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| CAW Local 27 President Tim Carrie and UE Local 506 President Roger Zaczyk at the big London labor rally. Behind them are UE International Representative Gene Elk and Local 506 Executive Board Member Mike Ferritto. |
The members of UE Local 506 build locomotives at the General Electric plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, on the shores of Lake Erie. When the local learned recently that, on the northern side of that same lake, fellow locomotive builders were under attack by a greedy multinational corporation, they knew that this was a fight that directly concerned them.
So on Jan. 21, Local 506 sent a delegation to London, Ontario to a rally in support of the 465 members of Local 27 of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), who were locked out of their jobs on New Year's Day by Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar bought the London locomotive plant and the rest of Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) just 17 months ago, and is now trying to impose massive cuts in wages and benefits. Caterpillar's attack, if it succeeds, is likely to put downward pressure on wages and labor conditions throughout the locomotive industry.
The Ontario labor movement mobilized for this rally, which brought 15,000 people - many travelling by bus from the far corners of the province - to a park in Downtown London on a cold but sunny Saturday morning. The CAW greeted the UE delegation like VIPs, recognizing the importance, in a battle like this, of solidarity among workers in the same industry. CAW members hung the Local 506 banner behind the stage, next to their own banner, as a backdrop for the speakers. Local 27 President Tim Carrie, who chaired the rally, called on Local 506 President Roger Zaczyk to kick off the rally as the first speaker. Zaczyk brought the greetings and solidarity of his members, and said that one of the signs carried by many in the crowd expressed what we are all united to fight for - "Good Jobs for All."
The range of speakers who followed Zaczyk to the microphone showed the breadth of support for the lock-out workers, both in the London community and across the Ontario and Canadian labor movement. Speakers included the presidents of both the Canadian Labor Congress and the Ontario Federation of Labor; the leader of the New Democratic Party, Canada's labor party, in the federal Parliament; the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the country's largest public-sector union; a daughter of a locked-out EMD worker; the president of the graduate employee union at the University of Western Ontario; the director of the London Abused Women's Center, an activist from Occupy London, and a nun who is a leading social justice activist in London. Several speakers noted how significant it is that the GE locomotive workers are in solidarity with the EMD locomotive workers - including London Mayor Joe Fontana, who took issue with the company's claim that the EMD workers perform "unskilled" work. "It's not easy building locomotives. You're not making tweezers!" Fontana, like several other speakers, also called out Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (of the Conservative Party), who gave government approval to Caterpillar's takeover of EMD, but refuses to intervene to help end the lockout. The mayor told the prime minister, "Get your ass down here!" Local 27's EMD Shop Chair Bob Scott told Caterpillar, "You want a fight? You got a fight. You pissed off the wrong membership."
The rally concluded with a barnburner of a speech by Ken Lewenza, national president of the CAW. Lewenza denounced the attacks on public employees, which are occurring in Canada as well as the U.S., and blasted the Harper government for presiding over the loss of 450,000 manufacturing jobs across Canada.
Besides Zaczyk, the UE delegation included Local 506 Treasurer Steve Hyzer and Executive Board Member Mike Ferritto, as well as UE-GE Conference Board Secretary Gene Elk and UE NEWS Managing Editor Al Hart. Following the downtown rally, the UE members and other rally participants headed for the EMD plant, where they joined workers on the picket line.
Despite making billion dollar profits and benefiting from a 20 percent increase in productivity, Caterpillar wants to cuts EMD workers' wages by as much as $18.50 an hour. The company's take-it-or-leave-it proposal also eliminates the defined benefit pension, retiree benefits, survivor benefits, COLA, four holidays and many other benefits. The company would also drastically reduced vacation, overtime pay, prescription, dental, vision and other benefits. At the same time it is demanding outrageous contract concessions from its London employees, Caterpillar is threatening to move their work to a low-wage plant in Muncie, Indiana.
(See more photos from the London rally on UE's Facebook page.)