(The following article is from the April 16-30, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sam Hammond

On the United Steel Workers Canada web page there is a reflective article by Wayne Fraser, Director of District Six, titled "Magna - The Wrong Deal at the Wrong Time". Brother Fraser outlines his thoughts on the "Framework of Fairness Agreement" between the CAW and Magna Corporation, and his very real concerns about trading off the right to strike and union workplace democracy for more members. He is right, but he has run into a rather large problem of his own. The unfortunate and very serious rebuttal of the USW by Arcelor-Mittal Dofasco workers also needs some serious reflection and analysis.

     Announced on the eve of its implementation, the "Neutrality Agreement" worked out between the union and Arcelor-Mittal, based on its relations in the United States with the USW, was a surprise not only to Dofasco workers but also to USW Local 1005, the largest steel local in Canada, with 5000 members working right next door.

     The deal had some positive potential, but it was literally eviscerated by its flaws. It was done over the heads of the rank and file workers, both Steel members and those non-members who were the target. On the positive side, it froze benefit programs, wages and incentives until the process of presentation, negotiating and ratification were over. This alone gave Dofasco workers a set of security parameters that would have cost nothing nor required any commitment, during a process where they could have taken their own sweet time to ponder acceptance or alternative. The culture of their non-union environment blinded them to this freebee which any unionized worker initiated in tactics would have seen.

     The Steel Workers Union walked into a non-union environment, not by any means passive, with blinders on. Those blinders were made out of a company letter sent to all 6,000 workers, urging a strongly positive response to the Steel staffers who were allowed into the departments to sell the union.

     It must be understood that there has been a corporate sponsored and spawned anti-labour culture in Dofasco for a hundred years, encouraged by purges of anyone even dreaming out loud of anything collective. But it is equally true that since the purchase of the family-owned Dofasco, there is a real fear amongst the workers that this global Eurasian conglomerate has the ultimate power to do anything it wants to them or with them. They are feeling very lonely, and many think it's time to organize.

     If you strip away the anti-union rednecks and wannabe corporate slaves-in-waiting, not even approaching a significant population, the reasons for such a brick wall negative response can be found in the statements of reasonable workers and observers.

     First of all is the ingrained suspicion that the company and the union had conspired behind their backs to tell them what to do.  This is being expressed in letters to the editor and across bars and tables in most pubs in Hamilton. with the expression "we smelled a rat".

     Even though they are unorganized, these are still Hamilton workers, and their attitude to corporate union deals has been forged as much by mingling with Local 1005 members as it has by their basic class instinct. The international reps haven't always been trusted in Hamilton. The fact that District Six kept Local 1005 out of the equation, when they had the knowledge and gut instinct to make this work, is an indication of inner problems that Dofasco workers know well.

     What the Steel reps ran into, and retreated quickly from, was just as much a rejection of the corporation as it was the union. "If I join a union I will decide when it is and who it is", is heard over and over. The union went in too fast. They did not prepare comprehensive and up-to-date info packages that could be distributed for future discussion. They did not include the workers' peers from next door at the old Stelco Hilton Works. They did not educate themselves with conditions and programs within Dofasco.

     In fact the Dofasco workers I talked to said the reps were ill-informed and thought they had a done deal. I do not spend a lot of time with anti-union people, so these worker contacts of mine wanted the union to succeed, as did I.

     This was not a carbon copy of the CAW-Magna deal. It differed insofar as it made the workers the only choosers of their representatives, and it did not give up the right-to-strike or the adversarial role. But, like CAW-Magna, it was done over the heads of the workers and presented to them de facto. This was a big mistake and borders on contempt.

     The USW went in too fast and they left too fast. Both the entry and departure will make the next attempt harder, but the Steelworkers must not give up. Non-union workers are not necessarily anti-union workers. Dofasco can be organized, but it will require the resources and involvement of Hamilton's most experienced steelworkers, especially Local 1005. It will also require the involvement of the Hamilton & District Labour Council, the Building Trades Council and the Port Council. Hopefully Wayne Fraser and District Six will reflect, regroup and try again, this time with as many allies as they can find, including pro-union Dofasco workers.