If the last two years are any indication, Windsor's reputation as a militant union town is un-deserved, say labour leaders.
There hasn't been a private sector strike of any significance for more than two years. And while there have been a handful of public sector labour disruptions since the 101day CUPE strike, they've been as apt to be employer lockouts (Essex Power, Canada Post) as worker strikes.
The strike by St. Clair College support staff that started Thursday is part of a province-wide walkout that's an exception to the trend.
Except for a recent three-day walkout at Rose City Ford over worker suspensions "my crude numbers with the CAW shows we haven't had a strike since Vet Cabs, which ended July 14, 2009," says Jack Robinson, the Windsor regional director for the CAW, the dominant union in the area.
Over those two years, more than 100 CAW contracts have been negotiated and ratified, he said. "I think it does say something, that there hasn't been a strike in probably over two years and over 100 contracts, it's good for the area," Robinson said. Windsor - site of the historic 1945 Ford strike - may have had a reputation for union militancy. "But I don't see that now," Robinson said.
The CAW's position has always been to resist employer demands for concessions to wages and benefits, he said. But it's now more open to finding ways with the employer to improve productivity, doing anything it can to preserve jobs.
As the development commission's director of business attraction, Rakesh Naidu is asked about Windsor's reputation as a militant union town almost every time he talks to a potential investor.
It's a question he is eager to address, he says, because he can dispute it with evidence of virtually no strikes and no union-company acrimony in recent years.
"Union leaders have realized they have to be a very collaborative, very progressive partner for the benefit of their own members," Naidu said. "That is why they have not had strikes for some time."
In one case, despite many weeks of receiving no pay from their employer workers at LaChaumiere Retirement Residence in Lakeshore, members of CAW Local 2458, stayed on the job because they felt a moral obligation to take care of the home's elderly residents.
"There's a perfect example" to show that Windsor's militant reputation is undeserved, said Gerry Farnham, president of CAW Local 195, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. But he added there are times when unions have to be militant, such as in early 2009 when workers staged an occupation after two related plants, Aradco and Aramco, closed while owing workers about $2.4 million in termination, severance and vacation pay.
"Although we didn't get everything for those workers, we got them a fair chunk of what they were owed," said Farnham.
CAW national president Ken Lewenza said bargaining in today's economic climate is much different. "Historically, if we couldn't get a deal at deadline, we just struck. The very last tool we'll use today is a strike and I would say 15 years ago it was our first tool."
Negotiators on both sides are more responsible now, said Lewenza. "And they recognize that both sides aren't in very good shape, so how do we get a collective agreement?"
Change had to happen, as globalization makes outsourcing to low-cost countries such as China a reality, according to University of Windsor assistant business Prof. Mark Meldrum. "I think the days of pounding the table, drawing a line in the sand, that's gone."
Canada can't compete with China on wages, he said. Even if everyone worked here for minimum wage, that's $21,000 a year versus perhaps the $7,000-a-year salary for someone in China.
What Canadian firms and their employees must focus on is improving quality and productivity, eliminating such things as multiple job classifications and increasing flexibility.
The nature of work is changing toward the temporary, contract and part-time jobs that make it easier for a company to ramp production up and down very quickly, he said.
These kinds of jobs are called "precarious" by the labour movement, which is alarmed by the growing number of people stuck in work that offers no security and few benefits. "These uncertain jobs are sprouting like weeds across the country," Lewenza says in his Labour Day message, which calls on Canadians to set the bar higher, demanding more from politicians and employers.
Christina Burr, an associate history professor at the University of Windsor who has studied the Canadian labour movement, believes that in the coming months this area might see some of Windsor's old militancy rear its head.
The current bad economy has been used as an excuse by employers to demand concessions that have nothing to do with the stock market crash, but workers eventually resist, she said.
"I think we're underestimating the power of labour."
PARADE ROUTE
Windsor's Labour Day activities begin at 10 a.m. Monday, with the traditional parade that starts at the CAW Local 200/444 Hall on Turner Road and makes its way down Walker Road to the Fogolar Furlan Club on North Service Road, the site of speeches, entertainment, food and kids' activities throughout the day.
"It's just a day for us to gather - union and non-unionized individuals, anyone who wants to participate," said Dino Chiodo, president of the Windsor and District Labour Council.
CAW national president Ken Lewenza will be back in his Windsor hometown to march in the Labour Day parade Sunday. He said the recent death of NDP leader Jack Layton and his heartfelt call for Canadians to be "loving, hopeful and optimistic" as they work to make the country more equal and just, will be top of mind.
"When we walk on Labour Day, we will be thinking about Jack, we will be thinking about the message he sent to Canadians, to set higher expectations."
bcross@windsorstar.com
© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star
0 comments:
Post a Comment