BY MICHEL DUGRÉ AND CARLOS CORNEJO
MONTREAL - Since the December strike by 4,000 members of the
Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE)
in Montreal, some readers of the Militant have raised questions
about the assessment summarized in the headline of a front page
article by these correspondents: "Montreal: garment workers win
strike" (see January 11, 1999 issue).
Garment workers fought against an attempt by the bosses to cut our wages. The garment bosses were surprised by our growing militancy and made the decision to retreat for the time being from their all-out assault.
The offensive, however, is not over yet. It is being waged on two fronts. The bosses propose to the Quebec government that it abolish the decree guaranteeing base rates to all workers of the Quebec men's clothing industry, unionized and nonunion. In their first offers to UNITE members, the bosses also proposed that there be no reference to wages in the collective agreement. After this was overwhelmingly rejected by a meeting of more than 3,000 UNITE members, the bosses, members of the Men's Clothing Manufacturers Association, proposed that the collective agreement include lower base rates for newer workers. This acid pill was sugarcoated with significant wage increases for those currently working. This scheme, which union officials agreed to, was rejected by 70 percent of UNITE members attending a December 10 meeting of more than 2,000 workers. That meeting, which allowed workers to collectively discuss the proposal, was a victory in itself: union officials had previously agreed to the bosses' demand that the vote be taken plant-by-plant during working hours.
In the following days, workers transformed a lockout by the bosses into a militant strike. Faced with this resistance and divided by growing competition among themselves, the employers' association crumbled. On December 21, the bosses announced they were withdrawing their proposal for a two-tier system and offered a 75-cent wage increase - about 8 percent on average - over three years. This proposal was generally accepted by workers, in votes taking place plant-by-plant during meetings where we discussed the issues collectively. At Samuelsohn, one of the four biggest plants involved, workers first rejected the offers and then voted in favor a week later.
Some readers have raised two questions about the extent of this victory. Wasn't the union weakened by voting separately on the companies offers instead of fighting for a common master agreement as previously? And aren't the new contracts an acceptance that the decree will be abolished, eliminating all protection against a possible lowering to the minimum wage payscale of tens of thousands of nonunion workers?
Since the bosses will continue their offensive and we have to prepare for a similar confrontation next time, it is clear that we would have been stronger by voting on the contract collectively. Montreal garment workers have learned the importance of workers' unity through hard fought battles. We successfully fought twice for the right to discuss and vote on a proposed contract prior to the recent strike. Most workers didn't feel the need to do the same at the end of the strike, partly because the big majority saw the proposed agreement as a victory for us against the bosses. The bosses wanted to lower wages throughout the industry. Their attempt to reach this goal through these negotiations was defeated. The contracts we voted for were the result not of growing divisions among us, but of the collapse of the bosses' united front. The employers' final offers were exactly the same for all workers in all plants, with the same expiration date three years from now.
What negotiations for new contracts will look like in three years remains to be seen. But garment workers will go into them having pushed back the bosses' attempt to create more divisions among us through the two-tier system.
As for the decree setting the base wage for the industry, we should remember that it has not been abolished yet.
Maintaining the decree or not was never on the table during the recent negotiations. Workers were posed with the need to defend themselves against an attempt to introduce a two-tier system in their collective agreement and in this way lower average wages. We successfully pushed back this attempt.
The bosses and the Quebec government will go ahead with their attempt to abolish the decree. For the employers this is a key element in their attempt to become more competitive against their main rivals in the United States. But the problem for them is that the abolition of the decree will not bring immediately what they were looking for in these contract negotiations: drastically lowering union workers' wages. For this they will still need to defeat us in a direct confrontation.
The fight to maintain the decree is in front of us. While opposing this measure, union officials have done nothing so far to mobilize union members. That kind of struggle is key to strengthening the union through opening the door for uniting union and nonunion workers into a common fight against the bosses and their government. Union members are in a better position to do this, as a result of our victory against an attempt by the bosses to create divisions among older and younger workers.
In the last few months workers in the two biggest Montreal garment shops have succeeded in establishing a union: 2,500 workers at Peerless joined the Teamsters, while 1,300 working at Iris joined UNITE. These successful organizing drives illustrate the obstacle the bosses face in their attempt to lower wages of garment workers in Montreal.
Carlos Cornejo and Michel Dugré are members of UNITE at SFI Apparel in Montreal.