Steelworkers End Occupation at Hamilton Specialty Bar
05/04/2007 - Members of the United Steelworkers' (USW) Local 4752 have ended their sit-in at Hamilton Specialty Bar after the company agreed to the union's terms for ending the occupation.
Members of the United Steelworkers' (USW) Local 4752 have ended their sit-in at Hamilton Specialty Bar after the company agreed to the union's terms for ending the sit-in.
The USW’s terms included reinstatement of retiree benefits, and providing active employees with vacation pay and unpaid wages in advance of the plant's scheduled shutdown on May 29. Workers will also be paid lost time for Thursday.
"The settlement to end the occupation is the least Hamilton Specialty Bar could do as they prepare to abandon the plant and the community of 320 workers that have depended on good-paying jobs at the plant once known as Slater Steel," said USW Ontario Director Wayne Fraser. "Retirees who joined us outside the occupied plant on Thursday remain uncertain about their futures beyond May 29th, and many were on the verge of tears.
Slater Steel sold the Hamilton Specialty Bar facility in 2004.
Fraser thanked the hundreds of union members and others who came to the Sherman Avenue North plant to lend their support. "That means a lot and was influential in getting the company to come to an agreement," he said.
