sii

1978, members

a — September 15,

After eight and a half mont

By MIKE PHILLIPS
ED McDONALD

SUDBURY — When 11,700
ainers and smelter workers here
went on strike against Inco Met-
als Ltd. last Sept. 15, the Tribune
said. the strike can be won.
Three-hundred and sixty-one
days later the members of Steel
Workers Local 6500 scored a
clear and decisive victory over
the Canadian multi-national cor-
poration which had fought to
force them to accept a four cent
an hour wage increase and the
crippling of their grievance pro-
ceedure.

Sudbury miners and smelter
workers ended their epic strike
June 3 by voting 67.7% or 5,983 to
2,869 to ratify a pact with the
company which would bring the
total package increase valued at
$4.07 an hour over the next three
years and no weakening of the
local’s trade union rights.

The new agreement gives the
workers an immediate 61-cents an
hour wage hike the first year with
10-cents an hour in each of the
second and third years. However,
24-cents of the 61-cents in the first
year was money due to.the work-
ers under the old’ agreement
which Inco refused to pay. The
cost-of-living adjustment will
provide 12 COLA increases of 15

of Steelworkers
Local 6500 filled
the hall. it’s an
offer we can’t
accept, ___ their
president told

Christmas.

cents each over the life of the
agreement with a 20% COLA ad-
justment in August.

The union bargaining commit-
tee was successful in winning a
“30. years and out’ pension
clause with a basic minimum
monthly pension of $600. Local
6500 is the first Steel Workers’
local. in Canada to win ‘‘30 and
out”’

Local 6500 president Dave Pat-
terson, who had been elected to
the post on a program of negotiat-
ing an agreement the members
could be proud of, called the
settlement a ‘‘breakthrough”’ and
credited the courage and deter-
mination of Local 6500 members

with the victory.
**The determination to win cer-
tainly paid dividends,’* Patterson

said. “‘If it hadn’t been for them
we would have signed for a lot
less.”’

Patterson and other strike lead-
ers paid tribute to the massive sol-
idarity movement which sprang
up across Canada to help the Inco
strikers, resulting in hundreds of
thousands of dollars in donations
flooding into the strike head-
quarters in Sudbury. Tribute was
paid also to the wives supporting
the strike committee for their in-
valuable contribution in keeping
up moral through the harsh winter

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 15, 1979—Page 4

TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS

them, but we’re looking at a six month stock pile of nickel the
company has to draw on. They voted to strike, knowing it was
going to be a long cold winter. At first they felt alone, in some cases
betrayed. Christmas approached. A vow was made to strikers’
children that they would have a Christmas. Truck caravans of toys
and clothing arrived from across Ontario, turkeys from food work-
ers, fish from B.C. fishermen. Thousands of spe eta kids had their

and in taking part in the fund-

raising campaign.

The strike cost international

-union $12-million in strike béne-

fits.

Local 6500 Inquest Committee
chairman John Higgison, who
acted during the strike as the loc-
al’s drug committee chairman,
said when the strike began he
didn’t believe the Inco workers
would receive such support. |

‘It surprised me when the
money started coming in’’, he

Said. ‘“‘Everybody attacked the

local businessman, but I want to
tell you, they were really fantas-
tic, the way they helped us out.
Without their help it would have
been a hard for us’’.

Higgison praised the labor
movement across the country for
its support. ‘‘ The help of local un-
ions all over Canada and money
given us through donations
helped us to buy most ofour drugs
and provide other forms of family
assistance’’, he said.

He said the strike had cost the
local more than $500,000 to pro-
vide the life-sustaining drugs to
union members needing them.

No accurate estimate of the suf-
fering the workers had to endure
to force Inco to make them an
offer they could consider in dig-
nity can be made, but many

came a cry across the country.
Members of 6500 and the Wives
Supporting the Strike Committee
travelled across the country,
speaking at labor rallies, to wo-
men’s groups, to ethnic organiza-
tions, everywhere working people
backed them, knowing their strug-
gle was a test casé for all Cana-
dian labor. Public opinion ran high
against Inco, even at stockholder
meetings, people supported the

strikers. And it worked, now their

victory is ours.

“Inco is everyone’s fight” be-

workers spoke of loosing as much
as $10,000 over the strike’s eight
and one half months. duration:
Huge debts were incurred, home
mortgages pushed back and, in
some cases, families fell apart.
But it is clear in the hearts and
minds of workers and citizens
here that the culprit and reason
for what only can be described as
a massive and criminal assault on
an entire community was the
greed and arrogance of one of the

globe’s biggest multi-national

corporations — Inco.

It is a knowledge that never will
be forgetten in Sudbury, and the
company with its usual arrogance
seems determined not to let them
forget. Right up to the signing of
the agreement between the union
and the company Inco had to test
the union and insult the strikers.

The day following the rati-
fication of the agreement, Inco
workers began buying the drugs
under the drug plan provided for
in the contract which the union
couldn’t supply during the strike.

The union then learned that
Inco wouldn’t pay for drugs
purchased by anyone who hadn’t
been recalled.

Also in the recall, which so far
has seen about 65% of the work-
force back on the job, anumber of

-Majority realized the strike can!

light duty workers were told thet
wasn’t any work available {0!
them.

The signing ceremony betwee
the union and the company
the possibility of being cancelled
because of union leadership and
membership anger. Inco
forced to smarten up, agree to p4)
everyone’s drug cost and agree!
writing that all employees 3
signed light duty prior to the strik
because of injury would
guaranteed jobs.

This attitude by Inco and thé
manner in which it consistently
tried to degrade the workford’
and weaken the union throughou!
the strike and during the massi¥’
layoffs leading up to the strike
explained much of the dissab’
faction a significant proportion df
the local felt with the final se
ment.

Many workers felt there wat
more to be won from Inco, but

last forever and, despite mud
being left to be desired i in the coh
tract, important gains were

by the workers. They also knew
that walking back into Inco wil
dignity and pride over havi
forced the company to retret
from its union-busting stand at
insulting non-offer last Se
tember, will not be difficult to