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Twenty Thousand Bucks of Solidarity

Someone had heard about the IWW from a friend, got in touch with the union through the Internet and arranged to meet and discuss ways to claim a stolen salary. That’s actually how many of our Claim Your Pay campaigns begin, but our most recent one was a bit out of the ordinary. This is the story of a victorious campaign, the biggest in the history of our branch thus far.

In her first message sent to the IWW at the end of January, a worker tells us about a chic restaurant that had closed its doors, and workers having their paychecks bouncing back and worked hours not being paid. We decided to call her to hear more about the situation, to then find out that there were 11 workers from that restaurant who unpaid hours and/or bounced paychecks! The information is passed on to the union volunteers taking care of Claim Your Pay campaigns. Considering the magnitude of the situation, a team of 3 Wobblies is formed. Quickly, we organized a meeting with as many workers as possible. 5 of the 11 workers attended this first meeting, where we added up every salary that was to be claimed through the campaign, and came to realize that more than $20 000 were at stake! We also noted down all relevant information about the restaurant’s boss : in addition to the closed restaurant, he co-owns a chain of coffee shops in Montreal and a coffee distribution company. He also has a bad habit of not paying his employees; the workers at the meeting had heard stories similar to their own spanning the last 10 years. That meant that the boss wouldn’t be easily impressed. This time however, the claims were organized and supported by a union. Not wasting any time, we established a calendar with the direct actions that were to be undertaken in the upcoming weeks.

All the IWW campaigns to claim stolen wages rely on direct action. The workers at our meeting had all made a complaint to CNESST, except for one who was getting paid under the table. But these complaints can take up to a year or more before a worker can gain their claim, and for many workers, a year is way too long to wait when the amount due is three to four work-weeks. Direct action puts pressure on the employers by convincing them that they have more to lose if they do not pay their employees, all without going through the legal system. The workers are always the ones democratically choosing the actions that will be taken to win their claim, even though the supporting union members can always suggest some.

The first step was to send letters of demands to their boss asking for each of the stolen salaries, informing him of the precise amounts that he needed to pay and that a union was now on the case. While the letters were on their way to his mailbox, the boss contacted one of the workers, with the intention to pay her after she had just complained publicly. Members of the union accompanied the worker to that meeting, seizing the opportunity to hand him the letters of demands. He took them without any reaction, and we did not hear from him. No message, no phone call… Time to take action !

We started by sending emails denouncing the situation to many of his work partners, without any result. We continued our actions with a phone zap, during which many people called the owner’s business to block telephone lines for two hours, followed by a negative comments blitz on the business’ social media (Facebook, Google, Yelp, etc). To add public pressure, we published on the union’s blog an article exposing him and all the unpaid salaries. At this point, 3 weeks have gone by and some workers started receiving messages from the boss threatening them with a lawsuit and claiming that he wasn’t scared of a union. Still mounting the pressure, the next action began in early March, by showing up in front of the coffee shops he co-owns and flyering. The managers freaked out a little bit, but we managed to flyer for three days in a row and in front of 3 different coffee shops without much trouble.

It is during that week that the union finally gets contacted by the boss to arrange a meeting, which took place on March 14th. During this meeting, he served us the usual platitudes : ‘’It’s only a misunderstanding, I’m the real victim here, we could have just talked this out, no need to attack me’’ and etc. Nevertheless, we still got out of that meeting with about $12 000 in checks! Six out of the 11 workers were now fully paid, but there were still 5 workers with unpaid wages.

The rest of the campaign scales over 4 months, during which we discussed and negotiated with the boss to get the rest of the stolen salaries. At some point, it seemed to us that the boss was ignoring us, so we organized another small flyering action at two of his coffee shops, to get his attention once more. The campaign was fully victorious last June 19th, when the remaining paychecks were finally delivered by their employer. One worker did not receive all of her wages, because she decided to stop the direct action campaign and to throw all of weight behind her complaint to the CNESST. We care to mention that the worker that was working under the table has had her full salary paid, and without any particular difficulty.

In total, the efforts from these 11 workers and the union have helped claim $20 995 in unpaid work hours and indemnities. Without any doubt, a direct action campaign means more work than simply filing a complaint, but this victory shows us once more that armed with solidarity, we can overcome any obstacle and build a better world for tomorrow.

Solidarity has no price,

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French version here.

Reclaim the payroll victorious in a fast food Quebec

Monday 18 March, two former employees of a fast food restaurant have contacted us for unpaid wages worth more 1000$ and legal documents that were not submitted their. We met the next morning in order to help them obtain and have decided to initiate a process of claiming your payroll with them.

The next day (Wednesday), Three of our members have met the restaurant owner to give him a letter explaining the situation and our commitment that its former employees were paid. While we demand the immediate settlement of the conflict, there was very little (no see) cooperative and did not want to read the letter we handed him nor give his former employees what to them. So we left the place as we prepare the next steps of the process.

In discussing this with the two former workers at the exit of the restaurant, we learned that a third person was in this same situation. We then contacted and asked if she wanted to be involved in the process and she accepted. Immediately our phone call ended with her, We have received confirmation that the boss had decided to change his mind and that he would pay his former employees. The whole thing is set in the same day.

In conclusion : while we are often encouraged to go only by the labor standards for this type of litigation and that this process can take months, we once again proof that solidarity and direct action allow us to get there in a few days, see in a few hours!

because qu'uni.es, we are invulnerable!

Max K
IWW Quebec

 

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Solidarity explosion for the former employee of Antidote

After two years to get involved in volunteer IWW Communication Committee, I had never seen it. Little Sarah history, dismissed the counter vegan Antidote to days of Christmas, and that after experiencing bullying and abuse of power, went viral.

In less than 24 hours, words of hope and gestures of solidarity poured in from all sides. Ten of thousands of views on our blog, I almost feel like work for Your Small or vice Look, with the difference that in the comment section, it was a love breathtaking Sarah received instead of the traditional look forward mails.

There is a modern version of Christmas Carol. In 2017, just days before the Eve, a young dynamic entrepreneur that imbued itself, owner of a trendy restaurant in a neighborhood undergoing gentrification process, dismisses his employee.

Mention it before going further : dismiss an employee e-restoration in the middle of December, Also as to wish him a Christmas without gifts or to offer small dishes to be made to Eve, is wish him a happy three or four months of unemployment, no unemployment, the time the basins of the industry to reopen the arrival of spring.

Through a friend, Sarah came into contact with the ghost of Combat Unionism who agreed to share her story. You know the rest, the story became viral and social media were inflamed. If we were in a Christmas story, at the end of the third act, the owner would have repented, but the reality of the bosses-employee-s relationships being what it is, she published earlier tearful text to explain that from the depths of his success, it's a little she actually suffered.

Everything was, she is young and has so much to learn, she did not know that you could not fire someone morally-e by text. She was forced to fire her now, cheap shot par on text, because the warning two weeks in advance and allow time for the employee to prepare (as bosses ask us), fitait it not in its priorities. It looked like a caricature all output module right on employer responses in the Organization of Training 101 IWW.

In parallel crocodile tears of the patron who, to believe what we see on Facebook, have not touched anyone other than two or three owners in similar situations or close friends, Those are former-born employees who have contacted us to tell us of similar experiences, the story of a small producer in the Gaspé had trouble getting paid rebounded, and many and many other workers restoring explaining recognize themselves in this situation so too frequent. But perhaps more importantly, People from all over Montreal have written to express their sympathy and offer their solidarity to Sarah.

Between the words of encouragement, such a free room, this one has a sofa available if needed, this one is food for the dog, another heard about a job and those on temporary contracts, see offer permanent jobs to offer. Class consciousness, ras-le-bol hellish working conditions of the restaurant industry or simply the spirit of Christmas? No matter for now, solidarity beyond all our expectations and for that, by Sarah, but all and all members of the IWW, we offer our sincere thanks and wish you a great holiday season.

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Photo credit: Katerine-Lune Rollet, February 2015.

New employer idea for precarious: the minimum wage 2/3

Île-du-Prince-ÉdouardLe débat autour d’une idée patronale ultra-réactionnaire d’un salaire minimum modulable selon l’expérience fait rage à l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard, où la ministre conservatrice a lancé l’idée cet automne. Vaguement comparable aux fameux CPE (contrats de première embauche) qui avaient embrasés la France en 2006, l’idée est présentée comme étant une correction del’injusticequi fait qu’un travailleur au salaire minimum qui a 5 ans d’expérience gagne le même salaire qu’un travailleur nouvellement en poste, comme si les travailleurs les moins payés et les plus précaires devaient payer parce que les patrons sont trop cheap pour donner des augmentations à leurs employés les plus fidèles.

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