Ontario

Hamilton police smashed the glass on a door to gain entry to the Queensdale and Upper Sherman Avenue branch to end the occupation an hour after it began at 3 p. m. yesterday.

The Guelph Mercury reported that auto workers at Guelph Products Collins & Aikman went on a wildcat strike Saturday to support workers at a Toronto plant pushing for severance pay for 200 laid-off workers.

Nearly 75 of the Guelph plant's staff walked off the job around 3:30 p.m. and management barricaded the turnstile entrances with chains and steel bars so the workers couldn't re-enter.

Workers barricaded doors at the Collins & Aikman plant in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto, yesterday. The factory produces floor, acoustic systems and cockpit modules for cars.

200 workers have been laid off at the plant since it filed for bankruptcy in 2005, but they have not been paid severance pay. The company claims that its US arm won't release the funds.

A wildcat strike which could begin as early as May 8 would grind the transport system the TTC to a halt, and force the 700,000 people who rely on the city's buses, streetcars and subways every work day to find alternate transportation.

The Tribunal was closed for the day as result of this action.