Steel Workers ignore Government threats, keep lift bridge closed.

Hamilton steel workers have kept the Burlington Canal Lift Bridge down for a second day to protest shipments of a valuable steelmaking component out of the city.

About 46 U.S. Steel employees and supporters lined the bridge’s pedestrian walkway throughout Thursday after another group occupied the span overnight.

The all-nighter marks a step-up in confrontation between members of Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel over its shipment of metallurgical coke from Hamilton to other plants.
The Wednesday blockade of the bridge kept the Canada Steamship Lines vessel Paul Martin from leaving Hamilton. A second vessel, The Federal Yukina, is also in Burlington Bay expecting to load up with more of the material.

Union president Rolf Gerstenberger said the occupation will continue as long as members are interested, and they won’t be scared off by threats of a court injunction raised by the federal Justice Department.
“They’re only talking about an injunction so they can make this a law and order issue, rather than a labour dispute,” Gerstenberger said. “We’ll be here as long as people are willing to stay, so it looks like we’ll be here a while.”

The federal government, which owns and operates the bridge, entered the controversy recently when it sent a letter to the union threatening “more formal action” if the bridge occupations don’t end.
Gerstenberger said the entire problem would end if U.S. Steel would agree to stop shipping coke from Hamilton, or if some authority sought a court injunction against the company.

“We’re saying they should have an injunction against U.S. Steel and then the problem goes away,” he said.
In its letter, the federal Justice Department argues the law doesn’t allow strikers to completely block access to a facility. They are only permitted to delay traffic long enough to provide information about the nature of the dispute; and since information can’t be passed from the deck of the bridge to the captain of a ship, the occupation of the bridge is illegal.

The Hamilton workers have been locked out since November for refusing to accept U.S. Steel’s demands for radical changes to pension plans. Specifically, the company wants the current defined benefit plan closed to new employees in favour of an RRSP-like defined contribution scheme. It also wants an end to indexing payments to current retirees.
sarnold@thespec.com