owned by CN Rail. CN was a crown corporation until it was privatized in 1995 by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. As reported in the Kingston Labour News, CN has been responsible for the recent deterioration of VIA Rail service by throttling VIA’s train speeds. CN, along with CPKC, has also aggressively opposed the railway unions in their efforts to improve workplace health and safety, staffing levels, training, and fatigue.

It is worth noting CN was created in 1919 due to the extensive corporate mismanagement of several large private railway corporations, notably the Canadian Northern, Grand Trunk and Grand Trunk Pacific. The Canadian Northern was the largest corporation in Canada in the early 1900s.

In short, privatized infrastructure builds serve to enrich and entrench private corporate interests against the public democratic interest.

Public development and democratic planning

The Canadian political class, from the local through the provincial and federal levels, remains silent on the privatization agenda. Politicians haven’t said a word about CN’s profit-driven throttling of VIA Rail service and are routine advocates of strikebreaking legislation against railway workers at CN and CPKC. None of these politicians seems to think VIA Rail operating on CN’s privatized rails is a matter worth discussing even as they lobby for improved VIA service on CN rails. Despite CN’s huge profits, they refuse to invest in widening the existing rail corridor to accommodate passenger demand and an alternative to the 401, which is widely recognized as the busiest highway and busiest truck highway in the world. CN’s priorities are lucrative freight rates, not passenger rail services.

More than 17 million Canadians – nearly half the country’s population – live between Quebec City and Toronto. The population is stuck between two privatized train corridors, one real and one proposed. Unless the privatization issue is addressed, the solutions are lousy.

Canadians are suffering from a profound lack of public democracy insofar as passenger rail service ought to be a program of public development and democratic planning. What we have right now is private development and corporate planning with the public veneer of a crown corporation conducting community consultations.

Canadians desperately need improved VIA Rail service and long-distance high-speed rail, but we do not need the Alto privatization scheme. It must be opposed and there are many reasons to do so. Until there is public development and democratic planning for high-speed rail, public efforts ought to be focused on bringing the existing CN Rail corridor back under public ownership in order to widen the corridor and expand passenger rail.

An earlier version of this article was published at the Kingston Labour News.

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