Steelworkers at Conifex Mackenzie Huddle Today
Sunday, March 30, 2014 @ 4:00 AM
Mackenzie, B.C.- The 200 members of the United Steelworkers union at the Conifex sawmill in Mackenzie will be meeting with their union’s leadership today.
The object of the session is to try and ward off strike action at the sawmill.
The membership has twice rejected the tentative agreement put before them even though their counterparts at the Conifex operations in Ft. St. James have ratified the deal.
USW local 1-424 President Frank Everitt says the issue is complex, but the main issue holding back contract acceptance in Mackenzie surrounds working conditions.
Further information may be available later today on the outcome of today’s meeting.
Comments
The union leadership works for the companies these days and not the dues paying membership. This has been that case for most of the past 20-years IMO. They act as the middle man in getting legitimacy for the company more than anything… as the bargaining agent for the union workers the working conditions they agree to become binding on all and that is becoming more and more of a problem.
eg. agreements that limit overtime rates through piece meal, or trip rates, through a separation of pay from hourly rates. This is a step down from the BC labor code only legal through the agreement of a bargaining agent on behalf of a union. the same can be said of other working related conditions.
The companies now like the unions because the unions are the ones to front the responsibility for the diminished working conditions. In some cases the companies couldn’t do it without the unions.
Go explain that to Don Eagle. See what kind of conversation that gets you into.
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