Garment manufacturing workers at Winnipeg plant hit picket line

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This article was published 27/09/2022 (1134 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Garment manufacturing workers at a Winnipeg plant hit the picket line Monday, citing inflation as a need for higher wages.

Forty-eight sewing machine operators for Freed & Freed, a jacket manufacturer, want to boost their minimum wage earnings — a 30 cent per hour increase, now and when the current minimum wage hits $13.50 in October, said Workers United Canada Council representative Andrew Spence.

The union and Freed & Freed have been in contract negotiations since December of 2019 — with pauses during the pandemic — Spence said.

“This is a company that’s been around for… 100 years, and they were able to survive,” Spence said. “The employees have to be able to survive.”

Freed & Freed has made several proposals including wage increases, said Marissa Freed, president of the company. The latest, over the weekend, offered a 45 cent pay increase, exceeding other garment manufacturers’ pay, she said.

However, the union didn’t put the latest offer to workers because it didn’t accept the deal, Spence said.

“We believe that (the workers) actually would have accepted,” Freed said. “We don’t think that they really know about our most recent offer.”

She said the union is looking for “a lot beyond” the 30 cent pay bump, though she wouldn’t elaborate.

Both Amandeep Sandhu and Florencia Canpos, Freed & Freed sewing machine operators, were striking for 30 cent per hour pay raises Monday. Inflation has made life unaffordable, they said.

“Everything is so expensive,” Sandhu, a single mother, said. “I can’t survive… minimum wage, because (of) my daughter’s daycare fees. I don’t know how to manage.”

Canpos, 61, said she’d like to retire soon but can’t.

“I’m doing this for (the younger workers) because they get stuck on the minimum wage,” Canpos said.

Both immigrated to Canada — Sandhu from India, and Canpos from the Philippines. It’s common for the workers to be immigrant women, Spence said.

“(This) shows… other workers that these workers can (strike),” Spence said. “I think others should also understand that this is what you have to do in order to get an increase.”

Freed said she believes her company is being used as a catalyst for other manufacturing plants’ workers to strike, because negotiations are ongoing or upcoming elsewhere in the city.

Staff make more than minimum wage based on their production levels, Freed noted.

“I want everybody to feel valued and to feel happy,” she said. “This is a very unfortunate outcome, and I certainly hope we’ll be able to get past it.”

The workers plan to picket until a contract is inked, Spence said.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com