Category: Community Solidarity

VITTORIA TRATTORIA FIRING UNFAIR, MUST NEGOTIATE WITH THE IWW OR FACE BOYCOTT

Ottawa-Outaouais General Membership Branch
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
MEDIA RELEASE
July 9, 2013
For Immediate Release

OTTAWA—The Industrial Workers of the World are picketing Vittoria Trattoria (William Street location) to defend a member unfairly fired on May 18, 2013.

After two years on the job, our member spoke up to demand fair treatment for his co-workers and to improve health and safety standards at the restaurant.

In response, Vittoria Trattoria summarily fired him. The manager did not give our member two weeks notice nor was he paid two weeks’ termination pay as required by the Employment Standards Act. His response to legitimate workplace concerns was to fire the worker and intimidate by example the restaurant’s remaining employees.

The IWW will continue to picket the restaurant to demand fair treatment for our member and for all Vittoria Trattoria employees. Our member is not the only worker who has faced this unacceptable behaviour.

The IWW is calling on Ottawans to not cross our picket line and to respect a boycott of both the William Street and Rivergate Way restaurants until management meets with our union to negotiate in good faith and to respond in a fair and meaningful way to our settlement offer.

Arbitrary firings and disrespect for the Employment Standards Act is rampant in Ottawa. Furthermore, wage theft is a growing trend among bosses who decide to not pay some or all of the wages, severance pay and other benefits earned by their employees. Workers can win these fights when they unite and take action.

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For more information, please contact Heather, IWW Organizer, 613-618-9459

Ottawa Police, City Must Stop Harassing Panhandlers

MAY DAY NEWS RELEASE

May 1, 2013

Ottawa—The Ottawa Panhandlers Union of the Industrial Workers of the World is calling on the Ottawa Police Service and the politicians at City Hall to stop harassing and intimidating panhandlers.

It is time for Ottawans to stand up for this city’s panhandlers. The police continue to use the Safe Streets Act as a tool to sweep the streets, making it more difficult for panhandlers who are trying to simply get by, day by day.

We are urging our members and the public to watch out for police officers who are pulling the following tricks:

Threatening Tickets Citing Irrelevant Bylaws

Police officers are telling panhandlers in the Market area that they are going to issue them tickets using Byward Market Bylaw 2008-449. We’ve read the bylaw and it only applies to vendors; not panhandlers who do not sell anything.

Pressuring business staff and owners to complain about panhandlers

Police are entering businesses in order to solicit complaints from owners and staff about panhandlers on the street nearby. Fortunately, many business owners and staff resist the police pressure to file a complaint. We thank them for their efforts. Police should stop this tactic immediately; it’s not their job to make up complaints so they can harass our members and people on the street.

The Ottawa Panhandlers Union finds these tactics of misinformation and harassment unacceptable. The police should know better.

We urge Ottawans to write their city councillors and the Ottawa Police Service to let them know what they think of this behaviour.

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The Ottawa Panhandlers Union was formed in 2004 as a way for people on the street to unite, help each other and defend against police, municipal and provincial attacks. For more information or to get involved with the Ottawa Panhandlers Union, email opu@ottawaiww.org.

Ministry Issues Cheques For Unpaid Wages Case

Ottawa-Outaouais General Membership Branch
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
MEDIA RELEASE

February 20, 2013
For Immediate Release

OTTAWA—Fifteen months is a long time for workers depending on minimum wage to wait for justice.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour has issued cheques to IWW members Stephen Toth and Brandon Wallans, owed unpaid wages, in response to a long and arduous battle with a holdout employer.

“This satisfactory settlement is a message to other Ottawa employers that respecting their workers and paying them their wages is not optional,” said Ahmed, an IWW spokesperson.


Stephen and Brandon are very happy with the result and look forward to helping other workers defend their rights on the job and fight wage theft.

Wage theft is a growing trend among bosses who decide not to pay some or all of the wages earned by their employees. These thefts can be fought by workers most effectively when they unite and take action, not just through formal legal channels but also by hitting the picket lines.

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For more information, please send an email to ott-out@iww.org

Industrial Workers of the World Declare Solidarity with the Quebec Student Strike!

Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) across Canada stand in solidarity with students and workers across Québec who are taking a courageous stand against rising tuition fees and the government-backed capitalist attack on the working class in the age of austerity.

By refusing to go to school and by taking to the streets in the hundreds of thousands, Quebecois, including IWW members in Montréal, Sherbrooke and the Outaouais, are showing the rest of Canada that direct action really does get the goods.

The IWW calls on the police to stop attacking independent media in Quebec, such as Concordia University’s CUTV, as their live broadcasts and coverage are essential to democratic change.

The IWW also calls on the provincial government to repeal its new laws that outlaw free expression, free assembly and the rights of all Quebecois to defend their vision of the future of education. The government should listen and acknowledge the legitimacy of student demands and reply to them at the negotiation table instead of using legislation to end this conflict repressively in order to establish a false “social peace”.

The IWW Canadian Regional Organizing Committee (CANROC) encourages its members and branches to donate to student associations, such as the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ), and independent media outlets, such as CUTV. The CANROC also urges its members to walk the picket lines and fill the streets in this struggle for education and freedom.

Ultimately, students, teachers and workers are now building a strong solidarity movement like never before. This powerful movement allows us to hope that one day the education system will be controlled by those who work, teach and study there so that the fruits of this labour provide universal benefit to social and human development rather than be enslaved to the logic of profit which benefit banks and capitalists of all kinds.

Find out more about the IWW in Canada online: IWW.ca

To join the IWW, contact the nearest delegate:

*Montrèal
514-268-3394

*Sherbrooke
819-349-9914

* Quèbec
iww_quebec@riseup.net

* Ottawa-Outaouais
ott-out@iww.org

LABOUR MINISTRY ORDERS CAMEO SALON (A.K.A HYPE SALON) TO PAY STOLEN WAGES

Ottawa-Outaouais General Membership Branch
Industrial Workers of the World
MEDIA RELEASE
May 11, 2012
For Immediate Release

OTTAWA— After months of picketing by the Ottawa-Outaouais Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and community allies, a very stubborn boss who has failed to pay her ex-workers has been issued two Orders to Pay Wages by the Ontario Ministry of Labour (Order # 80016401-OP and Order # 80016403-OP).

Cameo Salon & Spa Ltd., and the principal operating the business, Ms. Claudette Wilkinson Fagan, has been ordered to pay our members, Stephen Toth and Brandon Wallans, $1,211.52 and $1,769.56 respectively for hours worked at the minimum wage rate, plus 4% vacation pay. The decision, issued April 24, 2012, followed an investigation launched in late 2011 and a hearing with the parties held on March 29, 2012.

The Ministry’s investigation revealed violations of the Employment Standards Act and ordered payment of the stolen wages within 30 days of the date of the decision. The Ottawa-Outaouais IWW stresses that failure by the employer to comply with the Orders by the end of this period will be responded to with an immediate resumption of picketing of the Bank Street salon. Picketing will continue to highlight the salon’s labour practices as well as the growing trend of wage theft to the public, until such point that payment is made in trust to the Ministry or until the salon’s assets are seized and liquidated.

Ms. Fagan responded to one of the claims of wage theft by alleging that her career in hairdressing begun when “someone helped me”, “…presumably under a similar ‘no-wage’ arrangement”, as put in the decision by the Ministry following their investigation into Stephen Toth’s claim.

To the wage theft of Brandon Wallans, Ms. Fagan responded by stating that he chose to accompany his friend, Mr. Toth, while he was at the salon and that he “volunteered his services because he had nothing better to do”, a submission that was not accepted as credible by the investigator in his decision. This was in light of significant evidence provided by the union of an employment relationship, including that he had a business card, keys to the salon, attended staff meetings and that on at least one occasion closed the salon at the employer’s request.

The Ottawa-Outaouais IWW has heard excuses by wage-stealing bosses in the past. However, none have been as creatively constructed as Ms. Fagan’s.

Wage theft is a growing trend among bosses who decide to keep some or all of the wages a worker has earned. These thefts can be fought by workers most effectively when they unite and take action, both through formal legal channels as well as by hitting the picket lines.

The degree of police harassment of our picket lines and of our community allies is also unprecedented in this matter. Given the Ministry’s determination that Ms. Fagan and Cameo / Hype Salon have violated the Employment Standards Act, we call on the police to uphold the law for workers and not just for the bosses.

Finally, we call on members of the Ottawa Police Services to respect our constitutionally-protected rights of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association and to refrain from unlawfully harassing any IWW pickets in the future.

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For more information, please send an email to info@ottawaiww.org

GDC Local 6: May is Write Political Prisoners Month

The IWW General Defense Committee Local 6 declares May to be Write Political Prisoners month!

We urge General Defense Committee members, IWW members and all members of the working class to send letters and cards to the political prisoners listed below, who are serving time for putting their politics on the frontline.

We urge everyone to write and let them know that we are out there for them because they are in jail for us. Organize a May letter writing session or just commit to writing one letter per week this month to a political prisoner.

Print this 2-page leaflet, GDC May Is Write Political Prisoners Month, and distribute it to your friends and organizations.

The General Defense Committee Local 6 is a regional defense group of the Industrial Workers of the World in Canada. For more information, contact gdc6@ottawaiww.org or visit www.ottawaiww.ca.

Toronto G8/G20 Prisoners

Leah Henderson
Vanier Centre for Women
P.O.Box 1040
655 Martin Street
Milton, Ontario
L9T 5E6 Canada
Context: Leah Henderson – 14 month sentence for one count of Counseling to Commit Mischief. Sentence began on December 20th 2011. Leah is scheduled for release in June, 2012.

Amanda Hiscocks
Vanier Centre for Women
P.O.Box 1040
655 Martin Street
Milton, Ontario
L9T 5E6 Canada
Context: Mandy Hiscocks – 18 month sentence for one count of Counselling to Commit Mischief, and one count of Counselling to Obstruct Police. Sentence began on January 13th 2012. Mandy is scheduled for release in December 2012.

Greg Noltie-Rowley
Maplehurst Complex
PO Box 10
661 Martin St.
Milton, ON
L9T 2Y3
Context: Girr (nickname) was arrested in November of 2010 by the G20 Special Investigation Team for his alleged participation in the black bloc action. He was placed under house arrest in Rockwood, just outside of Guelph. He eventually had his conditions reduced to a curfew. Following his preliminary hearing, he pled guilty to one count of Mischief Under $5000, one count of Masked with Intent and one count of Public Nuisance. He was convicted on February 3rd, 2012 and is currently serving a nine month sentence. This is his first conviction.
More G20 prisoners’ info: http://guelphabc.noblogs.org/

Prisoners Who Need Our Support

Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP-Lewisburg
US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
Context: https://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/write.htm

Joseph Roger Clement (FPS-666866F)
Pittsburgh Institution
Highway 15, No. 3766
PO Box 4510
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 5E5
Context: Ottawa Movement Defense

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ottawa-Movement-Defense/

Marie Mason #04672-061
FMC Carswell
Federal Medical Center
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TX 76127
Note: Marie Mason has a list of 100 people she can write to. So people won’t get a letter back from her. Write her anyways!
Context: https://supportmariemason.org/about/

SALON WORKERS PICKET BOSS WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS

Ottawa-Outaouais General Membership Branch
Industrial Workers of the World

MEDIA RELEASE
January 10, 2012

For Immediate Release

SALON WORKERS PICKET BOSS WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS

OTTAWA—Two workers who helped launch a new hair salon in Ottawa in November went without wages this Christmas because their boss did not pay them. The Industrial Workers of the World will continue to picket the salon this week.

Management at Hype Unisex Salon and Spa, located on 386 Bank St., refuses to pay Brandon Wallans and Stephen Toth the $3,600 they are owed for 7 weeks of work.

Hype Owner, Claudette Wilkinson Fagan, has not responded to a demand letter from the workers’ lawyer and refuses repeated requests by the workers and their union to negotiate a settlement or discuss the matter.

“Wage theft in today’s economy is common in Ottawa or anywhere in Ontario,” said Ahmed, secretary of the IWW branch in Ottawa. “Brandon and Stephen are experiencing hardship because of Hype’s refusal to do the right thing. Everyone has the right to get paid for work done.”

The Ottawa-Outaouais IWW will continue holding picket lines at 386 Bank Street and invites the media to speak with the workers and hear their story.

More information about wage theft in Ontario can be found at OttawaIWW.ca

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For more information, please send an email to ott-out@iww.org

IWW Pickets Bank Street Hair Salon

When Fellow Worker Brandon Wallans quit his job along with Fellow Worker Stephen Toth at Hype Unisex Salon and Spa because he realized he wouldn’t get paid for several weeks worth of work, and started picketing the business alone, his ex-boss told him she would bring a friend of hers to put an end to his one-man picket.

Brandon did not have to wait much longer before an aggressive police officer showed up and started harassing him, writing him tickets for breaking a city by-law before crumpling them up and stuffing them into the fellow worker’s jacket. When from across the street, an ally from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers National building approached Brandon to offer him coffee, he was charged with obstruction of justice. This was the beginning of the wage theft case that the Ottawa-Outaouais General Membership Branch is now fighting on the picket line.

Fellow Workers and community allies have held numerous pickets outside Hype on Bank Street over the last few weeks highlighting the business’ labour practices as well as the rising wage theft incidences across Ontario to the neighbourhood. They have put up with several incidences of police intimidation designed to disrupt their legal and constitutionally-protected picket line.

In the last couple of weeks Hype has been investigated and fined by the city health inspectors for not following proper code, and more recently has been put under an investigation by the Ontario Ministry of Labour in response to complaints and the union pickets. The Ottawa-Outaouais IWW will continue to press for the wages owed to Brandon and Stephen through direct action.

Ottawa Busker Appeals Conviction

When the City of Ottawa installed speakers and started broadcasting muzak in busker Raymond Loomer’s favourite underpass, he cut the speaker wires one day in May 2009. He then taped the wire on the door of the office door of the Downtown Rideau Business Improvement Area, a business lobby group that has waged a campaign to remove street people and performers from the city centre.

As a tin flute player, he was one of several buskers who relied on the unique acoustics of the downtown Ottawa underpass near the Rideau Centre shopping centre to make a living. Loomer is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He did not take kindly to having his live music replaced by a machine.

“They were playing music to interfere with our industry,” he said.

City police arrested Loomer and charged him with two counts of mischief under $5,000. He was convicted on May 25, 2010 with a sentence of 12 months probation and 20 hours community service. Loomer represented himself and has appealed, saying the city failed to provide bylaw information he could have used in his defense and that he has rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to make a living and freedom of expression. He objected to the community service as “the slave style practices of government” for appropriating his labour power.

Loomer’s appeal will be heard on November 12, 2010 at the city courthouse.

Ottawa had introduced restrictive bylaws requiring street performers to get a license and perform in designated spots chosen by the city. Ontario’s Safe Streets Act, brought in to target squeegee kids, buskers and other street people making a living on the province’s streets, has set the stage for tighter controls on informal workers.

Panhandlers Claim Victory

Andrew Nellis of the Ottawa Pandhandlers Union said the group has reached a settlement after filing a $1-million lawsuit against the city last year.

The lawsuit accused the city of violating panhandlers’ constitutional rights by putting up a fence at the underpass across from Chateau Laurier. Nellis ended up being charged after he snipped a lock off the fence.

On Tuesday, Nellis said the panhandlers and city reached a deal but an agreement on confidentiality prevented him from going into details. Sounded like the settlement might involve allowing the panhandlers to use some property for a street art gallery.

Nellis is claiming victory.

“It won’t be the first victory we have, either,” he said.

In the same breath, Nellis said the panhandlers group plans to sue the city again if an updated nuisance bylaw comes into force for roads and sidewalks. The bylaw passed the transportation committee meeting Wednesday.