eae are

a

Andy Johnston (above) was one

@ How international trade union bureaucrats”

menace

of the international representatives
who helped to place Vancouver
IBEW Local 213 under administra- -

tion.

HE widespread wage strug-

gle of organized labor dur-
ing the first half of this year
contain many lessons for all
trade unionists. Spurred on by
ever-increasing living costs,
this wage struggle indicated
among other things, a growing
determination among. rank-
and-file workers to win a
greater share of the great
wealth their labors produce.

In British Columbia the will
to strike in support of these

yage demands was ~ widely
demonstrated in actual and
threatened strike actions,
much to the discomfort of
certain circles of trade union
officialdom, as well as big
business and governments.

The threat of 11,000 B.C.
government employees to take
strike action in support of
their salary demands and bar-
gaining rights set a precedent.
For the first time in. the labor
history of this province a
united body of civil servants,
with the full backing of organ-
ized labor, prepared all the
machinery of strike action to
win their just demands. Only
a climb-down by the Bennett
government and a seven per-
sent salary inrrease averted
that strike action.

It may be said that had
there been greater inter-union
unity during the course of
these wage battles, the overall
pattern of a seven percent in-
crease might have been con-
siderably bettered. However,
the increases won represented
a signal victory for labor in
a period when “lack of mar-
kets,” and “tight money” were
the excuses used by the mon-
opolies for refusing to give
What their profit statements
showed them to be so able to
pay.

The monopolies had planned
to “hold” or force back the
Wage lines, as Consolidated
Mining and Smelting is now

trying to do with Mine-Mil] —.

to demand drastic wage reduc-
tions under threat of closing
down operations, thus throw-
ing the onus of a crisis of their
own making on to the work-
ers. It is an old trick, produc-
tive only of industrial peonage
and ghost towns!
nXG
But what of the lessons
these wage struggles have af-
forded and the problems they

indicate for the future?

One thing is apparent, that
the international representa-
tives of some of the big unions
have become more and more
imbued with the concepts of
class-collaboration. This of
course is nothing new for
these $20,000 a year men who
have taken on the coloration
— and ideas — of the big
business executives with
whom they bargain. For them,
as in the case of Teamstérs
Union ex-president Dave Beck,
the class struggle has become
the “cash” struggle.

From Sam Gompers of the
old AFL to George Meany of
the new” AFL-CIO, class col-
laboration has become more
than a tpolicy. It is now a
confirmed way-of-life, and one
which finds its greatest em-
barrassment in a rank-and-
file membership which, fromn
sheer necessity, adheres to the
the ideas and methods of the
class struggle,

So it is not surprising to find
a number of these big inter-
national uni6n executives
(each in his own way), doing
a lot of “research” work on
how to remodel and recon-
struct the unions, under their
leadership, so that the mem-
bers, in their wage demands,
will prove less embarrassing
to the employers — and them-
selves.

Some of this union “re-:
construction” is already well

‘documented and just awaiting

a well-machined’ convention to
give it “constitutional” valid-
ity.

These documented “Te-
forms” include a much greater
concentration of power in the
hands of-the international ex-
ecutives, with a corresponding
curtailment of jurisdictional],
power at district, regional and
local levels a drastic length-
ening of the tenure of top of-
ficial office, and a limiting of
the democratic elective pro-
cess with a corresponding ex-
tension of the ®executive’s
power to appoint union of-
ficials.

Together with these “re-
forms” comes the idea of
creating a number of new
union official posts (including
a “listening post” in Washing-
ton, D.C., with; plenty of union
funds available for “entertain-
ment” purposes.) This in turn
requires that a greater share
of union per capita payments

By TOM McEWEN

go to the international office
and that there be a substan-
tial increase in membership
Initiation fees, per capita dues
and sundry assessments.

axe

Perhaps the most important
“reform” now under. consider-
ation, and one of special in-
terest to Canadians whose
union affairs are dominated if
not actually dictated by~ an
international hierarchy in the
U.S., is the brilliant conclusion
that strikes have now become
“obsolete.” In the eyes of the
international bureaucrats the
top echelons of capital and
labor have reached such a
stage of understanding that
there is no need of strikes —
everything can be settled,
“amicably.” *

As a practical expression of
this conclusion, it is proposed
that all union contracts bear
the signature of an interna-
tional executive member. This
is an arrangement which could
put a Canadian district, re-
gional or local wage contract
in the pocket of the interna-
tional executive — to be used
at will against the democratic
decisiéns of a Canadian union
membership.

In the Kitimat empire of the
Aluminum Company of Can-
ada building and construction
workers have already felt this

os

international union officials.

Construction workers have constantly had to oppose their

Representative of = the : @
tional president in Washington 1

interna-

the campaign to oust IBEW elected
officers in Vancouver was Alfred.
Terry (above).

doublessqueeze loss of hard-
won union benefits as a re-
sult of union official class-coi-
laborationist policies.

Hitherto members of Van-
couver building construction
unions. hiring out for work on
Alcan projects have been paid
travelling time and _ out-of-
town board rates. Then Alcan,
aided by the international
union brass, circumvented
these “fringe” benefits by set-
ting up “sub-lacals’” in the
area to receive Vancouver’s
“transfers,” thereby cancelling
the union member’s out-of-
town status and depriving him
of board and travel expenses.
Small wonder that indignant
union members ask “of their
‘officials, “Who. are you work-
ing for, us or Alcan?”

Another classical example of
this international union ex-
ecutive. “reform” can be seen
in the big Vancouver Local
213 of the International Broth-
erhood of Electrical Workers,
which has-been under inter-
national executive administra-
tion for the past two years or
more. :

Recently this administra-

tion forwarded a directive to
one of its shop stewards in
Squamish, giving that official
precise instructions on how
much work a union member
must perform during specified
hours of work. The shop stew-

ard was instructed to repert
to the company any worker
not fulfilling these obligations
with the recommendation that
the delinquent be fired forth-
with. F

Under this order five IBEW
members were summarily
fired from the job... and
later reinstated on the job by
prompt rank-and-file action.

Needless to say, there is al-
ready a great deal of rank-
and-file indignation against
some of these proposed “re-
forms” In some quarters there
is already talk of secession, of
“breaking with the interna-
tionals.” :

Such ‘leftist’ ideas, should
they be widely taken up,
would play right into tne
hands of the _ international
union “reformers,” since these
high-salaried bureaucrats are
primarily interested in one
thing — bending the unions tu
the will of the bosses, and as-
suring for themselves a tight
union control and a_ steady
flow of per capita funds.

w

These developments rais€
anew the pressing problen”’
for Canadian trade unionists,
that of complete autonomy if)
the democratic conduct of
their own-union affairs, Not
a “break” with the U.S. —
controlled international unions
in the “leftist” sense (the
stupidity. of which was well
demonstrated in the 1948 Corn-
munist-led IWA *split) but a
break with the domination and
interference of a foreign-con-
trolled bureaucracy now plan-
ning a “reform” rule-or-ruin
for Canadian unions.

During the coming months
and in preparation for future
wage drives, Canadian trade
unionists will be compelled to
look much more closely at
these ‘‘reforms,” already sap-
ping the collective strength of
a number of Canadian unions;
for they are destructive of
trade union democracy sand
unity, and inimical to labor’s -
economic and political .objec-
tives. : ‘

For Canadian trade union-
ists, of whatever political lean-
ings, there is only one an-
swer to the high-salaried “re-
formers” of the- AFL-CIO —
complete autonomy for Cana~
dian unions in the conduct of
their own affairs.

‘

i 7% August 9, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE we