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The Day of Mourning and the stated purposes behind it has been in effect for 34 years. Yet at our workplace alone, four people, brothers Andrew Kenmuir, Fraser Cowan, Colin Grayley, Quoc Le, have been gruesomely killed in 20 years—three of them in less than two.
In contrast to the treacherous role of the USW bureaucracy, the National Steel Car Rank-and-File Committee (NSC-RFC), established by shop floor workers on the eve of the strike, blazed a new path for the rank-and-file. The committee has become a pole of opposition to the pro-corporate USW leadership.
The United Steelworkers bureaucracy, working hand in hand with National Steel Car management, is trying to pull a fast one on us by presenting a new tentative agreement and forcing us to vote on it within 72 hours.
“We’re at a crossroads. If the USW bureaucracy remains in control of this strike, it will starve us into submission, so that the next rotten offer will look enticing by comparison. Can anyone argue otherwise? None of us can survive for long on $260 per week.”
The issues facing workers elsewhere in industry and transport—inflation, underpaid tiers, benefit issues, poor working conditions, and pensions— are the same as ours at NSC. We all ought to be fighting for this together as a class, regardless of artificial borders.