D.O.A. plays for locked-out workers in punk rock protest
Though the band is from Vancouver, punk legends D.O.A. just helped create a prototypical Hamilton moment.
The band tore through a set of fast-paced material Thursday, set up in the shadow of the Burlington Street overpass, directly across from the Max Aicher North America (MANA) plant where workers have been locked out for more than two years.
With trucks speeding by, heavy industry all around and dust filling their air around their amps, the band and union leaders denounced a lockout that is dragging on with no end in sight.
"Every Canadian deserves a fair wage," frontman Joe Keithley told the amassed crowd of about 50 people.
"This is shameful," said Gary Howe, president of Hamilton Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers Union. "This is a perfect example of the one percenters controlling everything."
Workers at the plant have been locked out since July 2013. The company made an offer last March that the union rejected, and since then there have been no talks, Howe said.
"I'm always proud to stand for the local 1005," said rapper Lee Reed, who also performed.
"I hope you see justice. I hope we all do," he told the crowd.
MANA is a subsection of a larger German company that purchased idled bar and bloom mills from U.S. Steel back in November 2010 with the promise of new jobs for the city's struggling steel industry.
But the company has endured many problems with production. The plant's unionized workers were locked out after refusing to accept an offer that would cut wages by as much as $10 an hour.
Since then, many of those who were on the picket line have had to find other work, and now only 26 people are still collecting strike pay.
The company did not respond to requests for comment.