KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – A spectrum of civil society and labour groups responded to the inadequacy of the 40 cent minimum wage raise today.

“It is quite fitting that this minimum wage increase is happening on April 1, because it really is a joke,” said Hailie Tattrie with the Fight for $15 & Fairness Halifax. She immediately followed up by listing the living wages calculated for Cape Breton ($16.88), Antigonish ($19.55) and Halifax ($21.80).

“Our $12.95 comes not even close to a living wage in this province. Workers in Nova Scotians deserve better; They deserve better wages; they deserve better working conditions, they deserve paid sick days; They deserve a fair wage.”

“The low wages in this province have contributed to poor health outcomes and they have created vulnerable populations,” said Chris Parsons, the provincial coordinator with the Nova Scotia Health Coalition. The Coalition has joined the call for a higher minimum wage and improved worker standards, in particular emphasizing the call for paid sick days.

“The best thing we can do for our public health system is to prevent people from getting sick in the first place. And one of the best ways to do that is to simply provide them with the resources they need, be that shelter, be that food, be that recreation opportunities, as well as just reducing the stress of trying to go through the day having your basic needs met,” explained Parsons.

“We believe that no one should live in poverty, but especially those who are working minimum wage jobs have every reason to expect that they will not be living in poverty,” said Hannah Wood from ACORN Nova Scotia, a union of low and moderate income tenants. “While we have called a lot of minimum wage service workers heroes, we are not paying them a hero’s pay.”

Woods noted the Statistics Canada figure that 32.6% of minimum wage workers in Nova Scotia are over the age 35, countering the narrative that these are jobs for high school students who do not need to support families. “As well, a disproportionate amount of minimum wage workers are women and radicalized people and Indigenous workers, and these poverty wages further intrench these communities into cycles of poverty,” Woods explained while noting that the cost of living has increased by huge margins in recent years, especially with respect to housing costs.

For Darius Mirshahi, who works as an organizer with Justice for Janitors, it is his job to reach out to many of these low wage workers.

“I speak to workers who don’t think they’ll ever get to retire, making close to minimum wage still after decades of essential front-line work as cleaners. I speak to workers often in person, because when you can’t cover all your bills, you’ll cut off your cell phone and your social connection to keep your roof and running water. I speak to workers who haven’t seen a dentist in a decade because they can barely afford to buy groceries. The rent is too damn high, the pay is too damn low, and the people are being squeezed from every direction,” Mirshahi explained.  

He applauded the fact that Nova Scotia’s Minimum Wage review committee recently expressed concerns about the demographics of minimum wage workers, suggesting that a “diversity and inclusion” lens be adopted for setting the minimum wage, but Mirshahi emphasized the need to “apply that lens to the entire labor code.”  

“We have not only a poverty in pay, but a poverty of rights.”

“The most important thing Nova Scotia can do to support janitors in this province is to follow the lead of Quebec, Ontario, and BC and extend successorship rights to contracted service employees. This gives workers a meaningful and realistic path to becoming organized and the stability necessary to be able to negotiate for fair wages and better conditions at their workplace like other workers in the province.  It puts an end to the chaos and arbitrariness of contract-flipping and preemptively resolves workplace conflicts through good and functional policy.”

See also: Big News: Minimum wage goes up 40 cents as of April 1

The post The rent is too damn high, the pay is too damn low: Coalition says recent minimum wage raise not enough appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – One thing the coronavirus taught us is that many jobs we always thought important we can do without for a couple of months. And other jobs, in hospitals, grocery stores, gas stations, and so on, are actually crucial.  

The thing is, that’s typically not reflected in the wages these essential workers are paid or in the working conditions they face.

Janitors are very much among those unsung heroes. Because property owners, governments among them, contract their cleaning services out through a competitive bidding process the pressure on wages is downward, and it’s all about doing more with fewer workers. 

The coronavirus has changed everything

Omar Joof is such a janitor, he used to work at the Halifax Shopping Centre, but with so many stores closed because of the pandemic he now cleans at a large call centre in downtown Halifax.  

“The coronavirus has changed everything,” he says. “Health and hygiene have always been an issue for us, but with the emergence of COVID-19 the dynamics have changed. COVID-19 is a virus that can do terrible harm, it can even kill you.” 

“It’s always on our mind. Before I was redeployed somebody had tested positive at the call centre, and you think about it while at work. Then when you come home you worry about what you may have brought home. And not just for yourself, your family is also affected, there’s always tension there,” he says.

Meanwhile, office workers tend not to think a lot about the people who keep their workplaces clean. Even now, with all the focus on essential workers, frontline workers, etc., still janitors are a bit of an afterthought. Maybe that’s because unlike nursing, policing, etc. janitors don’t require a lot of education, Joof thinks. 

They’re also among the lowest paid, making minimum wage or slightly above, and unless unionized like Joof, without much protection and subject to being fired at the whim of the cleaning contractor.   

From invisible to essential

Now there is a campaign, aptly named From Invisible to Essential, initiated by Joof’s union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to raise the wages and profile of janitorial workers.  The union represents over 10,000 janitorial workers across Canada, 

“We have seen lots of public praise for the role cleaners have been playing but those are really empty accolades. Nice statements, but  nothing following in terms of increased pay for what are some of the lowest paid members of our society,” says Tom Galivan, Secretary-Treasurer of the SEIU Local 2 and involved in the campaign.

“So our members were looking at how they’ve increased pay for grocery store workers, and other sectors of the economy. Meanwhile, they’re going to work every day, facing the risks of COVID-19. That’s why they wanted to band together and launch this campaign to get their issues out and win public support,” Galivan says. 

The campaign is asking for increased pay, increased staff to meet the more stringent expectations, and crucially, a safe workplace.

“A safe workplace is a responsibility that can’t be satisfied by simply saying to the workers, okay, here are some masks and make sure that you take steps to socially distance from each other. There needs to be a very detailed and thorough plan that encompasses everybody in that building, contractors, direct employees, tenants, service people, etc.,” Galivan says.

Contract flipping

Galivan wants all levels of government to take a lead role. 

“Governments are major building owners, and they can easily tell their cleaning contractors to make sure that their cleaners receive a premium, to be proactive around health and safety issues,” he says. 

“In Nova Scotia in particular we need legislation to establish successor rights and to stop contract flipping, so that when a new contractor comes in people don’t lose the gains they made through collective bargaining, or lose their jobs for that matter,” says Galivan.

See also: Protect workers against wage theft and contract flipping, unions tell government

Gary Burrill, the leader of the Nova Scotia NDP, agrees.

“The thing that’s at the top of many people’s minds is how crazy it is that we have in our economy people doing work that is essential to the fundamentals of infection control, who aren’t even making $15 an hour,” says Burrill. 

“We’re in this bizarre situation where janitorial workers are properly hailed as these heroes of healthcare who are looking after infection control and cleaning throughout our healthcare system. But they are actually often working for contractors that are paying them around $13.75. The government could in two minutes make this illegal, and they ought to,” Burrill says.

Joof, who has been a SEIU member for a long time, knows the benefits a union brings to his job. No arbitrary firing of workers, raises negotiated at the bargaining table and applied equally to all, equal pay for equal work, they make his difficult and dangerous job so much more bearable.

“Now more than ever we must make sure that janitors are paid livable wages, so that they can do a good job without being distracted by an inability to pay their bills,” says Joof. 

See also: Op-ed: Fair wages clause in Halifax tenders nothing but fluff

Check out the SEIU From Invisible to Essential web page and sign the petition calling on property owners, managers and cleaning contractors to take action.

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

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The post Invisible no more: Janitors during the coronavirus crisis appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

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https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2711625878847352845

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My in-box today had several messages of interest about Covid-19.

Item 1: Tim Hortons wants us to know the seating areas in all their restaurants are now closed. The coffee shop will be serving the drive-through crowd and the folks who want take-out snacks. 

Both are a problem for the employees. Timmie’s staff who lean out the window to serve coffee at the drive-through are less than 18 inches from the driver of any vehicle. At the counter, workers are about a foot from anyone they serve at the cash register.

In my Timmies, the walk-in customers line up during the morning commute and at mid-morning break time. Most customers stand less than 12 inches from the one ahead of them in line—or behind them.

Item 2: The CEO of Staples Canada wants us to know that what he calls “The Working and Learning Company” will continue to provide excellent service, and office supplies including wipes, sanitizers and other cleaning products.

The Canadian CEO says, “We have reinforced hygiene protocols, restricted business travel for our associates and paused in-store events … We’ve also taken numerous precautions to keep our stores, associates and customers safe, including increased cleaning at every location.” 

What about the cleaners, the employees who are usually paid the least, and the clerks or sales “associates” who earn perhaps a dollar or two more than minimum wage. Minimum wage in Nova Scotia is $11.55 an hour; next month it increases to $12.55 – a far cry from the suggested Living Wage of about $19.00/hour. That is the real cost to live in dignity in Halifax and much of the province.

Store hours will remain long. And no amount of cleaning and sanitizing is going to help with the social distancing needed to stop the scary trajectory of Covid-19 virus. 

Item 3: The top brass at Saint Mary’s University wants us to know that lectures and public events are cancelled for this week, and the next two weeks. International students and those whose homes are elsewhere are encouraged to go home.

Of course the Canadian government is all but demanding people do not travel. And foreign students who try to return may not be allowed back in Canada while the virus is raging. Students can still remain in residence rooms, but the cafeteria and other services have been cut back dramatically.

The professors are permitted to stay at home, and teach online. But the staff including the cleaners, the cafeteria staff, the library and the admin staff are at work on the campus. The press release guarantees that the cleaners are working around the clock to continue to clean and sanitize the buildings, and rooms all over campus. Cleaners, who are unionized, earn about $16 an hour.

Today I had to go to a health food store and then to a grocery store. Clerks who are paid minimum wage are standing and working in close range of customers. This is particularly evident with cashiers. Bus drivers are also at high risk. In a single shift, hundreds if not thousands of passengers have to enter the bus by the front door only and walk within inches of the driver where they can either show a bus pass, or to put cash into the fare box.

Who is thinking about these workers’ health?

Employment Insurance (EI) pays only 55% of gross wages. Fewer than 50% of working Canadians qualify for EI. That is because the self-employed or contract workers are excluded because they are considered ‘independent contractors’.

Labelling workers as ‘independent contractors’ is a tool used by employers to cut down on their responsibility to cover payroll taxes, such as EI. And with the “gig” economy, many more people work “under the table” or have casual jobs with few or no benefits. Some people work mainly for tips..

Last week, Trudeau spoke to the media about his government’s $1 billion Covid-19 package to help Canadians.

The government is spending $100 million of the $1 billion to prevent a Covid-19 spike in First Nations’ communities. However that is merely a drop in the bucket. As journalists at APTN have pointed out, many reserves and communities have no indoor toilets, and no clean water – so hand-washing cannot be a first line of defence. Many First Nations’ people have compromised health, one in four lives with diabetes.

Tuberculosis rates on reserve are 31 times the national average. On- reserve housing is crowded and of poor quality (thanks to the federal government skrimping and denying proper housing) so there is almost no place to self-isolate. Some remote reserves and communities have a health centre staffed by a couple of nurses, but no hospitals.

Out of the $1 billion the feds announced $500 million for provinces and territories to fund critical health care needs including more access to testing and equipment. However with 10 provinces and three territories, that works out to $38.4 million to each.

$50 million is to go to Canada’s Public Health Agency for public education and better communications.

$100 million is to go to more testing at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

On the same day as Trudeau made his announcement, Minister of Finance Bill Morneau and Governor of the Bank of Canada Stephen Poloz rolled out $10 billion in funds to “lend money to businesses under stress.” To help stimulate the economy, business can take advantage of $10 billion in loans and assistance which will be funnelled through the business Development Bank of Canada.

The ratio between what business got and what we, the people received, is $10 billion to $1 billion – 10 to one.

Who is getting lost in all this? First, workers are suffering. They can’t work if schools and daycares are closed and there is no one to look after their kids. But given their low wages (Nova Scotia has the lowest median household income in the country), they have to work as many days and hours as they can before their workplaces shut down indefinitely. And that will be a matter of days. They can’t afford to lose income for two or four weeks while they have to stay home.

The median wage of a single parent (usually a woman) with two kids in Nova Scotia is $40,000 a year or $769 a week. On EI, that working parent would receive only $423 a week – which would not pay their rent or mortgage, never mind food and other necessities.

Now is the time for our federal government to give every adult enough money so they can stay home, and not risk their health and the community’s health by going out to work and spreading the virus.

What if the government paid each working person $2,000 or $2,500 for the month. The government could then tax back that money from higher income people. What that $2000 does is it allows working people to stay home, to eat, to pay their bills and look after their children.

Now is also the time to seriously discuss a Guaranteed Annual Income. There are problems with it for sure – we still must preserve medicare, and initiate more services for everyone. But imagine if people weren’t staying at work at a bar, a restaurant or a cleaning job now – desperate to make rent for April 1. But in their desperation to earn a few hundred dollars, they are putting themselves and the community at greater risk.

Judy Haiven is on the steering committee of Equity Watch, an organization that fights discrimination, bullying and racism in the workplace.  Contact her at equitywatchns@gmail.com

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

Subscribe to the Nova Scotia Advocate weekly digest and never miss an article again. It’s free!

The post Judy Haiven: Workers are forced to put their own and others’ health at risk just to make April’s rent appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Tues May 15, 4pm: Rally and Leafletting

Please join us on TUESDAY MAY 15th at 4pm until 4:45pm outside the RBC on Lower Water Street, the back of 1871 Hollis Street (owned by Armour Group, cleaned by Deep Down), as we rally and leaflet to demand justice for racialized workers. Let’s affirm that Black Workers Matter, and that Janitors are Not Disposable!

See event details on facebook or on the Solidarity Halifax Calendar

May 11-18: Phone Call/Email Campaign

Please call/email each day of the week long campaign, or pick one day that’s convenient and call/email every hour of one day.

Deep Down Cleaning Services

• 902 425-5619 or
• 902 830-1113
• fastresponse@deepdowncleaning.ca

Armour Group

• 902 422-4424
• info@armourgroup.com

When calling (better!) or emailing, could you briefly put forward these three demands:

• That Armour Group adopt a responsible contractor policy with successor rights, and that Deep Down publicly commit to applying successor rights and continuity of employment in their contracts
• That both companies acknowledge that Black workers and livelihoods matter
• That both companies take steps to ensure that racial discrimination cannot become a factor in future contract take-overs

Please commit to taking action, and if you do, please let us know at info@solidarityhalifax.ca so we can let the workers know how many people are supporting them. An injury to one is an injury to all!

The post News release: Justice for Janitors – Black Workers Matter! appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Meanwhile Smiling Goat baristas are not getting paid what they’re owed, they often don’t receive pay stubs, and they can only hope their employer is paying their government deductions.

You’d think that kind of stuff was against the law, but, as the baristas and cleaners can attest, in Nova Scotia there is little to effectively stop these kinds of things. In some cases it may be illegal, but getting justice is another matter.

Because of this the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), representing both the cleaners and the Smiling Goat workers, and the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour (NSFL) are asking for changes to the Labour Standards and Trade Union Acts to protect workers. 

There are lots of exemplary employers, but nonetheless wage theft is fairly common, says NSFL president Danny Cavanagh. There is both the blatant wage theft as experienced by the Smiling Goat workers, as well as the more subtle variety that manifests in things like rounding down hours worked, withholding of tips, not paying for job-mandated training, and the all too familiar work-related email sent after hours with the expectation of a response.

One thing that would be tremendously helpful is to have inspectors with similar powers as those who enforce occupational health and safety standards in the workplace, says Jackie Swaine, president of SEIU Local 2 – Nova Scotia.  Smiling Goat baristas, who are owed tens of thousands of dollars, can file complaints with the Department of Labour, but that’s a lengthy process. Baristas and other low wage earners really don’t have time to wait when the rent is due tomorrow.

The NSFL and SEIU are also calling for worker protection in case an employer goes bankrupt. Give employees priority over other creditors, says Cavanagh, and make directors of corporations and owners personally liable.

Similarly, contract flipping is not an unusual, and can have devastating effects on workers. In the most recent case at Founders,Square, the incoming contractor, Deep Down Cleaning, never offered current cleaners their old jobs, and even if it had, they would have earned less. Workers received a mere two weeks of notice that their services would no longer be required.

• Feds replace unionized cleaners at National Research Council offices in Halifax
• Commissionaires latest victims of Stanfield International Airport cost saving ways

These typically disproportionately affect women, visible minorities and immigrants, notes Cavanagh, who wants the Labour Standards Code amended to ensure workers keep their jobs and working conditions do not deteriorate. If the workers are unionized than they should also keep their union.

Imagine the instability and fear these workers face each time a contract goes up to tender, says Swaine.   

Swaine and Cavanagh have met with civil servants at the Department of Labour, and are now calling for a meeting with the minister.  

See also: Nova Scotia workers need protection against contract flipping

The post Protect workers against wage theft and contract flipping, unions tell government appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

 KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Two weeks ago, a story came to light about seven cleaners who had received notice of layoff after the contractor who employed them lost the cleaning contract at central Halifax’s Founders Square.

Of the eight cleaners who had been working at the site, all seven of African descent were given notice of layoff. A single white crew member was told he would kept on.

On Friday, March 23, the cleaners announced that they would be filing a complaint with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. The next day, approximately one week before the contract ended, the cleaners were abruptly fired.

The property manager, Armour Group, responded to the allegations of racial discrimination by claiming that the cleaners who had been let go were sub-par employees.

Community response

Community groups have lined up in support of the cleaners. Former Poet Laureate and well-known local activist El Jones responded to Armour’s line, calling it “an attempt to refocus conversation on speculations about the performance of the janitors rather than on anti-Black racism and on the attack on unionized labour,” adding:

We should also recognize that attempts to paint the Black workers as lazy, unclean, and negligent have long historical roots in stereotypes and portrayals of Black people that date far back into slavery.

Robert Wright, a social worker, renowned expert on race relations, and a tenant of Founders Square, wrote a statement in support of the cleaners, including that:

when it comes to complaints about those who serve us, people feel more free to complain about the services rendered by immigrants or people of colour. This is not only true of janitorial services, but also about professional roles as well.

Working in property services

Sadly, this story is all too familiar. In Nova Scotia, employees performing property services — where women, new immigrants, black, indigenous, and other people of colour are vastly overrepresented — face constant downward pressure on their wages and working conditions.

Property managers, trying to maintain their properties at the lowest possible cost, leverage property services contractors against one-another. The contractors bid as low as possible, often at rates near and even below minimum wage, to win contracts.

The result is that property services workers — cleaners, foodservice workers, security guards — face job-insecurity and extremely poor working conditions. Even where property services workers have made gains through collective action and organizing unions, the downward pressure from competing contractors does not relent.

Successor rights

In the usual course, when a business is sold the employees are kept on and their employment contracts are honoured. In the case of unionized workers, the employment contract is the collective agreement. Section 31 of Nova Scotia’s Trade Union Act requires an employer who purchases a business to honour the existing collective agreement. This concept is called “successor rights’.

In property services, when a contract is “flipped” (awarded to a different contractor) successor rights do not apply. This is the case even though the same work is being done, in the same location, often by the same employees. Nothing has changed except the workers’ uniforms, the contractor profiting from their work, and any gains the workers have made are erased; it is back to minimum wage.

Extending successor rights to property services: The Ontario approach

Ontario has extended successor rights to property services workers. Section 69.1 of the Labour Relations Act deems a flipped property services contract to be a sale of business. Even though the employer has changed, the union and the collective agreement remain in place.

69.1 (3) For the purposes of section 69, the sale of a business is deemed to have occurred,

(a) if employees perform services at premises that are their principal place of work;

(b) if their employer ceases, in whole or in part, to provide the services at those premises; and

(c) if substantially similar services are subsequently provided at the premises under the direction of another employer.

The section 69 referred to provides successor rights when a sale of business has occurred.

Ontario also provides some protections to workers who are not in a union when a property services contract is flipped. Section 75 of the Employment Standards Act requires a new contractor to pay severance to any employees it does not rehire when it takes over a contract. Thus, the new contractor is incentivized to keep the staff in their jobs. The new contractor is also entitled to the workers’ contact information so that it may extend job offers to them before taking over the contract.

The protections in Ontario are far from perfect. Property services workers there still do some of the hardest work, for the lowest pay and the least job security. That said, the modest protections in the Labour Relations Act and Employment Standards Act have benefited those workers.

Nova Scotia needs successor rights for property service workers

Nova Scotia should follow that example and legislate similar protections for these workers. The legislation is uncomplicated: we would just need to deem a contract flip to constitute a sale of business for the purposes of successor rights, like section 69.1 above.

The costs this change would impose on property service contractors, property managers, property owners, and tenants are negligible. In any case, an increase in costs is warranted, as these groups have benefitted from the vulnerability and constantt low wages of property services workers for far too long.

Because racialized workers, new immigrants and women are so over-represented in low-waged and precarious jobs, this small change would have the impact of lessening racial and gendered disparity in our economy.

Extending successor rights to property services workers is a necessary change that would help prevent another situation like the one we’ve seen at Founders Square.

See also: Commissionaires latest victims of Stanfield International Airport cost saving ways

The post Nova Scotia workers need protections against contract flipping appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

That these seven Black workers, many of them recent immigrants, had dependents who relied on their employment, did not seem to matter at all. With barely two weeks notice their jobs were terminated, and no manager or boss involved in their firing really gave it much thought.  

Click to view slideshow.

But it does matter to their union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2, and to the workers’ supporters who have been holding boisterous and well attended rallies at Founders Square on a regular basis ever since.

It also matters to Jason MacLean, president of the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union, who called out Nova Scotia as a province where working while Black means you are very likely to encounter racism.

“The Black experience in Nova Scotia is, shut up, put your head down, don’t say anything, or else,” said MacLean, who went on to relate how, when working as a teenager at a drugstore, he was pushed out to accommodate a white relative of the owner, “That’s the experience of Black workers in Nova Scotia. You have to stand up, don’t ever be silent!”

Also at the rally was Nova Scotia NDP leader Gary Burrill, together with NDP MLAs Lenore Zann, and Tammy Martin. Burrill wants the government to enact successor rights legislation to ensure that collective agreements remain in place and workers keep their jobs when a contract is transferred to a new company.

Burrill also suggested people call Labi Kousoulis, MLA for the Founders Square area and minister of Labour to help make it so. “The number to call is 444-8200. Disrespect has to go!,” Burrill lead the crowd in chanting.

Other speakers at the rally included poet, teacher and activist El Jones, Dalhousie Student Union president Masuma Khan, activist Raymond Sheppard, CLC representative Tony Tracy, SEIU Local 2 president SEIU Local 2 – Halifax president Jackie Swaine, and veteran activist Lynn Jones, who was upset about much of the local press coverage of the firing of the workers.

“You must report fairly, and I don’t mean that after we give you the facts, then when the Armour Group comes up with a different story somehow that becomes what you view as the truth,” said Jones.

Taylor MacLean, one of the workers who lost his job at Founders Square last month, also spoke.

“All these people came out today, and they came out because they believe in our cause,” said MacLean,. “You have to give props where props are due, to people like El Jones, people like Lynn Jones who has been doing this since before I was born,  Masuma Khan, all these people here”

“We read in the press that one of Deep Down Cleaners’ co-owners is Black. How often do you hear that excuse. It’s like saying my neighbour up the street is Black, and I know him. When I look at the company’s website I don’t even see his name. Why use him as a shield? ” MacLean asked.  

SEIU organizer Darius Mirshahi told the crowd that the coalition in support of the fired workers isn’t going away. “Just because it’s not quite as much in the media doesn’t mean it’s over, we have to keep this issue alive. The Armour Group may have thought this was over, but it isn’t,” Mirshahi said.

See also: The good, the bad and the ugly.  Lynn Jones about the Founders Square janitors and how much of the local press got it wrong

SEIU Local 2 in Nova Scotia is located at 163 Wyse Road Dartmouth, NS B3A 1M5.
Telephone: 902 455 1095. Toll Free (N.S. only): 1-800-563-1095.

The post News brief: Justice for Janitors returns to Founders Square appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Nova Scotian workers need successor rights!

Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1919779578040461/

Join us as #WeRise to end poverty, precariousness, and prejudice in the janitorial industry. Let’s show that Halifax is united for workers rights and for an end to racial discrimination in all its forms. This rally will include speeches from community leaders, lively chants and music, as well as an important announcement and update on this campaign, followed by a short march to Province House.

Rally + Picket + Press Conference

Founders Square, 1701 Hollis St. Halifax, NS

Thursday, April 12th

12PM.

Together we rise for racial and economic justice. We rise to affirm that Black Workers Matter, that Janitors are not Disposable, and we unite our voices to call on…

-> Armour Group to adopt a responsible contractor policy.

-> Deep Down Cleaning Services to commit to changing how they operate when taking over contracts.

-> Nova Scotia to pass legislation that gives workers greater stability and protections against arbitrary job loss through contract flipping

-> All levels of government to pass responsible contractor policies and build social justice riders into all lease agreements with property managers where government is a major tenant.

NEW STATEMENT ON THE ONGOING CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE FOR JANITORS @ FOUNDERS SQUARE

Janitors deserve respect. Janitors deserve dignity. Janitors deserve protection from unnecessary and arbitrary job loss. Black workers must not continue being the “Last Hired and First Fired”.

Together we must rise to end racial injustice and demand a better future for the people who keep our communities and workplaces clean.

Recently the contract for cleaning Founders Square changed hands. As a result, all the cleaners of African descent were let go. Workers were then completely ignored by both Armour Group and Deep Down Cleaning Services when they reached out to discuss continued employment.

After being ignored, the Black janitors went ahead with announcing a human rights complaint alleging discrimination. Armour Group retaliated by ending the contract a week early, banning these workers from the building, and smearing the quality of their work in the media. This resulted in daily pickets endorsed by a wide coalition of community, labour, political, and faith groups including the African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia, an umbrella organization for 19 churches.

In a shameful display of indifference, neither Armour Group or Deep Down Cleaning have even bothered to reach out to these workers or engage in any dialogue. Instead, Deep Down has suggested that they plan on continuing their practice of discarding entire groups of workers arbitrarily in future contract take-overs. This is guaranteed to result in more sites of conflict and more disrupted lives in our community.

Building managers such as Armour Group must operate in a manner that is respectful of the lives, livelihoods, and dignity of their contracted cleaning staff. Colluding with incoming contractors to discard entire groups of workers is not only immoral, it can also so easily open the door for racial discrimination and other prejudicial hiring practices.

It is time for Nova Scotia to enact legislation to prevent injustices like this from re-occurring. The long and sordid history of racial injustice in this province demands policy changes that break cycles of economic dispossession still at play today.

Given that janitorial workers are disproportionately Black, Nova Scotia needs to address this as both a racial justice and an economic justice issue and follow the example of other jurisdictions that have enacted successor rights to give workers much-needed protections.

It is time for us all to treat janitorial workers with respect, and honour the vital role they play in our society. We can do that by creating systemic change that both safeguards against racial injustice and helps lift hundreds of families in our community out of poverty. The time is now to transition this industry into a place where people can once again find good, stable, and dignified work.

SEIU LOCAL 2: Justice for Janitors

Black Workers Matter Community Coalition

The post News release: Justice For Janitors rally this Thursday; new statement on the campaign appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

And Jones has nothing but great memories of her collaboration with Joell and Bill Plaskett, and the performance at last Thursday’s rally of a brand new song the three co-wrote in support of the cleaners.  

But she is angry about the way the unfair treatment of Black workers was sanitized in much of the local press. Reporters, grow some spine, she says, and ask some follow-up questions rather than just write down what the Armour Group and the new cleaning contractor tell you. And certainly don’t apologize to your readers for initially writing the truth, as Metro Halifax did last Thursday.

The good

I was absolutely overjoyed to see the number of Black people who came out on Monday. That Sunday I had made an announcement at church, and I said, “how can we possibly not be out there?” All you have to do is stand, so don’t tell me you can’t do it!

They felt really excited about being there. And the signs were great. Black workers matter! Last hired, first fired! And the chants. I don’t think I have ever attended such a wonderful rally. I felt great being a part of it.

The other thing that struck me is the energy of the SEIU organizers, When (SEIU organizer) Darius Mirshahi suggested we hold two rallies a day, I thought this man is crazy, But it worked. All the while they’re also juggling the Smiling Goat workers…

Also, I was so pleased to collaborate with Joel Plaskett, and with Bill Plaskett, his father, and help write and perform that new song during Thursday’s rally. Bill is a long time social activist, and so is Joel. It was so great to see how Joel, that Juno award winner, still understands the importance of standing up for workers’ rights. Three social activists, sharing this common ground, and putting it to music.

The bad and the ugly

Jones was particularly upset with this Metro Halifax article, a follow up on its earlier reporting but now including a rebuttal by the Armour Group, the property management company that ended the contract with the janitorial company that employed the cleaners.

That article ended on the following note: “Note to readers: This story has been updated to reflect concerns expressed by Armour Group. We apologize for any confusion an earlier version of this story may have caused.”

I was looking forward to sharing the articles about me and Joel, but they ruined it with the Armour Group response. I didn’t want anything to do with that garbage. I never sent those articles to anybody.

What bothered me most was the apology the newspaper issued. We made our case, then the Armour Group comes along and without checking anything Metro apologizes for reflecting what we said. What does that tell you about reporter and newspapers? This is a prime example of what we keep having to put up with. The Armour Group said something, and now that’s gospel. Everything we said got wiped out. Readers who are following developments in the paper now think our info was incorrect and the employers must have been right all along. That’s what the paper said. Never mind that it was all lies.

Armour Group in the article said that no workers were fired. That’s just semantics. What do you call it when you advise people that their contract will not be renewed a couple of weeks before?  Is that fair to a worker who supports their family? How many people out there would think seven days notice is fair?

The article also repeats Armour Group’s claim that the reason for ending the contract was the quality of the work by the cleaners. One of the cleaners explained that those 200 complaints, over the length of that contract isn’t that many, because anytime somebody gets sick and messes up a bathroom, it’s technically a complaint.

• See also: “I have never had occasion to complain about the state of cleanliness.” Founders Square tenant reacts to firing of seven Black janitors

Meanwhile the issue that is missed entirely by all reporters is what this does to unionization. The fired workers were unionized, now non-unionized workers with fewer rights will take their place. The union gets busted. Isn’t that something that should be questioned? Isn’t that a story angle that should be pursued?

Their company found the workers other positions, and that is supposed to make everything okay. But not all workers got the same number of hours as before, and we don’t know how much the public pressure played a part in that decision. Affected workers should have a voice in all of this, that’s the bottom line.

See also:

• News brief: Is this how we welcome people to Nova Scotia? Founders Square pickets continue
• I can’t see this injustice continue. An interview with Lynn Jones

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The post The good, the bad, and the ugly – An interview with Lynn Jones about the Founders Square janitors and how much of the local press got it wrong appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.