US STEEL: CITY HALL Protest.

Yesterday not even the rain could keep out the hard working men and women of the city of Hamilton. US STEEL employees and Local 1005 members came in by the hundreds to display their anger and frustration with the way negotiations are going towards a new contract with Local 1005.


ONE OF THE SIGNS AT YESTERDAYS RALLY


GROUP SHOT


Many workers stated that when the going gets tough the United States based company sacrifices their jobs for the benefit of their own economy. Many of them know that they will always look after their own interests. The video below is how they feel about the whole situation.




After the motion was read to send a letter to US STEEL and the upper levels of government. A "friendly" motion was put in place to re-word the document from saying "USING BULLY TACTICS" to "INTIMIDATION TACTICS" by Councillor Clark. Councillor Merulla then stated that we don't need to soften the message to US STEEL and did not want to reword the document to sound more friendly. Stating that for months the friendly tactic has not been working. They had a vote, below is a picture of those who voted YES to reword the document.


When the Councillors stood up to vote YES in favor of changing the way the letter is written.( Councillor Pearson was one of these YES votes) The crowd started heckling the Councillors standing up. One yelled " I guess none of you want to get re-elected" as the crowd chuckled. At first Councillors who voted YES were hesitant to stand up and show how they voted. First it was done with computer, but the public was not pleased. Once again the crowd started chanting "Stand up, we want to see who wants to be friendly with US STEEL" Mayor Fred than asked for a standing VOTE. Above is the picture of the vote as the public showed their dismay.
Over all it was a great turn out. I hope this situation can get turned around for all of those affected. Let's get back to the bargaining table and save these jobs.