A Love Inc., a Montreal sweatshop, one even loses his dignity ...

In recent years, the garment industry in Montreal is undergoing substantial changes. From the perspective of neoliberal globalization, Companies borrow more and more the way of relocation : factories are closed here and the machines shipped in the South, where labor, underpaid, costs less. The dismissed workers, On the other hand, often find themselves on the carpet… It happened to Peerless, The trap, Main Knitting. At Golden Brand – where Moores Inc clothes are made. - the 540 laid-off workers got 3,5 million dollars in compensation thanks to pressure from Unite Here, their union. À l’Amour Inc., on the other hand, laid-off workers, mostly immigrant women, were unable to benefit from the support of theirs, a “boutique union” imposed by the employers in order to turn the organizational desires of its employees to its advantage. On another side, an organization truly run by and for its members would have enabled workers to save, in the absence of their employment, their dignity and some furniture.

The clothing crisis

Historically, Quebec leads in clothing production in Canada ; in 2006, he had some 61,3% value, and 51,6% employees. With the entry into the scene of the Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), then the World Trade Organization (OMC), however, the opening of borders and the conclusion of international free trade agreements lead to the export of capital abroad. In 2004, the Canadian Commercial Tribunal, following intensive lobbying by industrialists, agrees to lower to 20% the proportion of production to actually be made in the country to bear the indication of provenance. In other words, 80% of making a coat can be done in China or Bangladesh, and it will still be labeled “Made in Canada”.

This regulation is in accordance with government policy which wants to abandon massive production to turn to the international market. : in order to establish Montreal as a fashion center, here we focus on design, The advertisement, start up, while the assembly itself is largely done elsewhere. These tasks do not require any specific specialization, it is easy to delegate them to workers from underdeveloped countries making do with a few pennies an hour. The irony of it, is that most of the employees laid off locally come from these same countries : as explained by Mostafa Henaway of the Immigrant Workers Center, when the factories close “they pack the machines to send them to their compatriots”. This is exactly what happened to Love, where near 600 garment workers of Haitian origin, Czech, Indian, in sri lankan, etc., have since been laid off 2005.

L’Amour Inc. : a very profitable business…

The Amour clothing factory, located on rue De Louvain in the Ahunsic district, part of a conglomerate led by the Lieberman family. It was born in 1952, alongside Global Love, a wholesale company, then New Seamless, specialized in women's lingerie. In July 2007, the Liebermans – already long-time partners of the giant Wal-Mart – enter the American market with the acquisition of Terramar Sports, in New York State. L’Amour Inc. then uses more 2500 workers around the world, in locations as diverse as China, le Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

Owners claim profitability of their business, and its performativity : in a Wal-Mart newsletter we can read that if the factory “dominates the hosiery market, is that it constantly invests in order to produce superior quality items” and that it offers “Quebecers the best value for money”. This is of course to the detriment of immigrant workers., because their success does not prevent the bosses from granting poverty wages to their seamstresses at the parent factory in Montreal, actual producers of the said “premium quality articles”. They also maintain working conditions worthy of the 19th century., with the agreement of the union.

Union masquerade

Vida Pelic assembled stockings and socks during 35 years for the company, from 1972 – she then 25 years old and arrived from the former Czechoslovakia – until he was laid off in 2007. Throughout his career at Amour, she works in a poorly lit basement, surrounded by cockroaches, mice and piles of droppings left by passing pigeons. Cars are parked next to the weaving machines, which regularly break down ; when they work, on the other hand, they never stop, so much so that the workers do not have a lunch break and must eat while working. For fear of theft, the night shift employees are locked in the building, risking certain death in the event of an industrial fire. Unable to leave the premises until 7 a.m., they must also remain on site when machines break down, without any remuneration since they are paid on a piece-rate basis. Some, after 35 years of service, receive the equivalent of 11,50$ /h, the increases representing approximately 1$ per decade…

The first section of the factory to close is the Jet Dye dye shop, where Vida Pelic is initially employed. Toxic fumes cause tumors and lung problems in workers, who regularly call on the CSST. Often, they get sick leave only to be fired when they return to work. Physical abuse, added psychological pressure and mockery from supervisors, aimed at getting rid of the oldest employees – those who will be laid off first.

In 2004, these shameful conditions push a group of workers to try to unionize with Unite Here. The business is difficult : immigrant workers who adopted English or French upon their arrival in Quebec, they cannot all communicate with each other and with management, who separated them into small working groups located on different floors in order to prevent them from regrouping – she divides and conquers. The project therefore takes shape secretly… until the news reaches the ears of the bosses. They then undertake a campaign of intimidation among the women concerned to discover the identity of the instigators., threaten closure, and put in place various measures aimed at complicating the process – division of Love Inc. in numbered companies, etc. Finally, a vote for or against the presence of Unite Here is organized at the factory level. The counter wins, with most workers unaware of what it involves – and the process itself may be rigged. In a seemingly conciliatory gesture, the employers then offer to create their own union, without affiliation to a central. This time the motion passes, and the problems begin.

The Handling and Service Employees Union is, from the beginning, a puppet in the pay of the Liebermans. Although they collect membership dues, representatives never follow up on their requests, and even go so far as to support the restructuring plan which leads to massive layoffs of 2005. It's not surprising : the preamble to their collective agreement, real neo-liberal apologia, recognizes the needs of Love Inc. to resort to relocation in order to remain globally competitive in the economic context of the 21st century... So far from helping workers, the union harms them by misinforming them and preventing them from really taking charge of themselves. And when they want to file a complaint with the Labor Standards Commission, their request will be automatically rejected the first time, precisely because they are unionized.

Layoffs begin immediately after signing the collective agreement. It is very tempting to see it as a concerted movement, since it does not provide for any regulation in this area – which any minimally serious agreement must do – leaving workers without means of defending themselves against these fraudulent practices. Because in order to avoid falling under the legal category of “mass layoffs”, which concerns the dismissal of 100 people and more over a period of two months, management is laying off some 90 at 95, regularly to 60 days for two years. This is to avoid giving the statutory twelve weeks’ notice or compensation of eight weeks’ salary.. Finally, almost all employees are laid off, on the invocation of reasons of economic competitiveness – this same notion mentioned by the collective agreement. Today, the Amour factory operates at minimum output, occasionally employing temporary agency workers to meet its production needs. The former workers, they, had to fight to obtain recognition – very minimal compared to the abuses suffered.

The collective action of the CTA and the CTI

The Committee of Workers of Love was formed a little late : following the layoffs. Jointly with the Center for Immigrant Workers of Côte-des-Neiges, he initiated a legal battle against the management of Love Inc. and his union. Of the committee's four requests, indeed, one aims to reimburse workers for their union dues over the last three years, because they were not duly represented in return. The other three concern : 1) obtaining financial compensation for licensees, 2) recognition of the situation of mass layoffs by the Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity, in order to benefit from a support program for unemployed garment workers, and 3) a public inquiry into the situation of Amour Inc., given the legal inadequacy of the laws governing dismissals.

The campaign has now been running for about a year. It takes place on three fronts : public space, the legal process and community solidarity. So far, the pressure exerted by means of demonstrations and picketing against the Ministry and Emploi Québec were successful and the licensees obtained financial compensation – although the management of Amour Inc., still hasn't admitted his wrongs. The lawsuit against the pro-employer union, she, takes time, and the gains to be made are essentially symbolic. As for the aspect of solidarity, the repeated support of several community and political groups allowed the campaign to acquire a certain visibility in several circles and with the media.

After that ?

Of the four demands of the CTA, none to date have been completely fulfilled, and when they have partially been, the aid has always been provided by government authorities, never by the company whose commercial policies are at the origin of the problem. Despite these relative successes, most of the laid-off workers have not found work, while others struggle with temporary positions. It is already not easy to get rehired after a long non-specialized job ; in the context of economic crisis, the mission borders on the impossible, especially for immigrant women of a certain age. This is because the solutions proposed remain insufficient and temporary. : it is not by providing monetary compensation or unemployment insurance to a worker from Montreal that we ensure her professional reintegration when all the factories move to the South. On the contrary, these hazardous panaceas offered by the government enter in a way into the corporate game by acting as a screen against global reality. The two dynamics are parallel and do not meet, so much so that capitalist bosses follow abstract “economic imperatives” without a guilty conscience without worrying about the repercussions on the individuals at the base of their production. Trade union centers, when they effectively defend them (and this is far from always being the case !), only do it in special situations, without taking into account the overall context : they remedy the consequences of an evil, but neglect the causes. More than ever, so, it is relevant to embrace a mode of organization that sees beyond isolated facts and considers short and long term solutions, at the level of the economic system and not only its manifestations.

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For those who want to know more…

The documentary We are in cotton by Denys Arcand, made in 1970, explores the environment of the Quebec textile industry – not to be confused with the clothing industry discussed here – and traces its beginnings as well as the strikes and labor movements that punctuated its history. It is available for free viewing on the NFB website. : http://www.onf.ca/film/On_est_au_coton/