You know… that Blog?

Coke Lockout Brampton. Still going.

Written By: Jenn - Jul• 09•13

In the face of such a colossal battle, it is hard to keep spirits up and pretend life is hunky-dory.

Coca Cola locked out its workers on June 26th, hours before the strike deadline. That’s 2 weeks ago tomorrow. Since then they have done nothing but ignore the Union requesting they return to the negotiating table, and post complete fabrications of why they did it. Finally, today, they have agreed to resume talks. A good step, but we’re nowhere near an agreement.

Coca Cola claims that the Union walked away from them. Not true. They claim that the union is unreasonable, and wanted staggeringly ridiculous amounts of increases. To everything. Come on. Do they really expect anyone to believe that? Well, yes. In fact they do. Coca Cola apparently really does think that the general public is that naive, and will believe anything they state as fact. Why? Well, because they’re COKE, of course. One of the biggest corporations on the planet! *insert beating chest noises here. Gorilla grunts too, for good measure*

They even sent a letter to the employees outlining the demands they say the Union made, and expecting the very employees they’ve locked out to believe it! The level of audacity here is off the charts!

Click links below to read the letter

Want a laugh? Here’s Page 1 and Page 2. You might notice that they don’t provide a way for their employees to actually call and speak to someone. Or even email them. They’ve completely stripped their letterhead of contact info.

No sane person would ever ask for what the company claims the union is asking for, when we all agree the current wages and benefits are fair. The guys get statutory holidays – they’re not asking for more. They get a reasonable amount of sick days, and don’t need more of those either. The only thing our people are truly concerned about is improving the safety of the workers in the Brampton plant, keeping pension and benefits generally as they are – including those for new hires (Coke doesn’t want more Full-timers, and they don’t want anyone new to get any pension) – and ensuring there will still be jobs to come back to, instead of Coke outsourcing those jobs. There are no doubt other adjustments that I’m not privvy to; I’m neither a union member or Coke worker. I can say with confidence though, that the union is neither greedy, nor stupid.

I worry about finances, first and foremost, since that income is lost, and there’s a mortgage and other bills to pay. Hard on what we’re bringing in right now. We’ll be ok, because I am my father’s daughter and had rainy-day funds put away “just in case”. What I can do to stretch a dollar is pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

Some summer plans have been postponed or canceled, in large part because walking the picket line is so important. Our youngest daughter doesn’t seem to be noticing that too much though; she’s quite happy spending her days with the neighbourhood kids. Our oldest daughter is working full time, getting ready for College in the fall. This doesn’t impact her nearly so much.

I worry about my husband, because the stress is pretty huge. He’s gone every day, walking the picket line and trying to make a difference. He’s there longer than he’s scheduled to be, doing more than he’s been asked to do. That’s the kind of guy he is, but he’s not the only one. This is pretty typical of the kind of people who work at the Brampton Coke plant.

We have good people behind us. Community support, and also there are other websites springing into action, and also into existence. The amount of people Tweeting and Re-tweeting has exploded in support of #cokestrike. So no, Coke. The general public really isn’t naive, nor are they stupid. What they are is tired of mega corporations trying to crush unions, and erode the middle class.

My own posts here have slowed down a little, because I’m so active on Twitter these days, and because there are better websites for this sort of post. This is a personal blog, and eventually it will return to normalcy. I’m not stopping yet though – this is as much my fight as it is my husbands, and there are thousands of people affected by Coke’s actions and behaviour in Canada. Once they’re through with this negotiation at the largest Coca Cola plant in Canada, it will be on to the next Coca Cola location whose contract is set to expire. And the next. And the next. We’re fighting for employees and families across the country.

Coca Cola Brampton Lock Out/Strike Continues

Written By: Jenn - Jul• 02•13

Not surprising; the Coca Cola negotiation team all spent the long weekend with their own families while our families were fragmented as workers manned the picket lines. That’s ok though! They were where they needed to be.

You see, we’re not doing this so we can get rich, live in multi-million dollar homes, and enjoy every luxury that strikes our fancy.

.
We are picketing because:

a) Coca Cola walked away from negotiations and locked workers out, and

b) we have no choice. We need the plant operations to be done safely. We need to be able to pay the mortgages on our very-middle-class homes, most of which are located in the GTA (necessary), put our kids in soccer, pay for glasses and put braces on their teeth when the needs arise. We need just a little assurance that jobs will actually be there tomorrow, and we have some sort of future.

My husband likes his job. He comes home tired after putting in a full day, and does it again the next day – without complaint. He enjoys talking to customers. They’re good people, our customers. I say “Our” because I feel like I’m a part of Coke too. Not because we get free product; we don’t. I feel that way because my husband takes his work seriously, and feels good about the way he provides his services not only to the company, but to the customers. He is recognized when we’re out in public, and it’s always in a positive way. In fact he was recognized most recently when the manager of a Tim Horton’s we stopped at remembered him from when he was a manager at a Mac’s store. He came over and shook his hand, and was introduced to us (our youngest daughter and I). “Good man you’ve got there, Missus!” he said to me.

Don’t I know it.

My husband doesn’t want this lock out. He would much rather be working. His friends and coworkers in the company don’t want this lock out. They want to be able to work too. I haven’t met a single unionized employee who feels otherwise. Nor do I hear stories about guys who feel that it’s a “gravy train” and want to get paid well and do next to nothing. These men WORK for their money. Believe me; I’d hear ALL about it if there were slackers making the rest of the guys work that much harder.

From the looks of it, Coca Cola is going to play hard ball with this negotiation, because it will most definitely affect all other negotiations in Canada. They no doubt want to break this group of workers and make them accept their terms. In essence, they’re apparently taking an “Our way or the highway” stance.

Perish the thought that Canadian workers take even the smallest crumb from a $9BILLION profit margin.

So our people aren’t just fighting for themselves here. They’re fighting for Coca Cola workers across the country. Because they WILL be coming after the rest of them as their contacts come up for negotiations. This is why workers at the other locations have been standing shoulder to shoulder with our people. This is why Coca Cola CUSTOMERS are supporting our efforts here. Customers know that if Coke is able to outsource to “who knows what other cheap, untrained companies”, their quality of service could decline in a big way, and that will affect THEIR customers. This is why we need the public to share information with friends, family, and coworkers. This is why we need fair news coverage, and not reporters who simply parrot what Coke tells them and don’t seek the truth. Look for the SHARE button below. Please use it!

Here’s a screenshot, where I have underlined in red (appropriate, yes?) the lies told by Coca Cola. Seven (7) in just a little over a paragraph. Please click on the image to get a larger view.

Coca Cola is now trying to get a legal injunction against workers walking the picket lines, fighting for their futures, by having the peaceful delaying of traffic in and out of other coke plants and warehouses declared illegal. I sincerely hope that the Canadian Judge hearing this nonsense from Coca Cola takes the 700 employees currently affected, plus the thousands of other employees who will be affected, into account, sees this American company trying to screw over Canadian workers, and denies their request.

Naturally my blog is my blog, and a lot of this is my opinion. But know this; I will never print anything here that is untrue. I will print my opinion, which needs to be taken as just that: Opinion. However, unlike Coca Cola, I will never print a bald-faced lie and expect the public to buy it. (The links now download as PDF files). The public, contrary to Coca Cola’s apparent belief, is smarter than that. Past that; *I* have a moral and ethical code to live by that doesn’t allow me to sit here and lie to people.

Please, continue to support the efforts of our workers. THANK YOU. #cokestrike

Coca Cola forced strike; More info

Written By: Jenn - Jun• 30•13

Further to my post from Friday morning, I have more information for you.

First, there are a number of links for you, so we can all stay up to date and on the same page:

.
The CAW Local 973 has a Facebook page, and a Twitter account. Join, follow, participate.

If you use Twitter, please “retweet” posts using the hashtag #cokestrike – if you tweet, please remember to keep it clean, and above all, keep it truthful.

I will try to keep you all up to date, but in general I don’t know anything more than you do, and I’m just making sure that what IS known is shared via Facebook, Twitter, and this blog. Share my posts and tweets, and support each other.

Back to the business at hand. I called my last post “Strike Action” in error; what it really is is a LOCK OUT. As I mentioned earlier, Coke walked away from the table (I originally heard this happened at 4pm but an earlier commenter said it was actually 3pm) during the last day of negotiations, and didn’t come back. The Union (CAW Local 973) had every intention of staying and continuing negotiations, but they were not given that opportunity.

Let’s be clear, here; Coke walked out on the Union, and not the other way around as they would have you believe. In fact, they issued a press release saying:

.
“Despite weeks of negotiations and a willingness by Coca-Cola to continue those discussions, the union chose to walk away and commence a strike before we could provide a comprehensive offer”

which is, in fact, an outright fabrication. A lie. The union was left sitting at an empty table while the company was busy arranging a lockout of their plant workers, demanding vehicles and equipment be returned, and erecting a massive fence around the perimeter.

I was there, I personally saw the fence going up hours before the negotiation deadline. If Coke had not been planning this all along, they would not have been so precisely organized. That was a massive fence, and they had the manpower there to erect it. This was planned well in advance.

The workers and the union did not want a strike. They wanted the company to deal with them fairly, and above board. This didn’t happen. Instead they’ve been left high and dry as Coke settled in for what is possibly a long-haul lock out. Coke has been stockpiling product in warehouses in anticipation of this lock out. They’ve been training managers to drive the delivery trucks for weeks. Tell me this wasn’t a planned maneuver.

Ok, then.

What can union members do? Support each other. Walk that picket line. STAY CALM. Stay focused. Keep it clean, keep it truthful, keep it friendly but FIRM.

What can members of the public do? Stop buying Coke products until our people are back to work. Support the people on the picket line with friendly waves and toot your car horn. Be understanding if you are inconvenienced by their actions.

I’d like to personally thank all of the local businesses that are being supportive of the folks on the picket lines. This is not easy for anyone, but your support (and also some of you have even donated coffee and food!) is priceless. THANK YOU.

To the other Coke location workers in Ontario who Coke will be going after as their contracts come up; thank you for standing shoulder to shoulder with the Brampton folks. They will do the same for you when your time comes. And it will.

From what I understand, Coke negotiators are off enjoying the long weekend, and not at all concerned about what they’ve done in terms of the chaos faced by Coke employees and their spouses and children. Let them. They won’t break you, as long as you stand together.

NOTE: There is a “Share” button below the post that you can share this on Facebook and Twitter and a few other places. Or you can cut and paste the “short” URL: http://wp.me/p3q6xK-1is