Over 10,000 Manifest in Hamilton Against Canadian Government, U.S. Steel

The lockout by U.S. Steel against 900 active workers and 9,000 retirees and widows at a steel mill in Hamilton, Ontario, gained national Canadian attention on 29 January when over 10,000 trade unionists assembled and manifested in wet snow in Hamilton. Some 75 busloads of citizens came to what’s known in Canada as “Steeltown,” angry at their government and manifesting under the slogan “The People vs. U.S. Steel.”

The Hamilton Day of Action for locked-out members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 served as a national rallying cry against the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper and other parliamentarians have failed to make accountable foreign multinationals which buy Canadian assets and then immediately furlough workers and cut living standards.

Both the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL/CLC) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) lent heavy support in making 29 January this rallying cry, as well as national signal that this unprovoked lockout marks undeniably that Canadian investment law is deeply flawed.

The day’s speeches, placards, and slogans stated just that that. Local 1005 is defending workers, retirees, and widows against an American predator that three years ago bought Ontario-based steelmaker Stelco but immediately began side-stepping a weakened Investment Canada Act. The OFL claims that contrary to provisions in the Investment Canada Act, U.S. Steel has cut 2,200 jobs Stelco jobs in Hamilton and the Nanticoke Works in those three years.

One of the main speakers of the day, USW President Leo Gerard, minced no words in describing the head-lock that corporations have on workers and governments: “Everywhere on earth, these corporate bastards are trying to pick our pockets. I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand by and let them take our pensions. We have to demand that Harper stand up for Canada.”

USW President Leo Gerard. (At right, USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann)

Photo: John Maclennan

The Investment Canada Act is supposed to provide a “net benefit” to Canadians when foreign ownership acquires Canadian-based assets. Steelworkers of Local 1005, along with retirees and widows from the Hamilton Works, made the strong statement Saturday that they are victims, thrown off their jobs because they refuse to have their rightful benefits stripped from them.

The U.S. Steel lockout, now beginning its 13th week, centers on the company’s demand that retirees and widows lose pension indexing calculations, a sum meant to meet inflation costs amounting to C$30 per year, depending on different pension levels. U.S. Steel also wants to close off the defined benefit plan for new workers, certainly no “net benefit” to young Canadian workers.

Bus-loads of loyal steelworkers from Quebec arrived and made USW Local 1005 supporters proud that such national unity crosses provincial boundaries. Buses of steelworkers also came from Sudbury, Ontario, where a foreign multinational also has slashed jobs and living standards, as well as from U.S. Steel’s Great Lakes mill in the US state of Michigan.

Union delegations turned out in full from the Canadian Autoworkers’ Union (CAW), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The OFL and CLC led the larger call across Canada. Scores of trade union delegations from teachers’ unions, to the Ontario Public Service Union, to ICEM-affiliated Power Workers Union (PWU) and the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union also lent their support.

Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina, an outspoken critic of U.S. Steel’s conduct in his city, spoke at Saturday’s “The People vs. U.S. Steel” manifestation, as did MP Chris Charlton, the leading national politician currently out to refine the Investment Canada Act. Other speakers included CLC President Ken Georgetti, OFL President Sid Ryan, and Bill Mahoney, a victim himself who has put to words what Local 1005’s fightback symbolises.

Called the “Protest Poet,” Mahoney has been retired from Stelco’s Hamilton Works for five works and has penned some 25 poems on social erosion. One, entitled “Scrooge Comes to Town,” reads:

We are fighting for our dignity, united young and old

All across the country, the story is being told

Of our proud community whose dignity won’t be sold

We are fighting for our country, Canada is our home.

Prior ICEM reports on the struggle by USW Local 1005 in Hamilton can be found here and here.