Student, 18, says he was fired for trying to start a union at his summer job
Vishwaa Ramakrishnan is unlike many other 18-year-olds.
The McGill student, back home in Mississauga, Ont. from school last summer, got a job at an auto-maintenance franchise working as a mechanic.
He was making minimum wage, and said he felt disposable and could "be thrown away as much as any other worker."
"I don't know if the owner knows what it's like being in an oil pit dealing with hot oil all day," Ramakrishnan told Cross Country Checkup host Duncan McCue during Sunday's show on organizing labour. "You're on you feet all day with very little breaks."
"I was being paid ... $11.40/hr." he explains. "To do an oil change, it takes 30 minutes, tops."
According to Ramakrishnan the parts for the change cost less than $5. That means the total cost of the oil change is $10 he said. That calculation didn't sit right with him.
"We can exploit you and get whatever we want out of you because we know that you need that money," he said, imagining what his employer was thinking.
'Let's form a union'
So, the then 17-year-old looked into starting a union.
"When I told [the other employees], 'let's form a union' … the first question was, what is that?" Ramakrishnan said.
He spoke to the local machinist's union, who gave him some pamphlets to read. Coming into work the next day with the information, many of his fellow employees were nervous about the idea of organizing.
"They said 'yeah, that's great, but we're still scared of what the employer is going to do.'"
Incentives to 'rat' someone out
The management at the franchise warned Ramakrishnan not to talk about unionizing at work. He said they told him there were incentives to "rat" someone out for trying to organize.
That left him feeling alone while his fellow workers were afraid of losing their jobs.
"The workers are put in bubbles and can't interact with each other and have to just keep their heads down," he said.
A few days later he was sent to another location. And a few days after that he was terminated from the job.
Ramakrishnan said the employer explained it was because they found out he was going back to school out of province, but he said he had made that clear when he got hired.
The coincidence was too great not to make him believe he was punished for trying to start a union.
The fight continues
That job may be long gone, but Ramakrishnan is not giving up the fight.
"We're at the point of history where all workers are the driving force of the economy," he said. "If I don't fight for the people around me how can I expect any of the workers to fight for me?
The 18-year-old doesn't know where he wants to be in 10 years' time, but he does know he wants to affect change.
"Wherever I go, whatever employment I have, it has to be for the betterment of humanity and the working class."