The Communist Party of Canada expresses its full solidarity with the 530 workers at the Rolls-Royce plant in Montreal who have been locked out since March 15. They have been without a collective bargaining agreement since December 2020.
We fully support the demands of the union members in their struggle against one of the most powerful multinationals in the military-industrial complex, which is trying to impose a two-year wage freeze (at a time when the inflation rate is at an all-time high) and eliminate the defined benefit pension plan. In the face of this attempt to impoverish the working class while the company is in danger of generating huge profits thanks to the arms race provoked by the war-mongering frenzy of NATO and its allies, the workers are fighting for better wages, leave and hours, as well as the abolition of the “orphan”clauses in the group insurance and pension plans.
Not content with putting its workers out of work, Rolls-Royce is using intimidation to try to break the strike movement by suing 150 employees for unfounded charges of contempt of court. Yet it is the company itself that is violating Quebec law by using strike-breakers!
This labour conflict takes place in a context of renewed militancy of the workers. In fact, strikes and other social conflicts are multiplying and intensifying in both the public and private sectors, where more than ever workers need combative, democratic and resolutely class-based unions, but also a political leadership.
With this resolution, we assure them of the unwavering solidarity of the Communist Party and its determination to fight relentlessly for the interests of the working class in the short and long term.
Special resolution adopted by delegates at the 40th Central Convention of the Communist Party of Canada, July 1-3, 2022