A stray dog searches the ground for leftovers, while picketers huddle around a fire barrel - their tired faces showing the uncertainty of the question that has surely been repeating in their heads for several weeks: “What do I do now?”
It’s December 17, 2009, exactly one week until Christmas Eve and 108 days since 270 USW and COPE members in Powerview-Pine Falls were locked out by their employer at the Tembec paper mill.
They began their picket with optimism, believing that their voices and their solidarity would result in a new contract for everyone walking the line. More than three months later, the prospects of a new deal have evaporated, now that the Quebec-based multi-national has said it will close the plant unless it can find a new buyer. Many of the workers have gone to look for work elsewhere or are looking to train for a new career.
Those who’ve stayed cling to the hope that the mill will open again. They continue to walk the picket line and try to stay warm across the street from the mill’s main entrance in their make-shift picketing headquarters – an old camping trailer with an addition made of plywood, 2x4s, insulation and poly tarps. It’s not glamorous but it keeps them warm and - with the addition of someone’s old TV and a few couches – comfortable enough to carry on.
Today, they are joined by dozens of members from Manitoba’s labour community, including representatives from the MFL, WLC, CLC, other USW locals and the MGEU. Their friends from labour have brought hundreds of pounds of food, cheques and gift certificates to make this time of year a little brighter for the workers and their families.
Just down the street, volunteers hurry to unload and organize the donations, while others prepare hampers for each of the families. Volunteers say there wasn’t much demand for items early on in the lock out, but in the last few weeks, the food and toiletries have been flying in and out of their distribution centre.
These families need all the help they can get and in true Manitoba fashion, communities across the province responded to their urgent call. Yet, while every single Pine Falls man, woman, and child left in the cold this holiday season is touched by the support they’ve received, you know - without asking any of them - what their Christmas wish would be. It’s not more turkeys, canned ham or potatoes. They just want their jobs back.