UNITE HERE, a union that represents workers in the apparel, textile, hotel, and restaurant industries, has just launched a campaign against clothing chain Zara. Zara workers in a downtown Montreal store joined UNITE HERE in 2007 to fight bad working conditions at their store, including unpredictable schedules, short staffing, favouritism by bosses, and disregard for seniority.
According to UNITE HERE, however, Zara has fought back, using tactics that may have violated the Quebec labour code: four workers who supported the union at Zara’s Rockland Mall store were fired in April and May 2008; two workers who led a union drive at Zara’s downtown Montreal store were demoted in August 2007; and management held anti-union meetings at three of their Montreal stores, telling workers that joining a union would be “treason” – in fact, it’s their legal right.
These are old, dirty, anti-labour tricks that need to be stopped, especially in the retail sector, which employs a disproportionate number of young women in low-wage work (see graph below). It takes a lot of guts to fight back against an employer that’s being a bully (I should know, I’ve been on strike against York University for the past six weeks), and these workers need our support.
You can read about the situation here, and take action here. For insight into the retail industry and why unions can make a difference, read this.
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two comments
Damn! A friend of mine who works in the clothing business once told me that Zara has the best manufacturing ethics of all the big retailers she knows... she claimed they don't use sweatshops and thus that I could feel good about the purchases I made there when I could afford it (which was... twice). Sucks that they can't keep up the ethical policy on the retail labour end of things. I'm not surprised, though - there's always a catch.
Posted by Anna
December 18, 2008, 12:07 AM
It's great to hear that there is support for the Zara workers in Montreal! You can check out our site for updates on the campaign at www.respectretailworkers.ca.
Anna - If you read some Spanish, you can also find info online about a campaign that is currently being run by La Campaña Ropa Limpia, the Spanish branch of the Clean Clothes Campaign (an anti-sweatshop group) about improving the Code of Conduct of Inditex, Zara's parent company.
Posted by Claire, UNITE HERE Campaigner
January 14, 2009, 11:10 AM
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