515 workers have been on strike since June 18, 2002 at the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, a small mining town of 27,000 located 400 miles north of Montreal. The workers accepted the CSN union proposal to strike because of a thinly veiled threat on seniority and job security in the new contract company 'offers'. However, the strike was launched without any real discussion about its timeliness. Most base metal prices are presently at a very low point and it seems the company lured the workers into a disguised lockout. Though the old contract had expired, nothing obliged the workers to strike immediately as the stipulations of the old contract would have been continued. This would probably have forced the company to lay down its cards and lock-out the workers, thus putting the onus of the situation clearly in the bosses' lap Though the company lost a net 700 million in 2002, only 25 million of this loss is due to the strike. The smelter is functioning at 70% of its capacity with the help of 300 'cadres', an incredible rate of 1 boss for 1.8 employees! ⁽¹⁾ Scabs are also used in the guise of sub-contractors. ⁽²⁾ Thugs from the Avant-Garde security firm of Montreal have been hired to intimidate the pickets. The new ex-leftist mayor of the city, Jean-Claude Beauchemin who used to claim he was a bordiguist and now says he's something of a libertarian has called on the Provincial Police Riot Squad to assure the company of his complete submission.

The strike has received relatively little popular support in the community as it is seen by many to be a tactical blunder. ⁽⁴⁾ The Noranda Group which owns the facility has recently closed down its Murdochville smelter in the Gaspé region, just about killing off that small town. It has also terminated its Magnolia magnesium plant in Asbestos, in the Eastern Townships region. The company is now hinting that it could close down the Horne smelter and move its operations to the Kidd Creek plant near Timmins, Ontario, about 130 miles west. Except for a few notable donations from mine and smelter workers in North Eastern Ontario, little support is being offered to the beleaguered strikers. Indeed we have heard that the rival United Steelworkers of America (QFL) are already preparing to raid the CSN union at the next legal opportunity!

The strike is leaving a heavy toll amongst the workers and their families. 'Company towns' like Rouyn-Noranda are by definition quite dependant on the business decisions of the capitalists for their very existence. The small 200-dollar a week strike stipend is simply not enough to feed the families and payments on houses are lagging far behind. Even though the CSN Union Strike Fund is very rich, extra money loaned to needy strikers is made with a 12% interest fee! Despite all these very unfavourable factors, the workers have decided to continue the strike by a 73% margin at a well-attended general meeting just before Christmas. However, their determination might just not be sufficient to pull this one off. They are in dire need of support from workers in mines and smelters across the region. Financial support and solidarity strike action is urgently needed to help get these comrades through. This is the message the IWG is trying to get across to every worker we can discuss with, including our contacts on the Horne picket lines.

Extra!

The company has now announced that whatever agreement is reached, 125 workers will lose their jobs even though it intends to have the plant functioning at 100% capacity

(1) Why the union has obviously permitted the company to hire such a large number of technical workers as bosses is beyond us!

(2) It is important to note that scabs are an important factor in this strike even though the plant is under the jurisdiction of the Quebec provincial government's famous anti-scab law. In the case of the Vidéotron lockout discussed elsewhere in this bulletin, the company is under the jurisdiction of the federal government, which does not have a so-called anti-scab legislation. The nationalist union leaders regularly denounce the federal government for not adopting such a law while forgetting that the Quebec provincial government doesn't even apply its own weak legislation. In any case workers do not need the support of the capitalist state's hypocritical laws! We only need our own class unity, correct strategy and adequate picket line tactics if we are to win.

(3) Another reason why this strike lacks popular support is that it has not made an issue of the deadly threat of berylliosis present among the workers and the families that live near the smelter. Noranda workers are famous for the struggle they led 20 years ago against silicosis and other forms of industrial pollution linked sicknesses. If the union had took up the beryllium threat, it would have rendered a real service to its members and the local population and could have gained much more popular support regionally as well as throughout the province, as the insidious metal is considered a real danger in more than 2800 Quebec workplaces.