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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Ministre de L’emploi et de La Solidarité Sociale
800 rue Square Victoria

(Métro Square-Victoria)

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The Immigrant Workers’ Centre will be having a demonstration on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 from 12:00 pm until       1:00 pm in front of the Office of the Ministre de L’emploi et de La Solidarité Sociale 800, rue de Square-Victoria, (Métro Square-Victoria)

In recent months, many workers have come to the IWC and talked about the lay-offs in the textile and apparel industry in Montreal. We have met workers from Peerless, Gildan, Main Knitting and on a large-scale from Lamour Industry.

More than 60 workers from Lamour are involved in a campaign for just compensation. Although the workers have been laid off in small groups, collectively, they believe these lay-offs should be considered collective and therefore they should be eligible for a substantial termination package. Many of them have been working for this company for more than 10 years, with some having more than 20 years of service. During this time, L’Amour Inc has become a very profitable company for its owners. L’Amour boasts that it is a leading company in the apparel industry and has operations in places like China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India with over 2500 workers worldwide. A long-time partner of the retail giant Walmart, it recently broke into the US market in July, 2007, by taking over Terramar Sports, a company based in Tarrytown, New York, USA.

All of this was made worse by a union being set up in 2004 that many workers believe to be a “pro-management” union. This prevented workers from organizing into a genuine and militant workers’ union that would have fought for their rights, jobs and dignity. The workers’ demands are simple: to be compensated fairly for the years of loyalty they’ve shown this company. Most of all, they want their dignity and call for justice for the dismissed L’Amour workers!

*Montreal has 75% of the jobs in manufacturing in Quebec

62.3% of Quebec’s garment manufacturing establishments are in Montreal

What do workers want?

1. The Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity intervene in the L’Amour case and workers be compensated for the years that they worked. The compensation should be 1 year of pay for every five years worked. For those less than 5 years they would have an additional 4 weeks of salary added to their 8 weeks that they already received.

1. Recognizing that the current laws and policies regulating lay-offs are inadequate and L’Amour was able to by-pass them, the Minister launch a public inquiry into the situation at L’Amour.

1. Because the union did not represent the workers, it must return all of the dues received over the past three years to the workers.

1. The Minister force L’Amour to register with the government the mass lay off, so that the laid off workers can avail of a program with the Quebec Employment and Social Solidarity for the textile industry that would provide some benefits to the workers after their employment insurance runs out.