Press Releases

The United Steelworkers (USW) acknowledges ABI's response to the hypothesis solution filed by Quebec's Labour Minister, describing it as a "framework" for a final agreement.

"The hypothesis has turned out to be more or less a copy-and-paste job of the employer's last offer, which has already been rejected by our members," said Clément Masse, President of USW Local, representing the 1,030 locked-out ABI employees.

"That said, we reiterate our willingness to negotiate with the employer to reach an agreement that is acceptable to both parties – the same willingness we have shown since the dispute started. We do not want to conduct negotiations in the public arena. We will therefore not comment in detail on the various elements put forward by the minister," Masse said.

Masse has reassured locked-out workers that they will have an opportunity to review the minister's hypothetical settlement proposal over the next few days.

The 1,030 ABI workers have been locked out by Alcoa and Rio Tinto since Jan. 11, 2018. The dispute resulted in a financial loss of $165 million for Hydro-Québec in 2018.

A group of more than 200 locked-out workers will be going to Pittsburgh in two weeks to demonstrate on the sidelines of the Alcoa shareholders' meeting on May 8. It should be noted that the company posted negative results of $199 million US when its first-quarter results were released last week.

Affiliated with the FTQ, the Syndicat des Métallos/United Steelworkers is the largest private sector union in Quebec, representing more than 60,000 workers in all sectors of the economy.