Judge lowers boom on lift bridge pickets

Hamilton steel workers lost a battle in court Thursday.

A judge issued a permanent injunction against their protest against U.S. Steel. The judge told Steelworkers local 1005 not just to stay off the Burlington lift bridge, but in fact to stay away from it altogether.

U.S. Steel workers had been picketing on the bridge. That prevented it from being lifted, so that ships carrying materials from U.S. Steel could leave Hamilton Harbour.

The judge said the steel workers’ economic interest cannot be allowed to interfere with other economic interests. The steel workers say there’s a double standard in the law here. It takes just days to issue an injunction against them but the federal government has been fighting for years to get U.S. Steel to live up to its promises, with no luck. Al Sweeney has more in this report: