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<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Daniel Aguirre Piedrahita, the General Secretary of SINALCORTEROS, Colombia&rsquo;s Nation Union of Sugar Cane Cutters, was assassinated last Friday night, 27 April, as he accompanied his wife, Helena, to make a telephone call in their Casilda neighbourhood of Florida municipality, Valle del Cauca department in west-central Colombia.

	He was shot twice in the head by a cowardly assassin only 70 metres from his home. In a statement, SINALCORTEROS said the cold-blooded murder occurs in a continued context of violence and intolerance of trade union work in Colombia. It urged members and activists not to let this &ldquo;reprehensibly violent action torpedo our union&rdquo; and derail activities, but rather to &ldquo;reaffirm our actions and our mission.&rdquo;

	The government of Colombia did put out a statement early this week condemning the killing. Deputy Minister of Labour David Luna Sanchez said the ministry supports the Interior Ministry&rsquo;s Protection Unit director&rsquo;s call for an investigation to determine if the killing was related to union activity.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 213px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	Aguirre, 35, was a stalwart leader of sugar cane cutters and their fight to bust the chains of servitude inflicted by sugar mill employers who considered them self-employed independent contractors.

	He was instrumental in 2005 in forming SINALCORTEROS, now an affiliate of the International Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), through strikes. He also led strikes of 18,000 sugar cane cutters in 2008 in both Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments that two years later resulted in collective agreements, labour pacts he instituted that in part made recruitment less cumbersome.

	More recently, he had been advocating revisions to Colombia&rsquo;s labour statutes to bring them up to ILO standards and he was a fierce opponent of the Free Trade Agreement with the US, something he felt would lead to exploitation of workers and the product that they harvested.

	Daniel Aguirre becomes the seventh Colombian trade unionist killed this year, and the 61st since Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August 2010. He is survived by his wife and three daughters, ages 14, 10 and 4.

	A <a href="http://www.rel-uita.org/internacional/ddhh/Rel-sinalcorteros_asesinato_daniel_aguirre.htm">letter of condolence</a> (in Spanish) from the IUF to SINALCORTEROS President Alfonso Viafara can be viewed here.

Coward Guns Down Colombian Sugar Cane Cutters’ General Secretary on 27 April

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	Warning strikes in German metalworking, engineering and electronic sectors will broaden beginning today with the break-down last week of third round bargaining between IG Metall and employers&rsquo; associations in several states.&nbsp; Upon expiration of a labour peace accord on 28 April, 2,500 German metalworkers began the warning strikes at select locations, taking creative and imaginative actions.

	Talks for 3.6 million German workers represented by IG Metall began in several states in late winter. Bargaining was stalemated in the last state talks, on 26 April, after employers put forth a less than satisfactory salary offer. They also refused to agree to union demands assuring full work guarantees for apprentices once their training tenures are over and more job rights for contract and agency workers.

	The offer put forward by employers&rsquo; association Gesamtmetall through its state chapters on 24 April was termed &ldquo;a provocation&rdquo; by IG Metall, thus causing mobilisation over the weekend when the peace accord expired. The proposal saw employers offering a 3% increase over 14 months, of through June 2013. The union is seeking a 6.5% pay rise over 12 months.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 216px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	The union&rsquo;s goal is based on a run-up in productivity development, as well as projected inflation in 2012 and 2013. Guaranteed opportunity for apprentices and contract workers is also based on the fact that Germany currently experiences a shortage of skilled workers.

	The 6.5% wage proposal is indicative of German industrial workers being the driving force in a nation that is Europe&rsquo;s biggest industrial power and strongest economy, with high pay and workers&rsquo; savings being the wellspring of that strength.

	Last weekend&rsquo;s warning strikes began on 28 April in the eastern city of Zwickau in Saxony state, where hundreds of young metalworkers conducted a motorcycle parade. Other demonstrations over the weekend occurred in Bavaria, Berlin, NorthRhine-Westphalia, and Nordenham in northern Germany, where workers from several plants held a protest and mass breakfast early on Sunday morning.

	In Ingolstadt in Bavaria, some 80 apprentices gathered the night before and flashed a light-projector against the wall of a factory expressing their demand for job guarantees. Workers from a TDK factory in Munich held a torchlight parade that same night, and autoworkers from a Daimler Mercedes-Benz plant in Rasiah, Baden-W&uuml;rttemberg state, protested on Sunday.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 272px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The actions continued on 30 April with loud protests in cities and streets near a Daimler Mercedes-Benz factory in W&ouml;erth-am-Main in Rheinland-Pfalz, at a MAN diesel plant in Augsburg, in Baden-W&uuml;rttemberg in Bavaria, where lead talks will resume on 8 May.

	Yesterday on May Day in Hamburg, IG Metall President Berthold Huber pledged that the union will not be deterred from its agenda, and will bring the dispute into June if employers do not adhere to union demands. If upcoming talks do not produced the desired results, IG Metall is planning continuous strike actions commencing on 16 May.

	Besides a number of further warning actions today, mass demonstrations tomorrow, 3 May, are set at an Audi factory on Neckarsulm and a Porsche plant in Stuttgart. Some 900,000 of the 3.6 million workers affected are employed by Germany&rsquo;s primary auto-makers.

German Warning Strikes Begin in Metals, Electronics Sectors

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	&ldquo;Local Actions, Global Impact&rdquo; was the motto of the annual Job Stewards&rsquo; Seminar of the ICEM Canadian affiliate, Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE) Local 378, which was held 9-11 March in Vancouver, British Columbia. COPE Local 378 represents 14,000 union members at public- and private-sector companies in the western Canadian province and affiliates to the ICEM through rank-and-file membership in the electricity and gas sectors.

	The seminar offered an opportunity to meet and work with both new and experienced shop stewards, as well as leading union officials with nine weekend-long workshops and courses that includes global solidarity and campaigns.

	The ICEM was represented by Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal &Ouml;zkan and he delivered a presentation on global union solidarity, the ICEM, and the new Global Union Federation, IndustriALL.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 234px;height: 141px" width="390">&nbsp;

	Kemal Ozkan

	&ldquo;Global solidarity is one of the major items of this seminar,&rdquo; said COPE Local 378 President David Black. &ldquo;This course starts to make the links between the experience in our own working lives and communities and workers in other countries.&rdquo; The seminar noted that &ldquo;in an increasingly shrinking world, our struggles are often the same even though they may be half way around the globe.&rdquo;

	The participants discussed the economic circumstances they find themselves in and the ongoing globalization of the world&rsquo;s economy. The seminar designed a toolbox to provide activists with an opportunity to make links with workers in other countries and to demonstrate solidarity with them.

	The seminar also welcomed Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia and Juan Linares from the National Miners&#039; and Metalworkers&#039; Union (SNTMMSRM), or Los Minerosof Mexico as guests. G&oacute;mez, General Secretary of Los Mineros, has been living in exile in Vancouver for over four years through the support of ICEM North American affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), while Juan Linares was imprisoned in Mexico from 2008 to 2011 after returning to his home country after attending the convention of British Columbia Federation of Labour.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 289px;height: 103px" width="390">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Both G&oacute;mez and Linares have been persecuted and threatened by the Mexican government despite the fact that courts there have dismissed false charges against them over the handling of union funds. Linares, in an emotional speech, cordially thanked participants for the support and solidarity delivered by COPE Local 378.

	Following the close of the seminar, COPE Local 378&rsquo;s Gwenne Farrell wrote to the ICEM, stating, &ldquo;I can tell that we had approximately 165 participants in attendance and the feedback they have given me is that they now fully support the work we are doing with the ICEM.

	&ldquo;Moreover, the course that I facilitated on Global Solidarity trained some of our activists on what they can do to help with a number of global issues.&nbsp; Thank you for making a difference to our members and for doing such a great job promoting ICEM.&rdquo;

Canadian COPE Union Ties Local Actions into Global Impact

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	A merger of labour federations in Swaziland has set the stage for a struggle toward democracy and independent political parties in the country. On 10-13 March, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) convened its first Congress and priority number one is to establish a multi-party political system, or to boycott sham elections next year.

	TUCOSWA, formulated last year, was officially launched at its Congress in Matsapha and its first order of business was to demand registration and participation of political parties in Africa&rsquo;s last absolute monarchy, run by despotic King Mswati III.

	The new labour federation amalgamates the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), the Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL), as well as the most powerful single trade union, the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT). The 50,000-member federation vowed that there will either be open and fair Parliamentary elections next year, or Mswati would face a boycott of next year&rsquo;s elections.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 200px;height: 92px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Political parties have been banned in Swaziland since 1973 and Mswati and his cronies have mismanaged the economy so severely that public sector salaries have gone unpaid. At this month&rsquo;s founding Congress, TUCOSWA announced it would embark on a nationwide education campaign, and as part of that, major protests likely to occur in April and May.

	Such manifestations will no doubt be met forcefully by Swazi police loyal to Mswati. In fact, at a meeting in Lubombo in January by leaders of TUCOSWA to discuss the monarch&rsquo;s introduction of a value added tax, police broke it up after the unionists refused a demand to call off the meeting.

	&ldquo;Workers are more prepared now to go to grassroots levels and into the communities to shed light on what the government should be doing,&rdquo; said TUCOSWA President Barnes Dlamini.

	TUCOSWA General-Secretary Vincent Ncongwane used his speech at the end of this initial Congress to rally civil society &ndash; including faith-based groups and cultural entities &ndash; to frustrate next year&rsquo;s scheduled electoral farce.

	In Swaziland, Mswati operates with what is called a tinkhundla regime, an undemocratic system whereby all power is vested in him with administrative matters put in the hands of tribal chiefs dependent on his patronage. The Swazi Parliament has few powers, with Mswati making appointments to many of the seats in the House of Assembly and Senate.

Merged Swaziland Labour Federation to Advance Cause of Democracy

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	In an astonishing development, the Bavet town governor in Cambodia has admitted to shooting three young women who were striking last month at a shoe factory in Svey Rieng province, but he was only questioned and then released.

	Chhouk Bandith appeared before a provincial prosecutor on 16 March and said he fired shots on 20 February into a crowd of thousands of mostly women strikers at the KaoWay Sports Ltd. footwear factory. But despite the confession, no arrest warrant was issued and he was allowed to go free. (See previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4926-Cambodian-Public-Official-Accused-in-Shooting-of-Footwear-Strikers">ICEM report</a> on story.)

	When questioned by the Cambodian press in what has now become a serious stain on Cambodia&rsquo;s judicial system, the Svey Rieng prosecutor said it was his right not to order the arrest of Chhouk Bandith. He also called the incident unimportant.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 130px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Chhouk Bandith

	A majority of 6,000 workers at KaoWay, a supplier of shoes for the German company Puma, were in their second wave of strike action when Bandith exited the factory and fired a high-powered weapon equipped with a silencer at them. The shooting was caught on the factory&rsquo;s security cameras before he fled in a car accompanied by a bodyguard and a uniformed police officer.

	The three women, ages 23, 21 and 18, were seriously injured with one &ndash; Buot Chinda &ndash; near death. She has recovered and after filing a criminal complaint against Bandith, is now in hiding. Reportedly, the three were offered sums of money for their silence ranging from US$500 to US$1,000. None have accepted the bribes.

	Because of the shootings, Chhouk Bandith was terminated from his duties as town governor on 6 March by a special decree from Prime Minister Hun Sen.

	Led by the union representing the striking workers, the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers&rsquo; Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), an affiliate of the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), some 27 civil society groups issued a joint statement urging &ldquo;this case become an example of rule of law, not another reflection of impunity.&rdquo;

	The statement continued: &ldquo;Recognizing that the Minister of Interior Sar Kheng has identified the suspect of the shooting as being Bavet town governor, Chhouk Bandith, we strongly urge the Royal Government of Cambodia to make the suspect&rsquo;s arrest an utmost priority. We also urge a proper trial and judgement in accordance with the law.

	&ldquo;We remind the Royal Government of its obligation to ensure that human rights throughout Cambodia be respected. We also remind the Royal Government of its obligation to ensure that every Khmer citizen shall be equal before the law, regardless of rank, title or association.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Cambodian Governor Confesses to Shooting Strikers, but No Arrest Made

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	All eyes are on the Rotten Row magistrates&rsquo; court in the Zimbabwe capital Harare today, 21 March, as six political activists will hear their sentences after being found guilty of &ldquo;conspiring to commit public violence.&rdquo;

	The five men and one woman face up to a decade in jail simply for screening a video of the Arab Spring during an innocent academic meeting on 19 February 2011.

	The repressive Mugabe regime is manipulating the judiciary to stamp out and persecute any opposition; in this case by sentencing activists, and in many other cases by indefinitely dragging out court cases based on fabricated charges.

	The six Zimbabwean activists, Munyaradzi Gwisai, Tafadzwa Choto, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Edson Chakuma, Hopewell Gumbo, and Welcome Zimuto, face jail sentences of up to ten years. They confessed to plotting to overthrow the 88-year-old Mugabe, but these confessions were made while being tortured in custody. They were beaten with wooden planks.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 200px;height: 92px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	The verdict was delivered on 20 March in a packed courtroom with riot police in position, after magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini rejected the group&rsquo;s claim that last year&rsquo;s meeting had meant no harm to Mugabe&rsquo;s regime.

	&ldquo;Watching a video like the one in question is not a crime. But the manner of watching had no good intention,&rdquo; the court was told by magistrate Jarabini, a relative of President Mugabe.

	They were arrested last year, together with 39 other people and initially were charged with treason, which carries the death penalty. But during the course of court proceedings, the charges were reduced and the other 39 people cleared.

	Three of the six, Munyaradzi, Tafadzwa and Tatenda, work with the Zimbabwe Labour Centre a non-profit organisation that gives legal support to unions and workers on labour matters and&nbsp;provides educational programmes. Gwisai is a law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. Chakuma is a trade union leader.&nbsp;

	The right to meet, discuss events in the world, share ideas and speak openly and freely is a basic human right for which activists should not be victimised and vilified.&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Send your SMS text message &quot;Do NOT send the 6 Harare activists to jail!&quot; now to:

	Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena + 263 712 801 172

	Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri + 263 712 808 290

	Police Minister Kembo Mohadi +263 712 605 424

	Security Minister Didymus Mutasa +263 0712 200 532

Global Indignation over Jail Time That Faces Zimbabwean Activists

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Schlumberger, the world&rsquo;s largest oilfield services company, has sent a clear indication of its unwillingness to seek solution to a damaging labour relations situation at its Egyptian operations.

	Management of the French-based company in numerous locations and levels throughout the world responded over the past month to letters of different trade unions and activist organisations with a similar response each time, outlining their supposed readiness to solve the dispute in Egypt and launch an investigation.

	However, when ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda offered to come to Egypt to meet Amr Essawi, the Area Manager for Schlumberger in Cairo on 8 March, the offer was ignored.

	In May 2011, the process to establish an independent company-level trade union at Schlumberger Egypt was finalised, as part of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU), the trade union centre established during the final days of the Mubarak regime.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" height="159" src="" width="263" />&nbsp;

	EFITU Founding Congress, February 2012

	On 11 May, when local management was informed of the new union structure, it responded with threats and dismissed the union branch&rsquo;s General Secretary Mohamed, Abd Elrahman. On 3 July, the day of the union&rsquo;s founding general congress, local management then dismissed the union&rsquo;s President, Brother Essam.

	On 5 July, local management summoned union members to the head office and threatened them with dismissal if they did not leave the union. And then on 7 July, local management followed through on an earlier threat and dismissed the union&rsquo;s Assistant General Secretary, Ayman Abd Elmonem.

	No reason or dismissal letter was given to Abd Elmonem. He was simply blocked from entering the workplace. On 12 July, another union member was dismissed in similar circumstances, Mr. Hossam Al-deed Mostafa, again with no written dismissal notice.

	ICEM affiliates who represent Schlumberger employees in Europe and North America have approached management at their prospective national level, each have been promised that the company is committed to find a solution and establish mature systems of industrial relations throughout the company&rsquo;s operations and specifically in Egypt.

	But the leaders of the nascent company-level union for Schlumberger workers in Egypt remain sacked from their positions and refusal to discuss the situation with the ICEM is concerning.

	The ICEM, therefore, intends to expand its campaign with the next phase targeting Schlumberger&rsquo;s clients, the major oil and gas multinationals. Schlumberger employs 2,500 workers in Egypt, 40% of who work for subcontractors at 10 different worksites.&nbsp;

	Register your protest to Schlumberger Chairman Andrew Gould, CEO Paal Kibsgaard, and Egypt Area Manager Amr Essawy by clicking&nbsp;<a href="mailto:gould1@exchange.slb.com;%20pkibsgaard@exchange.slb.com;%20AEssawi2@exchange.slb.com">here</a>.

Schlumberger Ignores ICEM’s Offer of Dialogue

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390">

	In calling attention to jobs creation as equivalent economic growth, working people across Europe on 29 February, led by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), manifested in a Day of Action against the European Council&rsquo;s adoption of a budget discipline treaty.

	The decentralised mobilisations occurred in scores of cities and worksites with a common theme pointed at EU governments and decision-makers: &ldquo;Enough is enough! There are alternatives to austerity. Employment and social justice are the number one priorities.&rdquo;

	The 29 February ETUC Day of Action took the form of demonstrations, work stoppages and information postings inside workplaces, as well as government institutions and stated that the European summit&rsquo;s Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance is a &ldquo;straightjacket&rdquo; that will plunge the Eurozone into free-fall recession.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 154px;height: 160px" width="390">&nbsp;

	The actions included two demonstrations in Brussels, site of the European Council&rsquo;s 1-2 March summit where the misguided treaty will intrinsically slash wages and social protections, restrict collective bargaining, and provide even more neo-liberal policies, hardly the remedies for economic growth to assure a sustainable future.

	Union leaders, led by ETUC General Secretary Bernadette S&eacute;gol, met 29 February with Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Parliament President Martin Schulz in Brussels, while a mass rally took place at the European Council building. Members of all Belgian trade unions united in protest on 29 February, and targeted their manifestation outside the Belgian National Bank.

	A sampling of other actions on 29 February included a mass demonstration organised by the Romanian national trade union centres at Victoria Square in Bucharest. In Rome, Italian labour federations CGIL, CISL and UIL demonstrated at Pantheon Place, while Hungarian trade unions held a press conference and manifestation.

	In Greece, trade unions undertook a three-hour work stoppage, while even in Georgia trade unions protested ETUC&rsquo;s Day of Action with a rally at Parliament in Tbilisi. This protest was against their government&rsquo;s utter failure to adopt a fair labour code, all the while developing trade with European markets.

	In the UK, British trade unions used the day to gear up their defense of the National Health Service (NHS), which happens massively today, 7 March, across Britain. Both the ETUC and Trades Union Congress (TUC) denounce austerity measures that &ldquo;fall hardest on the shoulders of the weakest&rdquo; when public services are slashed.

ETUC Holds Day of Protest against Europe’s ‘Straitjacket’ Treaty

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390">

	With 95% approval yesterday, Local 27 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) ratified a closure agreement with Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), part of Caterpillar Inc.&rsquo;s Progress Rail Services, in London, Ontario. The sizeable financial settlement ends a morbid chapter of labour relations abuse by a company, and leaves an economic wound befitting the worst corporate ill-will that can be served up.

	The loss of 465 union jobs is tragedy enough in London, Ontario. EMD proposed in collective negotiations that CAW members reduce wages from C$35-per-hour to C$16-18, and give up a 50% equivalent of all benefits. When workers said no, on 1 January Caterpillar and EMD locked them off their jobs at a rail locomotive manufacturing plant.

	Thirty-four days later Caterpillar/EMD announced it would close the operation, move production to a start-up plant in the low-wage &ndash; US$12-16-an-hour &ndash; city of Muncie, Indiana, six hours to the south of London, where Caterpillar had already assembled a virulently anti-union management team.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" height="159" src="" width="156" />

	Ken Lewenza

	Angry Canadians could only beg the answer to the question: What are our federal and provincial governments doing on such brazen desecration of our manufacturing base. Caterpillar had bought the London plant in third quarter 2010 and it came with a bed of government tax breaks. Eighteen months later, the plant is shuttered and Canadian-made machinery and technical know-how is now leaving the country.

	CAW President Ken Lewenza said Canada is in desperate need of a manufacturing jobs strategy. He stated that the free movement of global capital from country to country must be stopped because it is undercutting workers&rsquo; wages.

	Severance packages exceeded what were required by law, partly driven by public indignation of Caterpillar&rsquo;s conduct and mostly by CAW&rsquo;s resolve to get the best possible close-out deals for workers. EMD workers will get three weeks&rsquo; pay for each year of service and a C$1,500 lump sum payment. (See the <a href="http://www.caw.ca/assets/images/EMC_RATIFICATION_(2).pdf">CAW closure agreement </a>here.)

	For one-third of the workforce, that means severance payments of 60 weeks&rsquo; pay or more, while many will average 20-25 weeks. Workers will gain a measure of extended health care coverage, their pension fund will be fully funded, and EMD agreed to settle all claims and grievances with CAW Local 27. That will amount to a C$350,000 payment to the union within 30 days of yesterday.

	Province of Ontario law says that workers with five years of work service must get one week&rsquo;s pay for each year worked, with a cap of 26 weeks. In a company statement on the closure and severance agreement, Caterpillar/EMD boasted that 75 workers, who would not receive pay-outs under the Ontario minimum, will do so now in the negotiated agreement.

	That hollow boast fades in juxtaposition to the wider swath of economic carnage Caterpillar has left on southwestern Ontario. Besides the 670 union, clerical and management direct jobs lost, CAW expects the plant closure to impact another 2,100 peripheral jobs.

	(See previous ICEM 2012 reports on Caterpillar in London, Ontario, <a href="-Caterpillar-to-Close-Canadian-Train-Locomotive-Plant">here</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4851-15-000-Manifests-for-Canadian-Auto-Workers-in-Lockout-By-Caterpillar">here</a>&nbsp;and <a href="/en/27-North-America/4823-CAW-Members-Victimized-in-Lockout-by-Caterpillar-s-Rail-Division">here</a>.)

Severance Deal Reached in Stained Caterpillar Rail Diesel Closure

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) is demanding that labour and regulatory law in the province of Ontario be toughened in the wake of the social calamity perpetrated by Caterpillar Inc. in the recent lockout/closure of a rail electric diesel factory in the south-western provincial city of London.

	With that nearly all labour law in Canada is governed by the provinces, CAW demanded in a 29 February letter to Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey that Ontario toughen its labour statutes as remedy to lax investment regulations. Specifically, the CAW demands that more powers be granted the Ontario Labour Relations Board to stamp out bad-faith bargaining strategies.

	The CAW is campaigning for a stronger and more modernized labour code in Ontario because of Caterpillar&rsquo;s subsidiary, Electro-Motive Diesel, blackmailing workers and a community in choosing between non-liveable wages and a major plant closure. (See prior <a href="-Caterpillar-to-Close-Canadian-Train-Locomotive-Plant">ICEM report</a> here.)

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 145px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Ken Lewenza

	In the letter, CAW President Ken Lewenza said, &ldquo;The company&rsquo;s unjustifiable behaviour &ndash; and the resulting devastation now being brought to bear on workers and the community &ndash; has touched a nerve with Canadians and triggered broad public support.&rdquo;

	The CAW is proposing powers of expedited interest arbitration in pitched labour disputes, as well as new provisions to prevent employers from evading collective agreements by using a lockout.

	Also put forward is a ban on scab replacement workers during a dispute, and restoring workers&rsquo; plant closing rights to negotiate adjustment plans. The CAW also says fairness demands the lengthening of time for giving plant closing notice, and a minimum two weeks&rsquo; pay for each year of service, with elimination of the five-year service tie-in.

	The <a href="http://www.caw.ca/en/10986.htm">CAW letter</a> also calls for an Industrial Inquiry Commission, as stipulated in Section 37, Ontario Labour Relations Act, in order to investigate Caterpillar carnage on workers in the province and the city of London.

	&ldquo;The Caterpillar debacle demonstrates all too well the ease with which an employer can stall out the negotiation process, bargain in bad faith with impunity and manufacture a dispute in an attempt to evade contractual obligations,&rdquo; Lewenza stated.

	&ldquo;Caterpillar did not misjudge or misinterpret Ontario&rsquo;s labour laws; rather, they understood them all too well, and exploited the laws&rsquo; weaknesses as a key part of their overall strategy.&rdquo;

CAW Demands Change in Ontario’s Labour Laws

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