Gander, Newfoundland
Union: Unifor, Local 597
Employer: D-J Composites
Summary of Events
More than 50 workers at D-J Composites found themselves locked out from their jobs on December 19, 2016. This employee lockout came after 2 years of negotiation for a new collective agreement. While at the bargaining table, D-J Composites had reportedly insisted on freezing wages for some of their employees and a small increase for other employees. In October 2016, the employees had rejected the company's offer and had voted to strike just before the employees were locked out.
D-J Composites eventually ordered in 'scab' workers to replace those who are on strike. Since replacement workers were brought in, Unifor posted a video called "Meet the SCABS" on their Twitter account, which resulted in a lot of public backlash against the union. The strike ended with a final and binding decision by an arbitrator in December, 2018. In the face of arbitration, D-J Composites removed its most egregious demands, such as merit based pay, from its final offer and D-J composites accepted some of the union’s most important demands, including annual step increases for wages.
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Halifax, Nova Scotia
Union: Halifax Typographical Union (Communications Workers of America, Local 30130)
Employer: The Chronicle Herald Ltd.
Summary of Events
The Chronicle Herald's unionized newsroom staff hit the picket line on Jan. 22, 2016 over issues of wage and job cuts and increased working hours. The relationship between the Halifax Typographical Union (Communications Workers of America, Local 30130) and Chronicle Herald Ltd. management was deteriorating for some time before the union decided to strike. At the start of the strike the union included 61 reporters, editors, photographers, columnists and support staff. In 2015, workers who printed Canada's oldest independently-owned newspaper were locked out. And the newsroom had two rounds of layoffs before that -- in 2009 and again in 2014. As of late October 2016, union members remained on the picket line. Meanwhile, ten months in, management had also not backed down and continued using temporary workers in place of unionized staff to produce the newspaper and website.
On August 5th, 2017, after 18 months, the union and the newspaper reached a tentative agreement following two days of mediation with mediator William Kaplan. In July 2017 the province launched an Industrial Inquiry Commission that imposed mediation on the two groups, a step the union had repeatedly asked the government to take in recent months. The tentative agreement has averted the appointment of a commissioner to launch an investigation into the causes of the strike and would have provided recommendations to the minister on future steps.
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Halifax, Nova Scotia
Union: Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Locals 1431 and 227.
Employer: Halifax Water
Summary of Events
After Halifax Water had announced that they would be making changes to employee pension plans, CUPE locals 1431 and 227 went on strike that began on May 19th. One of the main issues of contention was indexed pension (of 2%), which Halifax water only offered to employees making less than $142,000 a year – the union disagreed, wanting the 2% indexing for all employees, regardless of their earnings. Even after the strike had been going for 37 days, both sides rejected the proposals they were offered, creating a standoff between Halifax Water and the striking unions. Halifax Water claimed that they were actually saving money by having workers on strike and they were not under much pressure to end the strike, as the operations were being maintained by non-union employees and management. The strike came to an end after two months, with the agreed upon contract involving annual wage increases, but does include changes to the workers’ pension plan which is ultimately a decrease to their benefits.
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Labatt Brewery Strike, 2013
St. John's, Newfoundland
Union: Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE). Local 7004 (St. John's)
Employer: Labatt Brewing Company
Summary of Events
NAPE Local 7004 comprising about fifty workers has been on strike since April 2013. The strike was preceded by a wild cat strike of over two weeks in duration following the company's request for the unionized workers to train their replacements. The request was made days before the expiration date of the workers' collective agreement.Prior to the legal strike action, a court injunction was issued against the union by the province's supreme court, ruling that workers may not block access to the brewery.
In June the Canadian Labour Congress endorsed a national consumer boycott of Labatt, requested by National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), to national union to which NAPE Local 7004 belongs. The focus is on imported products in order to prevent other unionized Labatt employees in Canada from experiencing a loss of work.
St. John's, Newfoundland
Union: Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)
Employer: Metrobus
Summary of Events
On November 4, 2010 union members rejected their offer and went on strike, leaving bus services suspended. The workers were offered a wage increase of 15.5% over the course of 4 years, however new workers must pay 50% of the costs of their benefit plan. After 6 weeks of having no transit system, mayor Dennis O'Keefe publicly urged both sides to settle the dispute and appointed a mediator to help resolve the strike. The Metrobus strike ended late January of 2011, with buses back on the street on January 31st, 2011.
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Power begins at the cod end : the Newfoundland trawlermen's strike, 1974-75 by Sources and related resources
The education of Everett Richardson : the Nova Scotia Fishermen's Strike, 1970-71 by Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Summary of Events
Part of the Cape Breton labour wars of the early 1920s, which sought to change the balance of power in Canadian industry by insisting on union recognition and improved living standards for the workers. The Sydney steelworkers went on strike in 1923 seeking union recognition. The provincial police turned out in force and charged through the streets of Whitney Pier. The coal miners came out in a sympathetic strike.
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Views from the steel plant : voices and photographs from 100 years of making steel in Cape Breton Island by