Canada: Striking workers at the Labatt Brewery in St. John's started negotiating with plant managers on March 28. A group of 50 workers walked off the job last Wednesday, according to CBC News. They are represented by the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees. Their contract isn't up until the end of March. However, they started the wildcat strike after Labatt brought in additional staff to cover in the event of a work stoppage.

Union spokesperson Chris Henley said some unionized employees, who are responsible for safety of the plant's boilers, did not leave their jobs last week, and ended up helping to train replacement engineers. "The replacement workers that they brought in were power engineers and our power engineers couldn't walk off the job and leave the boilers unattended. So … the reality is the power engineers did eventually get trained."

30 March, 2005