NEWS AROUND THE LOCAL DECEMBER 2006
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DECEMBER 2006 ISSUE

Bill C-257 Anti-Scab Passes Second Reading

The CAW played a significant role along with the other affiliates of the Canadian Labour Congress in Lobbying the House of Commons to support bill C-257. The law would make it illegal for employers to hire scab workers while employees are locked out or on strike.

The CAW Lobby team consisted of 12 Local and National Leaders from across the country, mounting a massive lobby campaign with 150 other affiliated activists, for 3 days leading up to the vote on September 25, 2006. Representing Local 199 and the Niagara area was Wayne Gates President of Local 199 and Mike Michaud, CAW National Coordinator. Wayne and Mike were in Ottawa to meet with MP's and Senators and secure support for this important bill. As Niagara residents they were assigned the task of meeting with St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra, Welland MP John Maloney and House Leader Rob Nicholson from Niagara Falls.

John Maloney, having severed as MP in previous governments had already been supportive of similar bills in the past, and again committed to support this bill as he felt it maintained the balance of power between Labour and Business.

Rick Dykstra met with Wayne and Mike in St. Catharines several weeks prior to the vote, in an attempt to better understand each others position. To Rick's credit he understood what this bill meant for working class families and the impact anti-scab legislation would have. He explained that his Parties position would be one of opposition to the bill, but because it was a members bill they would be removing the party whip, giving a free vote to members not in the Cabinet or Parliamentary Secretaries. Rick was the first member of the Conservatives to step out and assure us of his support for working class families in his riding. To his credit Rick along with several other members of the conservative party voted in support of this bill Wednesday October the 25, 2006.

The Honourable Rob Nicholson, Conservative House Leader and probably one of the busiest people on the hill, took time out of his schedule to meet with Brother Gates and Brother Michaud. Although Nicholson could not support the bill, he assured us that the vote would be a free vote and further assured us that he would not stall the bill or attempt to hold it up when the bill comes back to the house for third reading. Rob was also willing to continue the dialogue back in his constituency riding with another meeting with Hassan Yussuff , Executive of the CLC and Paul Forder, CAW Director of Government Relations. Nicholson was also responsible for arranging a private meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, where by Wayne and Mike were able to deliver the position of Labour, on this land mark legislation for working people across this country.

The pair also met Liberals Belinda Stronach, Ken Dryden and Denis Coderre, all of whom supported this bill.

The bill received unanimous support from the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois. The NDP were extremely helpful with time, support and resources. It was extremely gratifying for the CAW members who worked with CAW 's Peggy Nash, to visit her, in her new position as Member of Parliament. Peter Stoffer is also a member of the CAW from Nova Scotia who gave generously of his time and expertise to assist during this important Lobby. The House of Commons voted 167 to 101 in favour of the private members bill on Anti-scab workers. This was the second reading of the bill, which will now go before committee before returning to the House for a final vote. Dean Allison of Niagara West will be chairing the review committee.

Wayne Gates felt the real work will be in lobbying hard for a third and final reading vote which could come before Christmas or more likely in the New Year.

Affinia:
On November 3, 2006 the last remaining members of CAW Local 199 were laid off. The total number of employees who have lost their jobs to this unnecessary plant closure is 229. This was a plant which produced a quality part, had a highly skilled workforce and made a profit.

The question that has to be asked is: What is our local politician doing at all levels of government to protect manufacturing jobs, in the Niagara area and right across the province? What is wrong with fighting to protect Canadian jobs, Canadian families and Canadian communities?

The Adjustment Centre is now open and is located at the train station; 5 Great Western St. in West St. Catharines. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday to Friday.

Auto Industry:
On Thursday, November 16th Mike Michaud, CAW National Skilled Trades Co-ordinator, Hassad Yussef, Secretary Treasurer of the Canadian Labour Council and I met with Conservative House leader and M.P. of Niagara Falls, Rob Nicholson and also Rick Dykstra, M.P. for St. Catharines. We met to talk about supporting Bill C247 anti-scab legislation at third reading and also to talk about the auto industry in the Niagara area with thousands of good paying manufacturing jobs being lost in the Niagara region and within Local 199. Some of the companies who have closed or have announced layoffs are:

• Affinia - 229 plant closure
• General Motors - 291 laid off
• Brunner Mfg. (Niagara Falls) - 27 laid off
• Edscha (Niagara Falls) - 82 laid off
• Iafrate (Thorold) - 21 laid off

We also told both M.P.’s about the fact that approximately 300 of our members who live in our community ride a bus to Oshawa everyday and we believe all parties must do everything possible to bring our members back to St. Catharines to work.

We explained that the auto industry is especially vulnerable to the expansion of our existing one way trade relationship with Korea. CANADA imported 130,000 vehicles from Korea in 2004, but we sold only 400 to Korea. Corporations are closing Canadian facilities and relocating to China. This is what happened at AFFINIA, throwing 229 of our members out of work. We also gave them some facts about the importance of the auto sector in Niagara.

The Industry:
The St. Catharines/Niagara region is a key part of Canada’s auto industry in engines, transmission parts and several independent auto parts plants. Major auto employers in the region are: General Motors, Edscha, Dana, TRW and Iafrate. The industry produced engines and parts worth an incredible $6 billion in the St. Catharines/Niagara region, or $16 million per day.

Autoworkers earn a total of $1.3 million every day and help our communities by paying $327,000 in income and municipal taxes which in turn, support our hospitals and schools.

Jobs and the Local Economy:
We continue to hammer home to both Rob Nicholson and Rick Dykstra about how important auto jobs are to the local economy.

Facts presented:

• Auto industry directly employees 8,500 people in St. Catharines/Niagara
• On top of these, thousand more jobs are created to supply the auto industry
• Jobs in steel and plastics (more jobs are created by spending power of autoworkers pay cheques)
• Including the spin off jobs, the auto industry accounts for one out of every six jobs
• Autoworkers pay cheques pumped $469 million into our local economy or $1 million per day
• Local charities like the United Way depend on our members.

We have requested, through both the House Leader and Rick Dykstra, an opportunity to make a presentation at their auto caucus to inform them of the important of auto jobs in Niagara. We challenge both Rob Nicholson and Rick Dykstra to support a new Canadian Auto Policy to protect Canadian workers, Canadian communities and Canadian jobs.

Mayoral Debate:
On October 18th, the local union sponsored a mayoral debate to give all candidates the opportunity to explain to our members why CAW Local 199 should vote for them. We were successful in having all eight candidates in attendance and a packed hall of about 600. Some of the questions asked to the candidates were:

1. What can you as mayor do, in practical terms to ensure that St. Catharines maintains good paying union jobs and a strong manufacturing base?
2. If elected mayor, will you ever support contracting out of the public services of municipal privatization?
3. Do you support publicly administrated not-for-profit health care, including public ownership operation and accountability of new hospital facilities?
4. Will you, if elected mayor, acknowledge the fact that as representatives of our employers, the citizens of St. Catharines professional firefighters association to work to rectify any serious problems or will you simply refer them to senior staff as is the current practice?

There was also a number of questions from the floor and the debate last over two hours. The local UPC committee and executive board made a decision based on the mayoral debate that the three candidates worthy of our members’ consideration were Jackie Phelan, Brian McMullan and Rob Welch.

As you may already know, Brian McMullan is the new mayor of St. Catharines. We have already discussed and are in total agreement that we need to protect good paying manufacturing jobs in St. Catharines.

The UPC and your executive board also support a number of other candidates in the Niagara Region. The list was handed out in some of our workplaces. We were successful in getting 67% of all the candidates we support, elected. It is very important to fight to protect all our jobs in all our units and to have labour friendly councilors in all the communities we represent. The local would like to congratulate CAW Local members who were elected: in Pelham our Financial Secretary Malcolm Allen and in Welland one of our Local 199 retirees, Sandy O’Dell.

The local would also like to congratulate CAW members who also ran in the election: Al Snider Niagara on the lake, and retiree Mike Sullivan who ran for council in St. Catharines. We would also like to mention CAW Local 523 President Rick Alakas was elected to council in Welland.

AROUND THE LOCAL

Brunner Mfg:
This unit was extremely busy for a long period of time, but like a lot of our units who are tied to the auto industry, has slowed down quickly. The auto industry has announced that 27 members will be laid off. The election for the in-plant committee is being held in November, including election for chairperson. We had a number of overtime grievances in the system which have been settled. We have posted one grievance to arbitration. We have an issue with supervisor Rob Brownrigg who is trying to intimidate our members by yelling and swearing. I would like to be as clear as possible to this supervisor that he needs to conduct himself in a business-like manner and treat our members with respect and dignity that they deserve or we will do everything possible to have him removed. The owner, Peter Brunner has laid off 27 of our members and it looks to me he missed one supervisor.

Coutts:
The Coutts bargaining committee was released on Monday, November 20th to proof read their collective agreement. We will be sending the collective agreement to the printers immediately. We have had a couple of grievances posted to go to arbitration and are waiting for dates. I would once again like to thank the committee: Chairperson-Darlene Quinn, Committeepersons-Rita Campbell and Bette Anne Chevalier for their hard work during bargaining. I would also like to congratulate the brothers and sisters who ran a very successful United Way campaign in this workplace.

David Chevrolet:
The body shop at David’s is busy and the service area is reporting to be slow but no one is on layoff. We have had conversations with management about Christmas holiday pay. We will be having a meeting with the committee and the company to go over what we believe the company agreed to at bargaining.

Ed Learn Ford:
This unit has proof read the collective agreement and we have handed out contract books to all members.

FirstOntario Credit Union:
On Thursday, November 16th the elected committee and I met with National rep. Steve Farkas to discuss a number of issues. We also discussed a recent arbitration ruling. Another issue discussed was about a current strike issue at FirstOntario in Hamilton, whose workers are represented by another union (C.O.P.E.). At issue at the employers demands for significant cuts to their collective agreement including:

• clawback on vacation entitlement
• eliminating COLA provisions
• elimination of health care benefits for future retirees
• elimination of current full-time to part-time ratio

If you can attend the annual general membership meeting it will be held on Wednesday, December 6th at Chandelier Place in Stoney Creek. CAW Local 199 will be taking a bus to the meeting.

Forbes: The Chairperson Martyn Gray has gone over all the other dealerships’ collective agreements and handed out proposal sheets. We will be having a unit meeting shortly to get input from the membership on our contract demands.

Genaire: We had the committee released to proof read our new three (3) year agreement and have sent the contract to be printed. In last month’s 199 news, I talked about wage classification dispute coming out of bargaining. We have resolved the wage issue.

Iafrate:
The Chairperson and I have had a number of meetings with management to resolve the incentive language coming out of bargaining from a year ago. We have resolved the incentive language. The committee has now proof read the agreement and we will be getting the contract printed immediately.

John Bear:
We had a unit meeting to go over demand sheets for our upcoming negotiations. Membership have ratified the demands that will be presented to the company at the opening of bargaining.

Neptunus:
This unit has been very busy and has done a fair amount of hiring over the last few months. The committee had been released for a day to proof read the collective agreement and the new three (3) year agreement has been sent to the printers.

Niagara Motors:
We met with the company over a number of issues and the company has agreed to open up the communication between the chairperson and the company. We have resolved a grievance which was going to arbitration.

This units body shop is reporting it’s busy and the company is looking to hire a couple of new employees.

Tora:
Chairperson reports business is steady with a few new hires. They’re expecting the usual layoffs during the holiday season.

In closing, on behalf of my family, I would like to wish everyone a safe, healthy and happy holiday season. All the best in 2007!

OCTOBER 2006 ISSUE

Thank you! Thank you!

It is difficult to describe all the emotions you feel when your co-workers, members in all our units and our retirees, give you the mandate to be the President of this great Local. A mere thank you seems so underrated. Saying this, I will work tirelessly on your behalf, as this is the best thank you I can give the membership.

This is the first 199 News since June and because of the time between articles I will not have the space to do all our units. But I will give a full report on all units in my next article. The local executive and membership should have a debate on the number of Local 199 issues that are printed per year.

Coutts Library On Friday, Sept. 8 the membership of this unit ratified a new 3 yr agreement by 82%. The Agreement has something in it for all members of this bargaining unit. It dismantled the inequity in benefits and sick days and provided above average wage improvements for all members.

Our ability to achieve these improvements was the result of our overwhelming support from the membership with a 95% strike mandate. Highlights to Agreement

• Wages: 3% 3% 3%
• Inverse (voluntary) lay-off language
• Better job posting language
• Improved vacation
• Better employee benefits and sick time, including all members to have fully paid company benefits in the 3rd year
• Enhanced severance pay 1.5 week per year service

I would like to thank National Rep Steve Farkas, the committee - Darlene Quinn, Rita Campbell and Bette Anne Chevalier for their hard work.

Genaire
On June 20th the membership of this unit ratified a new 3-year agreement by 76%. Highlights include:

• Additional time off
• Improved cost of living formula
• Wages: 1.5% 1.25% 1.25%

On August 29, I attended a meeting with the company and the union of a wage rate dispute from bargaining. That issue is still not resolved and a meeting with the National Union, the Company and the Local to resolve this issue. The Local would like to thank the committee, Sam Burgio, Gerald Kilby, & Bruce Moore for their hard work during bargaining.

We have the potential of a serious issue at Genaire because the Conservative Government has opened up a bidding process for work done for the Canadian Military. A company from the U.S.A. may be bidding on work that been done by Genaire for 50 years. We set up a meeting with M.P. Rob Nicholson, Mayor of N.O.T.L. Gary Burroughs, the Company and the Union to tour the plant and show off our highly skilled workforce to the local politicians.

It was important to inform M.P. Rob Nicholson that any new work to be done for the Canadian Military should be done by Canadians. Why would a Canadian government spend our tax dollars in the U.S.A. when the jobs could & should be done here?

Meeting with Buzz Hargrove
On August 2, the GM Unit Plant Chairperson and I met with CAW National President, Buzz Hargrove in Toronto. We felt with the changing of the top leadership of Local 199 it was important to meet.

A number of important issues were discussed including the importance of new investment in the St. Catharines’ GM operations and how important it is to bring home our brothers and sisters working in Oshawa.

We discussed the Affinia plant closure as well as affects and the number of workplaces that have decertified from our union in the Niagara area. Our concern is that workplaces should be serviced from Niagara locals, not Toronto.

Labour Day
The Labour Day Parade became, for the first time, a real Labour Day parade, leaving from CAW Local 199 Hall and ending at the Merritton Arena. Special thanks to all the volunteers who helped make this a successful day, as well the great work done by our Community Service Committee and the LGBT Committee for putting together floats for the parade. The Local had by far the biggest labour presence in the parade with motorcycles, old cars, floats and a number of new cars and trucks donated by our unionized dealerships. At the conclusion of the parade a Labour Day celebration at our Hall included free rides for the kids, the Caverners, (a Beatle tribute band) and our own Alex Latham’s band, “Stonewall”. Congratulations to Dave Stewart who won the draw for $5000! Hopefully next years draw will be for a new car built in Canada.

Affinia
In March 2006, the CAW was informed that Affinia had made a decision to close the plant if a buyer couldn’t be found. Affinia, now owned by young investors tied to the George Bush Investor’s Group, sold the 5 million plus after market brakes currently built in St. Catharines to a company in China. This irresponsible decision leaves this facility without a product throwing 229 Local 199 members out of work.

The Berryman Ave. workplace has been in our community for 100 years and has belonged to UAW/CAW Local 199 since 1972. The highly skilled Affinia workers produce a quality part, which is also very profitable. It is disturbing that all levels of government are saying and doing nothing as job after job leaves our Canadian communities and re-locates to China.

The George Bush Investor’s Group is anti-union, anti-worker, and anti-community and does not care about the effects a plant closure has on our members, their employees, and our community. The decision to close and sell the entire product to China was to make millions of dollars, with little or no cost to leave Canada. We must put laws into place, which make it too expensive to close and move offshore. Currently there are no repercussions for corporations that show a blatant disregard for the workers and communities that have greatly contributed to their profit.

Over the last 8 weeks, the Union has met with all four levels of government to secure money for an Adjustment Centre to help our members move on with their lives. The company has not lived up to its responsibility of participation in the funding of an Adjustment Centre. The only commitment Affinia has made to its employees is to accommodate according to what is only covered by the Employment Standards Act. The CAW has proposed that the Company give $150.00 per employee towards an Adjustment Centre, recall rights, enhanced severance pay for all employees, continued current welfare benefits for 12 months and to resolve all grievances.

The company to date has said “No!” It is our intention to take this company on! We will take the fight to every Affinia owned workplace in Ontario, including its head office in Toronto.

On September 18 our Union met with both Provincial and Federal representatives at our Hall and successfully negotiated $100,000 towards an Adjustment Centre for our members. At this point, the company Still has not contributed one cent.

In the future, at every bargaining table, we must put contract language into place that will protect our members in the event of a plant closure. We mustn’t allow companies to sell our jobs to the lowest bidder and walk away from their obligation to employees and their communities. The question must be asked of all politicians at every level of government; ‘what is wrong with fighting to protect Canadian jobs, Canadian families and Canadian communities?’ Consider…not one person living in China votes for you. Wake up before it is too late!

REMEMBER! DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE.