STRIKERS AT SLAUGHTERHOUSE ATTACK BUS CARRYING SUPERVISORS
Brooks, Alta.
Striking slaughterhouse workers in Brooks, Alta., smashed the windows of a bus carrying supervisors at Lakeside Packers, and turned away a truck carrying feed for the cattle vowing to keep out any and all vehicles from entering the plant. On the first day of their strike against the meatpacking giant, more than 800 pickets lined the entrance to Lakeside's plant as dozens of RCMP kept a watchful eye over the protest. Across the highway, at Lakeside's feed lot, more than 1,000 employees willing to continue working waited to be escorted into the factory. At the end of the day, only one bus attempted to cross the picket line and was forced to turn around after strikers pounded windows and kicked in a side door. Several strikers suffered minor injuries during the melee. Ronan Moen, a member of the anti-union splinter group Concerned Lakeside Employees for Everyone’s Rights, waited all day at a company holding facility only to be told he wouldn’t be able to get into work. “It’s discouraging but what’s amazing to me is that [the union] should look at the number of people they’ve got out there,” Mr. Moen said. “Eleven hundred want to cross and there are 300 on the picket line. Do the math.”