|
Perhaps
sooner than its harshest critics expected, the influence of the poisonous
deal between the Canadian Auto Workers' union and auto parts giant Magna
is spreading into other sectors.
A news
release issued on January 15 by the Service Employee's International
Union reveals that an organization funded by the CAW has reached a
Magna-style sweetheart deal with Hallmark Housekeeping Services Inc, a
large janitorial company. The
deal could thwart the SEIU's Justice for Janitors campaign which had
signed up over 1000 Hallmark workers in the Toronto area in a legitimate
unionization bid.
The SEIU
claims that six months of progress in organizing at Hallmark was
disrupted by an agreement with the Canadian Construction Workers' Union
(CCWU), an organization “funded to the tune of $5,000,000 by CAW”.
The SEIU
web site reports that “The CCWU and Hallmark came together to enter into a
voluntary recognition agreement that tries to block the campaign by Hallmark
workers to join the SEIU. This leaves the workers at $9.00/hour, without
benefits, without the right to choose a bargaining committee and without
the right to strike when the next agreements are negotiated.”
”SEIU has filed several complaints and an application for
certification with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) and expects
that this pact between Hallmark and the CCWU will be struck down,
allowing the workers to choose SEIU as their union.”
"These
legal actions will take time and divert resources from the real and
necessary struggle to improve the working lives of Toronto 's most
vulnerable workers. For these
workers the ability to bargain freely and choose their own
representatives is absolutely vital if they are to escape poverty. By entering into this tawdry deal with
Hallmark the CCWU has attacked those who need a real union the most"
said Cam Nelson, President, SEIU Local 2.
"Rogue
organizations funded by CLC affiliated unions like the CAW are now using
its transaction with Magna as a calling card to employers. When these
'company unions' trade on these sorts of regressive deals to block
workers from lifting themselves out of poverty by joining a legitimate
union, workers across the board suffer. This deal with Hallmark
represents the spread of 'company unions' and has to be stopped." said Sharleen
Stewart (SEIU Canadian International Vice-President).”
The CAW web site offers no comment on the CCWU or the
Hallmark deal.
|