United Steelworkers to Step Up its Sears Boycott

VAUGHAN, ON, Nov. 4 /CNW/ - The United Steelworkers is ramping up its campaign in support of workers locked out by Sears at its warehouse in Vaughan, Ontario.

To add to the over 40,000 'Don't shop at Sears' leaflets already handed out at Sears stores, union members and supporters will be leafleting at high-traffic Sears stores across the GTA on Saturday, November 6. 

Saturday, Nov. 6:
LEAFLETTING Sears stores across GTA, asking not to shop at Sears.

Monday, Nov. 8 at 1:00 p.m.:
RALLY of union & supporters at Sears Vaughan warehouse

Each Saturday & Sunday until Christmas
LEAFLETTING Sears stores

Thursday, Nov. 19-21:
800,000 AUTOMATED Calls across North America

On each successive Saturday and Sunday leading into the holiday shopping season, workers and supporters will leaflet an expanding list of Sears stores across Canada.

On Monday, November 8 at 1 p.m., the union will hold a picket line rally at the warehouse, featuring speakers from the locked-out workers and from supportive members of the Ontario Legislature and the Parliament of Canada.  The rally will be held at 9501 Hwy 50, north of Rutherford Road in Vaughan, Ontario.

Prior to the key U.S. shopping day of the year (November 26 is known in the U.S. as "Black Friday") the union will send an automated "don't shop at Sears" phone message to the households of well over 800,000 of its members and their families across North America.

The union will also use radio advertising in some key markets. It will also extend the boycott to include Sears Vacations and draw attention to the exorbitant 29.9% interest rate of the Sears Card.

On April 1 of this year about 500 USW Local 9537 members were locked out by Sears Canada.

Taking an aggressive stance, Sears is demanding that key working conditions in the collective agreement be gutted and placed simply at the unilateral discretion of management.

In a further provocative move, Sears has brought in "replacement workers," or scabs, to take the jobs of the Steelworker members who are locked out. 

Sears has added to its confrontational stance by hiring a security company to ferry the replacement workers across the picket line at the warehouse.

"Sears has frozen out its own hard-working employees and their families," said Wayne Fraser, USW Director (Ontario and Atlantic Region). "We've had great feedback about our publicity campaign and now we're going to ramp it up.  Consumers deserve to know what is going on so they can choose where to shop - and where not to."

For further information:

Wayne Fraser, USW District 6 Director, 416-577-4045
Terry Bea, 416-895-1986   
Bob Gallagher, 416-434-2221, [email protected]