PWAC Victoria: Carole Pearson, Writing Sample

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Sweet Dreams are Made of These

by Carole Pearson © 1999

Immigrant women address inequalities in a chocolate factory by unionizing. Published in Our Times magazine, cover story, Mar./Apr. 1999. Also chosen by B.C. Federation of Labour to appear on their website.

Every kid's dream--working in a chocolate factory. For Teresa Yuen, however, working at Purdy's Chocolates was less than a dream come true. "I could see the company was cheating and not treating its workers fairly," says Yuen, who has worked at Purdy's for more than six years. Up until last year, even though both full-time and part-time employees worked Monday to Friday, eight hours a day, only those classified as full-time received benefits, including profit-sharing, vacation leave and paid statutory holidays. "Part-timers got nothing."

"I could see the company was cheating and not treating its workers fairly."

". . . when the profit sharing cheques were handed out, only full-timers got them."

The lack of benefits and appreciation was an issue that brought all the part-time workers together, regardless of race.

Yuen came to Canada from Macau 26 years ago. She was one of 35 part-time workers at Purdy's Chocolates, a Vancouver company which employs over 100 people in its factory. Nearly 80 percent of the workers are women, the majority of whom are from Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Vietnam. For these immigrant workers, the lack of benefits was not their only complaint. They were also angry that the company repeatedly promoted white women to full-time positions ahead of Asian and Filipino workers with more seniority. Yuen says bluntly, "They chose ones by colour and age; younger women."

Wendy Stewart, an eight-year employee at Purdy's, is one of the white workers who were promoted to a full-time position ahead of Asian and Filipino women. She says it was hard not to notice how the Filipino, Chinese and Vietnamese women were being treated, and thought at the time that "they need to have somebody, especially the Chinese, because they are a majority. They need someone with backbone to get these ladies together--someone who spoke their language. We couldn't do it."

Teresa Yuen became the one to take on the challenge, with the help of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. CEP national representative Joie Warnock says it didn't take rocket science to see where the lines were drawn at the factory. "Although company management was outraged at suggestions they were being racist, for 10 years the only women being promoted--except for one white immigrant--were white Canadians."

Amid noisy machinery, the Purdy workers perform their jobs clad in white smocks. Yuen works in the "enrobing" department. Here, an extruding machine makes and shapes the buttercream centres which then move along a belt to be coated in chocolate. The women stand alongside the belt and mark the chocolates with swirls and lines to identify the types of centres. Yuen's co-worker Juliet Odejar explains: "This is done manually or sometimes with a 'woody'--a machine that puts designs on the chocolate. But usually it is done by hand." Besides designing the chocolates, the workers also cut caramels and put the chocolates into boxes which are then wrapped in purple foil. Odejar arrived from Metro Manila in the Philippines eight years ago and was a part-time employee at Purdy's for three years.

Purdy's purple and white factory is located on a busy commercial thoroughfare which bisects Vancouver's Renfrew-Collingwood neighbourhood. It's quite a transition from the small downtown shop where Richard Purdy first began Purdy's Chocolates in 1907. Today, its luxury confections and nuts are sold throughout British Columbia and Alberta in Purdy's 44 retail outlets. In 1963, the company was bought by Charles Flavelle and remains a family-owned operation with Flavelle's daughter, Karen, serving as president. "The family are really nice and well-liked," says Warnock. "The employees like them, but they simply had divergent interests. [The company] responded with shock when the employees wanted to unionize."

Every January, Purdy's begins its full-tilt production of chocolate bunnies and eggs for Easter. Towards the end of the previous year, a few employees from each department are chosen to discuss the upcoming Easter schedules with management. When people were selected for the committee in 1996, Yuen smiles as she says, "Unfortunately, they picked me."

Purdy's management wanted to implement a schedule of 10-hour days, four days a week for all employees in order to finish production early. Yuen spoke out against it. "The company asked us to work 10 hours to help them out, but they were treating people differently," she says. "We told the company that we wouldn't mind working 10 hours if they treated everyone fairly."

One difference that stood out to part-timers was their exclusion from annual profit-sharing, which sometimes was worth as much as $2,000 to individual workers. "In November when the profit-sharing cheques were handed out, only full-timers got them," says Yuen. And "every November, the part-timers were angry." The scheduling committee met during this time in 1996 and some of the angry part-timers were there, including Yuen. She says she told management that she didn't mind working hard, "but when only full-time workers profit, it's not fair. The part-timers have worked a long time and still have no benefits. Purdy's is a big company. [It] should take care of its workers and make more of them full-time."

Getting nowhere with management, Yuen went to the labour relations board with her complaints. She was told by officials that, without a collective agreement, the company does not have to recognize seniority and can use favouritism in determining who gets promoted or laid-off. She says, "The LRB said look for a union," and it didn't sound like a bad idea to her. "My sister and brother are both in unions and they are happy. I had no union and I was unhappy."

Yuen began selling the idea to the other Cantonese-speaking workers at Purdy's. "I told the workers there was a zero percent chance of [management] making anyone full-time. I said there was no way we could change this without a union." Interest in joining a union quickly spread to the other groups of immigrant women. Yuen says everyone realized that "no matter how hard we work or how long we work, the company won't change anyone into full-time."

Yuen wrote to Jenny Kwan, the NDP MLA for the Vancouver-Mount Pleasant riding, to ask for help. "I told her the company was not paying right." Kwan arranged for Dave Coles and Fred Wilson from the CEP to meet with Yuen. In a meeting that lasted several hours, Yuen says they told her "the company can do whatever it wants without a union. So, they told me how to begin."

Yuen contacted Coles a few days later and arranged a meeting in the home of one of the workers. Coles recalls meeting 15 or more people, equally divided between Asian and Filipino women. He says he and Wilson began their pitch for the union, but were frequently interrupted by a range of technical questions from the women. "Obviously they had done their homework," he says. "They were clearly in charge and about to embark on this activity after a fair amount of thought." At the end of the meeting, all the women signed union cards. Odejar says she decided to sign "because it was the only way to fix the problem."

Money was not a key issue. Purdy's pays its employees around $13 per hour, depending on job classification. Warnock says what was important to the workers "was the recognition of seniority and the elimination of favouritism. The women wanted to be treated with dignity and fairness." Belen Tio agrees. "We were happy with the pay. We were not happy with the way the company treats their workers." Tio began working at Purdy's one week after arriving in Canada from the Philippines. After eight years, she was still classified as part-time. "I work the whole year except two weeks at Christmas, but [I was still receiving] no vacations and no sick leave."

The lack of benefits and appreciation was an issue that brought all the part-time workers together, regardless of race. One of the white part-time employees, Penny Dean, says that "at Christmas, the owner would thank the full-timers for their hard work, but we wouldn't get thanked for our work. It was just like a slap in the face."

The organizing drive began in early 1997. Yuen admits that the prospect had her worried. "I was so scared I couldn't sleep at night. I couldn't eat." She was afraid the employer would find out she was behind the union drive, so she moved her campaign out of the workplace. She phoned the Chinese and Filipino employees at their homes in the evening. "I asked them, 'Do you think they [the company] will change?' No one said 'yes.'" Yuen's initial calls developed into a telephone support group: co-workers phoned each other after work to discuss what was going on and to maintain support for each other. Warnock says this networking "was the key to success."

As Yuen mobilized the part-timers, Wendy Stewart worked on the full-time employees. Many were sympathetic towards the part-timers, but they also had their own complaints. The full-time workers were fed up with one supervisor who appeared to expect bribes from employees. She decided who would be laid-off and when they'd be called back. People learned that to avoid being the first one out and last one back, it was advisable to offer "gifts." These employees welcomed the idea of a collective agreement that would recognize seniority and put an end to this humiliating practice. In the end, it was dissatisfaction among both part-time and full-time workers that made the drive a success. In July 1997, the CEP signed up over 55 percent of the bargaining unit and received certification. However, the battle was not yet over.

During the annual Christmas shutdown in 1997, Purdy's had letters couriered to employees' homes that stated how good the company was to its employees and how they didn't need a union. After everyone returned to work in January, Purdy's management said they would listen to their employees' concerns. However, Dean says, "There were only cosmetic changes, like new paint. They didn't deal with any big issues." When workers continued to express anger at being classified as part-time when they were essentially working full-time hours, management responded by changing their title to "prime-time" workers.

Through the spring of 1998, the employer continued to avoid contract negotiations. Eventually the 10-month period prohibiting decertification applications expired, and a decertification vote was scheduled for mid-June. A full-time employee spearheaded the decertification drive. Management allowed her to move from department to department, handing out anti-union literature on company time. The CEP followed the rules, limiting its pitch for support to non-working hours. But behind the scenes, the women worked the telephones, calling co-workers to encourage support for the union.

The employees in Purdy's warehouse section were especially reluctant to get on board. According to Odejar, "the people in the warehouse were the most scared of all, and they're all men." Tio adds, "They have benefits, they're all full-time and all white. But we had to build bridges with them. It took hard work before they would support a union. They were waiting to see how the women made out."

Warnock says that, during the decertification drive, many of the men had no feeling one way or the other about the union. "But," she adds, "the men didn't like being bullied into voting against the union. They told the union what this woman [who was promoting decertification] was doing. We couldn't have done it without them." Meanwhile, when one of the men was unjustly fired from his job, the union was able to get him re-hired and this helped build support among the warehouse workers.

The decertification vote was conducted on June 24, 1998 but the results were sealed due to irregularities, including the anti-union leafleting done on the shopfloor, and the fact that 30 recently hired temporary employees had been allowed to vote. A second vote was ordered.

The labour relations board mediator issued his recommendations at the end of July and these were accepted by both sides. The first contract for Purdy's workers was ratified on August 10, 1998. But the struggle was still not over. A second decertification vote was held a few weeks later.

Warnock, a scrutineer for the union, says they knew the vote would be close. Tension increased as the ballots were being counted but, in the end, the union won by seven votes.

More than two years have passed since Yuen took the first step to correct the inequities she and her co-workers endured in their workplace. It started with one phone call and ended with over a hundred people enjoying fair treatment under a collective agreement. All the Purdy's workers are now classified as full-time, lay-offs are done by seniority, and money from the profit-sharing has been diverted into providing benefits. Says Tio, "Now we are all equal." The CEP's Dave Coles calls Yuen "one of the most courageous persons I have come across. She's a tough, articulate woman." He also says their union has gained a lot by the arrival of all the Purdy's women. They've "added depth to what is an industrial-based union" concentrated in male-dominated sectors.

Looking back, Penny Dean says "this was something that had to come eventually. The company didn't pay overtime, but no one said anything because they were scared of losing their jobs. We were told, 'If you don't like it, do you know how many people would like your job?' But in the end, the union had too many supporters and the company couldn't overturn the momentum."

Belen Tio and Teresa Yuen are happy to finally be getting holidays after all their years of employment with Purdy's. "This is the first year we get a vacation," says Yuen, "and it's thanks to the union." Life is a bit sweeter at the chocolate factory.

Carole Pearson
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Last updated: November 16, 2005 http://www.islandnet.com/pwacvic/pearsn03.html