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Let's talk about the minimum wage !

A reluctance to increase its

The main reluctance to 15$ time as minimum wage increase that amount to cut jobs and / or raise prices.

This request for an increase frightens the main industries where e-s-employee are paid-e-s minimum wage, to know : Trade details, the accommodation and food1 because they fear that their survival depends and must then lay off the employee-s and / or the key under the door.

According to the study2 professors Michael Lynn and Christopher Boone, even when the restaurants raise their prices according to the increase in salaries of their employee-s, there is no significant change in the influx of customers nor in the profit and therefore restorers, not in the number of employee-s. In fact, they even attended greater productivity of these.
Yet according to a study3 conducted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey by professors David Card and Alan Krueger, raising the minimum wage leads to no job losses.

And to finish, according to economic analyst David Cooper4, in fact, increase the minimum wage could even lead to the creation of more jobs and more moderate increase in economic activity.

The argument that the increase in the minimum wage would cause job loss, lost profits or even handicap the overall economy then falls. Austerity or fear of bankruptcy are no longer arguments for denying minimum wage increase.

The importance of the minimum wage increase

According to Philippe Hurteau and Minh Nguyen, Researchers at IRIS, “for a single person living in Montreal, a wage 15.38$ Time is needed [to have a living wage]5“

Indeed, the minimum wage in Quebec 10.55$ does not allow a worker or a worker pursuing his full-time job, meet these needs, even the most basic, because they and they find themselves under the poverty line. The increase in 15$ Time would allow this population of workers and working poor, because that is what he is, to achieve a decent quality of life, viable.

In 2015, work full time to 10.55$ Time equals win 21 944$ per year. The poverty line is at 22 831$ per year (in 2014). With 15$ /h, annual income would shift to 28 800$, barely 6 000$ above the threshold.
This is far from the account if it is found that the 1is May 2016, the minimum wage will increase to 10.75$ /h, either 0.20$ per hour. Apparently, this augmentation (from 1.9%) will be greater than inflation (from 1.5%) but the fact remains that the cost of the market basket increase of 2% and 4%6 in 2016, and this without mentioning energy costs are also increasing, the price of public transport etc..

The number of minimum wage workers in Quebec increased from 163 500 in 1998 at 210 200 in 20147, and, against popular belief, more than half of the employee-s are not student-e-s and work full time. We are witnessing here a significant increase of poor workers who have multiple jobs in order to make ends month and meet their basic needs for their survival.

Workers and working poor

It is indeed a reality today in Quebec. The work is not synonymous with sustainability and even less dignity because it is often synonymous with little holiday and not get sick (with little rest in the amount of leave to which they are entitled and they). We are not even talking about the employee-e-s gratuity which only affects 9.05$ /h (and that will affect 9.20$ the 1is May 2016) and live the vagaries of goodness and influx of e-s-client on their workplace ...

A minimum wage 15$ /h, it's not luxury !

This is just viable !

1 According to the Statistical Institute of Quebec, Ministry of Labor of Quebec (ISQ)

2 Have minimum wages increases hurt the restaurant industry? The evidence says NO! Dr.. Michael Lynn and Dr.. Christopher Boone de la Cornell University’s school of Hotel Administration.

3 Minimum wages and employment: a case study of Fast Food industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania professors David Card and Alan Krueger

4 Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 would lift wages for millions and provide economic boost David Cooper, 19 December 2013

5 What is the living wage ? Calculation for Montreal and Quebec 2015 Philippe Hurteau and Minh Nguyen, Researchers at IRIS, april 2015

6 According to Sylvain Charlebois, professor of food distribution and policies of the University of Guelph

7 Figures from the ISQ

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Call Forum 15-5-7

Industrial Union of Workers – IWW Montreal invites you to participate in a public forum addressing the struggle for a minimum wage 15$ /h, 5 week vacation and 7 paid sick days per year.

This will take place the 12 February 2016 the Popular Education Center in Little Burgundy and St. Henri, the 2515 Delisle, 18:00.

This forum will offer a panel where several people present different facets of this struggle, is the economic aspect, the experience of a worker at minimum wage, a feminist analysis and the experience of this struggle in the US. On the panel will be present-e-s :

minh Nguyen, researcher at IRIS
Morgane M-Parsons IWW Montreal
Daniel crawled the 15NOW (United States)
Jean-Pierre Center for Immigrant Workers-e-s (CTI)
Jacques Fontaine e-s-employed Union of the Old Port of Montreal
Kim Bouchard Action-Unemployment Movement

Following the panel, there will be a period of questions and interventions thirty minute. After a short break, group discussions will be held on the following themes :

Immigrant Workers-e-s
Women and Working Conditions
precarious workers
Housing and precarious work
Community and working conditions

This moment is an opportunity for everyone to propose actions to be taken in the coming months.

We are launching this campaign because the minimum working conditions do not allow us to live, barely survive. These claims are essential to any-worker or worker wanting a decent life, pay rent, be able to raise children and do not be caught-e by the throat as soon as unexpected happens.

If this does not solve the question of capitalist oppression on our lives, these claims will enable us, collectively, mobilize and get us the minimum that we must!

We would like to mention that this forum will be open to everyone.

“Because we are worth more than the minimum!”

Industrial Union of workers'.

1557

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A 9 December National Strike, chapter 2

Half a million strikers in Quebec! This is in terms of the largest number of strikes that the province has seen since 1972. It has taken in years of zero deficit, reengineering, PPP and austerity to the bottom of the barrel seems close enough to cause a reaction to his measure!

Protest across the province

The day began in Quebec where members of the Federation of Unions of Education and the Union of Public and parapublic sectors Québec demonstrated, and their families, friends and allies of the community movement. They broke into the offices of the Minister Blais, before showing the Victoria Park in the Upper Town, after a quick run to the permanence of the Liberal Party where walls and windows were covered with pro-strike and pro-negotiation tights. Finally there are more than 18 000 people gathered in front of the National Assembly

In Laval banner Laval United Against Austerity hung above the highway 15 and early in the morning in Montreal members of the Autonomous Federation of Education is already grouped in front of the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports to erect a camp they intend to occupy until Friday and in despite threats made by the city that has to involve the police "if necessary". The AWF also held a demonstration bringing its members the heart of the popular neighborhood in South Central Square Émilie-Gamelin where they joined a second meeting before ending the walk to Victoria Square where they joined a gathering of about 3 5000 People around 13:30. Now without a contract since 4yrs, the 8000 White-collar of Montreal took advantage of the moment to take a half-day strike and organize a demonstration outside City Hall.

In the evening many more focused on a fighting trade union pressure groups, see solidarity, including Spring 2015, called to resume the street at 20h. These are a few hundred people that it met again at Émilie-Gamelin Square, or of the procession marched towards the city center before being blocked off by the police forcing them to turn back. He was not even 21h out that police tear gas for a dispercer the crowd, in all Likelihood, was exercising his right to demonstrate peacefully. When publishing, it is lived or blessé.es, nor arrest.

In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, where one finds 10 000 of the 400 000 members of the Common Front, solidarity and combativeness was also the rendezvous. In Ville-Marie have had over a hundred health workers in the streets, while in Temiscamingue was the Teachers who occupied the place.

In the Mauricie region, whether members of the Union of the Teaching Vieilles Forges organized buses to join the protest in Quebec, 3000 other public services workers, in addition enseignant.e,s de Shawinigan, opted for a demonstration in Trois-Rivières which carried them from the Exhibition Park in Downtown.

The side of the Eastern Townships, Those are 2000 Persons séparées between a contingent en provenance du CHUS et un autre here folks Reuni aux Galeries Quatre Saisons here, despite the heavy police presence, stormed the viaduct passing on the highway 610. For organizers, this event 2000 people appears as a historic mobilization time, not only for Quebec as a whole, but also for the Estrie region in particular.

On the North Shore, besides the many buses that left the area early this morning to go lend a hand to the strikers of Quebec City, demonstrations and picket lines were held in Baie-Commeau and Seven Island.

the IWW

True to form, Wobblies of the cities of Montreal, Sherbrooke and Quebec joined the mobilizations. Sometimes in solidarity as they and they did so on the picket lines of SÉTUE earlier this week and the demonstrations of the Red Hand coalition 28 November in Montreal and 5 December in Quebec, but mainly also because qu'illes are touché.e.s by government attacks. A significant number of the membership of the IWW currently has two cards, either that of the Grand Union for All and All (IWW, One Big Union), but also those of any affiliated plants Common Front. These members typically found among the most active in their union know that an attack against a portion of the working class is an attack against the entire working class, a victory of a portion of the working class as a victory for the whole working class.

But will that be enough, the big risk of strikes is limited to one or two days is, as big can it be-you, they are not for the government a hard time to go. A 24 during which he will hold on the time the storm passes. The Common Front is not fooled and has kept some days pocket strike issue to return to the charge in January, but-what will happen to the movement once these past strikes? What are the next actions and how to react the higher echelons of power plants, as well as the base support when the 6 strike days will be passed?

Many articles have attempted to answer this question by highlighting the weaknesses of the current trade union movement and the strategies put forward by the government, including the use of special laws, to better prepare syndiqué.es. Among these items include The portrait of the current situation SITT-published by the IWW and available on this blog, but also Will miss us this rendezvous of history? For the webzine Hard Reality and Le bluff missed the Common Front by Ricochet who put forward a militant analysis of strategies used These are important questions and decisions and actions that will result are just as.

Today we were half a million in the streets, tomorrow, with courage and determination we will 7 billion. Solidarity!

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Pickets of 16 and 17 November

The 16 and 17 on November, several members of the Montreal branch of the Industrial Workers Union and Workers (SITT-IWW) participated in the picket lines of the common front. These two days marked the return of the rotating strike the common front on the island of Montreal. several wobblies, Solidarity's call-Country Committee, took the opportunity to show their solidarity to workers in education as well as those in health and social services.

The 16 November, a dozen members showed up on the picket lines at Cégep de Dawson to support the two striking unions, either the Dawson Teachers Union (DTU), member of the FNEEQ-CSN, and the Dawson Support Staff Union (DSSU), member of the FPSES-CSQ. The strikers were present in large numbers and it was with enthusiasm that they walked around the school building with trumpets and signs in hand. We received a warm welcome from the members, as well as performers.

The 17 November, fifteen wobs went to St-Luc hospital to picket with union members of the Union of Employees of the CHUM (Secher), member of the CSN, and the Alliance of Professional and Technical Health and Social Services Staff of the CHUM (APTS-CHUM). The Essential Services Act only allows health and social service workers to be on strike only during 10% of their schedule, it is alternately that dozens of union members full of energy landed on the picket line. There too, a great welcome awaited us.

These days, where we rubbed shoulders with members of unions belonging to three organizations with different political opinions than ours, shows us well, in my opinion, that it is on the ground that solidarities are created. That despite different ideologies, and tensions caused by a misunderstanding of the intentions of each group, on a picket line, we are all workers struggling against crappy living and working conditions.

Solidarity!

X377508

 

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A 7 very busy in September!


This 7 September, history of thumbing its nose at employers, on the occasion of the "Day" of work, Montreal branch of the IWW held a colloquium under the theme "Make the fight ! ». Under a blazing sun and the watchful eye (read harassing) for SPVM patrol, a few tables occupied the Parc des Faubourgs and this, from noon. On schedule : music, food, workshops, info tables and merchandise, and to conclude, popular demonstration. Read more →

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letter of support to six suspendu.e.s comrades in Rosemont

comrades,

We pay tribute to all the actors and actresses from all over Quebec for the colossal mobilization held on May 1 : only real day of workers'. It is the fruit of our labor and sacrifice of time in our lives that the entire operation of the company is possible and that wealth is created and nothing else. Without us , nothing would. So a huge thank you for all the work done on a daily basis, recognized or not, all sectors combined.

Sadly, if this day had the happy consequence of forging bonds of friendship and exercising our balance of power against the patronage, which is one of the objectives of direct action so dear to our union, on the other hand, six of our fellow Rosemont College teachers were suspended for enforcing their strike mandate, which was adopted by a very large majority of members.: only legitimate authority in a union.

Hereby , we would first like to show our deep solidarity as well as our unconditional support towards all the dissident people who exist within the company, you are not alone, but especially towards these six teachers who are unfairly subjected to these measures. We congratulate you on your courage and determination to uphold your "right" to strike.; is it still possible to name it that way?!? You are examples to follow and we hope that more people will stand up like you through this long struggle against austerity that your unions and students have rightly praised..

We strongly condemn these purely arbitrary suspensions and demand that these workers be reinstated in their shifts on Monday.. These teachers did absolutely nothing wrong. They used their inalienable right to strike when the attempt at dialogue failed between the parties, which is very clearly the case with the current government which passes the chainsaw in the little social safety net that we have left. What good use is a right when you have to ask permission from any commission to make use of it?? Does a right have real value only when it is exercised freely and independently? And in the event that you have to wait for permission from any authority to use it, Doesn't this sound more like a privilege than a right? And optionally , since when did we collectively decide that it was up to the master to decide where and when we could challenge him?

An illegal strike, it does not exist. Or rather , it only exists in the minds of those who benefit from such a legalistic system, who let's face it, offers us a striking example of its limits.

We also reiterate our position that workers have absolutely nothing to do with the bosses and reaffirm the importance of combat unionism in order to arm ourselves with an adequate balance of power in the face of disproportionate power. that admistrators of all kinds take over our lives. The strategic partnership between employees and bosses is an illusion regardless of the cognitive dissonance that sentimalism may provoke towards them over the years spent in their proximity.. In the event that you decide to exercise your rights, they would turn against you and betray you without scruple and this example is a concrete proof of that. “

Solidarity and may the struggle continue!

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Solidarity with the comrades of the Philippines

To read this article in English, click here.

On the eve of the International Day of Workers, the SITT-IWW Montreal wishes to demonstrate its full support to his comrades in the Philippines. E-s-union activist and se-s-worker from the Philippines are still and always face the repression of foreign capitalists and their accomplice, the government of President Benigno Aquino and local employers. We strongly denounce this repression and desire to show our support and solidarity with the trade union center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), its local federations and unions, and to all be-s-worker and progressive activists es Philippines.

Our thoughts go to the celebrations of May 1, and we are with you in this struggle for the advancement of rights, the welfare and conditions of if-s-worker Philippines.

Solidarity!

SITT-IWW Montreal

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10 days that shook Quebec and this is just the beginning!

Friday 31 October, it's under the theme ofausterity, a horror story, that demonstrations took place in the cities of Sherbrooke, Rimouski, Jonquière, Baie-Comeau, The Tuque, the Magdalen Islands and Montreal. The protesters of the latter numbered 50 000 according to official figures. This feat was made possible thanks to buses from nearly 10 regions of Quebec that converged on the metropolis, thanks to the mobilization, not only students who still had more than 82 000 strikers, but also from various trade union centers and all community groups on the verge of war against the austerity measures decreed by the three levels of government and to which no political party of the opposition seems to be able to make the weight. This day of unprecedented mobilization since 2012 must be seen from two angles. First, as the culmination of several weeks of climbing and then as the starting point for an even bigger climb. Read more →

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