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TORONTO — The Metro Labor Council wants
‘0be Santa Claus this Christmas to the children of
Gainers strikers.

Delegates unanimously endorsed a Strike Sup-
Port Committee resolution, Nov. 6 committing the
“ouncil to collect presents for at least 100 strikers’
7 ‘hildren by the beginning of December.
| The United Food and Commercial Workers re-
| Port there are 500 strikers’ kids under 12 years old
; Who face a bleak Christmas without the support of
“nion members right across the country.

__ The union is picking up on an idea proposed last
Month by the council’s Strike Support Committee
“Organize a cross-Canada caravan to collect
istmas gifts from each of the provincial capi-
| “ls. The Canadian Labor Congress has agreed to
‘0-ordinate the Canada-wide effort to collect the
*esents, and labor councils are being urged to take
} P the campaign in their respective communities.
_. A similar effort was undertaken in Ontario dur-
8 the Inco strike, when the St. Catharines and
strict Labor Council under the leadership of
| “Ordie Lambert led a campaign to fill a truck load
“gifts for the strikers’ children.
5 Tade union locals are being asked to raise about

50 in gifts for a specific child, whose name, age,

‘Nd three Christmas wishes will be provided.
hen each local or organization will sign one of
lhe gifts and leave the others to be addressed by the
ents,

EQS

Trib as Santa

The Trib will be Santa too. Angelo Corea is
| 80ing to find a present under his tree Christmas
| Morning from the Tribune and its friends.

| Our readers can help in two ways. Get your
| “dion local or organization to adopt one or more
| fthe 500 children of the Gainers strikers. And,
| "you want to join us in our contribution to this
1} Sampaign send us your donation.

We'll contribute whatever we raise from our
ders to the Metro Toronto Labor Council's
‘ampaign.

iy Peter Pork has kept the strikers out since
| “4ne. He’s hoping to break their spirit this

Winter when the blizzards howl and the temper-
Ure hits 40 below on the picket line.

| . Workers from Vancouver Island through to
| >. John’s can teach this Scrooge just how sol-

W Y We support the local 280-P membership. But
| “Shave to act fast.

8 Contact your local UFCW office or labor

| ,OUncil for your kid’s name and age and descrip-

1 pet the present he/she’s hoping to open on
Stmas morning, from you.

Cross-Canada caravan for Gainers strikers

Toronto labor takes up campaign

ST

The Gainers strike can be linked to the big-business Tory agenda.

Delegates were quick to approve the initiative.
UFCW rep Kevin Park, who is co-ordinating the
Gainers’ solidarity effort throughout Ontario,
urged the delegates to support the Christmas cam-
paign, noting how the boycott campaign has
‘‘successfully destroyed Peter Pocklington’s mar-
ket in Southern Ontario.”’

Park reported that Pocklington has been reduced
to less than one trailer load of meat products being
shipped into the province each week, representing
only a tiny portion of the market he got when he
bought out Swifts’ eastern Canadian division a
number of years ago.

Canadian Union of Public Employees delegate,
Rosemary Baycroft also welcomed the council’s
action linking the Gainers strike to the big
business-Tory government attack on labor to set
the stage for free trade with the U.S.

“This isn’t just an ordinary strike, but a key
strike to show Mulroney and Peter Pocklington
how strong the labor movement is’’, Baycroft told
the delegates.

She noted how the courts and police were being
used against the workers in the Gainers struggle,
and increasingly in other battles throughout the
country. A neo-conservative mood is being created
by big business and its governments, she said, to
sell out Canadians and Canada to the U.S.

Recording the unanimity of the vote, council
president Mike Lyons urged the delgates to take
the issue up with their locals, and announced that
since support for the Christmas drive was so over-

whelming, he expected ‘‘to see 400 Christmas gifts |

here in this building next month.”

On pay equity, the council executive warned
that the Liberals were caving in to the business
community and seemed prepared to stall any at-
tempts to improve the inadequate Equal Value law
already tabled in the Legislature.

Bill 105, currently before the Justice Committee
only covers workers in predominantly female job
groups in the public sector, that is about 2 per cent
of the provincial work force.

Women’s groups, the Equal Pay Coalition, and
labor are seeking extensive amendments that
would strengthen the bill and widen its scope.

Then, when a cabinet document leaked to the
media revealed that the Peterson government was
looking at a private sector pay equity law proposal
that would call for voluntary compliance over six
months and exlude all businesses employing fewer
than five workers, labor’s suspicions of the Liber-
als’ bad faith were strengthened.

“It is a crucial time for the women’s movement
and the labor movement to keep this issue at a high
profile and to exercise all the political clout we
have’’, the executive board stated.

‘The Liberals must be reminded that inadequate
Equal Value legislation will not be tolerated. An
amended Bill 105 and strong private sector legis-
lation are expected.”

Labor in action

GEORGE HEWISON

* posed lump sum payments on the union in the last three years of

McDonnell-Douglas
Agreement:
&
Can workers live
a &
with it?

Because of the heated discussion over the recent contract at
McDonnell-Douglas, and the lessons for all workers in Canada,
I've asked John Maclennan, Auto Secretary for the Communist
Party, a former McDonnell-Douglas employee, CAW Steward
and Local 1967 Executive member to comment. G.H.

‘se oe

McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft is one of the most arrogant, anti-
union, U.S. multinational corporations ever to operate in Can-
ada. Its record of arrogance and double-dealing with the
membership of Local 1967 Canadian Auto Workers has had little
parallel in this country.

It fired the local bargaining committee in 1973, after receiving
the local union’s help to get a government contract, with prom-.
ised jobs. Then, it farmed out the work to other companies.

Recently, the corporation unilaterally introduced a new job
classification which undermined traditional job security and im-

the collective agreement.

The company’s approach has caused great frustration and
anger among the membership leading into the current round of
negotiations. Additionally, many felt that the local was in its best
bargaining position in 15 years.

The Local 1967 Bargaining Committee, generally regarded as
one of the best in many years, went into the talks backed by a 97
per cent strike vote and an aroused membership. The company
was forced to concede a settlement far larger than the going
pattern in the Canadian trade union movement; enough, they
estimated, to avert a strike and with a clear warning that if the
union wanted more thay would have to take a long strike to get it.
The Committee, in its wisdom, recommended the package.

With the 54 per cent acceptance vote, and resentment at the
package and the company by a significant proportion of the
membership, anger has now shifted toward the union and the
leadership.

Members Mis-read

The question will always remain, would a strike have given the
membership a better agreement? Were CAW president Bob
White and the Bargaining Committee right to call for acceptance?

To answer such a question, means trying to second guess the
company, and the priority it places on its commercial as opposed
to military aircraft contracts. It involves estimating the extent it
would go to to diffuse the militancy of 3,900 workers in a major
test of the CAW. And, it means judging to what extent other
CAW employers would rally in the scheme to cut the union down
to size in advance of major bargaining in 1987.

On the other hand, the workers’ mood clearly surprised even
those who opposed the agreement and there’s no doubt the
feelings of the membership were mis-read.

The agreement itself may very well stand the test of time,
considering the general attack on labor. It calls for a lump sum
payment of 8 per cent in the first year; from 3 to 5 per cent
depending on classification in the second and third years; along
with full COLA which will add an additional 4.2 per cent annually
through the life of the contract.

Not a Sell Out

A major irritant at McDonnell-Douglas has been the issue of
the Unit Work Technician, and since this was not settled at the
bargaining table, there has been little safe-guarding of company
gerry-mandering of job classifications.

This is NOT a sell-out agreement, however. Even those in
opposition concede that it was the best which could be obtained
without a strike.

But, it does pose a serious question for trade union leaders:
how to read, synchronize and give proper expression to their
members’ growing mood of anger and frustration in the face of
the corporate attack, and at the same time ensure that the anger is
not deflected by the corporations back to the unions.

It suggests the need for heightened contact between leaders
and membership on the shop floor, so that the generals and the
footsoldiers perfectly understand one another and the nature of
the war they’re engaged in.

With the kind of problems facing the workers at McDonnell-
Douglas and other workers in the auto and aerospace industries,
there is little percentage in trying to re-run the 1986 negotiations.
What is needed is to learn its lessons, and unite to take on the
Company.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 19, 1986 e 5

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