M. Spencer Green/AP Photo
SEIU affiliate Workers United is attempting to organize workers at luxury jacket manufacturer Canada Goose, which is controlled by private equity firm Bain Capital.
When Bain Capital is in the news, it usually means one thing: private equity acquisitions, sales—and predation. The multibillion-dollar firm has won a reputation for its slash-and-burn tactics that often destroy jobs and decimate struggling companies. But Bain’s business model goes beyond butchering: It also controls extremely successful companies like the luxury jacket manufacturer Canada Goose, where workers have been mobilizing to protest what they say is an abusive and hostile work environment, rife with anti-union bullying.
On Wednesday, a coalition of Massachusetts labor groups is set to rally outside Bain Capital headquarters in downtown Boston to protest the anti-union campaign waged by Canada Goose management. The UNITE HERE New England Joint Board, Greater Boston Labor Council, Boston DSA, Harvard Graduate Students Union, and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice have joined together to draw attention to the ongoing Workers United unionization effort at Canada Goose factories, and the intimidation tactics they say have targeted the largely female immigrant workforce in Manitoba, where the company’s factories are located.
Workers United is an SEIU affiliate spanning the United States and Canada with over 80,000 members at work in the textile, laundry, and pharmaceutical industries. The union traces its history back to 1900 when it was founded as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
“Bain Capital has its headquarters in Boston and at UNITE HERE we are firm believers that the union movement has to stand in solidarity no matter where you are in the world. We can’t support working people in silos,” Mitchell Fallon, an organizer with the union’s New England Joint Board told the Prospect. “When Bain Capital attacks working people in Canada, that’s something nobody should stand for.”
As I reported in January, Canada Goose workers recount a company campaign of abuse, racial harassment, and unsafe working conditions in the factories where they sew high-end jackets that can retail for more than a week’s pay on the assembly line. In one particularly chilling episode recalling the Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy, workers attempting to evacuate a factory during a fire alarm were horrified to find their emergency exit padlocked by management.
With two former governors having worked for Bain Capital, the company has long maintained strong political connections in Massachusetts.
The protest at Bain comes after recent confrontations in a Canada Goose factory that representatives for Workers United describe as pointed instances of union intimidation. Two workers were reprimanded in recent weeks and threatened with possible dismissal, one for wearing headphones and another for asking for information about COVID-19 cases present in their production facility. Both warnings came after those workers either arrived to work in pro-union clothing or publicly discussed unionization on the shop floor.
Trevor Sinclair, a sewing operator who received one of the formal reprimands after wearing a pro-union T-shirt, said that the combination of long hours, high production quotas, and the ever-present threat of COVID-19 exposure has left him with crippling depression and anxiety. “On your station, there are these machines that show your efficiency numbers, and at one point they added the number of COVID cases in the factory to that readout. You’re looking at your efficiency numbers and then seeing this case count ticking up and just feeling like you’re in hell,” Sinclair told the Prospect.
Meanwhile, Canada Goose has successfully challenged the Workers United union in front of the Manitoba Labour Board by seeking to increase the size of the union’s required bargaining unit. The move represents a common employer tactic that makes it more difficult for a union to successfully win in a small shop before expanding into other areas of the company. Canada Goose’s action before the board follows a long string of anti-union efforts at Bain companies.
In 2013, management at the Bain-owned Guitar Center attempted to beat back unionizing workers with such tactics as captive-audience meetings that required attendance at presentations about the dangers of unionization. Even in Bain’s infancy in the 1980s, when the company was still run by Mitt Romney, a federal court found that the Bain-controlled Key Airlines—where Romney was once a director and a shareholder—violated federal law by firing two pilots attempting to form a union. As a federal judge then wrote, “The anti-union activities in this case are not merely unfair labour practices as Key argues, but blatant, grievous, willful, deliberate and repeated violations of the Railway Labour Act.”
With two former governors (Mitt Romney and Deval Patrick) having worked for or, in the case of Romney, helmed Bain Capital, the company has long maintained strong political connections in Massachusetts. It’s also attracted its fair share of political critics. For years, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been one of the most vocal critics of private equity firms like Bain, which in 2018 was one of a handful of such firms responsible for devastating closures like the Toys R Us restructuring that led to 33,000 layoffs.
Alongside the labor groups mobilizing for Wednesday’s protest against Bain, Michelle Wu, the progressive front-runner in the race to succeed Boston’s acting mayor Kim Janey, will also be in attendance. Wu has committed to the creation of a Cabinet-level worker empowerment position if elected, and continues to court labor groups ahead of November’s election.
“In this case, we are talking about something outside of Massachusetts that connects the dots towards the end of creating a city, an economy, and an ecosystem that invests in our common good instead of destabilizing it,” Wu told the Prospect. “Boston is a strong union city: We celebrate organizing and have long held partnerships with unions across all different sectors and countries.”
In May, Canada Goose reported fourth-quarter revenue (exceeding pre-pandemic levels) of $208.8 million. The majority of sewing operators in Canada Goose factories still make Manitoba’s minimum wage of $11.90 an hour.
