Sault Ste. Marie by-election candidates slug it out for Steelworkers endorsement

Election day isn't until June 1, but ballots were cast in the Sault Ste. Marie by-election on Tuesday.

The members of the United Steelworkers Local 2251, representing some 2,100 employees at EssarSteel Algoma, voted on which candidate their union would endorse.

"Let's be clear: Romano is a Conservative. That's a fact. It says so right on is signs," NDP candidate, Sault city councillor and Steelworker employee Joe Krmpotich told the two dozen people in the crowd at the Marconi Club.

"And what do Conservatives do? They try to destroy unions."

But PC hopeful Ross Romano, a city councillor who shares Ward 6 with Krmpotich, suggested his colleague was thinking of the long ago Mike Harris era.

"We're not anti-union, Joe.C'mon!" Romano shouted.

"I don't know what party you're referring to. We are a new party with a new direction and a new leader."

This is a new process for unions, who typically don't hold membership votes to decide endorses.

As well, the United Steelworkers have such a close relationship with the New Democrats, their support tends to go without saying.

But USW Local 2251 president Mike DaPrat says that's doing a disservice to members.

"You can't put all your eggs in one basket and say, you know what, this is our choice. No matter what, this is our choice. Because if you make yourself irrelevant, you're not serving your members," he says.

In the end, only 16 of the 2,100 Steelworkers voted: 14 for the NDP and one each for the Liberals and PCs.

In elections past this would mean financial support from USW to the NDP, but under new campaign financing rules, unions and corporations are banned from donating to political campaigns.

The maximum donation from an individual was cut dramatically from $30,000 down to $3,600.

Larry Savage, the director of the Centre for Labour Studies at Brock University, says this legal change will require a "cultural change" forunions, whose donations to provincial political parties have increased every year since 1995.

"We're going to have to start mobilizing our members and get them to donate directly," says DaPrat."It's not going to be easy."

All of this is happening with the gloomy backdrop of the possible shutdown of Essar Steel Algoma, which is in creditor protection.

All three main party candidates pledged to fight for the steel industry and support the city's steelworkers, but Liberal candidate and former mayor Debbie Amarososays that she's the best choice because she'll have a "seat at the table" where decisions are made by the majority Liberal government.

"I'm not there to make friends," she told the crowd at the Steelworkers debate.

"I'm terrified that we will sit on our hands for 13 months because we wanted to send a message."