By Stéphane Doucet
Terrapure Environmental, which operates a lead recycling plant in Sainte-Catherine in the Montérégie region in southwest Quebec, imposed a brutal lockout on its employees on March 11. At the time, Ville Sainte-Catherine-CSN Lead Workers Union president Steve Nault declared that “with over 400 active grievances at present, Terrapure does not respect our collective agreement and does not respect us as workers.”
Since then, the company has sought and obtained an injunction to control the number of workers on the picket line and their location. The locked-out workers are monitoring entrances and exits, to prevent the use of scabs. According to the union, Terrapure is seeking to change schedules to impose 12-hour shifts and, despite the company’s wealth, is holding firm on wages. “We’re not even close to an agreement,” the union says.
Terrapure was bought in 2021 by the GFL group, a publicly listed multinational, for the astronomical sum of $927 million. The latter announced on April 4 that they were increasing their dividends by 10 percent, while the 150 locked-out workers are out on the street.
The conflict received no media coverage outside the Montérégie region, and nothing since it broke out in early March.
[Photo: CSN]
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