McUnion recognition in North America?
Workers in St-Hubert, Quebec, may soon become the first
McDonald's employees in North America to unionise
Union drives in 1993 and 1994 failed to win support from a majority of employees at test-case McDonald's outlets in Quebec and Ontario. McDonald's Restaurants of Canada and its franchise-holders vigorously resisted unionisation. Militant workers say that their hours were cut to make way for more docile employees.
But local 973 of the Teamsters Union is confident of victory this time and expects to organise employees at least a dozen more McDonald's outlets in the Montreal region before the summer.
"The difference this time around is that we made sure we had a solid majority from the start," said Louis Fournier, a spokesman for the Quebec Federation of Labout (FTQ) to which the Quebec Teamsters belong. Most McDonald's restaurants have high turnover. Many of those behind previous union drive left or were fired before the matter came put to a formal vote, he said. This problem is unlikely to arise at the StHubert outlet. The average age of the 62 employees is over 30 and the majority work full- time. 14 14 International Viewpoint
The Teamsters began a new union drive on Montreal's South Shore last autumn (fall). Common grievances among McDonald's workers include low wages and a failure by employers to compensate for overtime. Many workers said they are required to arrive up to 30 minutes before the beginning of their shift, without pay, to prepare machines and other equipment. After six years at the St-Hubert McDonalds, 30-year-old Martin Tremblay still only makes 20 cents more than Quebec's minimum wage, $C 6.70.
The application for union certification is now in the hands of the Commissaire general du travail, in Quebec's Labour Ministry. How long it takes to rule on the application "will depend on the objections McDonald's tries to raise," says Fournier. "Corporate lawyers always have many resources at their disposal to stall the process."
The Quebec Federation of Labour already represents workers at several Harvey's and Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food restaurants in the province. * Source: The Globe and Mail, March 6, 1997
the party, accusing the Ortega leadership of "Stalinist" methods and calling for a renewal of Sandinismo. Ramirez and other historical FSLN leaders (notably Dora Maria Tellez, of legendary stature) established the Movimiento de Renovacion Sandinista (MRS). The MRS complained of lack of internal democracy in the FSLN, and of government by pact between the elites, particularly of collusion between Ortega and Antonio Lacayo, Chamorro's Presidential Minister.20
The FSLN majority on the other hand accused the MRS of moving too far to the right in seeking further accommodation to Chamorro's neo-liberal policies, and of not supporting the 1993 transportation workers' strike.? The split began to surface in the May 1994 special FSLN Congress, which ratified the Ortega leadership and gave his Democratic Left current a majority, and placed Sergio Ramirez and his tendency in a minority. On October 25, the conflict spread to the party newspaper Barricada, whose MRS-affiliated editor was sacked. The FSLN majority described this policy as reimposing party discipline, while the MRS charged it smacked of "authoritarianism" and the "orthodox left." Ernesto Cardenal resigned from the party at this point, claiming that Ortega had kidnapped the party to further his own political ends. Pressures in a uni-polar world
Under Chamorro, the Sandinista army was reduced from 96,000 troops in 1990 to 21,000 in 1992 and 15,250 by 1993. Its budget dropped from $177 m. in 1990 to $36.5 m. in 1993. In a 1991 interview, "The Army will not be the armed wing of Sandinismo," General Humberto Ortega asserted that peace and foreign funding would not have been achieved had his brother been elected, and said he was 100% commited to Chamorro's economic plan.
In July 1993, the Sandinista Army attacked an incursion of dissident Sandinista combatants in Esteli, in a context in which General Ortega wanted to show the U.S. and UNO critics that the military was independent of the FLN and supportive of the Chamorro government. The FSLN National Directorate severly criticised General Ortega. Pressure from Senator Helms and the U.S. government pushed Chamorro to remove General Ortega and replace him with Joagun Cuadra in February 1995. The Ejercito Popular Sandinista was renamed; it is now called the Nicaraguan National Army.
The 1994 split led to ironic twists and turns: while the FSLN majority (Izquierda Democratica) charged that the MRS was making a classical social-democratic orientation, Daniel Ortega chose Juan Manuel Caldera as his running mate for the 1996 elections. Caldera is not a member of the FSLN, but is rather a member of the Supreme Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), the main organisation of Nicaraguan capitalists and was a virulent opponent of the Sandinistas in the 1980s. Ortega's choice of running mate was interpreted by many Nicaraguans as signalling a turn to the right, further accommodation to bourgeois in-
1o Nicaragua/Brazil *
Brazil