Foodservice workers at George Brown College and Seneca College in Toronto voted yesterday, for a second time in less than three weeks, to confirm Workers United as their union of choice.
After being visited by Paul Clifford, President of UNITE HERE Local 75, just a little over a week ago, Evelyn Neequaye, a shop steward for George Brown College said: “When Paul told me that his union was trying to stop us from voting and that this was a good thing, I had to laugh. Their attempts to deny us our right to vote reminded me of all the reasons why we chose to leave Local 75 four years ago and chose to be part of the formation of Workers United last year.”
In yet another demonstration of their contempt for worker democracy, UNITE HERE has gotten the Ontario Labour Relations Board to seal the boxes from three votes at food service locations in Ontario. Rather than waiting the three weeks it would take to have a hearing about the technicality raised by UNITE HERE, workers at all three locations re-signed enough union cards in less than 12 hours to trigger a second vote. That vote will take place next week.
“We were members of Local 75 of UNITE HERE before the merger. There were a lot of problems that went ignored. We are staying with Workers United because things are much better now and we do not want to go back to the old ways” said Genat Gmedhin, shop steward at George Brown College, Casa Loma Campus.
Toronto, May 14 – This past week two more workplaces, through OLRB votes, have democratically chosen Workers United over UNITE HERE to represent them at work. The workers of Mallia Fashions and Silgan Plastics voted 97% in favour of Workers United. Over 2000 workers from 24 workplaces have held similar votes since September 2009 reiterating the choice they made in March 2009 to leave UNITE HERE.
“I’m proud that my local choose to stick with Workers United.” said Kuldip Lall, a maintenance mechanic at Silgan Plastics. “We’ve finally got our own union back. We don’t have to worry about UNITE HERE bothering us any longer.”
Salvatore Marini, a cutter at Mallia Fashions was also pleased with the vote results. “We have never even heard from any UNITE HERE reps. It is crazy that they claim to represent us. This vote has made it clear to them that we are Workers United!” Read the rest of this entry »
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