-Caveat Lector- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- FAST FOOD: Franchise workers prove slow to join unions Financial Times, August 13 McDonald's thwarts an attempt by employees to organise - but only by treating them better, reports Edward Alden Tessa Lowinger, 17, says she and her co-workers organised the first union to win certification at a McDonald's restaurant in North America for a simple reason: they were tired of getting yelled at by their managers. One year later, they aren't getting yelled at any more. But they don't have a union either. By a vote of 45 to 26, employees at the McDonald's franchise in Squamish, a bustling fast food stop on the road between Vancouver and the internationally famous Whistler ski resort, decided last month to leave the Canadian Auto Workers' union. The vote, taken before a first contract could be negotiated, ended the most ambitious effort yet by a union in North America to gain a toehold at one of the world's largest employers. The failure says a lot about the immense difficulty the labour movement faces in organising the growing number of service sector workers, and about the increasingly sophisticated tactics companies are using to keep the unions out. If McDonald's is to succumb to organised labour anywhere on the continent, it would most likely be in British Columbia, which has a social democratic government and laws that are friendly to union organising. The Canadian Auto Workers, Canada's largest private-sector union, has ambitiously targeted low-paid service workers and scored some significant successes, including several outlets of Starbucks, the coffee chain, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, the fast-food empire. But the union admits that McDonald's was a more ambitious target. "This was not about the CAW setting out to organise McDonald's," says Denise Kellahan, president of the union local. "We were responding to a call for help from the employees. We told them it was going to be tough." >From the day the union was certified last August, the clock started ticking. Under the labour laws, the union has a 10-month grace period after the initial certification. After that, employees who are not happy with the union can request a decertification vote. Ms Kellahan claims: "From day one McDonald's used every legal manoeuvre they could think of to stall negotiations." The franchise went before the Labour Relations Board, the quasi-governmental body that adjudicates union disputes, with a variety of challenges to the certification. The company argued that, because many of the workers were under the legal voting age of 18, they needed parental consent to join the union. That was rejected. After a strike vote last December, McDonald's went to the board charging that the employees had been misled by the union during the vote. When that was turned down, the decision was appealed against. Despite the delays, a board-appointed mediator recommended a settlement providing for a modest 10 to 15 cent an hour raise on wages that are at or near the provincial minimum of C$7.15 (US$4.76), as well as basic seniority rights and grievance procedures. McDonald's rejected the contract, saying it would be too costly. Before an arbitrator could rule, however, the 10-month period expired. The legal costs of the protracted defence have not been disclosed, but it was "well into six figures", said one board insider. The owner of the McDonald's franchise, Paul Savage, did not return calls, and his lawyer refused to comment. It is clear, however, that the union had tenuous support to begin with. Many workers felt that in exchange for a small raise, they were going to be saddled with seniority rules that would hurt younger part-time workers and they would have to pay union dues from their salaries. Also complicating the union's cause was the extraordinarily high turnover at the franchise, typical of many fast-food outlets that rely mostly on high-school or college students. McDonald's approach, however, appears to have been direct: the franchise simply started treating its employees better. Ms Lowinger, one of the original organisers, says the workplace has become entirely different since the union drive. Several new managers were hired, nobody is yelled at any more and various safety concerns have been resolved. McDonald's is certainly not the first employer to sweeten confrontation with co-optation. After a dozen Starbucks outlets were organised in British Columbia and a first contract negotiated, the Seattle-based company promptly gave the same wage increases and benefits to all its employees in the province. None has since opted for the union. But Ms Lowinger, who is leaving McDonald's to go to college, wonders how long the new spirit will last. "The new employees see what it is now, what the union has made it, which is a good workplace," she says. "All we can do is hope it stays that way." end ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. -- DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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