Unity Makes Strength: Quebec Hotel Workers Mobilize and Win!

A more detailed version of the article that appeared in the latest issue of the journal Strike!...

MONTREAL - At press time, the Confederation des syndicats nationaux (CSN) can probably claim victory for its coordinated negotiation in the Montreal hotels. Five weeks after threatening an all-out strike in 18 hotels, agreements were reached in 17 of them. The unions can now concentrate their energies in helping out the 200 workers currently on strike at the Omni hotel of the Quebec Metropolis and nailing down the same agreement in the other 22 hotels organised with the CSN across the province.

---

Unity Makes Strength: Quebec Hotel Workers Mobilize and Win!

Intense mobilisation

The first weeks of July were a time of intense mobilisation for some 4 000 hotel workers in Montreal. Contracts were ending on June 30th in 18 hotels and the CSN was flexing muscles to improve the industry working condition standards. By July 1st, workers stepped up the pressure on the hotel bosses with a week of disruption (involving, among other things, informational picket lines during extended lunch break). On Friday July 8th, 3200 workers went on a 24h general strike and a mass rally of some 1000 participants was held. There was supposed to be 400 more workers involved in the strike, but a tentative agreement was reached at the Sheraton an hour before the strike was to begin.

Hot on its heels, it was followed the next day by an identical agreement with the Hilton. Meanwhile, the bosses at the Omni decided to lock-out the workers -- who retaliated with a 98% strike vote.

Over the week-end, the unions voted make these tentative agreements into models for all the other hotels. On Tuesday July 12th, a mass meeting of some 1500 union members approved the idea to export the tentative agreements and a vote for an unlimited general strike was taken with July 15th as a deadline to reach an agreement with the hotels. This was the first time ever the CSN unions held a vote on an unlimited general strike in the hotels. In the end, only the workers at the Plaza Metro Center had to go on strike during 3 weeks to force an agreement. All other hotels matched the tentative agreements made with the Sheraton and Hilton (with some minor differences).

Redistribution of wealth

The agreement for which the workers fought has a number of interesting features. First off, it involves decent wage increases (11% over 3 years) -- but in an even more exciting move the workers managed to abolish the "wage ladder". That is, after 30 days, every one working the same job gets the same pay. This is a benchmark idea that runs against the whole logic of the 'labor market' and promotes equality among workers. This is not an abolition of seniority, it just means that it will play differently (for example, a worker will now get 4 weeks holiday after 7 years of seniority and an older worker (55+) will be able to get a 3 or 4 days work week. Another unique feature of the agreement is that both the health package and the pension were improved -- while the bosses' share of the cost was increased by 5% (leaving that much more money in worker's pockets). Also, a new retirement bonus was introduced (which works out up to $8 000 depending on how long you've been slaving for the boss).

Democracy and autonomy

Probably as interesting as what was won is how it was won. The CSN indeed seems to organise differently than other unions. The Confederation generally organises on the basis of one work place, one local. The hotel industry makes no exception and the CSN organises 40 autonomous unions in 40 different hotels. While far from a workers' paradise, this type of set up makes room for far more democracy than found in other unions with huge locals. To avoid the isolation and weakness this autonomy could generate, the CSN unions join force in a federation and are deeply involved in what they call "coordinated negotiation". Every local union maintains autonomy and negotiates directly with its boss, but -- in addition to local demands -- they all agree on a joint platform which sets their baseline demands for creating an 'industry standard'. Before making a compromise on this joint platform, a union must consult with all the other unions. The platform emerges from discussion between the CSN organizers and the rank-and-file membership at general meetings within each of the unions. To be adopted, the platform and the negotiation protocol must be approved by a vote of the grassroots in all of the member unions. Out of 9 000 CSN members in the hotel industry, 7 000 are currently involved in the 'coordinated negotiation'. Since the whole idea started in Montreal, only the workers in this city currently have contracts expiring at the same time -- yet, one of the goals of the current round is to make sure that every other city/region does the same in order to add to the power of the workers.

The CSN unions in the hotel industry are living proof that it is possible to organise in the service industry and to seriously, materially improve working conditions through coordinated action. Unfortunately, the wisdom of the hotel workers --that unity makes strength-- is not yet shared widely across other sectors. Still, there's some fighting inspiration here to offer to the majority of private sector workers who are not yet part of the "Labor Movement".

This article is from the August issue of Strike! - A newsletter of anarchist news and commentary published in Ontario, Canada.
To download a pdf file of the newsletter go to:
http://nefac.net/files/aug_strike1.pdf