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On day 470 of a lock-out of 31 aerospace workers at DJ Composites, Unifor members confronted two provincial cabinet ministers as they left a Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Gander, Newfoundland, April 3, 2018.
“It’s time that someone step up to the plate and force this owner to go to arbitration,” Cabot LeGrow, member of Unifor local 597, said to the provincial finance minister, Tom Osborne outside a Gander hotel.
Osborne promised action to half a dozen workers who gathered around him. “It doesn’t come under my department, but I will commit to you because it is terrible that you’ve been out this long….we will raise it at the caucus and cabinet level.”
The province’s Labour Relations Board has twice found the employer, D-J Composites, guilty of violating provincial labour law including of bad faith bargaining.
Unifor members told Osborne and the health minister, who is also their MHA, they could show leadership by proposing changes to the province’s weak and outdated labour legislation that has allowed the U.S. based employer to violate provincial laws without any consequences.
“Put some beef onto the labour code so that that these people can’t come into our province and treat us like garbage. It’s been 16 months. How long do we have to wait?” asked LeGrow in a video posted on social media.
John Haggie, Minister of Health and Community Services, who also promised workers he would talk to the labour minister about the impasse between Unifor and D-J Composites and stated “The labour relations board has more power than they are willing to use.”
“I am extremely proud of our members for voicing their frustrations to the cabinet ministers, but now the government must do more than listen,” said Lana Payne, Atlantic Regional Director. “Our members deserve action and fairness and to have their rights protected.”
Payne requested a meeting with the premier nine weeks ago and is still waiting for that meeting in order to bring Unifor’s concerns to the province. Unifor continues to call for action to end the lock-out and said the situation is completely unacceptable how these workers have been treated and how their rights have been allowed to be trampled on by this American employer.
