Where and When:
Assembly point is the Human Rights monument (northeast
corner of Elgin and Lisgar)
Event begins at 7:10am, Thursday, May 23rd.
Ultimate destination -- Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Ave
W
Background:
Thursday, May 23rd will be Day 133 of a strike by 22 courageous
aircraft fuellers at Toronto based Porter Airlines. The group, members of
COPE Local 343, earns wages of $12 and $13 per hour, and they are proposing
health and safety training and equipment for their members. The company
has offered paltry increases of zero for some, and 25 cents per hour for
others, with nothing at all to address the group’s health and safety
concerns. Porter Airlines is led by CEO and majority owner Robert Deluce,
who clearly aims to bust the recently-formed union, and establish poverty wages
and rotten working conditions as their competitive advantage over other
airlines.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson is marking Day 133 of this strike
by picking a side in this dispute – and he has picked the wrong side.
Rather than join the growing list of mainstream political leaders respecting
the COPE-called Porter Airlines boycott, the Mayor has outraged local residents
by inviting Porter’s millionaire CEO to speak to a crony, $45-a-plate breakfast
with Ottawa’s Chamber of Commerce. (See http://www.obj.ca/FlyingPage/35 for
breakfast details) It is speculated that the Mayor may be hoping to
persuade Deluce to re-locate his union-busting operation to Ottawa.
The Workers Action Working Group of Solidarity Against
Austerity is joining the growing grassroots campaign in support of these
striking workers. We invite all those interested in standing up for
workers, and challenging these predatory business practices, to join us for a
Solidarity Information Picket at the site of this crony breakfast – Ottawa’s
City Hall. We will gather at the Human Rights Monument at the corner of
Elgin St. and Lisgar St. at 7:10am on Thursday, May 23rd.
Statement from the Striking Workers at Porter Airlines:
We are 22 Fuellers at Porter FBO, a division of Porter Airlines
at Billy Bishop Airport. We have been on strike since January 10th,
trying to secure our first contract.
We formed a union last year because Porter has a history
of sloppy health and safety practices. We did not have proper protective
gear and we were dangerously understaffed.
Jet fuel seeped through our gloves and one new father
broke both his wrists after falling from a plane. He was fueling a float
plane by himself, a job that safely requires two.
We want to make improvements to the workplace so that
it’s not a revolving door of workers, constantly needing to train new
staff. When you don’t even have access to a washroom at the fuel farm, or
work 9 hours without a lunch break, people get fed up and leave.
We start at $12.00/hour and average around $13.00/h.
Porter offered nothing to about half the workers and $0.25/h to the others.
Once the strike started Porter hired scabs for between
$12.50 and $15.50/hour. This is fundamentally not a dispute about how
much Porter can pay, but about whether we will be the first Porter workers to
strike and bargain a contract at the Island Airport.
Our message:
Boycott Porter Airlines! Corporate union busters not
welcome in Ottawa!
Bring your pots and pans, let’s make some noise!
For more information on the Porter Airlines strike,
see: http://www.dontflyporter.com
For more information on Solidarity Against Austerity, see: http://maydayottawa.ca