President’s Report
January 27, 2010
Kidd Creek
As you are aware Xstrata announced in December that it intended to close its Kidd Creek Met Site which would cause the loss of 700 jobs. The unionized staff is represented by CAW Local 599 which on December 18th announced a fight back campaign which Ron Marleau and I attended. Since that time they have held a number of meetings with municipal, provincial and federal politician in attempt to thwart the closure. As well they met with the top leadership of Xstrata with the assistance of CAW National President Ken Lewenza.
The underlying issue with this closure is the cost of electricity, which ultimately is controlled by the province of Ontario. Xstrata is following the cheaper electricity rates to Quebec especially when you consider that the Kidd Creek Met Site is the largest consumer of electricity in the province. The Ontario government has to take a stand similar to that of former Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin when Inco announced that it intended to process the ore from Voisey Bay out of province. Premier Tobin told Inco that his government would not allow them to open the mine unless Inco committed to smelt the ore in Newfoundland. After much complaining and hand wringing on the part of Inco they relented and agreed to build a smelter. The province of Ontario must take the same position with Xstrata the ore from the Xstrata mines must be processed in Timmins. As well the province needs to address the cost of electricity so that all of Ontario can compete with Manitoba and Quebec who have successful used cheaper hydro rates as a tool to entice business to their provinces.
The impact of this closure on the ONTC will no doubt be large. Kidd Creek is our largest customer, so the ONTC must come up with a plan to replace some of that lost income. One way of doing this as we have been suggesting would be by the ONTC taking over the Ottawa Valley Railroad and moving Tembec’s product out of Temisqaming Quebec. At this time the ONTC has not informed the unions of any of its plans to deal with the possible Kidd Creek closure.
OVR and HCR
As mentioned above we have been lobbying both the ONTC and the Ontario government for the need to have Ontario Northland take over both of these rail lines. Both CP Rail and Genesee Wyoming have announced that they wish to abandon these lines. It is in the ONTC’s strategic interest to take the line over from Smith Falls to Sudbury as this will allow the ONTC to offer its current and future customers the ability to move their product to market either through our connection with CN or through the OVR to CP. This provides competition in the rail marketplace and gives our customers an option when moving product out of Northeastern Ontario. The ONTC cannot allow itself to be tied even closer to CN which would happen if the line through North Bay was abandoned.
Since last June when the HCR announced it would be shutting down its rail line from Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie the GCA has been calling for the Ontario government to instruct the ONTC to take over the line. In the governments own Northern Growth Plan it has called for an integrated multi modal transportation system that provides Northern businesses the rail freight infrastructure to bring products to market. Without this line and the OVR line communities along the entire corridor will lose the Rail option. As well the retention of rail infrastructure fits perfectly with the McGuinty governments Green Plan.
Long Term Sustainability
As reported at our last meeting the LTSP has been presented to the Ministry of Northern Development Mines and Forestry. This is an important document for many reasons but most of all it lays out the need for long term stable funding of the enterprise. As well it details the strategic direction the ONTC must take to ensure the Northeast continues to grow and prosper. The report contains two important studies one that details the economic and social importance of the ONTC to the North and a report on our rail and motor coach passenger services. Although we are not at liberty at the moment to divulge specific information and or numbers both reports support the importance of continuing to operate the company as a Crown Agency.
Representatives from the GCA met with Local MPP and Minister of Inter Governmental Affairs Monique Smith last Friday about the need for her support for the LTSP and its role in Ontario Northlands long term future. Ms. Smith had not seen the report as of Friday but again reiterated her commitment and support to the ONTC and that she will continue to lobby on Ontario Northland’s behalf.
At this meeting we also raised the issue of the government announced review of all Crown Agency, etc. Ms. Smith explained the reasoning behind the review as being the record $24 billion debt the province is faced with and the need for the government to find as much revenue as possible.
The reality is the ONTC although a valuable instrument of government policy and asset for the people of the Northeast; in the big scheme of things the sale of ONTC would only be a drop in the bucket in helping reducing the debt. As the economic and social impact study pointed out the ONTC is far more valuable continuing to be the economic development tool it is today.
As well if the concern of the government is that that the ONTC has not been able to turn the financial corner all they have to do is look at Ontera to see what can be achieved. With the government support Ontera went from a net loss of $8.6 million in 2005 to a projected profit of $100,000 in 2010. Truly an amazing turn around and indicative of what can happen.
Refurbishment
The Company approached the Union last year wishing to open discussions on making changes to Agreement #12 as part of a package of things they felt needed to be done to secure the next GO Transit Refurbishment contract. We held a special Unit meeting in the summer and were granted permission to open discussions, but with the membership having final approval as is our process, on any negotiated changes.
It was difficult to get all parties together until early fall, but after a number of discussions we informed the Company that the information they were relaying to us should be heard by our members in the shops. The Company agreed to hold a joint town hall meeting with both the North Bay and Cochrane Shop employees. On November 17th Chief Operations Officer Paul Goulet led a town hall meeting with a link to Cochrane so they could here and see Mr. Goulet’s presentation as well. By all accounts the meeting went well. After this meeting we continued our discussions on the collective agreement issues. On January 19th we informed the membership we had reached an Agreement in Principle with the Company, but that there were number issues still to be ironed out including the need that real change was actually happening in the Refurbishment Division before we brought the agreement back for ratification.
Since then the Joint Transformation Committee made up of both management and union have met weekly. We are in the process of securing the consulting firm of Deloitte to help us with implementing the Lean Process in this division which will make it far more efficient and profitable. They will at the same time help prepare our bid on the next GO Transit refurbishment contract.
New Unit
We were informed in mid December that the National had been successful in an organizing drive which brought the Brinks Guards into our union. There are ten members here in North Bay and the National has assigned their unit to be part of this Local. We are in the process of scheduling a meeting with the members of this new unit. At this time I know we all wish to extend our warmest welcome to our new brothers and sisters to the CAW.
Pension Plan
As you may have noticed all of us have begun paying again into the ONTC Pension Plan. We believe this is a good thing in fact all the unions at the ONTC never supported a contribution holiday. The reality is that it is far better to have everyone paying into the Plan on a long term basis, in that way we can ensure that it has more than enough to ensure its proper funding.
We have all heard the rumours across the ONTC system of an imminent buyout. We do not see that possibility, with world markets still not fully recovered from last years severe downturn and with record low interest rates the possibility of ONTC offering any form of pension buyouts or lessening of the requirements to take an early pension are remote. Again this is not written in stone but if you were considering retiring but were waiting to see what may happen my advice is to go.
CAW Council
In December, Valerie Kennedy and I attended the CAW Council meetings in Toronto. The whole Council received an update from John Fera President of Steelworkers Local 6500 on the continuing struggle with Brazilian owned mining giant Vale in Sudbury. Fera reiterated that the federal and provincial governments have had a role in this dispute by allowing a foreign company such as Vale to snap up Canadian Resource Company’s to the detriment of the workers and the communities they live in. CAW Council unanimously voted to provide $20,000 in assistance to Local 6500.
CAW National President Ken Lewenza in his address to the council called for a doubling of Canada Pension Plan benefits. A majority of Canadians have no pension plan at all and those who have an RRSP have been devastated by the recent stock market downturns. He also called for more government help in securing laid off workers severance pay, and help in securing that people already retired continue to receive a pension by holding company’s to legislated requirements to properly fund their pension plans.
Lewenza gave an update on the recent round of collective bargaining with the all the automakers that was necessary to deal with the dire state of Chrysler and General Motors.
Lewenza highlighted the need for CAW members to not fall for the Tax Rage Campaign being spouted by Conservative Leader Tim Hudack over the harmonization of the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) with the GST. CAW National economist Jim Stafford has done up a brief on the HST and explains that in the end the measure will be revenue neutral; that means you will pay no more taxes than you do now. Stafford highlighted that the former PST because what is called a cascading effect was actually severely hampering Ontario’s manufacturing company’s ability to compete with other jurisdictions inside and outside of Canada.
As the 20th anniversary of the Montreal massacre occurred on the weekend of the CAW Council, Mr. Lewenza reiterated the CAW’s long standing support of the National Gun Registry and called upon all Local’s to defend its retention.
Arbitration
We wish to inform the membership that we have two days of arbitration hearings schedule here in North Bay on February 17 and 18.
Recommendations
- That the Local donate $1000 to the Canada for Haiti fund
- That the Local donate $1000 to the North Bay food bank Gathering Place.
- That the Local donate $500 to the Food for Ever Fund (Temagami, Kirkland lake area)
Past Reports:
Mar 30/11 | Jan 26/11 | Oct 6/10 | Apr 14/10 | Jan 27/10 | Sep 16/09 |