On 12th June, CUPE held a rally in Windsor to support striking municipal workers. The rally was supported by about 2,000 union and community members. Local 82 (outdoor workers) and local 543 (indoor workers) have been on strike to save their pensions and benefits from being eroded by proposed cuts by the municipality. These cuts to pensions and retirement benefits, targeted towards new hires, are the City of Windsor’s response to the growing economic crisis. The mayor of Windsor, Eddie Francis (or re-named by the striking workers as ‘Your Arrogance’) rationale for these cuts make little sense in this context because these savings would not come into full effect until 30 years from now. The only thing that we can ask is, how long does the City of Windsor think this recession is going to last? On a note of hypocrisy, Mayor Francis has voted in a life-time retirement/pension plan for himself and other city councillors.
Local 82 and Local 543 have been on strike for ten weeks. Mayor Francis has been trying to break the union by refusing to meet the workers’ demands in their negotiations. The workers’ resilience has been most inspiring, but their strike fund is becoming strained. Interestingly, there has been local bakeries donating day-old bread to the workers and a food bank was set up, too. At the CUPE Ontario Division Convention in Toronto, locals and individual members raised over $100,000 to support the Windsor workers’ livelihoods and morale. CUPE National matched this donation. In the moment of solidarity, a worker suggested to leave the convention to join their brothers and sisters in Windsor. The whole room got up in applause and enthusiasm. This spontaneous uprising inspired CUPE leadership to organize buses for this large solidarity rally. There were about 15 buses in total that rode to Windsor! President Jim Wood of Local 82 expressed his gratitude for the rally because it reduced the sense of isolation and boosted the morale of the striking workers.
Windsor has become the hotbed of activity for the labour movement. The unemployment rate in the city has risen to 13%; workers in a variety of industries and services are becoming more desperate. Unfortunately, the reduction in severance packages for the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) in Windsor has created divisions within the labour movement. Due to the betrayal of the CAW leadership, the CAW autoworkers who had occupied the Aradco parts plant were forced to accept a deal that only provided half of the amount they were owed by their severance packages. These workers undoubtedly feel betrayed, but many of them are narrowing their anger towards other workers who are refusing concessions. Windsor CUPE workers told Fightback that the CAW autoworkers have said, “We’ve taken concessions, why can’t you?” The loss of wages, jobs, benefits, pensions, and severance packages for CAW members is an important lesson for the Canadian working class because it reveals how concession bargaining is a recipe for failure and disaster for the entire Canadian labour movement. This is why the demands of the labour movement, in both the private and public sectors, are extremely important. It is only socialist demands for nationalization of the auto-industry, under democratic workers’ control, that could have saved jobs and the unity of public and private sector workers in Windsor. Not all hope is lost for unity in Windsor; there was a CAW local, representing Vet Cab Drivers, who have been on strike for over three months now. These workers had just voted 98% against a proposed contract that would have not met all their demands. The presence of these CAW workers was very warmly acknowledged and appreciated by CUPE members.
In addition to the divides within the labour movement, local workers have had to deal with the city “renting” the waterfront to the Red Bull Festival, which resulted in the hiring of scabs to clean up the city for the event. The mayor explained that this property did not belong to the City of Windsor that weekend. There were a few workers who got arrested in their attempts to resist the scabs.
CUPE and the labour movement are standing up to defend the rights of workers to a decent job with decent pensions and benefits. The struggle of Windsor workers will have great implications for workers across the province and the rest of the country. In particular, the municipal workers in Toronto have launched their own strike to preserve their right to sick days. It’s time to follow the lead of Local 82 and Local 543 to stay strong in the fight back to protect decent jobs with good wages and benefits, for current and future workers!
Please show your support by sending messages of solidarity to the Windsor CUPE Locals at cupelocal82@cogeco.net.
