Some strikers were already reporting minor injuries after a bus driven by a manager tried to enter the Lakeside Packers plant, where 2,100 workers are employed.
Tensions high as Alta.slaughterhouse strikes
CTV.ca News Staff
Tensions were high as hundreds of workers at one of Canada's largest slaughterhouses walked off the job Wednesday.
Buses tried to cross picket lines outside the Alberta slaughterhouse -- provoking scuffles that damaged vehicles and left three pickets with injuries.
But there was no sign of the serious violence that many predicted would arise during the bitter contract dispute in Brooks, Alta.
About 2,400 people, including management staff, are employed at the Lakeside Packers plant which is about about 160 km southeast of Calgary.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union says it has support from about 1,500 of those workers.
However Gary Mickelson, spokesman for U.S.-based Tyson Foods, which owns the plant, said 1,000 employees showed up at the plant Wednesday morning wanting to work.
"We have 1,000 team members who reported to work. But we told them to go home today because the picketers have blocked them off," Mickelson told CTV.ca, adding that "some of the picketers aren't even Lakeside employees. They're from other unions."
Mickelson said the company had hoped to get the workers into the plant, but that it was too concerned about the workers' safety.
The United Food and Commercial Workers said earlier Wednesday that it feared the strike could become violent if the company brought in replacement workers to fulfill its plan to keep processing as much beef as possible throughout the job action.
Hundreds of strikers were milling near the gate of the slaughterhouse when the bus tried to get through shortly after the strike began at 5:30 a.m. local time Wednesday.
Pickets surrounded it, shouting and trading insults with people inside the vehicle.
Windows on the bus were broken. The bus was blocked for about a half-hour before it turned around and left.
Later in the morning, a second bus tried to get through but also retreated after strikers flattened several of its tires and pulled off the front grill.
"We asked them (the bus) to back up and all of a sudden it started driving through the pickets," said local union president Doug O'Halloran.
"There were a couple of people that sustained minor injuries."
Mickelson said he was aware of two instances where buses were stopped by picketers at the plant's entrance and then vandalized.
He said if any picketers had sustained injuries, it was during attempts to vandalize the buses.
The RCMP said they were told three people were hurt. But RCMP Cpl. Wayne Oakes said, "we don't have an indication of how that occurred or the extent of it."
Meanwhile, the Mounties have called in extra officers from other detachments to keep order at the site, including an officer from British Columbia with expertise on policing labour disruptions.
O'Halloran disputed the company's suggestion that 1,000 unionized workers showed up for work.
He suggested at least 300 of them were managers and another 300 to 400 workers willing to cross the picket line.
If the workers can't get in to process the meat, Mickelson said the company may consider shipping cattle to Tyson-owned plants in the United States.
Brooks Mayor Don Weisbeck says the city will be the big loser if there's a prolonged strike.
"They slaughter 4,500 cattle a day which is, I believe, about $5 million worth of cattle a day, (and) over $1 billion a year. So you can imagine the impact on the rancher community in our area," said Weisbeck.
In Brooks, a town of 12,500, the plant employs 2,100 people. "So that in itself will tell you the impact," added Weisbeck.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union wants the company to agree to binding arbitration.
But the company wants its latest contract offer put to a vote by members of the union.
"Certain aspects of the company's offer are illegal," said O'Halloran. "We want them to change that prior to a vote."
Mickelson said Wednesday that Tyson Foods is making an application to the Alberta Labour Relations Board to limit the number of pickets at the Lakeside plant, and "enable us to safely leave the facility."
Meanwhile, a splinter group of workers wants to distance itself from the union and the strike.
The Concerned Lakeside Employees for Everyone's Rights wants the right to vote on the company's latest offer.
Lakeside Packers processes nearly 40 per cent of Canada's cattle. The union stands to lose $1.5 million a week in salaries.
With a report from CTV's Calgary affiliate, CFCN News.
