Burger flippers unite!

>> Another local McDonald's attempts to unionize

By NOEMI LOPINTO

Sébastien Clun, Pascal McDuff and Maxime Cromp are typical McDonald's employees: uniform-wearing, burger-and-fries serving, teenage students who still live with mom and dad. They're also the leaders of the third local attempt to unionize a McDonald's franchise, this time on Peel near Ste-Catherine.

Clun, 18, a two-year veteran of the franchise says, "Almost all the workers signed the union application form. We brought it to the CSN on August 2 and two days later, the bosses hired 26 new workers. But the managers didn't know we had already filed the union paperwork. The management had long faces when they found out." Clun adds that calm now reigns: "They're sucking up good for the moment." But he and his co-workers still "want some respect and better working conditions."

McDonald's has earned a reputation for opposing unionization attempts. In March 1998 workers in a St-Hubert franchise found themselves unionized but jobless when owners Tom and Mike Cappelli closed the restaurant a few days before their application was approved. In February 1999, workers at the McDonald's on Parc and Mont-Royal also filed for union papers, but a 15-month delay between the application and accreditation forced a second vote. Of the 54 workers who participated in the second vote, only 12 remained from the original group, as the employer had hired 58 new employees two days before the deposit of the request. The vote to unionize was defeated.

The only unionized McDonald's restaurant in North America, located in Squamish, B.C., recently voted to decertify after contract negotiations failed. The franchise owner, Paul Savage, refused workers' demands for a 10-cent wage increase to $7.25 an hour.

Robert Lachance, Director of Unionization of the CSN, says he has informed the crew of the potential dangers. "We know they're not going to roll out the red carpet for us. Only by trying will we succeed and as long as people have the will, we will represent them. McDonald's is beginning to understand that they are under the spotlight now. They won't be using the same methods--they are too scrutinized by the Labour Minister and by the public. Ordinary citizens," he says, "were very sympathetic to the failures of the Plateau Mont-Royal and St-Hubert franchises."

McDonald's has expressed its position by communiqué: "We have been made aware that some employees have filed a request to form a union. This isolated activity applies to this one independently owned and operated restaurant. Events in one location in no way represent the entire McDonald's system or the opinions of our more than 13,000 employees in Quebec. Employees choose to work at McDonald's because it best meets their individual needs. These events won't change that."

Robert Lachance doesn't consider the battle quite so isolated. Franchises may be independently owned, he says, but head office dictates policy. "The conditions at one franchise are the same at all the others. Unfortunately for McDonald's, we're going to keep trying."

Clun says he and his fellow workers are ready. "We're prepared for a fight. If they want one, they got it."

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