LABOUR

Pulling up their socks

By KERRY McCUAIG

TORONTO — Down at the
foot of Spadina Avenue where
street signs proclaim the city’s
“fashion district’’ stands Mc-
Gregor Hosiery Mills. An unim-
pressive red brick structure, typi-
cal of turn-of-the-century — fac-
tories, its looms and knitting ma-
chines have spewed out socks for
just as long.

McGregor has made a name
for itself as Canada’s number one
manufacturer of men’s, boys’ and
women’s socks. The company got
to be first by exploiting immigrant
labour, a tradition it maintains.

“Of the 235 workers here,
about 200 are women, almost all
of us immigrants,”’ explains Gina
Martins, the militant young vice-
president of Local 590, of the
Canadian Textile and Chemical
Union.

Working three around the clock
shifts, the majority of McGregor’s
workers make $6.06 an hour or
$12,600 a year. Martin’s ‘‘It’s not
enough”’ is an understatement.

During the last round of nego-
tiations, the workers agreed and
walked out Oct. 26, in their first
strike. They want a 60 cent an
hour raise, a paid dental plan and
improved vacation and holiday
rights.

With the peak buying season
fast approaching the strike has

“When dining with the devil use a long

turned ugly. Initially the company
used its supervisors to do the final
packaging and labeling at its Eto-
bicoke warehouse, but soon dis-
covered foremen don’t work.
Workers were phoned, told the
union had been smashed and or-
dered to show up or lose their
jobs.

“A few of the older women
were intimidated into crossing,”’
says Anne Burgess, a rep for the
union. ‘‘We stopped the van for
one hour and those women sat
inside the whole time with plastic
garbage bags over their heads. It
was terrible.”’

But good things have also hap-
pened. There were differences
between the six ethnic groups in
the plant, which management fos-
tered by isolating them in separate
departments.

“Those divisions are now:

breaking down,”’ reports CTCU
vice-president Laurell Ritchie.
“Co-workers are getting to know
each other on the picket line.”’
And as Ritchie told a solidarity
picket one cold morning, workers
are finding strengths they never
realized they had. ‘‘Many of us
wondered how the Chinese work-
ers would be because they’re
usually rather quiet. Well one tiny
Chinese woman surprised us,
and, three burley policemen who
tried to arrest her. Even with
three of them pushing her from
the back and their sergeant pulling

spoon
— Old Free Trade Proverb

her at the front, they still couldn’t ,

get her into the police car and
finally gave up and let her go.”’
The union is counting on biting
into McGregor’s Christmas sales
to force a settlement. They are
asking for support to leaflet The
Bay, Simpsons, Eaton’s and
Marks and Spencers stores where
the socks are sold under the brand
names Happy Foot, Super Star,
St. Michaels, Christian Dior, Al-
fred Sung, Weekender, Soft Step,
Baycrest, Footprints,

Hunt Glue:

9
<
>
1)
o
=
>
ay.
ac
Ww
x
|
2
9
:
oa
Ww
z
=.
a
a
=

Club Gina Martins, vice-president of the CTCU local at McGregor Hosiery in
Monaco, Birkdale, Gripper and Toronto, tells an early morning solidarity rally of the poor wages and

working conditions at Canada’s number one sock manufacturer.

Labour wins St. Catharines
backing for free trade vote

Special to the Tribune

ST. CATHARINES — Follow-
ing a boisterous debate, City
council here backed a resolution
from the local auto workers union
insisting Prime Minister Mul-
roney call a federal election on the
free trade deal, initialed last
month with the United States.

Free trade would sacrifice
Canadian sovereignty and turn
St. Catharines “into. a ghost
town’’, Mayor Joe McCaffry told
the audience of 250 auto workers
and grape growers packed into
the council chambers.

The economy of the Niagara
region centres around fruit grow-
ing and the auto industry and
speakers were unconvinced by
the prime minister’s assurances
that the auto pact and agriculture
would be protected in the agree-
ment.

The strongly worded resolution
accused Mulroney of dishonesty
in misleading the public about the

‘nature of the talks. It is a deal

which gives the U.S. everything
and Canada nothing, the resolu-
tion says. Rather than creating
jobs, hundreds of thousands of

Canadians will be out of work,
“with particularly negative con-
sequences for working women.”’

When the vote was taken, only
two of the 11 councillors, braved
the boos and catcalls to oppose
the resolution.

The Nov. 16 meeting was the
culmination of-a weekend of ac-
tivities against free trade, spon-
sored by Local 199 of the Cana-
dian Auto Workers Union.

Gerry Michaud, president of
the 12,000 CAW members
employed at the city’s General
Motors assembly plant, said the
demonstration was only the first
of a series planned across the
province.

A giant tent set up on the lawn
of Local 199’s headquarters held
displays from the grape growers
association and unions’ including
CAW, the United Electrical
Workers and the Canadian Union
of Postal Workers.

Provincial MLAs from the re-
gion, Liberals Bradely and Mike
Dietch, along with New Democ-

rat MPP Mel Swartz, spoke to the ~

crowd of the dangers of free
trade.

- Federal opposition leader John
Turner, spent about 30 minutes

touring the displays on Saturday ©

and added his name to 3,000
others on the petition calling for
an election.

Although Turner was vague on
what counter proposals his party
would put forward to free trade,
he was adamant in his rejection of
the pact. “‘I believe the price of
being Canadian is a price worth
paying’’, he told reporters.

Two pipers led a parade from

union headquarters to city hall —

prior to the meeting. They were
joined there by others in a candle-
light vigil. ,

“The fightback is growing,”’
said Don Quinn, a worker in the
GM plant commenting on the ac-
tivities. ‘‘More and more Cana-
dians are realizing what free trade
is all about, our heritage will be
gone. There will be no Canada left
for our children, if we don’t act
now.”’ Quinn says free trade is
“‘the number one issue’’ among
workers in the plant. ‘“‘They de-
finitely want to go to the ballot
box on this one.”’

Labour briefs

Fund for
Bonita Clark

Bonita Clark is preparing to
take Stelco before the Labour
Relations Board on charges of
creating ‘‘a poisoned work
environment.’ During her
seven years with the steel
giant, Clark has been subjected
to sexual harassment by her
foreman. Her complaints
about unsafe working condi-
tions in the plant have made
her a target of a company hate
campaign.

A win for Clark before the
OLRB could set a valuable
precedent for working women.
If sexual harassment is accept-
ed as a health and safety
hazard this could be a new
weapon to protect women
activists.

The legal costs of fighting
this case have become
substantial. Clark is appealing
to the labour and women’s
movements for moral and

financial assistance. Contribu-
tions can be sent to: The
Bonita Clark Defence Fund, 15
Bartlett Ave., Hamilton L9V
111.

irish workers
get support

Toronto labour lent its soli- ~

darity to workers suffering
from bigotry and discrimina-
tion in Northern Ireland at its

FREE TRADE

monthly membership meeting.
A report from the Metro
Labour Council’s international
affairs committee asked dele-
gates to support a resolution on
~ the ‘‘MacBride Principles’
coming before the Ontario
Federation of Labour conven-
tion this week.
The MacBride Principles,
named for their author Dr.
Sean MacBride, the former

Irish ambassador to Northern _

Ireland and founding member
of Amnesty International,
urges employers to increase
minority representation in the
workforce through a compre-
hensive affirmative action
program.

The Irish Congress of Trade
Unions says systematic dis-
crimination against Catholic
workers, through hiring prac-
tices and work place intimida-
tion, results in 30 to 40 per cent
unemployment.

An impassioned plea by On-
tario Public Services Employ-

ees delegate, Pat Rooney, de-

scribing the extreme dis-
crimination facing Catholic
workers and the bigoted op-
position to reform by the Brit-
ish government, led to the
unanimous adopttion of the
resolution.

What are those
Signs for, Mom?

Children’s author Claire
MacKay answers this ques-
tion, and many more, in her
new book Pay Cheques and
Picket Lines, a humorous and
interesting look at the history
of the Canadian labour
movement.

Picket lines, strikes, collec-
tive bargaining and the big and
little things unions do, are ex-
plained and made enjoyable
through the help of dozens of
illustrations and photographs.

MacKay begins with the
“‘brotherhoods’’ of the 17th
century to the industrial unions

of today, including the de-
cisions of a number of unions
to form their own national
organizations.

Discussed is the important
social role unions play in
fighting for health and safety,
anti-discrimination and other
laws which impact on all socie-
ty, notjust their own members.

MacKay is up-front with her
young readers. Grabbing a
picket sign doesn’t mean an
automatic pay increase.
Workers who want to make
gains face a rough road,
particularly public sector
workers whose right to strike
and bargain collectively is
often severely restricted.

In addition to answering
kids’ questions about the ins
and outs of the labour move-
ment, Pay Cheques and Picket
Lines, may also provide a reply
to that one tricky question
union activists often face:

‘“How come you’re always
going to meetings?”’

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 25, 1987

sa hy OR, 8, a EE a a Set a er es

‘

*