Rally and info-picket for Laid off textile workers:
Bail out the workers not the bosses!

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Friday April 24th at 3pm,
Roving picket starting at:
corner of st. Laurent and Louvain
(metro Sauve)or 55 north from metro De castelnau get off at
Louvain

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As the economic crisis deepens, Montreal unemployment rate in march
has almost reached 9.3% .
Montreal, textile industry represents 55% percent of the Canadian
textile industry. It makes up almost 20% of the manufacturing industry
in Montreal. Yet the bulk of those becoming laid off in the current
economic climate are those in the textile industry. Some factories
have laid off thousands of workers since in the early 2000′s, many
without any compensation, including packages to retrain workers in
such an economic climate. Most textile workers have been working in
the companies for more than 10 years, with some having more than 20
years of service.

During this time, many companies have become very profitable for its
owners. Some even received federal and provincial funding to upgrade
their technology and subsidize wages in order to be more competitive,
to cut cost and raise profits. Most textile companies have moved
manufacturing in places like China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India to
avail of the cheaper labour costs and specialized skills. While
governments have been paying lip service to help workers through the
current world economic crisis, workers in reality are becoming more
and more vulnerable.

Here in Quebec, without any possibilities of finding new work they
have been promised $500 million dollars to maintain workers in
factories part time. This is only an attempt to subsidize their
crisis. The money should be put into programs for workers that will
support them through this crisis, help feed there families and
retrain.

During this crisis thousands of immigrant workers have been left
without work and unable to gain work due to the profiteering of these
companies who have pushed down the wages of workers by hiring temp
workers, busting unions, and left without any income or anyway of
supporting there families here and back home.

We have had experience with the useless programs for textile workers.
Emploi Quebec has such a program and for many of the textile workers
it is inaccessible from the start Frustrated by the bureaucracy and
the many loopholes preventing many of them from gaining any benefits
from this program, the workers are demanding better from their
government. This is the support from the Charest government to laid
off immigrant workers, who have been in this industry for over 20
years on average.

So join our campaign to seek justice for textile and other workers
affected by this capitalist crisis.

Lamour textile campaign is Endorsed by
Centre for Philippines Concern
Solidarity Across Borders
No One Is Illegal
PINAY
Immigrant Workers Centre
Quebec Solidaire
Canadian Union of Postal workers
South Asian Womens Community Centre
CSN-Montreal

For more information contact:
514-342-2111
iwc_cti@yahoo.com