By Keith Lacey
Two Norwegian union leaders received a hero's welcome Monday for their support of the workers on strike last year at Falconbridge Ltd.
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Norwegian union leaders Terje Naess (left) and Leif Gusland, got a warm welcome on their recent trip to Sudbury. The pair are seen with Local 598 member Brian MacDonald. |
Leif Gusland, past-president of the National Chemical Workers Union, and current president Terje Naess, were given standing ovations by a crowd of about 150 members of Local 598 of the Mine Mill/CAW during a CAW/598 Union Solidarity Conference Monday.
Gusland and Naess helped organize a five-day sympathy strike in the late stages of the seven-month strike between Falconbridge and Local 598, which ended in February last year.
The sympathy strike basically shut down production at Falconbridge's massive Nikkelverk refinery in Kristiansand, Norway. Hundreds of workers gave up wages during an inter-continental show of solidarity for struggling Local 598 members half a world away.
"These guys did something wonderful," said Local 598 president Rick Grylls in introducing his two Norwegian visitors.
"They stood up against the company because they could and because they wanted to...and what they did will never be forgotten by any of us here in Sudbury."
"When we heard the company were using what they call replacement workers, but we call scabs, there was a moral conflict," said Gusland. "We didn't like it at all.
"If you can't strike, you have no power at all," he said. "The right to withdraw work means the possibility to determine your future."
Union leaders and the membership at Nikkelverk were shocked when union leaders in Sudbury contacted them and informed them how Ontario laws allowed replacement workers to enter job sites.
"We wanted to do something," Gusland said. "What we heard was happening in Canada we thought that could only happen in the Third World....using buses and helicopters to bring in people...was not what we thought would happen in a so-called civilized country."
Norwegian laws allow for a sympathy strike if the national union approves and they did in this case, said Gusland.
The Nikkelverk membership voted 90 per cent in favour of the sympathy strike.
Gusland and Naess' whirlwind tour included a trip to CAW head office in Toronto, a trip to Timmins, where Local 599 is preparing for a possible strike this fall and the solidarity conference in Sudbury.
"We have learned lots and realize we share many of the same problems," said Gusland.
Unionized workers at Nikkelverk now work only 37.5 hours a week and only 33.6 hours if you work shift work. However, Norwegian workers can't retire with a full pension until age 62.
