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NEWS & LETTERS, June 2004Quebecor unsafeChicago--On April 28, Workers Memorial Day, the day to memorialize workers injured and killed on the job, employees of Quebecor World Inc. in 13 countries demanded safer jobs. Their petition presented to the multi-national corporation says they are entitled to "respect, dignity and fairness...and...the right to know their rights will be respected.” Beginning in Montreal in 1954, Quebecor began acquiring publishing and printing operations while World Color had been in business in St. Louis from 1904 using technology and mergers to become a leading printing operation in the U.S. Quebecor World Inc. became the largest merger in the history of the industry. The multi-national spans North America, South America, Europe, and India. The Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU) is helping workers organize in seven plants in the United States (some U.S. facilities have unions). But Quebecor World is using the lax enforcement of labor laws to illegally harass, fire, and intimidate those workers. Where Canadian workers can become unionized by signing cards, law forces elections in which companies like Quebecor can call mandatory anti-union meetings, isolate union organizers, and even send mail to people’s families threatening that the union will cost people their jobs. Safety and discrimination are major issues with the workers. Since 1998, Quebecor has been cited by the the U.S. Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) more than 140 times for unsafe working conditions. Black and Latino workers complain that their all-white supervisors only offer to train white workers for better jobs in the plants. At Olive Branch, Miss. Black women fill 96% of the lowest paid positions. Not one is in management, even though 36% of the workforce is African-American women. These workers are calling for a “seniority system” to provide for fairness in opportunity. The international campaign against Quebecor is seeking respect for the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Justice@Quebecor, as the campaign is called, seeks to replicate global agreements that have been achieved with other multi-nationals by their workers (http://www.Justice@Quebecor.org). While this type of movement is self-limiting within the confines of capitalism and even within one corporation, it does take a step into the future when globalization of workers’ rights becomes a conscious element of peoples’ lives. --Dennis Dixon |
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