Class Struggle and Solidarity in Neo-Liberal Times: The 1986 Gainers Strike A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Trent University Peterborough, Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright by Andrea Samoil 2013 History MA Graduate Program January 2014 Abstract Class Struggle and Solidarity in Neo-Liberal Times: The 1986 Gainers Strike Andrea Samoil The lengthy and raucous 1986 Gainers meatpacking plant strike in Edmonton, Alberta was one of the most important events in recent Alberta labour history. In the midst of the economic crisis of the 1980s and the rise of neo-liberal ideas, the strike marked a backlash by both the labour movement and ordinary citizens against attacks on workers and unions. Characterized by widely covered picket line violence, repressive police and court actions, and government unresponsiveness, the strike generated massive solidarity within and beyond the labour movement. This solidarity originated in a rejection of the neo-liberal new reality of Alberta typified by high unemployment, anti-union laws and practices, and lack of government welfare support, and it generated a provincial change the law campaign, national boycott, and rising class consciousness. The working class mobilization during the Gainers strike was a watershed for the Alberta labour movement. Keywords: Gainers strike, working class, neo-liberalism, solidarity, Alberta Federation of Labour, Labour Legislation Review Committee, boycott, Alberta, Edmonton ii Acknowledgements To begin, thank you to Bryan Palmer, my supervisor, for his concise commentary and for his encouragement, which was especially welcome before my first paper presentation. Thank you also to Joan Sangster for her encouragement; I always felt inspired to write after our conversations. Thank you to my examining committee: Dmitry Anastakis, Finis Dunaway, and Alvin Finkel for their thoughtful and thought-provoking comments and questions. I would like to thank the archivists and staff at the Provincial Archives of Alberta for their assistance, from finding me file listing after file listing to helping me to navigate FOIP requirements. A special thank you, as well, goes to Maureen Werlin and Renée Peevey for the invaluable documents they shared with me. Thank you to all my interviewees for their openness and efforts to help me better understand how people lived the strike, not just personally but as a society. I would like to acknowledge the work of the Alberta Labour History Institute, whose inaugural conference gave me the opportunity to spend three days with trade union activists and labour historians, and to meet some of the Battle of 66 th Street veterans. I have been inspired throughout this project by the conviction and dedication of the participants of the 1986 Gainers strike to fight for a better future, both in their words and actions. Finally, I dedicate this thesis to Dave Werlin: for workers’ struggles in the past, the present, and the future. iii Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii List of Figures vi List of Abbreviations vii 1 The Battle of 66th Street 1 2 Backdrop to the Gainers Strike 10 3 Prelude to the Strike: Concessions and the New Reality of Alberta 26 Enter Pocklington and the Entrepreneurial Project 27 Alberta Pork Producers Marketing Board and the Hog Wars of 1985 29 Labour Relations into Depression 39 The Long Hot Summer of ’86 45 Bargaining at the Brink: The Negotiating Prelude to Overt Class Conflict 48 4 Violence on the Picket Line: The State in Action 60 Violence on the Line and Public Opinion 60 Picketers and Police on the Line 70 Alberta’s Laws and Courts: Injunctions and Civil Rights 78 5 In Solidarity: Edmonton’s Ecumenical Coalition, A National Boycott, and the Change the Law Campaign 97 Ecumenical Solidarity 99 Boycott Gainers! 108 The Change the Law Campaign 122 6 Victory and Defeat: The Settlement and Aftermath 138 Details of the Settlement 139 Meaning and Origins of the Settlement 145 iv Gainers, Pocklington, and a Post-Strike Alberta 152 A Class Struggle Perspective on the Gainers Strike: Success and Failure in Canadian Labour History 163 Bibliography 170 v List of Figures Image 1.1 Picketers drive back buses of strikebreakers. Front page of the Edmonton Sun , June 10, 1986. Photo by Robert Taylor, courtesy of Sun Media Corporation. 1 Image 4.1 Rally at the Legislature on its opening day, Edmonton Journal, June 12, 1986. Photo courtesy of the Edmonton Journal archives. 94 Image 4.2 Police arresting a picketer. Edmonton Sun , June 13, 1986. Photo by Gary Bartlett, Sun Media. 94 Image 4.3 Police breaking up the picket line. Front page of the Calgary Herald , June 4, 1986. Photo by Jim Cochrane, Edmonton Journal archives. 95 Image 4.4 Strikebreaker buses, police, and picketers. Front page of the Edmonton Journal , June 3, 1986. Photo by Chris Schwarz, Edmonton Journal archives. 95 Image 4.5 Police dragging picketer out of road to make way for a bus, Edmonton Sun, June 4, 1986. Photo by Gary Bartlett, Sun Media. 96 Image 4.6 Riot squad running toward picket line in full gear. Edmonton Journal , June 9, 1986. Photo by Bruce Edwards, Edmonton Journal archives. 96 vi List of Abbreviations AFL: Alberta Federation of Labour AAPMC: Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council (the Council) APPMB: Alberta Pork Producers Marketing Board (the Board) AUPE: Alberta Union of Provincial Employees CLC: Canadian Labour Council Coalition: Edmonton Churches Coalition for Labour and Justice CUPE: Canadian Union of Public Employees CUPW: Canadian Union of Postal Workers EDLC: Edmonton District Labour Council EVA: Edmonton Voters’ Association LLRC: Labour Legislation Review Committee NDP: New Democrat Party PAA: Provincial Archives of Alberta UFCW: United Food and Commercial Workers union vii 1 Chapter 1 The Battle of 66 th Street On June 3, 1986 Police Superintendent Robert Claney was struck over the head with a picket sign on 66th Street outside the Gainers meatpacking plant in Edmonton, Alberta. Later that day he assured the press that there had been no intention to harm him, and that everything was under control on the Gainers picket line. The 115 trade unionists arrested there the same day, many of them for the first time ever, including the Alberta Federation of Labour’s president Dave Werlin, did not agree. The six and a half month long Gainers strike began at midnight on June 1, 1986. Over the course of the strike over 500 people were arrested and over $500 000 was spent by the city of Edmonton on police overtime – the entire overtime budget for the year. The provincial government’s response, the Labour Legislation Review Committee, spent double its original budget, over $500 000, on an international tour before it even began its Alberta-wide hearings. More than 150 000 work days were lost and over $390 000 was paid out in strike pay. Gainers was demonstrably a major conflict and it was widely Image 1.1 Picketers drive back buses of strikebreakers. Front page viewed as the most violent strike in a of the Edmonton Sun, June 10, 1986. Photo by Robert Taylor. year marked by the most violent 2 labour confrontations in the province in the post-war era. The Gainers strike made the news across Canada as members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, local 280-P, fought for the same contract that their fellow UFCW members employed by Canada Packers enjoyed. Gainers’ owner Peter Pocklington, noted local businessman, owner of the Edmonton Oilers NHL team, Progressive Conservative Party national leadership contender, and free market proponent, insisted that the workers needed to make wage concessions in the face of the economic downturn. The strike was not restricted to UFCW 280-P workers and Pocklington, however, as over 380 picketers, many from the wider Alberta labour movement, were arrested by the police in the first 18 days under the direction of two successive court injunctions. 1 The violence which served to focus so much public attention on the strike was the result of a confluence of factors, including the intervention of the courts and police to clear the picket line so strikebreakers could enter the plant. It was also a consequence of the high unemployment and depression that induced many companies, including Gainers, to simply hire replacement workers at much lower rates of compensation rather than negotiate a collective agreement with their unionized workers. The attempts of strikebreakers to cross the picket line was a direct threat to the union workers’ job security as owner Pocklington publically stated that he would be happy to operate the plant without his unionized employees, making workers determined to prevent the strikebreakers from entering the plant, including through the use of physical violence. Although the violence ebbed in late June when UFCW 280-P decided to obey the injunction in the face of rising fines, the strike 1 CBC news, Edmonton, June 9, 1986; Therese Kehler, “More Violence and Arrests,” Edmonton Sun , June 19, 1986; and Edmonton Journal , December 2, 1986. 3 continued to capture public attention and sympathy. An ad hoc coalition of concerned citizens and civil rights groups launched a Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge over the injunctions, an ecumenical coalition formed to seek justice and a peaceful resolution to the conflict, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) initiated a labour law reform campaign, and the national office of UFCW led a cross-Canada boycott tour of Gainers in the fall. The attitude of many Albertans was one of frustration with the economic and political situation. The Gainers strikers’ struggle resonated with many working Albertans who faced hardships brought about by concessions, as well as their fears for the future in the uncertain economic climate with high unemployment and a government making little apparent effort to guarantee their welfare.