| On July 5, the Alma Rio Tinto Alcan (RTA) workers, who were locked out by the company for more than six months, ratified the tentative agreement reached a few days earlier between the Syndicat des travailleurs de l'aluminium d'Alma and RTA. The tentative agreement was discussed and voted on by secret ballots at three general membership meetings of the bargaining units involved: the hourly workers (production), the workers at the Potlines Maintenance Centre and the office workers. The hourly workers (there are about 700 in the plant) voted 82.8 per cent in favour of the agreement; the workers at the Potlines Maintenance Centre (about 60 workers) voted 92.5 per cent in favour and the office workers (about 25), 83.3 per cent in favour. Marc Maltais, the president of the union, announced the results of the votes at a press conference the evening of July 5. He said the agreement runs through to December 31, 2015 and that one of its main features is that there are not going to be layoffs of workers during the life of the contract. "This contract is a victory. I will not say it is a spectacular victory or a crushing victory. We had to let some things go. We showed openness. We sustained some losses and made some concessions. But it is still a victory for the union in terms of the goals we set for ourselves to protect jobs and limit subcontracting," he said. He highlighted the importance of the union's fight: "The employer is not going to be able to look at us in the old way. They know we are able to fight them." Maltais said that the union was able to get contract language that limits the ability of RTA to subcontract the jobs of the workers. Subcontracting is a mechanism that RTA is using to force two-tier wages and working conditions in the plant, with a section of workers working in conditions that are far inferior to the conditions of the other workers and to the conditions for which the workers have fought and won in struggles over many decades. Subcontracting is also being used to decrease the number of workers who belong to the union making it more difficult for the workers to wage an effective fight in defence of their rights and the interests of the people of the region. Maltais referred to a provision in the contract that limits the number of hours of work that the company is allowed to subcontract to 10 per cent of the hours worked by the unionized workers. This means, for example, any reduction in the number of hours worked by the unionized workers would also see the hours for subcontractors proportionally reduced. Maltais said that this is a gain for the union in terms of its demand for a ceiling to subcontracting. For a long time, the union has demanded that jobs with decent conditions be protected through the establishment of such a ratio, whether by setting minimum levels of employment according to the number of tons of aluminum produced per year or through an arrangement on limits to subcontracting. Maltais said that the company refused to sign anything on minimum levels of employment but that workers were able to get it to move on subcontracting. Dominic Lemieux, the regional representative of the Quebec Federation of Labour for Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, said this is the first time that workers in any Rio Tinto facility have been able to get an arrangement in writing that limits subcontracting. He said that this a major gain for the Alma workers and a contribution to the struggle of all the workers fighting companies that impose two-tier wages and working conditions. The main concession in the new contract that Maltais referred to is that the Potlines Maintenance Centre, with roughly 60 workers at present, disappears as a bargaining unit. All the jobs at the centre from now on will be subcontracted. The new contract spells out that the workers currently at the maintenance centre will be moved elsewhere in the plant or to other RTA plants in the region. Maltais explained that the union fought that it be put in the contract that these workers cannot be let go and on that it won. Maltais also informed that a back-to-work protocol with a calendar of 14 weeks was signed. The company has to reintegrate everybody at work within 90 days of the signing of the contract. There is a moratorium on labour mobility within the plant that can last for up to 150 days. In his comments, Maltais expressed his appreciation that the struggle in Alma was achieved by mobilizing broad support from workers across Quebec, Canada and in many other countries. "We have succeeded in uniting organizations across the globe around our cause, a first in Quebec. We wanted decent jobs for our community and for the future generations. We have done it. We can be proud of what we have done... Our fight is not over and tomorrow is another day." Maltais made the point that even though the lockout has ended, the union is continuing its fight against the secret deal signed in 2007 between the Quebec government, Hydro-Quebec and Rio Tinto when RTA bought Alcan. This secret deal, among other things, says Hydro-Québec must buy all of RTA's unused hydro during a lockout or a strike. It is estimated that RTA made about $60 million during the lockout from the sale of electricity to Hydro-Quebec. The Alma union has been waging a campaign for many years now to demand arrangements that are beneficial to the region in return for RTA's hydro privileges in Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean. The theme of the campaign is "Their Need: Our Hydro-Electricity -- Our Priority: Our Resources, Our Jobs." |