BY MICHEL DUGRÉ
MONTREAL - Four thousand members of the Union of
Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) who were
locked out since December 14 at a score of garment companies in
the Montreal area won an important victory after a week on the
picket lines. The employers withdrew their main proposal for
paying new workers less. The Men's Clothing Manufacturers
Association collapsed during the process, under pressure from the
growing competition in this industry and the determined
resistance of the UNITE members.
The Manufacturers Association announced December 21 that it was dissolved and that the union had to sign collective agreements separately with the different companies. Jack Victor had been the first major company to break away from the association four days earlier and offer a settlement that workers approved. Most of the companies made the same offer to their employees December 21. The bosses not only withdrew the introduction of a two-tier system but also offered a 75-cent wage increase - about 8 percent on average - over three years. As we go to press, four companies, including three smaller ones that had split from the association earlier, have not yet made new contract offers.
In most plants, a majority of workers voted to accept the new contracts. Many voted against, however, including 60 percent of the 300 workers at Samuelsohn. That shop is still being picketed.
These negotiations have taken place under the shadow of the employers' proposal to abolish the decree that determines the wages of all workers in the Quebec men's clothing industry. Maintaining the decree, and the wage levels set by it, was the central issue in this confrontation.
The Quebec government appears set to carry out the bosses' proposal and end the decree. For the vast majority of the garment workers who are nonunion, the provincial minimum wage would become their only base rate. For UNITE members, the Manufacturers Association's previous offer meant that workers hired after the abolition of the decree would have been paid less.
While opposing the abolition of the decree, the union was also demanding that the rates included in it be part of the collective agreement. This demand was won.
No lower wages for new workers
"What we want, above all, is to prevent the bosses from
abolishing the decree and dividing us through paying new workers
less," said Julia Noemi, who works at Golden Brand, the biggest
plant involved with 900 workers.
"They start with new workers, but who can guarantee that I will not myself become a new worker before the end of the contract? " said Pedro Miguel Rego, a presser at Golden Brand. "They already threaten to fire us if we don't adapt to new technologies. Imagine how much more incentive they will have to get rid of us when they have a layer of new workers doing the same work, but paid much less."
The Manufacturers Association at first opposed any reference to wages in the collective agreement. After this was overwhelmingly rejected by a meeting of more than 3,000 workers, the association proposed that the collective agreement include lower base rates for new workers. This scheme, which union officials initially agreed to, was rejected by 70 percent of the UNITE members attending a meeting of more than 2,000 workers December 10. Union officials had agreed to the bosses' demand that the vote be taken plant-by-plant during working hours, but workers insisted on holding the mass meeting instead to discuss the proposal.
Faced with this decision by workers and the growing sentiment among UNITE members to begin a strike, the bosses announced December 11 they were shutting all the plants, locking out the unionists as of December 14.
A majority of UNITE members involved in this battle see the companies' decision to give new workers the same rates as those currently written in the decree as a victory. This was already obvious in workers' reaction to the settlement at Jack Victor, which ended up setting the pattern for other shops. "I'm glad for workers at Jack Victor," said Juan Antonio Reyes, a 24-year-old worker at Golden Brand.
"Jack Victor's offers reflect the growing divisions among the bosses. It's good," added Rego, also from Golden Brand.
Nevertheless, 40 percent of the Jack Victor workers voted against the offer. Most of those who opposed it were concerned with the breach in the workers' common front, saying they would have agreed if the same offer were made to all 4,000 workers involved in the common negotiations. "When we negotiate three years from now, we'll all be divided. It will be harder to defend ourselves against the bosses," said one worker who did not want to be named, prior to the December 21 offers by the other companies.
"Jack Victor has a lot of orders now, that's why they want us to go back to work as soon as possible. They can afford to give new workers the same wages as we get, for the time being. But they want us to pay the price, and the price is that we are more divided. We got this offer because we stuck together. We could have won more by staying out with other workers," maintained Tony Sanchez, a presser at Jack Victor.
Need to maintain solidarity
Many workers at Samuelsohn rejected the offer for the same
reason. "We went out together, we need to go back together," said
Mary Rodriguez, a sewing machine operator. "The bosses are trying
to break the solidarity between us. That's what a union is. What
kind of a union do we have if workers negotiate separately."
This determination to maintain unity among all workers of the industry has a long history rooted in battles against the Montreal bosses association.
In December 1986, when union officials reached an agreement with the bosses and wanted workers to vote plant by plant, thousands of unionists, including those at Golden Brand, stopped working. They went to other plants and gathered at the union offices downtown in Montreal, requesting a mass meeting. Five thousand workers met a few days later and overwhelmingly rejected the offer. They went on strike few days later and won a big victory after a month-long work stoppage. That was the last important strike here before the current battle.
For decades, member of the Manufacturers Association favored maintaining a decree imposing the same conditions for all workers, because they then feared competition from smaller, nonunion shops. Today the bosses themselves want to abolish the decree, due to changes in the industry over the last decade. The men's clothing industry requires more and more highly sophisticated machinery that greatly reduces the possibility of home work. Louise Béchamp, spokesperson of the Men's Clothing Manufacturers Association, stated that the competition in this industry today comes not from small shops in Quebec but from the big shops in the United States.
In Montreal the biggest manufacturers don't need the decree anymore. Their real perspective now is to drive wages below the decree. But this remains in front of them. Their current attempt to lower workers' wages throughout the industry has failed. Building solidarity with the Samuelsohn workers, who are still on the picket line, remains a task for all union members.
Michel Dugré is a member of UNITE who was locked out at SFI Apparel. Carlos Cornejo and Sébastien Desautels, also members of UNITE at SFI, contributed to this article.