"Sign the contract now or get out!" That, say unionized appliance repair workers for Sears Canada in Burnaby, was the message they got from company negotiators at the end of last September. Unwilling to sign the management document on a few hours notice and without time to get direction from their members, negotiators for 70 members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 213 were served with a lockout notice effective Oct. 1, 2007.

Since then the majority of Sears appliance repair workers have been walking a chilly winter picket line outside the Sears building in a Burnaby industrial park on Underhill Ave. off the Lougheed Highway. Strikers told The Tyee on Feb. 6 they thought that Sears was trying to break their union but they indicated they were willing to stay out on the line until they got an acceptable new contract. The pickets say their union's call for a public boycott against Sears until the company settles has been supported by former Sears' customers and the province's unions.

"Like the old saying goes," grumbled stocky, mustachioed Bill Soltys, pelted by wet snow on a dark afternoon, "we only have to hold out one more day than they do." Soltys, picket captain the day The Tyee dropped by the line, said he had worked for Sears more than 13 years.

Vince Power, Sears Canada's national director of corporate communications, said he had not heard anything about the boycott having much impact on the firm's business, and declined to comment on the union's tactic.

"We respect all our workers," he told The Tyee." We are eager for a conclusion to this dispute."

'Not going back until we win'

"We're the only unionized Sears workers in B.C. and the only company appliance repairmen in Canada," Soltys said. "The contract they tried to force on us in September would have meant we had no guaranteed raises over the term of the agreement, took away our Boxing Day statutory holiday and split our work week so no one could count on two days off in a row. It upped the amount of overtime the company could get from us without paying overtime pay. We're not going back until we win."

Sears spokesman Power, speaking from Toronto, says that Soltys and the rest of the locked out IBEW workers have got it wrong. He claims that most of what was in the company's offer in September simply mirrored current company practice, and did not represent any change in conditions for the appliance technicians. The only innovation in the company proposal, he said, was a change in overtime pay that would allow the company to work technicians an extra half hour a day at straight time rather than overtime rates.

"After all," Power said, "you have to realize that Sears is operating in a very competitive business climate. We're only trying to bring the Burnaby techs into line with practice across the rest of the company."

Raise amount in dispute

One of those practices the unionized techs want to change in their new contract is the way pay raises are determined. At Sears, according to Power, all raises are set by the company after assessing the firm's annual profits and the wages being paid by competitors, not on the basis of a union contract.

He said that the Sears system awarded its appliance techs in Burnaby a four per cent raise. IBEW Local 213 assistant business manager Rav Ghuman told The Tyee that, contrary to Power's claim, the majority of the Burnaby techs only got a 2.49 per cent raise under the company-controlled system, and no raise at all in 2006.

"We are definitely not going to accept a concessionary agreement that represents a step backwards for our members," Ghuman said.

Sears Canada is a publicly traded Canadian company with over 37,000 employees. Its gross revenues typically come to over $6 billion a year. Seventy per cent of the company stock is held by Sears Holdings (the American parent firm) and 30 per cent is in active play on the TSX.

Few Sears workers unionized

The appliance technicians in Burnaby are a minority within the company. Only three per cent of the Sears workforce in Canada is unionized. Asked whether this low percentage of unionized workers reflected an anti-union policy at Sears, Vince Power told The Tyee it was "just the history of the company. We're certainly not anti-union."

According to Power, year-end figures for 2007 are not yet available, but at the end of the third quarter in 2007, just as the Burnaby lockout began, Sears reported gross revenues of $4.03 billion for the preceding nine months, and net earnings of $102.9 million. For the same nine-month period in 2006, he said, revenues were $4.06 billion and earnings $60.6 million.

Power also provided The Tyee with figures for recent full-year earnings for Sears Canada. In 2002, he said, company profits were $138.7 million. In 2003 earnings were $140.9 million; in 2004, $133.1 million; in 2005, $129.9 million, and in 2006, $169.1million.

Coffee, donuts and other support

Sheltering beneath a dripping tarp in the snow, occasionally saluted by horn blasts from passing pickup trucks, Bill Soltys, Phillip Marciniak and Edgar Eng say they have been encouraged by public support during the long winter slog on the picket line.

"The B.C. Federation of Labour had us as guests of honour at their convention," remembered Eng with a quiet smile. "They know we're fighting to keep Sears from gutting our existing contract. They passed a resolution supporting us, and that meant a lot."

"People come by with coffee and donuts and fruit pretty often," said Soltys, "and the support from the IBEW and other unions has been wonderful. Sometimes I get choked up when I think about it."

This draws enthusiastic nods from Eng, a tall quiet Sears veteran about the same age as Soltys. Their companion in the snow, Phillip Marciniak, in his 20s, is a lot younger. This is his first labour struggle, and he seems as determined as the old guys.

"People and their families are getting cheated here," he says. "It's all about more money for the company, and we don't get anything."

Boycott called

The B.C. Federation of Labour has called for a boycott of Sears until a fair settlement is reached. As well, the provincial labour group donated $20,000 to help support the IBEW members during their lockout.

Meanwhile, 12 of the 70 IBEW workers at Sears have gone back to work and are working behind the picket line. The 12 are currently facing disciplinary action from their union local.

As a Tyee reporter drove away from the snowy picket line, another pickup truck blew down Underhill toward Lougheed, slush flying up from its wheels and a supportive horn blaring. A moment later, a non-union 18-wheeler slowed and crossed the picket line into the Sears lot.

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