Car Rental Workers Say Hertz Hurts

By Stephen Von Sychowski
People's Voice July 1-31, 2010

On February 2, unionized workers at Hertz Car Rentals in Vancouver and at YVR airport began a legal strike which is now over four months long. At issue are the attempts of the U.S.-based company to rob employees of job security, by reserving the right to lay off full time workers and return them to work as part timers, without the benefits they have fought for and won over the course of more than three decades.

Claims by Hertz about the necessity to make changes out of financial necessity simply don't wash. Hertz is the largest car rental company in the world. They hold an extraordinarily lucrative contract with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia to provide vehicles to their customers, which include all drivers in BC. They recently tabled an offer to purchase competitor Dollar-Thrifty for the tidy sum of $1.17 billion. Furthermore their latest earnings were extremely positive - $1.7 billion revenue during the most recent financial quarter.

No, this isn't about a company struggling to make a meager profit against greedy workers. Quite the opposite. Hertz workers, members of COPE Local 378, are merely fighting to keep the jobs they already have, in many cases for more than 20 years, with their current hours and benefits. Hertz has the dough, they just don't want to share it with the same hard working people who provided them with the very profits they now greedily horde. Hertz workers are picketing at YVR and at the company's downtown location, asking customers not to rent with Hertz until the dispute is resolved.

A small group of just over 50 workers striking for their jobs and their livelihood may sound like small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps, but a lot more is at stake in this strike. That's because while Hertz has got away with their anti-worker campaign in non-union shops, they are now up against union workers in an airport of union-certified car rental agencies. The precedent set by this strike may affect the course of collective bargaining between the unions (COPE and the Teamsters) and employers (Avis, Dollar-Thrifty, National-Alamo, Budget) in the years to come.
The nasty anti-union campaign launched by Hertz is indicative of a broader trend of employers, both organized and un-organized, to drive down wages and benefits in order to maximize profits and make working people pay for the current global capitalist economic crisis. Whether it's a car rental clerk, a paramedic, a grocery store teller, or a steelworker, we should not be fooled into thinking that what we are up against is fundamentally different, separate, or apart. Let's all support the fight for job security at Hertz, not just for them, but for us all.

** Since this article was published, Hertz workers won a new Collective Agreement with their employer and have returned to work.**

photo essay: Winnipeg sidewalks - signs

Above: the infamous rail yards of the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. The yards mark the historic line between poor and rich neighborhoods. Winnipeg's North End is to the left of the tracks.

Below: one of the few career choices for Winnipeg youth.

Above: a sign of the times, cameras are seen as a force multiplier for the police and a way to be omnipresent in the minds of common people. In plain english it helps the police do more with less and scares the oppressed minorities when needed. All to make upper classes feel safe.

Below: another sign of the times, Mathew Dumas was shot down by Winnipeg Police. This protest sign mocks the cops claim that Dumas had a screwdriver for a weapon.

Above: while bank branches continue to close, the vacuum in poorer districts is filled by payday loan outfits. They are commonly known as predatory lenders due to astronomical interest rates they charge the working poor that use them.

Below: the brightest lights on West Broadway...

Above: ...turns out to be a pawnbroker. This is the other method of obtaining funds in Winnipeg short of black market activities, such as the drug trade.

Below: truth in advertising. Manure for sale sign has different meaning when, at Portage and Main, the CanWest corporate headquarters looms in the background. Among the posters: the occupation will not be televised, modern life is war, just got paid; all seem to be an unintended working class collage.

Above: rental housing on St. Mathews Avenue. The porch enclosures have now been removed.

Below: one way workers fight back is by forming unions and striking for better working conditions when they have jobs, for the existence of jobs in Winnipeg, for fair pay and benefits, and in solidarity of other workers. These workers are on strike at New Flyer's Winnipeg bus factory.

Above: another way of fighting back is to vote with one's feet. This is happens to be the Mayday march.
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Below: Election poster in North End long after the election. The Communist Party has one of the more visible campaigns in poor areas of Winnipeg. This area has sent communist MLAs and city councilors to office over a period of decades.

Many who are able to vote often don't because of a first past the post system, which seems rigged in light of today. Smaller parties are seen as unwinable and therefore are passed over for large business parties or as the majority does, don't vote at all. Those that remain to vote are the wealthy classes who want the status quo and surprise, the big parties all sell the status quo or some cosmetic tinkering.

click on above images for closer view