by NOEMI LOPINTO

The Old Brewery Mission of Montreal is renowned as a last stop for Montreal’s homeless, who count among the sickest and most desperate in our society. The Mission’s motto being "Take up the challenge," it provides job training and programs that favour social re-integration. So why is the Mission opposing their workers’ attempts to unionize?

Seventy Mission employees, many of whom are former homeless themselves, have formed the charity’s first union, which was certified by the Quebec Labour Relations Board on January 22. The Mission’s board of directors and management team, however, say a union is not necessary.

In the fall of 2002, the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) deposited a request to organize all the workers of the Mission’s three pavilions: the Old Brewery Mission on Clark and St-Antoine, the Patricia Mackenzie Pavilion for women on de Maisonneuve E. and La Maison Roger Beaulieu, another separate shelter for men, in the city’s north end. The Mission also has a warehouse and a new temporary shelter at 90 de la Gauchetière E. The union has since been recognized, but a challenge deposited by the Mission is still pending before the Labour Relations Board.

Lawyer Edward Kravitz represented the Brewery workers at a hearing before the Board in January. At that time, according to Board documents, the Mission’s lawyer challenged the list of names because it excluded the employees of their summer camp and haggled over a part-time cook who had been hospitalized for cancer and was subsequently fired, and another who had been on disability for three months. The Labour Relations Board commissioner, Alain Turcotte, ruled against all of the Mission’s objections.

Kravitz says the Mission’s tactics are old hat. "They try to expand the list of names so it looks like we don’t have a majority," he explains. "The second tactic is to have a long, drawn-out fight at the negotiating table to discourage the workers and hope that the people who started the union will no longer be there. I was really happy to unionize this place. From a human interest point of view, these are people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps."

Hazards of charity

Sonia Scarsella, 33, is a former heroin addict who has been working the night shift as an intervenor at the Patricia Mackenzie Pavilion, full time, for a year. She is also the union treasurer. "All we want is pay equity and a voice," says Scarsella. "We know this is a community organization, and we’re not asking for exorbitant raises. But we need respect for what we do. It’s a hard job."

For $8 to $11 an hour, workers at the Mission are exposed to a variety of diseases and bacteria - from the common cold to scabies, tuberculosis and HIV. Scarsella greets and searches each new client looking for a night’s shelter. While conducting searches, she says some people have pricked their fingers on used syringes or been exposed to HIV in fights. Scarsella says one employee has twice had to take an anti-retroviral cocktail. Intervenors also perform office duties, call police, receive clients, hand out medication, serve meals, break up fights between clients and provide referrals to other outreach organizations. Night supervisors at the Mission’s headquarters on Clark can be alone on the floor with upwards of 325 homeless men, some of whom, the workers claim, come in armed.

Reverend Robert Warren, the Old Brewery executive director, says the Mission has not made any "heroic efforts" to stop the union. "It is the Mission’s responsibility to ensure the unionization process is done properly," says Warren. "Nobody just backs down and says, ‘Oh, okay.’ We work very hard at human resources. We have sick days and salary scales. We’ve made tremendous steps over the years. We’ve listened to a number of complaints and increased staff. There is really not an awful lot left for us to do. We are 80 per cent financed by [corporate] donors, have a huge deficit and there are limits to what we can do."

Pressure meets pressure

But according to Scarsella, the Mission changes workers’ schedules without notice and bestows meaningless titles with no raise in pay. There are no guaranteed rights and responsibilities, no contracts, guaranteed sick days or vacation pay. Senior employees make the same salary as new ones.

"Right now, you need to have worked two months to earn one sick day," adds Scarsella. "If you get burned out before then, you get nothing."

Fifty-nine-year-old Hervé Gravel has been working at the Mission for six years, doing the night shift at the Mission’s HQ. He says the workers went to the CSN because management wouldn’t hear their concerns.

"At the moment we have no rights," says Gravel. "I am alone with 200 to 250 men, plus 60 to 70 residents, and a lot of them are psychiatric cases. In the winter it’s worse. When it’s minus 15, the police bring them in by the dozens: drunks, addicts and schizophrenics. We’ve been so full, we’ve crammed them into the cafeteria. The Reverend says there is no budget for more employees, but I don’t believe it. I told the senior supervisor that I was going to see the [Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail] and [the Commission des] normes du travail, and one week later they had hired someone. We are not asking for the end of the world, just to feel safe."

Dormitories and deficits

L’Institut de la statistique du Québec estimates the homeless population in Montreal is 12,600. This year, the federal government provided $2.1-million for a fourth floor to be added to the Clark building, and provided a temporary shelter on de la Gauchetière E., for 60 men. The Old Brewery has 325 beds, but, with their refuse-no-one policy, can hold up to 600. The Patricia Mackenzie Pavilion houses 80 women while La Maison Roger Beaulieu houses up to 42 clients. The Mission operates on a budget of $3.85-million a year. According to board of director vice-president and honorary treasurer Morrie Cohen, the Mission’s deficit is at $400,000 a year.

"The union should never have happened," says Cohen. "There is nothing really wrong here. The Old Brewery will be here long after we are, long after the union is. When they take the job, we tell them what to expect. No one forces anyone to work here. There have been very few complaints. But if they want more money, and we don’t get extra funding, we’ll have to cut services. You have to remember who will be hurt by that - the most vulnerable people in our society."

Edward Kravitz calls that a "nonsense argument." "That’s standard in non-profit and for-profit organizations, as well as in corporations," he says. "I don’t know any suicidal workers whose demands are so high that they’ll put the place out of business. If you can’t pay people a decent wage, you don’t deserve to be running it. They want to be able to collectively stand up and speak their minds and discuss their working conditions. The law requires that the employer negotiates in good faith and recognizes the union. It’s my experience generally, when a non-union place is organized, the employers have an emotional reaction. But after a while they realize that this is not a three-headed monster that will slay them, and they come to live with it well." :