April 9, 2018 - USW Local 9700 members from ABI Smelter in Bécancour, Québec, are currently on tour around Québec to reach out to our USW Brothers and Sisters, in a call for massive solidarity.

Since negotiations started in September 2017, ABI management clearly showed its lack of interest for dealing with unionized workers. Its global offer was rejected by 97.7% of the membership in November. Management broke off negotiations and presented a second final offer in December, that was rejected again by 80% of the workers.

On January 11th, 2018, management locked out its employees. Despite an attempt from the provincial government calling for a resumption of negotiations, the company remained unavailable to reopen talks.

In March, the company accused the workers of being responsible for the lockout. It removed its final offer, specifying that there would be fundamental changes at the ABI smelter.

We invite our members in Québec to show their support in any possible way to USW Local 9700. On April 28, come and march in Montréal in support of the ABI workers for International Workers' Day (More information about this event: http://ftq.qc.ca/1er-mai-2018/).

For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/groups/1812759925463318. 

In Solidarity,

USW Local 1944