Members of Steel City Solidarity after our second picket in front of Portofinas

Milan was hired by James Szanto to build three bars at Portofinas restaurant in Grimsby. After Milan did the work, James Szanto refused to pay him. Milan went to the Ministry of Labour and received a ruling in his favour: James Szanto was ordered to pay Milan close to $1900 in unpaid wages. When Milan still did not receive his wages, he contacted Steel City Solidarity.

Together with Milan, we launched a campaign to get his wages. We began by delivering a demand letter to James Szanto. A group of around 20 of us went to Portofinas restaurant on a busy Saturday evening and read our demands out loud in front of their customers. We demanded Milan’s wages be paid and we gave them a week to do so or face further action.

When our deadline passed we returned planning to rally outside the restaurant and ask customers to eat elsewhere. As it turned out, James Szanto had decided to shut down for the night, foregoing all business for that Saturday evening. We stuck around anyway and received tremendous support from the surrounding community and former Portofinas workers. As we found out, Portofinas had managed to upset many people in Grimsby by not paying their workers wages and by attempting to build a patio without permission from the city council. Nearly every one we spoke to was telling us to “shut them down!” We also managed to make the local paper.

Next we planned a second picket for the following Friday. In the meantime we were threatened with lawsuits by Portofinas lawyers. We decided it was a scare tactic and showed up in strong numbers on Friday as planned. We braved the cold, turned customers away and danced our way around an irate plaza owner who ended up calling the police (no trouble to us as we simply moved the picket to the sidewalk and plaza entrances). All in all, it was another very slow night at Portofinas.

And then we won! The following Tuesday James Szanto offered to pay Milan his wages in full. Later that night we were counting money on the very bar that Milan had build, and for which he had not, until now, seen a single penny for his work.

Karen came to Steel City Solidarity after being fired by Summer Sun Tanning in Jackson Square. After years of working for them as an employee, the company  suddenly wanted to declare her an independent contractor, even though she was doing the exact same job as before. She refused to accept this. For months she was pressured while the company stopped giving her regular pay stubs, T4 slips, and stopped making mandatory deductions such as CPP and EI. When she kept insisting she was an employee and not an independent contractor according to the labour code, she was let go. But not before Karen had carefully documented all of this and filed with Revenue Canada and the Ministry of Labour (MOL).

When Karen joined Steel City Solidarity, we went with Karen and hand delivered a demand letter to the company giving them a week to pay the over $3,700 in unpaid wages that they owed her. When they ignored us, we launched a campaign against Summer Sun Tan targeting their customers. Karen was with us every step of the way. We handed out flyers to potential customers in and around Jackson Square for several weeks. We organized a “phone zap” and had members of the public call the company and the owner to complain. We informed other Summer Sun Tanning workers of their rights.

When the owner showed up at a Ministry of Labour meeting, we were there in large numbers to greet him and tell him that we were not going away until he paid what he owed Karen. The pressure must have been getting to him because after the MOL ruled in Karen’s favour, the owner didn’t try the usual game of appealing, dragging the process out for years, and playing phone tag with the collection agency. He simply handed over to Karen all the wages that he owed her.

A big THANK YOU from Karen and the rest of the Steel City Solidarity crew to everyone who drove to Thornhill to deliver the demand letter, who flyered week in, week out, participated in the “phone zap”, and were there to greet the owner face to face, just before he caved in.

Luc came to us after he was fired by Global Air Care, a door-to-door sales company selling water filtration units.  The company refused to pay Luc any wages after he had put in 9 hour days for nearly a month. They claimed Luc was an independent contractor not an employee and they even made Luc sign an agreement stating this.

Luc joined Steel City Solidarity and we determined that in fact Luc was an employee according to the labour code. No one can sign away their rights and so the company owed Luc a little over $900 in wages. After our demand letter was ignored we started warning other workers about Global Air Care (and all the other legal names they operate under). We talked to many other workers who had been treated the same as Luc and to many who were thinking of applying to work for them. We disrupted one of their hiring sessions (really sales pitches) by talking to workers at the door, after which most of them chose not to attend. We cooperated with a CBC Marketplace investigation of SimpleH20 which led to this expose.

Before coming to us Luc had filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labour (MOL). They ruled in Luc’s favour, but as is typical, the company appealed. Months went by. They then didn’t even bother showing up to the next MOL meeting. But then to our surprise the company agreed to pay Luc the full amount owed!

We figure that the company did not expect Luc to show up in Toronto with support from Parkdale Community Legal Services, who had agreed to help us after the Workers Action Centre put us in touch. Our message to them was clear: not only were we not going away, but we could reach them outside Hamilton. They clearly got the message, the only smart thing we saw from them since we had the misfortune of dealing with them. Many THANKS to all of you who stuck with Luc all the way! And many thanks to Parkdale Community Legal Services for their help (and the Workers Action Centre for putting us in touch). This is what solidarity and collective power look like!

SUMMER SUN TANNING, owned and operated by Nick Alexandris, has made a practice out of unfair treatment of its employees. To date SUMMER SUN has:

• Unjustly terminated a former manager, and refused to pay over $2500 in legally owed back wages, severance and vacation pay.
• Intentionally misclassified employees as “independent contractors,” denying obligations to pay CPP and EI contributions for employees.
• Refused to provide T4s and ROE forms for employees as required by law.

What can you do to ensure that SUMMER SUN TANNING employees are treated fairly?

• Call either location and tell them that you won’t give them your business until they agree to pay workers what’s owed to them.
• JACKSON SQUARE location: 905.777.8267
• THORNHILL location: 905.731.7101
• If you already have an appointment, or have pre-bought time with SUMMER SUN, cancel  and demand your money back. Tell them that they can get your business back by treating their employees fairly.

Click here to download the campaign flyer.

For more information, or to find out how you can get more involved, email info@steelcitysolidarity.com.

On June 14th Steel City Solidarity brought together 26 activists to pressure Ejaz Parveen, a delinquent landlord and employer, to pay outstanding wages and a deposit owed to an individual who approached us. Parveen runs two rooming houses at 76 West 4th St and 127 Howard Ave, and employed Dorian, one of his tenants, to do work around the house.

Steel City Solidarity was approached by Dorian who was owed $110 in back wages as well as an outstanding $225 security deposit that were owed to him by his landlord (who he also worked for). The landlord was acting like a bully, and refusing to pay, so SCS met with Dorian and together we drafted a demand letter – giving the landlord until the end of the week to pay up or we would take further action.

On June 14th we brought together 26 activists at the rooming house where Dorian lived. We called the landlord and he refused to show up, saying he was out of town. The group went to deliver the letter to his house, and surprise surprise…there he was! He initially refused to get out of his car, or read the letter, but after a few back and forth negotiations, and the persuasion of the group he finally caved, drove to a bank machine, and returned with the outstanding amount in cash.

On behalf of Dorian, and Steel City Solidarity, thank you to everyone who came out to help, and to show that together we can overcome any injustice – no matter the size!

We work hard, but too often we don’t get paid. In December 2010, the Workers’ Action Centre recorded their experiences when looking for work. Watch their stories of wage theft and take action.

Visit here to fill out a message to the Minister of Labour.

You may have personally experienced or know someone who has experienced wage theft. Wage theft is a very real and frequently occurring problem faced by workers in many workplaces.

Wage theft occurs when an employer (or ex-employer) keeps some or all of the wages you have earned.  Bosses have all sorts of tricks and excuses when it comes to stealing wages.  For example:

• Flat-out failure/refusal to pay
• Issuing a pay cheque that bounces
• Not paying for training
• Not paying for overtime and/or holidays
• Not keeping records of hours worked or fabricating record of hours worked
• Paying less than minimum wage for job classification
• Stealing tips/gratuities

If you or someone you know has experienced wage theft, you are not alone. According to figures from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, over $150 million in stolen wages were reported between 2001 and 2006.

However, just over $100 million in workers’ wages that the Ministry ordered employers to pay went uncollected during this same time period. This is not surprising when you consider that from 2003-2009 there was an annual average conviction rate of 1.74% of all employers who were reported to the Ontario Ministry of Labour for breaking employment standard laws!

And these are the cases that actually went through the Ontario Ministry of Labour. Thousands more violations and millions more in stolen wages goes unreported.  As anyone who has gone to the Ministry can tell you that it is time-consuming and a potentially expensive process, not exactly an attractive prospect for anyone who works hard to pay their bills. It is very possible that there are hundreds of wage theft occurrences each year in Hamilton alone that go unreported.

So what is a worker to do? Fortunately we have other options that work. In the face of these violations workers across the province and the continent have been organizing and getting back their wages. Workers in the US even organized a National Day of Action Against Wage Theft! By putting direct pressure on the bosses, millions of dollars in unpaid wages have been won. How? Here are two examples.

In Ottawa, Industial Workers of the World members and community supporters won $2,500 owed to Miguel Yanes Lobaina. Lobaina, who had worked as a dishwasher before being fired, had won a court ruling ordering Hooley’s restaurant to pay him, but it refused to comply. 20 picketers marched in front of its doors, with IWWs holding signs saying, “Pay What’s Owed.” It took less than an hour for the owner to ask for a meeting with the picketers and sign a cheque to pay Lobaina. It didn’t bounce either.

In Toronto, for years the bosses at Amato Pizza had gotten away with stealing workers’ wages. The workers called the Workers Action Center and together they exposed Amato Pizza to the public and called for a boycott. The company ended up fined $300,000.

If they can do it elsewhere, we can do it here! That is why Steel City Solidarity has launched a Wage Theft campaign to help workers in Hamilton help themselves get back their unpaid wages.

If you are experiencing wage theft, contact us and join us in getting your wages paid! We do not ask for anything but your willingness to stand up and fight back!

What:   “Stolen Wages” campaign flyering blitz

When:  Thursday, November 18, 1pm

Where: Gore Park (King and James)

Every day there are workers in Hamilton who have their wages stolen by their bosses.  Unpaid overtime and training, stolen tips, doctored time sheets, cheques that bounce: employers are an innovative and entrepreneurial bunch in deed, especially when it comes to cheating their workers.

Downtown Hamilton is full of these employers. So let’s let their workers know that Steel City Solidarity is here to help them fight back and reclaim what is rightfully theirs! Join us on Tuesday, November 18 at 1pm in Gore Park and give us a hand (or two) passing our Stolen Wages campaign flyer. Just bring yourself and we’ll take care of the rest, including the hot chocolate.

We hope to see you there (and please forward widely),

Steel City Solidarity

More info: This action is part of Steel City Solidarity’s Stolen Wages campaign. We have chosen this date to coincide with the annual National Day of Action Against Wage Theft happening south of the border on November 18, 2010 where actions are planned in over 50 US cities. Across both countries, billions of dollars in wages are stolen by employers each year. The bosses’ exploitation and greed know no borders and neither should our resistance. With this event Steel City Solidarity is taking the Day of Action Against Wage Theft cross-border.

Steel City Solidarity is a workers organizing centre for precarious workers in the City of Hamilton. Established as a working group of CUPE 3906, we are composed of precarious workers and labour and community activists from McMaster University and the Hamilton community. If you want to know more about who precarious workers are, how Steel City Solidarity organizes and why precarious workers are building a movement, please contact us and visit our website.

Steel City Solidarity marched in solidarity with Steelworkers 1005 at Hamilton’s Mayday Festival, and then spent the day tabling to meet and greet our fellow activists and workers from the community. Thanks, folks, for signing up to receive updates and join our workers’ centre. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the Labour Day Parade!