BY CARL CHAPLIN AND HAMISH McDONALD
SQUAMISH, British Columbia -"People have been saying that a
union doesn't belong in a fast food place. That's the stupidest
thing I've ever heard," said Tessa Lowinger, one of the two
high-school aged women who led the first successful drive to
unionize a McDonald's restaurant in North America.
In an interview with the Militant, Lowinger, her co-worker Jennifer Wiebe, and both their parents recounted the story of why and how the majority of the 83 workers at the locally owned franchise signed union cards, the broad community support that they received for their right to a union, and the national and international response they've gotten.
The fight to organize the third-busiest McDonald's in British Columbia began when Lowinger, 16, and Wiebe, 17, began discussing the need to do something about the deteriorating working conditions with their co-workers and with Lowinger's father, Hans Lowinger, a rail worker and member of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW).
The CAW is the union that now represents the McDonald's workers in Squamish. In just three days, the two young fighters got more than the legally required 55 percent of their co- workers to sign union affiliation cards.
"We didn't get treated the way we should have been," noted Wiebe. She described one incident where she was forced to work with a fever of 102 degrees, because she could not find her own replacement. The fundamental issues of the organizing drive were, in the words of the two leaders, "safety and respect." Lowinger reported that workers received electrical shocks from a broken light switch in the restaurant, and were forced to push two 50 lb. toasters on a muffin cart with a broken wheel, whose contents would often fall onto the employees.
"As soon as they found out we were trying to get the union in, they fixed everything," said Wiebe. She commented on the fear that the word "union" brought to Paul Savage, owner of the restaurant, who attempted to flush out the pro-union vote by hiring 28 new employees.
Savage was forced by the union to withdraw his demand that new workers be part of the certification vote. Lowinger commented on the verbal abuse received by employees. "Three times a week a girl would be crying at work. You spill a drink, you get yelled at, called stupid. One guy was called a `retard'" by a boss. Verbal abuse was also an issue in the strike by McDonald's workers in Macedonia, Ohio, last April.
One of the workers involved in that walkout, Brian Drapp, contacted Lowinger and Wiebe. The two were also contacted by Sarah Inglis, from Orangeville, Ontario, whose drive to organize McDonald's workers there was unsuccessful. The two also met with Martin Lepage and other former McDonald's workers from the Montreal area, where the owner shut the franchise down rather than negotiate with union the majority of workers had chosen to represent them. "They were super happy," said Lowinger, upon hearing of the success in Squamish.
Wiebe and Lowinger were flown by the CAW to Montreal with Lowinger's mother, Michele Lowinger, to address a CAW convention of 1200 service sector workers, where they received a "two- to three-minute standing ovation," said Michele Lowinger. While in Montreal, the three women also visited a picket line of striking Montreal city workers.
The CAW organizes many service workers across Canada, including some 400 Hotel Vancouver workers, who just won a new contract after a successful four-day strike that effectively shut the hotel down in prime tourist season. Lowinger and Wiebe were warmly welcomed at the hotel workers' picket line in Vancouver, Michele Lowinger said. She added that she was amazed at the support the young union organizers were getting. "A 10- minute shopping trip to downtown Squamish turned into four or five hours," as the two youths were approached by nearly everyone they saw. They were also contacted by BBC television in England.
Lowinger and Wiebe said they recognized the necessity of a union, and not just "boss-to-worker" talks. "In Orangeville [where no union was formed] a week later management was back to pushing them around," said Lowinger. No union was formed in Macedonia either, where management has yet to live up to their end of agreements reached there.
Commenting on whether she thought that the success in Squamish would inspire other unionization drives, Lowinger said "I think a lot of fast food joints are going to follow." Now bargaining "is going to be the big fight," she added.
Carl Chaplin and Hamish McDonald are members of the Young Socialists in Vancouver. Paul Kouri, a member of the United Steelworkers of America, contributed to this article.