Rally participants stress need for anti-scab legislation

If there was one predominant theme among the speakers addressing the crowd at a rally in support of striking members of Steelworkers Local 6500 March 22, it was the need for anti-scab legislation in Ontario.

Steelworkers international president Leo Gerard said that when Vale Inco brings in replacement workers, the union will push to have the provincial government pass anti-scab legislation to ban their use.

The union might even close down Highway 401 in Toronto or shut “this whole goddamn province down” to get what they want, he said.

Gerard was one of a few thousand people (one police spokesperson estimated between 2,500 and 4,000) who came out to support the strikers during the union’s Bridging the Gap event. Steelworkers Local 6500 members have been on strike in Sudbury for nearly eight and a half months.

Strikers and their supporters marched from the union’s Brady Street hall to the Sudbury Arena, yelling raucous union chants.

The event was attended by union leaders from across the country and around the world, including representatives of unions in Germany, Australia, Brazil, and Indonesia.

The rally was originally supposed to take place on the Paris Street bridge. The venue was changed last week because of safety concerns over the location.

Provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath spoke about how the provincial government defeated anti-scab legislation introduced by Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas in October.

“Do you know what happened last week? There was a throne speech. Did anybody hear (Ontario Premier) Dalton McGuinty speak at all about anti-scab legislation? Did he speak at all about the struggles of working people like the Steelworkers here in Sudbury?”

Horwath did not indicate during her speech whether or not the NDP would be re-introducing anti-scab legislation.

However, a media relations officer for the provincial NDP caucus told Northern Life March 23 that an anti-scab bill introduced by the NDP would be “forthcoming.”

Steelworkers District 6 director Wayne Fraser told those in the arena to stand up and look under their seats because he was “looking for a guy by the name of Rick Bartolucci.”

“Does anybody see him? Has anybody seen the Liberal government? It’s time for anti-scab legislation in this province,” he said.

“It’s time that (Ontario Premier Dalton) McGuinty and his clowns in Ontario said to Vale ‘Get back to the bargaining table or agree to binding arbitration. Enough is enough’.”

Federal NDP leader Jack Layton was also among those who attended the rally.

He said multinational corporations around the world are watching the strike in Sudbury to see if Vale Inco can “beat the workers.”

“Well, I said it last September (at a previous rally in Sudbury), and I’ll say it again. You picked the wrong union, and you picked the wrong town.”

During his speech, Gerard also took issue with a letter posted by Vale Inco president and CEO Tito Martins on one of the company’s websites last week.

In the letter, Martins said the Steelworkers leadership has relied on “misinformation, racism, intolerance and xenophobia...to further its position in a country like Canada that prides itself as a model of multiculturalism.”

Standing with union leaders from around the world behind him, Gerard said he “resents from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head” being called racist.

“These are my sisters and brothers,” he said. “We have a global union. We don’t resent our brothers and sisters. We resent the management causing this fight unnecessarily.”

Martins said in his letter that it’s ironic that the Steelworkers have taken this position, given that it’s an American union. Gerard said he is not foreign to Sudbury, as he grew up here, and was a member of Local 6500.

Gerard also addressed another statement in Martins’ letter, which said “it appears name calling comes easier than negotiating.”

“Tito, come to Sudbury tomorrow, we’re ready to negotiate. Come to Sudbury tomorrow, or shut your goddamn mouth,” he said.

Efraim Gomes de Moura, a union leader with the Brazilian union CONLUTAS, which represents Vale Inco workers in Brazil, was one of the international union leaders who spoke at the event.

Speaking through a translator, Gomes de Moura said Vale is not respecting the culture and traditions of Sudbury workers.

“Your grandfathers worked in the mines, your parents worked in the mines, and still do. Vale wants your children to work in the mines with rotten salaries, lousy pensions and no bonuses,” he said.

Mike Neill, a striker who normally works at Coleman Mine as a mechanic, attended the rally with his wife and daughter. He said the rally was good for the strikers’ morale.

“It’s nice to see everybody out and supporting the cause,” he said.