Gainers' workers take on Tories THE GAINERS' strike in Canada's prairie province of Alberta has apparent similarities to the Hormel strike in Minnesota, a comparable area in the United States. It is an exemplary strike that has inspirea sympathy and support across the country where the labor movement has long been in retreat.
The following article and interview are from the summer issue of Socialist Challenge, the publication of the Alliance for Socialist Action, a Fourth Internationalist group in English-speaking Canada. GREG MeMASTER
CANADA vote as a result.
Mass pickets resisting police actions like the internationally-televised dispersal of the 1,000 people peacefully sitting-in at Gainers on June 3 inspired thousands to march in the streets twice in a week, June 7 and June 12. Labor solidarity reached levels unseen for years, with "illegal" picket-line contingents of pipefitters, nurses, teamsters, provincial employees, postal workers and letter carriers; donations of thousands of dollars from the Canadian Autoworkers, CUPE and NUPGE (provincial employees' national organization); and "hot" declarations against Gainers' and Swifts' products by labor federations in British Colombia and Saskatchewan.
The Alberta Federation of Labour has coordinated support action and deepened a trend of co-action with the Building Trades. President Dave Werlin, arrested along with hundreds more, declared June 12 to 8,000 people "There aren't enough police, enough courts, enough jails to hold us all"
Meanwhile, unreliability of supply and community response to the boycott campaign forced outlets ranging from major chains like Safeway to comer stores to stop buying from Gainers. The settlement at Fletchers in Red Deer June 14, which the UFCW called a victory with industry parity and full reinstatement of strikers, dismissal of scabs, and protection of seniority against possible time in jail, placed new pressure on Gainers to negotiate. But still the arrests continue in Edmonton, and so does the mass picketing and cross-union solidarity. jUNCTION GRANTED!
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On the Gainers' picket line in Edmonton, the police inspect union cards like South African passbooks, and arrest supporters from other unions on sight. But pickets shout "Is this Poland, is this South Africa?" and maintain mass picketing against strikebreaking and other protests against Gainers' owner Peter Pocklington, the labor laws and the police. The police actions and the workers' determined resistance have brought out thousands of supporters against the "new" Tory government and the status quo, defending union rights.
Under Peter Lougheed's government, anti-labor legislation combined with mass unemployment and court decisions in British Colombia and Alberta give employers the tools they need to de-unionize. Unilateral imposition of contract concessions after 24-hour lockouts left construction unions reeling, giving rise to the Dandelion Association of Political Action Committees, led by dissatisfied Building Trades rank-and-filers.
The crisis-ridden meatpacking industry blackmailed employees into accepting rollbacks with job loss to scab labor. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) at Gainers in Edmonton accepted concessions in 1984, including a two-tier wage system, after members and Local leaders watched the unemployed line up to apply for jobs as scabs under police protection. That same year, Lakeside Packers did • replace strikers, who are still picketing today, after union leaders advised no action. But now, the unions are fed up.
The Dandelions were the first manifestation of this change in consciousness, but the spectacular rise of the New Democrats in the May 8 provincial election, the militant strikes that developed since then, and the outpouring of solidarity with the Gainers' strikers represents a new stage.
Gainers' workers were promised a share in proceeds resulting from the rationalization of the meatpacking industry if they went along with concessions in 1984. Instead, they got forced overtime, injuries from production speedup, and management refusal to match 1986 industry wage settlements. Old and new employees getting 7 dollars per hour for the same work joined in a 96 percent strike
PLA BA TRIKE