~ ye Deal opens door to U.S. labour laws Have you noticed how harmless the rhetoric of free trade seems? To get to the “level playing field,” the deal’s corporate champions tell us will require that a broad swath of social, economic and other con- ditions will need to be “harmonized.” One of the things that will undoubtedly need to be “harmonized” in the wake of fe trade with the U.S. is Canadian labour aw. i The very logic of Reagan’s plan for a - “continental economic constitution” will demand the reduction of our labour rela- tions institutions to the pro-business strait- jacket that a prominent Canadian labour lawyer has described as an “elegant tomb- stone for a dying institution.” AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland has called the US. labour relations system a “dead let- ter.” The free traders in the Canadian big business camp don’t only want access to that American market, they also will need to Americanize wages and social rights in order to compete. And when they talk about harmonizing, Americanization is really their intention. Laurent Thibault of the Canadian Manufacturers Association doesn’t beat around the bush: “It’s simply a fact that as we ask our industries to compete toe to toe with American industries... we in Canada are obviously forced to create the same conditions in Canada that exist in the U.S., whether its the unemployment insurance scheme, workers’ compensation, the cost of government, the level of taxation, what- ever.” Indeed the process is already under way if we look at British Columbia and the Socred government’s Bill 19 — which was projected in the neo-conservative spirit of making the investment climate more attractive. A quick look at American labour law and industrial relations shows us that union organizing is severely restricted compared to our laws. The labour rela- tions system is much more openly aligned with the corporate community (although Canada is moving quickly in that same direction.) In addition, the American pub- lic sector worker virtually has no strike right and right-to-work laws are rampant throughout the country. The fact that union organization sits at _ a pitiful 17 percent of the non-agricultural work force (compared to 37 percent in Canada) and that minimum wage laws are either non-existent (nine states) or shame- fully low (less than $3 an hour in some 12 states), speaks volumes about the grim economic reality beneath the “‘level play- ing field.” Free trade thus promises to turn the entire U.S. into a kind of cheap labour “sunbelt” with respect to Canada. In the rush to compete south of the border or to keep American and other firms from relocating in the right-to-work sunbelt, added pressure will come down on other benefits, UI, workers compensa- tion, pay equity, pensions and the min- imum wage. Canadians weren’t given our labour laws on a platter. They had to be built up through tough struggles. To the extent they strengthen the trade union move- ment, they also help guarantee the whole gamut of social benefits from medicare to human rights and pay equity. Women, the poor and the disabled have been able to successfully deploy the gains won by labour to fight against low wages and inequality. By protecting labour’s collective bar- gaining rights, these laws also enforce Canadians’ ability to effect a measure of income and wealth distribution that acts as a means to counter growing poverty. Organized labour blocks the way to the dismantling of these social achievements. That’s why our labour laws are very much a target of the neo-conservative agenda disguised as a trade agreement. That’s also why every Canadian worker needs to back his/her union, labour coun- cil, federation and the CLC in their efforts to encourage and strengthen the country- wide coalition movement uniting all the forces determined to save Canada. The deal can be stopped if Canadians get together to turf Brian Mulroney and his neo-conservative majority out of Parlia- ment. Now is the time for the demonstrations, days of protest, lobbies, and whatever other pressure that can be brought to bear from all quarters against the dealy.as the foundation for the kind of popular movement that will bring the Tories down whenever they work up the courage to call for a vote. Mr. Svend Robinson Room 386 - CB House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A OA6 . MP. Rep rt h it sh es | Dear Mr. Further to our acknowledgement of October 23, 1985, in relation to allegations that an RCMP officer may have interfered in the affairs of a union in CSIS union spying | OTTAWA — It didn’t come as much of ‘a surprise to the labour movement March 29 when the supposedly independent Secur- ity Intelligence Review Committee cleared the Canadian Security and Intelligence Ser- vice (CSIS) of allegations that the agency spied on the trade union movement. The means with which CSIS was cleared, however, raises questions about the limits on the freedom of Canadians to support whatever legal political parties they choose, especially if that choice happens to be the Communist Party. The investigation was prompted by Radio Canada, the CBC’s French language broadcasting arm, last September when it quoted sources claiming CSIS had infil- trated the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the B.C. Federation of Labour, the Quebec Teachers Central, and the Can- adian Auto Workers. The allegations came in the wake of the exposure in the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) of CSIS informer Marc Boivin. Boivin had also previously worked 15 years for the RCMP. It is known that the RCMP targeted unions for spying during the decade prior to the creation of CSIS in 1984. His cover was blown as a result of an investigation that led to his eventual convic- tion for conspiring to plant bombs in hotels owned by Quebec city businessman Robert Malenfant. Malenfant owned the strike- bound Manoir Richelieu resort, where the husband of one of the striking hotel workers was killed after being assaulted by police on the picket line. The report released March 29 by federal | - Solicitor General James Kelleher said the investigation by the review committee, in which all three Parliamentary parties were represented, showed that CSIS hadn’t directed any of its resources at individual union members or organizations. “There is no indication that the service considers these organizations to be ‘subver- sive’ organizations, nor that information was collected regarding them from that point of view,” the report stated. However, committee chairperson and former Tory MP Ron Atkey sought to excuse Boivin’s undercover role, which led to illegal activity directed against CSN, by stating that the informer’s “mandate” wasn’t so much to spy on his fellow union members but to spy on communists in the union’s ranks. William Kashtan, general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada, denounced what he called ‘ta whitewash” of the CSIS by the so-called watchdog agency, and charged that in fact Boivin was spying on the union as well as individual members who happened fo support the party. “The Communist Party is a legal party,” Kashtan said. “It undertakes its activities in full public view. Some of its members belong to trade unions because those organ- izations are open to working people and that’s where we draw our membership.” He added that governments fear com- munists and militant trade unionists gener- ally, because they defend the interests of working people and their unions. The trade union movement, he said, was on solid ground in expressing “extreme doubt in the veracity” of the review commit- tee’s findings. “The activities of the security service weren’t only directed at the Com- munist Party, but have also been directed at the trade union movement, the peace movement, the New Democratic Party and all democratic movements. “When it does that, the CSIS is acting on behalf of monopoly capital and not on behalf of democracy.” The CP leader suggested that the Cana- dian Labour Congress at its forthcoming biennial convention should speak out loud and clear to the effect that it will not tolerate the CSIS or any other foreign body within its ranks whose aim is to undermine the / from my officials. Mr. Zander's allegations of the Service. British Columbia, I have now received a report on the matter Vogts ~leqation was in the first Fance Sate examined hy the Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and he has advised me that he is satisfied that there has been no impropriety by any member p ‘ved-in a meeting ~ = SS ~Aian Security — mast Police. have been carefully * kee Solliciteur général ‘fz du Canada Solicitor General of Canada SE 2? $86 Mr. William Zander, President British Columbia Provincial Council of Carpenters Room 11 - 2806 Kingsway Vancouver, British Columbia V5R 5T5 Dear Mr. Zander: I wish to acknowledge your furth-- ~ 1986 requesting additional ge Canadian Security Inte") Carpenters’ Unior. earlier replies dated than to reaffirm that appropriate. earlier than to appropr course, activiti activities. Perrin Beatty I regret that I can really add nothing further to I also wish to reiterate that the Service, of course, has no investigative interest in legitimate union ais ae February 7 and May 22 of this year, other any activities by CSIS were entirely 1986 LETTERS FROM SOLICITOR-GENERAL ... report from independent com- mission continues Tory whitewash. trade union movement and its ability to defend the rights of the working people of Canada. Last autumn’s allegations of CSIS pene- tration into labour’s ranks brought forth an angry chorus of protest, especially from the targeted unions. Jeff Rose, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, took the lead in condemning alleged CSIS spying inside CUPE as “outrageous and reprehensible.” As an organization numbering more than 340,000 members, many diverse views are expressed within CUPE ranks, he said, and the members have ample opportunity to have their views aired. “But the kind of manipulation by clan- destine cells alleged as an excuse for CSIS activity in our union could well come from the CSIS agents themselves, bent on black- ening our reputation on orders from our spy masters,” Rose said. Pacific Tribune, April 13, 1988 » 7