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Unifor Local 3264 members at Carmeuse Lime in Beachville, Ontario have been out on strike since January 17, standing up for full-time jobs and no mandatory overtime. Approximately 87 members work at Carmeuse extracting lime shore from the open-pit mine, which is turned into lime and used in a variety of consumer products.
Carmeuse Lime is trying to force mandatory overtime, make dramatic changes to working hours, cut benefits and pensions, and phase out full-time jobs through attrition and contracting out. The facility once employed 320 people, reduced through attrition.
“Over my years as a labour activist, I’ve seen Canadian companies bought out by foreign corporations and our contract gains diminish. Under new foreign ownership, companies no longer share the wealth in the way they once did,” said Unifor Local 3264 President Rick Cecchin, whose workplace was once owned by Dofasco. Cecchin also said that the strike underlines the importance of having anti-scab legislation, which would prevent replacement labour from being bussed into the facility each day.
Their collective agreement expired on March 31, 2014, with talks ongoing right up until the strike when negotiations broke down over numerous concessions.
Carmeuse’s North American operations are based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with the headquarters in Louvain la Neuve, Belgium. Carmeuse purchased three neighbouring quarries in Beachville from 1985 to 1992, proceeding to shut down two of them.
Locals wishing to make a donation in support of striking workers can send cheques to:
Jeff Ebel, Financial Secretary
Local 3264
758 Salter Avenue
Woodstock ON N4S 2P5
