¢ Spirits remained high throughout and beyond the Christmas season as the picketers received solid union and

community support.

Locked-out workers bargain
agreement with Simmons

After having a pretty lean Christ-
mas and New Year’s season, about
120 new I.W.A. members at the Sim-
mons Canada mattress and bedding
products plant in Kirkland, Quebec,
are glad to getting back to work
with a new collective agreement.

The workers, charter members of
1.W.A. Local 400, were locked out at
the operation on December 9, 2000
and returned to work recently after
ratifying their contract on March
29. By April 9 most of the crew was
back on the job.

The union met with the company
and a conciliator appointed by the
Quebec Labour Relations Board, on
March 24 and 25 to hammer out an
agreement on monetary issues. Prior
to that meeting all other parts of
the collective agreement had been
negotiated.

All workers will receive across-
the-board wages increase of 60 cents
per hour in each year of a 4 year
contract. The collective agreement
will expire on May 14, 2004.

In addition to the general wage
increases each worker got a $800
signing bonus.

“It’s a considerable amount con-
sidering they had been locked-out
for 4 months by the employer,” said
Brother Norm Rivard, fourth
national vice president and chair-
man of the union negotiating com-
mittee. :

The committee negotiated a fur-
ther $2.50 an hour wage increase
for mechanics in place of a compli-
cated bonus system. Proper over-
time will now be paid.

The union was also able to achieve -

an additional 60 cents an hour
increase, over the course of the
agreement, for shippers, receivers,
coordinators, border quilters and
truckers.
Paid education leave was also
aohieyed ie contrac. ine com-
any will pay 3 cents per hour per
ee loyee into the education ‘tant
‘he workers left their previous
union, the UNITE, to seek affilia-
tion with the I.W.A. in the summer
of last year. They wanted represen-
tation to assist them recover some
it ground,
are crayious negotiations, they
lost a lot of (contract) language and
we addressed those issues this time
around,” said Rivard. “They came to
the I.W.A. looking for a better deal
and we think we were able to nego-
tiate one. We were able to negotiate

new seniority and job posting clauses
which will benefit the workers.”

Job postings will now be governed
by the seniority principle. If the
worker is not qualified, the com-
pany will train them.

“One of the major problems they
had was that the company would
transfer employees from job to job
within the operation — even up to 5
and 6 times a day,” said Rivard.
“They would get really frustrated
because of this.”

Now the collective agreement says
if a junior worker is transferred into
a job that the more senior worker
should get, the company will pay
the senior employee an additional
20% on top of the higher job rate.

“The workers will be compensated
and the company will be discour-
aged from transferring them,” added
Brother Rivard.

I.W.A. business agent Yvon
Rochon, from Local 1000, who has
been working to service the mem-

e Even Santa was on the I.W.A.’s
side during the lock-out.

bership, said the company has to do
its homework and schedule the work
more carefully or risk paying up to
$5.00 an hour more for some work.

“The negotiating committee did
its best to fix the problem (of over-
lapping shifts) and I think it’s a
pee that made people happy,” added

rother Rochon.

Also, when a layoff last 10 days or
more, the company has agreed to
retrain workers for available jobs
based on seniority.

Plant chairperson Gilman Plourde
said most of the seniority articles
achieved at the bargaining table are
“big gains for us.”

In the last contract they lost some
language and suffered through a
period where jobs were posted first
by skill and then by seniority.

“Now that we have the job post-
ing language back, we don’t want to
lose it any more,” said Brother
Plourde.

Work at the plant is heavier in
some seasons than others. During

the winter months, business.slows
down.

In December of last year, the com-
pany was pressuring the I.W.A.,
which had recently received the
transfer of certification from the
LRB, into more negotiating dates at
a time when mattress orders were
declining. The previous summer,
the plant was busy and the crew
worked overtime on long weekends.

“We told the company in early
December that it was not a good
time to negotiate over the Christ-
mas season, so let’s wait for the new
year,” Rivard told the Lumber-
worker. “They said they would
reserve their right to do what they
have to under the law - and they
locked us out!”

dust before the lock-out the crew
voted 100% to go on strike.

“That was an incredible display of
solidarity and determination,” said
Rivard.

Under Quebec labour law the com-

any can’t bring in scabs in both
ock-out and strike situations.

“The crew never thought they’d
be locked-out before Christmas and
became very upset when that hap-

ened,” he added. “The tactic of
ockin-out the crew backfired on
Simmons.”

Put on the picket line, during a
slow period, the workers showed
high spirits and resolve to win the
dispute. At one point in December,
they put up information pickets out-
side the home of two managers. Sup-
port from other trade unionists who
visited the picket line with refresh-
ments and moral support was well-
received by the workers.

Brother Plourde told the Lumber-
worker that support for the workers
from the I.W.A. was very strong.

“Any time we had a problem we
just called our business agent (Yvon
Rochon) and he’d be right there,”
said Plourde.

“] think that what they (the mem-
bers) were looking for is servicing
and education from the union,” com-
mented Rochon. “We have done both.”

Photos courtesy Simmons negotiating committee

Brothers Plourde and Mario
Malenfant attended the CLC Win-
ter School in Barrie, Ontario this
January and Local 1000 plans to
hold some in-house job steward
training sessions for committee
members.

To date the union has assisted
the crew in cleaning up a backlog of
workers compensation cases filed
with the Commission de Santé et
Securité au Travail. Several cases
were sent to union lawyer Alan
Gotheil in Montreal and were dealt
with.

“These people are very, very good
members,” commented Rivard.
“They are strong trade unionists
and have been together since the
onset. To this day they (the work-
ers) still claim that it was not nec-
essary to get locked-out by the
employer before coming to an agree-
ment.”

Rochon thanks the membership
for being strong and united.

“The membership was there. We
(the negotiating committee) had
their back-up and the company real-
ized at one point there was nothing
they could do — they had to settle,”
he said. :

Despite Simmons’ attempt to cir-
cumvent the collective bargaining
process by sending printed materi-
als to the members’ homes, the union
was able to counter.

“We kept in touch with the mem-
bers, held meetings and let them
know what our negotiating position
was and they stuck with the union,”
said Rochon.

In addition to Brothers Rivard,
Plourde, Malenfant and Rochon, the
negotiating committee at Simmons
consists of Sylvain Meilleur, and
Alain Roy.

The plant was organized by Angelo
Sanservino, a former UNITE repre-
sentative and former employee at a
Simmons Canada plant in Corn-
wall, Ontario. Brother Sanservino
has been organizing for the I.W.A.
in eastern Canada for the past two
years.

The I.W.A. membership in Que-
bec is currently being serviced by
Local 1000 in north-central Ontario.
Hopefully that will change in the
future if and when the union’s mem-
bership in Quebec grows.

In December of last year, the
union’s national officers approved a
decision to open an office in the
greater Montreal area. The office
will serve to assist the union in
organizing in the province.

“T think there’s huge potential for
the I.W.A. in Quebec,” said Rivard,
“not only in the forest sector but in
other industries and the service sec-
tor.”

“Tn our part of Montreal, the west
island, there’s a lot of industries
that are not unionized, so hopefully:
we can work something out and let
the word out that the I.W.A, is there
and we get good service,” said
Plourde. “Hopefully we can increase
the membership out there and
become our own local.”

Brothers Rochon and Sanservino
hope to hold a organizing meeting
with the bilingual membership.

“T think that they want to help us
grow,” said Rochon. “If the member-
ship can grow it will be better for

-those guys to receive more repre-

sentation.” :

“A lot of industries have moved
from Montreal to areas like Kirk-
land and Pointe Claire for tax rea-
sons and other reasons,” said
Rochon.

The union has had a presence in
the province since 1949, shortly
after the International Woodwork-
ers of America began to organize in
central and eastern Canada.

Currently there are five bargain-
ing units in the province, all being
serviced by Local 1000.

Rivard has met with officials of
the Quebec Federation of Labour.

“We have been welcomed back
into the province with open arms
and we are looking forward to work-
ing with the QFL,” said Rivard.

LUMBERWORKER/April, 2001/7