Martine Ouellet on the picket line, ABI

Archival Photo Simon Clark
Martine Ouellet

QMI agency

Monday, 29 January, 2018 21:41

UPDATE
Monday, 29 January, 2018 21:42

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BÉCANCOUR | mp and independent leader of the Bloc québécois Martine Ouellet presented on the picket line of employees of the Bécancour smelter (ABI) on Monday.

On the spot, the politician questioned the reasons that led Alcoa to trigger the lock-out of its 1000 workers. “I think this lock-out there, I don’t understand. It really is a feat which has been done. This is a completely disproportionate”, she argued.

The member of parliament for Trois-Rivières, Jean-Denis Girard, has called for a resumption of negotiations. “I ardently hope that the two parties back to the table, that the two parties negotiate. We really need [to ABI] in the region. I have pulled out the economic impact study that we had done for Gentilly 2 and ABI has, roughly, the same impact [economically],” said the liberal mp.

Since the onset of the lock-out on 11 January, a quarantine of workers have chosen to retire. This is the case of Luc Pellerin, who has worked for 28 years at the plant. “I probably would have gone another year, but with everything happening… and this is my second a conflict here,” said the new pensioner at the time of exit after a final day of picketing.