Strike/Lockout at Vaughn warehouse?

Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 11:17 pm Post subject:

My understanding is that all merchandise is being shipped from the Montreal warehouse. The trucks are loaded to the brim to make the trip to Toronto worth while.

The Vaughan warehouse is probably closed down and not being used.

Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Posts: 1186

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/breakingnews/sears-canada-warehouse-workers-vote-to-reject-companys-contract-offer-95359794.html

Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Posts: 61

standard "bargaining" technique for sears... offer them less than they had then slam the door and wait. Then when the workers crawl back give them a little more and problem solved.

"Sears Canada employees, locked out of their jobs for two months by the highly profitable retail giant, have voted to reject a company contract offer that would decimate their basic collective agreement rights.

Despite posting profits in excess of $240 million in the last two years, Sears walked away from negotiations in March, then locked out 500 warehouse employees in Vaughan on April 1. The employees are members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9537.

After keeping the employees on the picket line for two months, Sears exercised its right under Ontario law to make a one-time request for workers to vote on a company contract offer. The vote, supervised by the Ministry of Labour, was held last Friday, with 85 per cent of workers voting and 60 per cent rejecting the contract proposed by Sears.

"Sears wants to remove many of the articles of the collective agreement that cover the terms and conditions of employment for the workers," said USW Staff Representative Terry Bea.

"The company wants to replace these articles with new language that states the company would have the unilateral right to change terms and conditions of employment as they see fit, when they see fit. It would affect almost every aspect of a worker's employment, including pensions, health-care benefits, vacation entitlement, etc."

A veteran union negotiator, said he has never seen such a proposal from an employer.

"The bottom line is they are not willing to commit to negotiated terms and conditions in a collective agreement," he said.

Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Posts: 2227

And yet, we continue to lose our jobs one way or another. Found out today that some more people have been laid off from our facilities down here. Several are friends of mine. SHLD (and Lampert) does not care about its employees and their welfare. Naughty!

Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 7389

Two of the finest corporate hacks hacking away like the good fast eddie lackies they really are-William Crowley and Dene Rogers.

Funny thing how they don't want to sign/commit to anything and yet in 2006 with Alwynd's 'commitment to excellence' wasn't signed you were banished-"just sign it, come on..., it doesn't matter".

Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Posts: 2227

We were de-selected for being grump bunnies for not signing anything. Naughty!

Joined: 10 Dec 2008 Posts: 107

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:31 pm Post subject:

The strike is effecting the commission associates in our stores who are trying to make a living. Deliveries are being cancelled due to the strike and you never know when a truck will show up at your store with customers merchandise.

The commission associates are loosing money because customers are cancelling orders as they are loosing faith in Sears and their merchandise is not showing up.

Some of the stores are being picketed and customers are not buying merchandise from Sears because of that

Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 1573 Location: Ontario, Canada

As I understand it, Sears continues to keep these employees locked out. Yet, Dean Rogers says that unemployment is one of the causes of decreased earnings results for Sears Canada. Ironic, wouldn't you say?

According to a recent contact, the distribution center in Belleville has invested in a new set of 'rollers' for the loading dock, and now they are doing something called "one Sears" - whereby they used to do customer direct shipping from catalogue purchases, they are now also doing the store fullfillment shipping that was formerly completed by the Vaughn employees.

Of course, this bad news for the locked out associates at Vaughn is good news for the associates at Belleville. These sheep now think that the extra work they have 'earned' will protect their jobs for some time, will help some of them to actually get more hours (though they fail to realize that there is no such thing as full time hours at Sears). Some even think it will mean a raise! lol It is merely a carrot, which will remain dangling safely out of reach.

It also further strengthens the choke hold that Sears Canada has on the Belleville associates that are so afraid for their jobs, that have been trying unsuccesfully for years to organize, because management just needs to mention now that the ONLY reason they have the extra work now is because of the unionization at Vaughn. Fear mongering is surely a new prerequisite to a management position at Sears Canada!

Rumour is that Sears Canada does not own the Vaughn distribution center. This may very well be a management planted rumour, and has not been confirmed. Fact is, Sears Canada owns excess land at the Belleville distribution center.

Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Ontario, Canada

http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/409.php
A recent article

BBBBob

Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Posts: 61

so who here has seen an impact of the strike on regular operations? After months with almost no income how many here could still keep up the effort? How many of the strikers are on the edge of financial ruin? The isolation of the "problem" and the hush-hush mean its only a matter of time.
Not to mention the childish tactics of dumping piles of manure on the picket line?

Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Ontario, Canada

There are still a lot of "no shows", picking errors and damages. Guys on the floor continue to get reamed by customers & management (RAC rate) Sears continues to what it does best, rather than solve the problem, throw money at the customer in an effort to appease them.

Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 1573 Location: Ontario, Canada

Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Posts: 2227

SC, Sears management DOES NOT care about the employees. They were hiring in temps even before I was deselected by the company. Temps aren't going to give a rats ass about the right way to do things and plus, there aren't any Sears personell left to train anyway.

Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Ontario, Canada

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 12:53 pm Post subject:

Month 6 and no end in sight to the strike. How long can these poor employees hang out.

Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Posts: 61

the smothering tactics keep a blanket over most of this and eventually the offending party will expire..... here are some small snipits of info trickling out.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/vaug-s16.shtml

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/sear-s16.shtml

Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 7:46 am Post subject:

Great articles, thank you for finding them and shedding some light on what is happening.

Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 367

very good article...thanks for sharing

notice how sears is offering a penny or nickle to the union people...terrible

makes me ashamed to work for this company

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:29 pm Post subject:

Update on Strike at Vaughan Warehouse from the United Steelworkers Union.

United Steelworkers to Step Up its Sears Boycott

Sears Locked-Out Workers Expand Campaign

United Steelworkers to Step Up its Sears Boycott

MEDIA ADVISORY, 3 NOVEMBER 2010 - The United Steelworkers is ramping up its campaign in support of workers locked out by Sears at its warehouse in Vaughan, Ontario.

To add to the over 40,000 ‘Don’t shop at Sears’ leaflets already handed out at Sears stores, union members and supporters will be leafleting at high-traffic Sears stores across the GTA on Saturday, November 6.

Saturday, Nov. 6:

LEAFLETTING Sears stores across GTA, asking not to shop at Sears.

Monday, Nov. 8 at 1:00 p.m.:

RALLY of union & supporters at Sears Vaughan warehouse

Each Saturday & Sunday until Christmas

LEAFLETTING Sears stores

Thursday, Nov. 19-21:

800,000 AUTOMATED Calls across North America

On each successive Saturday and Sunday leading into the holiday shopping season, workers and supporters will leaflet an expanding list of Sears stores across Canada.

On Monday, November 8 at 1 p.m., the union will hold a picket line rally at the warehouse, featuring speakers from the locked-out workers and from supportive members of the Ontario Legislature and the Parliament of Canada. The rally will be held at 9501 Hwy 50, north of Rutherford Road in Vaughan, Ontario.

Prior to the key U.S. shopping day of the year (November 26 is known in the U.S. as “Black Friday”) the union will send an automated “don’t shop at Sears” phone message to the households of well over 800,000 of its members and their families across North America.

The union will also use radio advertising in some key markets. It will also extend the boycott to include Sears Vacations and draw attention to the exorbitant 29.9% interest rate of the Sears Card.

On April 1 of this year about 500 USW Local 9537 members were locked out by Sears Canada.

Taking an aggressive stance, Sears is demanding that key working conditions in the collective agreement be gutted and placed simply at the unilateral discretion of management.

In a further provocative move, Sears has brought in “replacement workers,” or scabs, to take the jobs of the Steelworker members who are locked out.

Sears has added to its confrontational stance by hiring a security company to ferry the replacement workers across the picket line at the warehouse.

“Sears has frozen out its own hard-working employees and their families,” said Wayne Fraser, USW Director (Ontario and Atlantic Region). “We’ve had great feedback about our publicity campaign and now we’re going to ramp it up. Consumers deserve to know what is going on so they can choose where to shop – and where not to.”

-30-

Contacts: Wayne Fraser, USW District 6 Director, 416-577-4045; Terry Bea, 416-895-1986; Bob Gallagher, 416-434-2221, bgallagher@usw.ca

Joined: 23 May 2008 Posts: 439

Now if only more of the public would become enlightened about the abuses against employees within the store environment!

Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 1573 Location: Ontario, Canada

http://www.straightgoods.ca/2010/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=956&Cookies=yes

Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Posts: 61

so I guess since profits have been reported down 60% the union boycott is working!!???? Or maybe its just because the entire company is going down the toilet regardless of the strike or boycott or anything else. Union or not we may all be in a line soon... the unemployment line.... Confused

http://www.cbc.ca/fp/story/2010/11/16/3835036.html

Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Ontario, Canada

In case you have not heard, the members of USW Local 9537 (Sears) ratified a new 3 year agreement this past Friday, November 19 2010. 81% voted in favour of the new agreement. This ends the nearly 8 month lockout of the Sears members at the warehouse in Vaughan. Some members were called on the weekend to return to work Monday November 22 2010.

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:18 pm Post subject:

When will the details of the settlement be made public?

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