On this day in 1978, United Steelworkers union workers in Sudbury, Ontario voted to go on strike to fight proposed layoffs and pay cuts. The strike was the longest in Canadian history until the record was broken by Sudbury workers in 2009.

The layoffs and cuts to pay and benefits were at the multi-national company Inco, which cited low nickel prices as a justification.

According to filmmaker Martin Duckworth, workers voted to strike against the advice of the United Steelworkers hierarchy, and the strike enjoyed national support because Inco was a known polluter and one of the biggest multi-nationals in Canada.

Around 11,600 workers were involved in the strike, which affected the wages sustaining 43,000 people, or about 26% of the population of metropolitan Sudbury. By the end of the strike, nine months later, the company had been deprived of over twenty-two million hours of labor.

The workers won small wage increase and a pension package, however thousands of workers lost their homes and cars because of the length of the strike. According to journalist Amy Miller, since 1979, INCO has fired 20,000 employees from their staff and now have more people receiving payments from the pension roll than pay roll.

The role of women in the community during the strike was profiled in the 1980 documentary film A Wives' Tale (Une histoire de femmes).

All Out to Support Striking Vale Inco Workers!

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    • WorthlessLoser [des/pair]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Thanks. It would be too much for most people, and even with my tolerance it would be too much for me. But it's like something broke. I keep doing more but nothing happens.

      • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]
        ·
        1 year ago

        How long have you been drinking? As in like this session of drinking? You might be getting gaba spillover, which makes alcohol feel much less drunk.

        • WorthlessLoser [des/pair]
          ·
          1 year ago

          been drinking on an off for many years. Sometimes heavily. But recently, not all that much. I know about tolerance and kindling, but haven't heard of gaba spillover. Will look into it. I have used a lot of fucking gaba drugs, always trying to tamp down that ol crippling anxiety.

          • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Phenibut and GHB (pretty much the only gaba b drugs) feel like pretty hardcore stimulants at low doses, gaba b drugs. Alcohol mostly works on your gaba a receptors, but if you start drinking at say 10am and keep going all day, it can spillover into affecting your gaba b receptors. Usually, I'm able to feel when the spillover happens because the feeling of alcohol just completely changes once it hits.

      • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        That sounds like a "these edibles ain't shit" kind of moment. With edibles you get mega high or just pass out, with alcohol it could also be dangerous. So for sure, we're not your guardians and only you know your body, but that sounds a bit like brinksmanship

        • WorthlessLoser [des/pair]
          ·
          1 year ago

          Nah, it's not that. I hear you, but I'm not new to any of this. I'd venture to say I'm older than most people here and have got decades of experience with these substances. I'm not looking for a guardian, or even some kind of advice. I was just shocked at how my usual escapism method wasn't working, and threw out a comment as a kind of ooooooooooooooh sentiment. I probably should have just kept to myself.