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The 18th convention of divi-
sion 4, Railway Employees De-
partment (AFL-CIO), which took
place in Montreal during the first
week of May, was dominated
mainly by the head-on collision
between the Machinists and Car-
men’s organizations. Although
this confrontation had to come
in the form of the Machinists’
demands for democratic struc-
tural reforms of the division,
some observers felt that the
debates on these issues need not
have taken place so early in
the convention.

The convention lost two days
of valuable time by intermittent
though heated debate on wheth-
er the rank and file of the vari-
ous affiliates to the division
would be given the basic trade
union and democratic right to
ratify the next contract negoti-
ated by the division officers.
Another contentious issue was
the resolution which called upon
the president of Division 4 to
publicly oppose any form of
compulsory arbitration or gov-
ernment back-to-work _legisla-
tion (such as Bill 230) if negoti-
ations and conciliations proved
fruitless’ between the carriers
and the shop crafts.

This important resolution was
finally adopted following a long
debate and a declaration by the
division president John Clark
that he intended to abide by the
spirit of the resolution in any
event. The resolution dealing
with rank and file ratification
of future contracts was finally
resolved by the adoption of a
compromise resolution submitted

by the Electrical Union which
would in effect recognize the
autonomy of each affiliated or-
ganization, allow each craft to
serve separate notice on the
companies, but conduct joint ne-
gotiations. Further, the contract
will be signed by each individual
organization and division 4 will
be responsible- for uniform ad-
ministration and enforcement of
the agreement. Although it is
well-known that the majority of
the rank and file rail workers,
including the carmen, are in fa-
vor of rank and file ratification
of the contract, the Carmen’s
delegates astounded the conven-
tion by treating this issue as an
infringement of their trade union
autonomy.

This reporter was told by the
Carmens’ delegates that there is
no provision in their constitution
for rank and file ratification of
contracts; he was further told,
“this has always been left to the
good judgment of the Carmens’
leadership.”

It should be said in passing
that although some of the other
crafts and delegates hedged on
this important question, the Ma-
chinists’ 60-man delegation sup-
ported it to a man.

But perhaps the issue which

upset the Carmen the most was

the Machinists’ direct challenge
of the Carmens’ voting strength,
which did not conform to the
division 4 constitution. As al-
ways, the Machinists demanded
a strict interpretation of the
constitution, which was denied
them by the president of the
division on the grounds that the

voting strength of each organi-
zation must conform to the con-
stitution of the division, with the
exception of the Carmen whose
voting strength at the conven-
tion is to be determined by past
practices. In the face of this
type of logic and receiving no
support on this issue from the
other crafts, the Machinists had
to withdraw their complaint.
Perhaps it shouldbe pointed
out that all national crafts send
one check to the division of
payments based on their total
per capita membership; while
the Carmen, having three differ-

ent districts, send three separate

checks and this arrangement
allows them to obtain ten votes
over and above their per capita
basis.

Despite the fact that veteran
observers repeatedly stated that
this convention was the least
harmonious division convention
in recent history, the 230 dele-
gates from the eight rail crafts
did succeed in adopting good
resolutions which will be incor-
porated in the next wage de-
mands to be served on the car-
riers on November 1, 1968.

The scope of these resolutions
and the priority order of the
demands are as follows:

e Substantial wage increase
e Health and welfare

e Sick leave

e Shift differential

e Vacations

e Negotiated pension plan

e Revamping of the grievance
procedure

e General holidays

A political tennis court

By MEL DOIG.

The Prime Minister of Canada
has announced his intention to
seek re-election in the constitu-
ency of Mount Royal on the
Island of Montreal. It’s as if
Pierre Elliott Trudeau were ask-
ing, “anyone for tennis?” as he
makes his return appearance in
this constituency which résem-
bles a political tennis court more
than an arena for the clash of
electoral programs and ideas.

One is reminded of his insou-
ciance when that Ottawa girl
asked if she might kiss him—
“Why not? It’s spring” — as he
recently commented about
Mount Royal riding: “It’s one
of the nicest constituencies in
the country. I have a good elec-
tion there.” No doubt. For it’s
springtime in Mount Royal., Daf-
fodils and tulips, crocuses and
hyacinths grace the early green
of the well-kept lawns around
the $60,000- and up homes of
Hampstead and Cote St. Luc.
Lilacs burst their colors and
lilies-of-the-valley perfume the
air around the great trees of
the Town of Mt. Royal (that’s
the municipality whose Mayor
“King Reginald” Dawson and
town council have for months
opposed the derhands of their
.public-works employees for de-
cent wages and working condi-
tions.)

It’s a champagne constituency

designed for the pragmatic
prime minister. They pared it
down in 1966 from 143,540 in-
habitants to 87,529 in its new,
custom - tailored version, and
most of the difference consisted
of lower-income voters. Today
it is composed of three of Mont-
real’s five wealthiest municipali-
ties, plus a small area of work-
ing people’s apartments and
tenements. The rude face of
industry and warehouses shows
itself on the borders of a neigh-
boring constituency but most ‘of
the workers live “outside.”

The image, so sedulously cul-
tivated for him by the Estab-
lishment, begins to crack open
as “Lord Elliott” Trudeau pre-
sents his version of the “just
society” before the affluent vot-
ers of Mount Royal. The daring,
bold thinker of “intellectual
honesty, of frankness to the
point of brutality” dare not face
the “3rd Solitude of Montreal—
the 395,000 impoverished, the
38 percent who live in poverty
or precarious insecurity. Instead,
the fat burghers with their three-
car garages and gardeners and
maids will politely applaud P.E.T.
as he announces, “No more of
this free stuff”, and threatens to
submit Canada’s needy to the
indignities and cruelties of the
means test.

The centralist policies of Tru-
deau, his refusal to recognize

‘the two-nations composition of

Page 8—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 10, 1968

Canada, are not to be challenged
in Mount Royal riding. French-
Canadians there are — in the
minority — but most of these
are rich, wanting only a bigger
slice of the pie. It is not here
that Trudeau will have to con-
front the issue of the sovereign
rights of Quebec as the state of
the French-Canadian nation. In
Mount Royal, smug satisfaction
with the status quo avoids this
confrontation.

Instead, the Prime Minister—
a flower stem gently crushed in
his teeth—is to run for office
in this streamlined, late twen-
tieth-century, go-go version of
the rottenest of rotten boroughs
of two hundred years ago. While
the Progressive Conservatives
are tossing about wildly trying
to find a Quebec lieutenant to
lead their campaign, and as
Charles Taylor, the NDP profes-
sor who last ran in Mount Royal,
now conveniently switches over
to neighboring Dollard constitu-
ency where he is opening his
campaign with an exhibition of
paintings, Mr. Trudeau prepares
for his “god election” in ‘one
of the nicest constituencies of
the country.”

It will be from other constitu-
encies that Canada will hear the
voice of Quebec’s working peo-
ple and democratic forces in
these federal elections — not
from Mount Royal.

It is clear that the demands
will be in accordance with the
wishes of the general member-
ship.

These demands no doubt will
place a heavy burden on the
negotiating officers. However,
they are not beyond the realm
of achievement if the craftsmen
show the same militancy of the
1966 rail strike.

The last day of the convention
witnessed the unanimous elec-
tion of John Clark as the new
permanent president of division
four.

Despite the fact that the new
president is head and shoulders

Machinists and Carmen collide

above the former president from
the point of view of adminis-
trative and responsible trade
unionism, he is still surrounded
with conservative advisers and
is chained to a body which does
not give him much opportunity
for decisive leadership; which
could mean that the division will
hobble along in the same old
way at the expense of the
workers.

Browned off by the ineffective-
ness of both CPR and CNR sys-
tems federations, the Machinists
of both federations refused to
attend their conventions and
formally withdrew.

RL urges

housing action

Delegates to the Canadian
Labor Congress Convention
adopted a policy statement on
housing which they say is
“clearly a major social problem
with repercussions throughout
the national economy and at all
levels of government.” This was
done with a storm of protests
from the delegates that the
statement was -too mild, the
need was more urgent, and that
statements are not enough.

Stan Thornley of local 540,
Sheet Metal Workers, said that
60 percent of Canadians earn
less than $4,000 annually and
find it impossible to buy homes.
“What is missing from the state-
ment,” he added, “is the means
for us to implement policy.”-He
suggested that perhaps what
was needed in Canada was our
own ‘poor people’s” march to
show the government.

A Windsor delegate spoke of
the problem of the Chrysler
workers, who live in so-called
low rental government housing,
whose rent went up to $157 and
more a month after the last
‘wage increase. “They are being
gouged by the government,” he
said.

Another delegate from the
Carpenters Union, said that all
the talk of high wages for car-
penters being the cause of the
high prices on homes was non-
sense since “they don’t earn
enough to buy back the homes
they build.” He said that the
statement should be sharper in
relation to the land speculators
who are the real cause of the
problem.

Bill Hanna, Local 7106 United

Steel Workers in Flin Flon said

_back in 1789 one of the explor-

ers spoke of Port .Churchill as
a miserable place, and in 1968
an investigating commission said
the same thing. ‘Seventy per-
cent of the homes are inadequate
and unsanitary. Thousands of
Metis and Indians are crowded
into tarpaper shacks.” He also
called for strengtheing of the
statement.

Rod Cameron, Local 112 Unit-
ed Automobile Workers, propos-
ed that Congress do a big
advertising job, including ads in
the dailies so that the biggest
campaign possible for housing
could be launched.

Among the specific recom-
mendations of the CLC are:

e creation of a federal depart-
ment of housing and urban ~
affairs;

e housing to be regarded by
government as a social need and
not as a regulator of economic
activity;

e rent review boards at the
provincial level of government;

e principle of a_ subsidized
mortgage rate to be recognized —
and applied in such a way as to ~
make housing available to that
part of the population whose
income is otherwise insufficient;.

e urban land to be acquired
by public agencies and held in
perpetuity to be leased to meet ~
Canada’s housing needs;

e amount of money for hous-
ing supplied by the federal gov-
ernment to be substantially —

increased and primarily directed —
to finance housing for lower and —
middle-income groups and senior —
citizens.

vention:

_ WHEREAS the pres

_ adequate and the minimum wage is r
_ vide workers with a satisfactory living standa

The following resolution was ado ed at the

‘not sufficient to

the Federal

pre Gover
$2.00 per hour across Car