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CALL FOR PROTEST MAY 1 : YOU ARE NOT ALONE-ES!

Gathering with food and speaking out at 14:30 at Metro Park. Leaving the district event at 16.00.

Monitoring of anti-capitalist demonstration CLAC downtown.

(English below)

 

As workers, unemployed workers, students and tenants, our best weapon to defend against those who exploit us and abuse us remains solidarity. This is why the Industrial Union of Workers and Workers (SITT-IWW Montreal) invites you to bring you to fight together in Park Extension on May 1.

 

Our struggles are multiplying on several fronts. As the attacks against us. Strikes and lockouts are subdued by the power of courts, the public sector is privatized and burns its employee-s, our wages stagnate while our rents rise, racist discourse trivialize the delight of the ruling class. The G7 held a full paralyzes region for the rich and powerful share the planet. And all this, while bosses and politicians share the profits.

 

But whatever, we struggle! Community groups take to the streets to denounce social inequalities. The neighborhoods of tenants are mobilizing against gentrification. Women denounce and take public space with #MeToo. antiracist solidarity networks multiply to counter the rise of the extreme right. Nurses chant "it'll do! "And refuse to run out in silence. The most precarious workers organize and show solidarity.

 

We're not as isolated-are the bosses and politicians want to imply. We are not as mere pawns who will vote and watching the bosses decide our fate. We fight for our voices heard. And that is why we must go beyond corporatism, solidarity and a bridge between our respective struggles, because that is our strength!

 

It is with this spirit of solidarity that SITT-IWW Montreal invite you to show on Tuesday May 1 in Park Extension, on the occasion of the International Day of Workers, chanting together : WE ARE NOT ALONE-ES!

 

We invite all unions, groups and organizations to endorse our call and write us.

 

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Gathering with food and speeches at 2:30 pm at Metro Park. Departure of the neighborhood demonstration at 16H00.

Follow-up with the CLAC anti-capitalist protest downtown.

 

As workers, unemployed, students and tenants, our best defense against those who exploit and abuse us is solidarity. That is why the Industrial Workers of the World (ITS-IWW Montreal) invites you to gather and fight together in Parc-Extension on May 1st.

 

Our struggles are multiplying on several fronts at the same time. Just like the attacks on us. Strikes and lockouts are muted by the power of the courts, the public sector privatizes and burns its employees, our wages stagnate while our rents increase, racist speeches become commonplace to the delight of the ruling class. Holding the G7 paralyzes a complete region for wealth and power to move the planet. And all that, while the bosses and politicians share the profits.

 

But no matter what, we fight! Community groups take to the streets to denounce social inequalities. Tenants from working-class neighborhoods are mobilizing against gentrification. Women denounce and take public space with #MeToo. Anti-racist solidarity networks are multiplying to counter the rise of the extreme right. Nurses say, “Enough is enough!” and refuse to wear themselves out in silence. The most precarious workers are organizing and solidarity is on the rise.

 

We are not as isolated as bosses and politicians would like us to believe. We are not just pawns that will vote and watch as the bosses decide our fate. We fight to make ourselves heard. And that’s why we must go beyond corporatism, stand together and make the bridge between our struggles, that’s our strength!

 

It is with this spirit of solidarity that the SITT-IWW Montréal invites you to demonstrate on Tuesday, May 1st, in the Parc-Extension neighborhood, on the occasion of the International Workers’ Day, to chant all together: WE ARE NOT ALONE!

 

We invite all unions, groups and organizations to endorse our call and write to us.

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Do planters and tree planters have Stockholm syndrome?

Portrait of Treeplanting industry

Formerly a way to live a respectable and dignified life, the Treeplanting is more than a place to live a lifestyle against-cultural and vagrants wandering between and among students seeking an alternative to the minimum wage. Today, the possibility of exceeding the threshold of poverty is reserved only best-es of us who make a very long season in west of the country. There is no confusion. Salaries have not increased for a long time. When asked why, the answer is always the same : there is not enough money, or it is simply saying to close.

The ultras competitive industry practices are to blame. All these years, companies have fiercely maintained their market share at the expense of our salaries. They often leave on the table several thousand dollars to make a submission. That is to say, the amount of money that separates the low bid of its nearest competitor. And if other companies that pay at the industry standard has not found it possible to bid as low, so where did they cut? In our security? In the kitchen budget? In our salaries?

In all of this, we do not have our say. It is important not to give our opinion on the practices of the industry or our company that. Production must continue, but production for which? "If you're not happy, if you're not happy, find another job "… A reality that is crystallized in the figure of the foreman who consistently called for nominations having "good attitude".

They and they especially want to hear more we complain of excessively low wages for a disproportionately work difficult. They and they do not want to listen to our complaints, and while they do nothing for us. And do nothing! However, paying the price for their irresponsibility and their endless greed? It's us, because our salaries are the biggest operating costs. Lower wages that results in more business and more money for them and they. More, also by more precarious for us; more injuries because we always feel more pressure to perform to make sure we pay our rent, our food, our school, our leisure ... Whose prices are increasing every year! But the ball does not stop there. They and they "forget" to put our sometimes hours of transport in our total hours worked, intimidate us when we want to take our CSST (WCB), we are working for free when it apart and reassemble camp, let the showers abandoned, do not provide a sufficient budget to the kitchen ... and the height, we have to pay 25$ day to shit in the toilet that we, ourselves, excavated.

Le syndrome de Stockholm

More, we are also to blame. Car, each passing day, we continue to dance but were afraid to put our foot terr. We prefer to look at all day our comrades when they plant trees and have tendinitis. Sometimes even to the point of having both wrists. We do not want to see ourselves reflected in them and they, but rather the contestants. When a person is forced to work injured, because intimidated or because they have been denied a form of compensation, it's all of us who pay the price. Have you ever survived a season without tendonitis in your camp? It will be your turn soon and you will likely have no help or compensation. If it has not already happened. This is the most common injury, but there are also infections unhygienic because the showers do not work. There lumbar sprains and sprained ankles. then finally, when it comes time to pull our reverence, there are chronic tendonitis and knee smashed. Sometimes, it is also pneumonia that spread or some unknown virus and food poisoning. Besides harassment and assault, us and by employers, which is never discussed and yet each was rampant.

Despite all this, we are not content to observe indifferently our collective agony. We have completely adopted the discourse of our bosses who tell us to always work harder. There is competition between us. We put pressure us. More police needs in the camp, we are our own police. this reality, it is found in the emblematic figure of highballer. Whoever represents the highest degree of achievement of the social ladder in Treeplanting. Sometimes, same legends are formed around these figures. and yet, the value of these people did as ever in their production and in their individuality. For antagonistic effect, we do we perceive only through the prism of production. A reality that employers are glad.

All this and we toast no problem with our boss. We assure them that and they're our friends. That experience Treeplanting might not be the same without them and they. Effectively, it would be much better! More, I can not help but feel a bitter taste ... friend-es? How can we reconcile friendship and abuse, except that we have no respect for ourselves? We who share the same conditions, the same problems. Our bosses are hypocrites. This love-hate relationship that we develop with our employment, it is not difficult to understand. We like camp life, unforgettable evenings, woven friendships, the stars in the sky, afternoon on the beach ... We hate free work, insults, the wounds, psychological crises, pressure, the days and weeks will end more ... It's not them and they which our unforgettable seasons, but you. How many of you have ever fantasized, several hours, thousand and one ways to torture your foreman? They and they do nothing but force us to experience the suffering and indignity. Things that help to knit us more, but that is not our pleasure in itself.

Supervisors are not our allies are. They and they are agents in the pay of companies. The compensation system based on the production of growers and compliance with production targets is only acting as an incentive to our operating. The widespread myth that the foremen take more care of us when they are paid and well-es is something that continues to repeat. More, is it really reality? The inequitable distribution of land, abusive warnings when production is too low, the pressure to exceed our physical and mental limits seem to show otherwise. If this is simply not a rush job while we pay their salaries. Do not forget that supervisors are not working for us, but it is we who work for them and they.

Now what?

We must stop complaining each one on our side. This allows us to comfort us as we always chutons to hell.

The two most often do we bring solutions lead nowhere. The first wants the companies to join a discussion table to agree on minimum prices for the industry, below which they would not compete. Both remain in passivity and pray that our money grows trees. The alternative would be to form a cooperative. In this model, We actually would have control of our working conditions, but we would still be subject to market dynamics. The price of the tree will remain competitive for us to obtain contracts. These cooperatives will remain very small, since they can not gain a foothold in the market. So what about the vast majority of the workforce that remains a prisoner of rookie mills?

The organization is the key

We still have a solution : the Solidarity unionism. The only way to improve our working conditions, it is by building a balance of power in our favor. For that, must be integral to abuse employer. The greatest objection to the arrival of a union is that it does not understand the reality of our work and our needs. We'd only pay dues to a union that does not represent us. Our report to unionism has been perverted by the trade union confederations, which now appear to act more as a weapon of employers that as the weapon of the working class. and yet, unionism is a form of control. A practice that can be horizontal and without representation other than ourselves. We can lead this struggle and make the gains we choose collectively: l'IWW, it is the union then. Workers who have chosen to come together, regardless of industry to organize their workplace with a model of unionism that would not escape their control. We will be our union and nobody else.

Our insecurity is greatest from season to season, we must act now! This text will not be unanimity in the community, as all publications on the King Kong Group Re-forestation denouncing our conditions. Some want to and some we regurgitate their worship highballer. But would it not the sign of a deep malaise? Let's get together now to arrange the response. Those who wish to organize, please contact with us!

 

Solidarity,

X377547

 

In english.

 

cover photo credit: http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/into-the-wild/

source image 1 : http://www.replant.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.phpf=27&t=66036&p=86600&remote = graphic # p86600

source image 2 : http://www.replant.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=66856

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And if the union does not move?

Although a union is theoretically a tool in the fight to improve working conditions for workers, it is not uncommon to see them turn into demobilization devices. Whether to preserve the "device" union avoiding taking risks involved in a great struggle, collaborate openly with the boss who grants favors to the central (ex : automatic unionization of new branches in exchange for a peaceful unionism) or want to maintain a policy of a bad image caused by a strike during elections, any union may disconnect interest on its base to preserve as an institution. Yet it is in these moments that matter most to be a trade unionist.

It is then necessary to remember that the union is all about us and our colleagues and leave on this basis. Since then, a wide range of tactics opens us : it is possible to form grassroots committees, who will work and will fight outside the union sets (ex : see COBAS in Italy), attempting to organize to take over and reform our union to refocus towards the base (see the CORE, the Caucus of Rank-and-file Educators à Chicago) or to change union affiliation. As many see the arrival of an employers' association (also known as "yellow" union) as an opportunity to talk about working conditions and thus return the offensive of the bosses against them. Do not hesitate then to contact the branch of the nearest IWW for support and training for (re) start the battle to improve your working conditions and life.

X374163

comic credit: Val-blue

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Orchards that do not pay the pickers

Fruit picking in British Columbia : precarious work

Whether in the Okanagan Valley or elsewhere, the world of fruit picking is a unique and particularly difficult to manage for workers. Whether in tank, on the go, by plane or bus, every year hundreds of Quebecers travel a staggering distance to do this precarious work.

Paid for performance, the picking (or picking) is hard work that requires dealing with many aspects that affect our salary.

As our pay only depends on our speed of work, we are therefore dependent on the quality of the tree maintenance work, the whims of Mother Nature or the quality of the work organization of the orchard (unfortunately often poor).

In addition to having to submit to employer harassment compared to our legal status, our nationality, genre, or sexual orientation, through our look or our lifestyle, we tire of working endlessly for several days (or nights) in a row : except in case of rain, no leave during the season picking.

Like the majority of pickers come from elsewhere, our quality of life during work is also determined by the goodwill of our employers, who are responsible for providing us with decent camping facilities. Yet it is common for dozens (or even hundreds) from pickers have to share a tiny kitchen, overflowing chemical toilets, disgusting showers and generally degrading conditions.

Finally, at the end of our employment contract, it is still entirely possible that our employer may simply decide not to pay us for the hard work done.

Difficult working conditions

I introduce myself, my name is Luciano and like every summer for about ten years, I went to Western Canada last summer. Not for a trip trip or do rumba but rather to go to work, try to make a living. In the month of August, I went back to an orchard where I had worked in the past. I never had any problems with my employers. Everything was fine. I also felt privileged to be able to work on this farm rather than in another orchard more "hardcore", as in Dhaliwal orchards, Smagh old OPL (Orchard Pros Logistics Inc) where employees are treated very poorly.

I arrived in Creston, British Columbia around the 20 July 2017 to work at Shukin, the orchard in question. I worked there 18 consecutive days before continuing my journey. At the end of our last day of work, the secretary of the boss gave post-dated checks to some of us who absolutely had to leave the same day. I got mine without even worrying about anything (since I trusted them) and I left the same day towards Kelowna to go to a next contract which started the next morning.

A few days passed before I deposited my checks in my bank account. It was only after a week that I realized that my check had bounced for lack of funds. In the beginning, I didn't worry too much : I told myself that it was certainly a banking error and that everything was going to go back to normal. But a second and then a third week passed and nothing had changed. From that moment, I started to call my former boss to find out when it would be possible to receive my pay. I don't know how many voicemails, of texts, emails I left her, but to date I have not received any return calls. No message, even a "hello" or, we "are sorry for the situation".

Unpaid wages

Summer came to an end and I returned to Quebec. Upon my return, I wanted to apply for unemployment, but I realized that I was missing hours on my record of employment. So I wanted to get in touch with the boss’s accountant, but once again I hit a wall : no answer. Thanks to a friend who was a team leader while I worked at Shukin, I was able to claim part of my missing hours, but at present it is still missing. Sure, no help from the employment insurance office, where they just repeat to me that it is my responsibility to see that my hours of work are declared and that they can do nothing for me.

Today, we are the 16 January and more than five months after the end of my contract with Shukin, I always run after my money. They owe me several thousand dollars.

Because of these profiteers, my plans have drastically changed. I had to put all my plans aside to find a financial solution. Not only does this put me in significant states of stress and anxiety, not to know if I will see the color of my money, but it also shatters dreams I had to get out of this precarious job.

Knowing that I have a "legal" status (since i have my canadian citizenship), I don’t dare imagine what all my immigrant sisters and brothers endure, illegal immigrants, who suffer these injustices daily and have access to even fewer remedies than I do. This is how we treat agricultural labor, we exploit them and we throw them away when it's over. A rage arises in me when I hear the boss words, job, pay ... I guess it's a trauma!

If I decided to spread this story, it’s not to get any mercy but rather to get information out. If there are other comrades who find themselves in such a repugnant situation, I hope they do the same : we must talk about it and denounce the employers who operate BC orchards, knowing especially that Shukin Orchard is a very popular farm and frequented by many Quebecers. Share this letter in your networks !

Let us stand in solidarity with all the comrades who face these abuses of employer power on a daily basis. Together, raise our voices, stop being exploited, pressure, let's react! Let nothing go by !

Only combat unionism can change our conditions and put the bosses in their place.

Rage and Solidarity,

Luciano.

 

In english, In Spanish.

Photo credit: www.publicdomainpictures.net

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