The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.47           December 28, 1998 
 
 
Support Quebec Garment Workers  
The labor movement should throw its weight behind the 4,000 locked-out garment workers in the Montreal area who are defending their wages and their union. This fight by some of the lowest-paid workers has enormous stakes for all working people. The outcome will especially affect not only the union members, but the big majority of the 100,000 garment workers in Quebec who are nonunion.

This is a fight for working-class unity and against an attempt by the bosses to introduce a two-tier system, which would allow them to bank more profits through the superexploitation of a layer of garment workers. The bosses aim to sow more divisions among workers that would weaken our ability to defend our living and working conditions.

A disproportionate number of the garment workers earning minimum wage or just above are young, Blacks, immigrants from oppressed countries, Quebecois, and female. The employing class uses the oppression of and prejudices against these workers to keep the price of their labor power lower than for the rest of the working class.

Under capitalism, wages are determined from the bottom up, not the other way around. The bosses use the miserable wages that they impose on the most downtrodden as a floor for the wages paid to all workers. There will be no way for the labor movement as a whole to defend the wages, rights, and social gains won in past struggles without defending the living conditions and the rights of those most oppressed by the capitalist system.

The Montreal garment workers' fight illustrates the growing militancy among workers who are women. It places immigrant workers at the center of the labor resistance in Canada, thus making these workers and those born in Canada more united.

By defending their right to vote on union contracts after a collective discussion, giving all workers a better chance of hearing different points of view and better understanding the stakes in their fight, the Montreal garment workers have strengthened their union. They gave an example of the steps all workers need to make toward transforming our unions into a social movement capable of defending the living and working conditions for all.

Montreal garment workers are joining the growing layer of working people around the world who defend themselves against the impact of the crisis of the capitalist system: from the Illinois miners, to the Quebec poultry workers, from the Canadian farmers, to the maritime workers in France.

Youth and working-class fighters need to follow closely this fight, explaining its importance to co-workers and others and building solidarity.

 
 
 
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