All out for Oct. 18 —

TORONTO — Organized labor is busily gearing up
for what planners are hoping will be the largest labor
protest to hit the steps of the Ontario legislature,
scheduled for Oct. 18.

André Foucault, who is co-ordinating the Ontario
Federation of Labor’s mass demonstration against
plant shutdowns, layoffs and cutbacks said the rally’s
preparations, so far, are ‘‘developing remarkably
well.”’

With the help of representatives from the Canadian
Labor Congress, Foucault has already visited more
than 20 of the OFL’s 45 labor council affiliates to help
organize local plans for participation in the rally.
“The response at the councils has been good’’, he
said. *‘People are really concerned about this issue
and are glad the federation is doing something about
it. When I was in Brampton someone spoke out to
congratulate the OFL for taking this initiative.”’

By now the affiliates and labor councils have re-
ceived the materials detailing the federation’s plans
for the ‘‘Ontario can work campaign’’ and the post-
card petition campaign which will follow the Queen’s
Park rally.

Foucault said the next mailing by the federation to
locals and affiliates will be to distribute a leaflet and a
poster on the campaign.

The Oct. 18 protest is the second phase of the
OFL’s campaign to press Ontario’s Tory government
to act on behalf of the people of the province and stop
the de-industrialization of the Ontario economy, plant
closures, and massive job destruction by foreign,
mainly U.S. multi-nationals.

Want Government Action

Last June the OFL presented a brief to the provin-
cial cabinet outlining labor's demands for government
action to begin turning the economic crisis around. As
a follow up to that brief, local labor councils have
been lobbying municipal councils, provincial MPPs,
and federal MPs, demanding government action on
labor’s proposals.

In addition to improved legislation to protect work-
ers and their communities when plants are closed
down and companies run away to low wage areas or
across the border, the OFL called for an industrial
development strategy for Ontario based on public
ownership of the province’s key resource industries.
The strategy also called for the creation and extension
of crown corporations where they are needed to
strengthen the economy and create jobs.

Petition cards will be circulated in the plants and in
public locations following the Oct. 18 demonstration
and will be returned to the federation during the forth-
‘coming OFL convention Nov. 24-28 for presentation
to Ontario premier Davis.

Meanwhile, affiliated unions and labor councils
themselves have been busy getting in touch with their
members in preparation for the October protest. Mike
Lyons, executive secretary of the Metro Toronto
Labor Council, with 160,000 members the largest in
Canada, said last week, the council has prepared a
statement calling on all its affiliates to give all-out
support to the rally. The statement would be put
before the labor council’s delegates at the Sept. 18
meeting for approval. Lyons also said the council has
been busy “‘lobbying governments at all levels‘around
issues such as economic development and job crea-
tion.’’ He said the council is urging an all out mobiliza-
tion of its affiliates.

Urge Total Support
Art Jenkyn of the 20,000-member United Electrical
Workers (UE) said the union has contacted its local
unions urging all out support. A meeting of UE of-
ficers is to take place Sept. 19 to further develop plans
within the terms of the OFL’s action plan.
The United Auto Workers, with some 20,000 of its

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140,000 members unemployed by the.crisis hitting the
auto industry, urged total support for the campaign by

the OFL at the union’s Canadian district council .

meeting held Sept. 13-14 in Ottawa.

Terry O’Connor, secretary treasurer of the Ontario
Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees
(CUPE), said his union issued its first leaflet to CUPE
members announcing the demonstration as early as
last August. CUPE’s district councils have all been
contacted and urged to give total support for the
demonstration.

““We’re encouraging the district councils, where
they can, to get buses and we'll help them where
necessary”’, he said. For CUPE there are three main

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largest protest yet

areas through which they identify with the OFL pro-
test. They are government cutbacks with the resulting
loss of jobs, the need to end government contracting
out of union work, and the right to strike for public
workers,. specifically for CUPE the right of hospital
workers to strike. Under the Hospital Labor Disputes
Arbitration Act hospital workers, and those working
in nursing homes and homes for the aged are denied
their fundamental right to strike. eer
O’Connor said he hoped the demonstration will
attract the support of not only the 75,000 CUPE
members affiliated to the Ontario Division, but that it
will extend also to the 100,000 CUPE members in
Ontario. -

“First we were scared, then were proud when we realized what we'd done”
of the occupiers when they took over the Wagner plant Sept. 9.

Z

. This was the feeling expressed by some

TUNG-SOL OCCUPIED FOR 3 DAYS

Sit-in brings settlement

By MIKE PHILLIPS

BRAMPTON — For the second
time in amonth, workers showed the
successful results of using the sit-in
as a means of forcing an arrogant
boss to negotiate.

Following an all-night bargaining
session, the 20 members of striking
United Electrical (UE) workers
Local 513 at Wagner Brake and
Lighting Products, (formerly Tung-
Sol International), marched out of
the plant they had occupied for
three-and-a-half days, shortly before
noon, Sept. 12.

UE secretary-treasurer Val Bjar-
nason, later that afternoon outlined
the terms-of the agreement reached
at 2 a.m. that morning. The strikers
ratified it by a 45 to one vote in the

_afternoon.

The main elements of the agree-
ment include a 600% improvement in
the company’s severance pay terms,
a three-month extension on health
care benefits paid by the company,
and a written promise by Wagner not
to undertake any legal action against
the workers for occupying the plant.

Undoubtedly the sit-in, which
started shortly after 7 a.m., Sept. 9,
was the decisive factor in forcing the
U.S.-owned company to improve its
severance payments to the workers
whose jobs were to be cancelled Oct.
31. Under the terms of the agree-
ment ratified Sept. 12, the layoffs
that were scheduled for the end of
October became effective im-
mediately.

With $250 as the basis for one
week's pay the termination settle-
ment provides for the following:
workers with one to five years ser-
vice will receive one-half a week's
pay per years of service. For those
with six to 10 years it is two-thirds of
a week’s pay per years of service.
Three-quarters of a week’s pay times

years of service is the compensation
for workers with 10 to 15 years ser-
vice and one full week’s pay times
years of service for workers with 15
and more years seniority.

600% Improvement —

Total cost of the settlement pac-
kage to the company is $94,641 a
600% improvement over the com-
pany’s paltry severance offer ofa flat
payment ranging from $250 to $500
based on years of service.

Though angry about losing their
jobs, and bitter over the “‘profits be-
fore people’ actions of the U.S.
company, the ‘striking Wagner
workers nevertheless immensely en-
joyed their victory in forcing
Management to substantially im-
prove their severance benefits.

Helen Stock, a 15-year veteran
with the company and one of the
occupiers of the plant, said the oc-
cupation by the. workers and the
settlement it produced “‘looked good
on them (the company).’’ She
emerged from the occupation con-
vinced it was the only way the work-
ers could have won their demands.

Greta Hill, another of the oc-
cupiers and a worker whose job
ended Sept. 12, said the workers
were “scared as hell’? when they
walked into the plant Sept. 9, but
that she felt great about the settle-
ment. ‘f

“I think we won a victory for
workers all across Canada’, Hill
said. “I hope it will make the
government pass legislation to pro-
tect workers like us so they won’t be
flung out on the streets like Wagner
did to us.”’

She said the occupation ‘‘was de-
finitely worthwhile’’ and added that
she hoped ‘‘it does set an example
for workers facing the problem of
losing their jobs when a company.
decides to leave the country.

There’s no justification for any com-
pany using up the best years of our
lives just to kick us out.”’ >

Describing her feelings and those
of her workmates on Sept. 9, Hill
said: ‘‘When we finished shaking we
felt proud of ourselves for what we
done.” é

Would Do It Again

UE representative Frank Pisel-
chia said “‘if they had to do it ovel
again (occupy the plant to enforce
their demands) I believe thes¢
people would do it again.’’ Wayne
Gray, UE Local 513 president, also
welcomed the victory and blast
U.S. multi-nationals for their harm-
ful effect on the Canadian economy:
Speaking of Wagner Gray said ‘‘the
company’s decision to move de-
finitely was made: without any con-
sideration for Canadian workers. It

‘was made solely in the interests of

higher profits and not in the interests
of the Canadian people.”’

Ralph Currie the UE representa-
tive who was inside the plant with
the occupying: workers termed the
sit-in historic. He said the strikers
weren’t just fighting for better sever-
ance pay but were looking at the fu-
ture and hoping that by what they
were doing it would save the jobs for
their kids and spare them the same
kind of treatment by a foreign
multi-national. : x

Currie noted that as the impact of
the sit-in became impressed on the
strikers ‘‘they began to understand
that the law needs to be changed.

“It was amazing’’, Currie said,
“to see them realize how the law is
not on their side. With the victory we
achieved, though there’s no re-
placement for the jobs lost, they
realized this was more than a strike
battle. They see that what they were
doing will become part of the labor
movement's history.”

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