CaRABA

S50 EMBARRASSING

To BE HERE...IT’S
A COUPLE oF
BAD INVESTMENTS

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G

REGINA —Ron Knudsen, vice-president of the
_ 15,000-member Saskatchewan Government
Employees Union (SGEU), has accused the
‘provincial New Democrat government of acting
hypocritically in its treatment of disabled workers.

Knudsen told an Oct. 9 news conference that
Saskatchewan retains legislation that allows
' employers in the province to pay disabled workers
less than the minimum wage.

| X0vernment appears to be avoiding the sensitive
Subject of exploitation of disabled workers in shel-
tered workshops and occupational centres in the
Province.

“It is hypocritical’, he said, “‘for the govern-
ment to embrace the U.N. Year of the Disabled,
While at the same time there is still legislative au-

Minimum’ wage. That’s direct discrimination
against disabled workers. It is even worse to turn
the other cheek and allow exploitation of disabled
Workers in sheltered workshops to continue.”’
Knudsen indicated that SGEU will extend an

join SGEU or the union of their choice. He said
that SGEU has recently organized the Alliance for
| Youth and the Elderly Agency in Saskatoon.
*‘We have many disabled members already in
Our union,’’ he said. ‘‘We are trying to negotiate

At the same time, Knudsen said, the provincial.

thority to pay disabled workers less than the:

invitation to all disabled workers in workshops to.

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| Handicapped get SGEU help

better provisions into our collective agreement that
will provide real equality inemployment. Current-
ly, for example, we have given contract proposals
to the government’s Public Service Commission
which would provide real income protection
against inflation and in the event of long term ill-
ness. We have particular concerns about adequate
pension plans and rehabilitation and education
programs which will benefit all of our members, but
which could perhaps provide additional benefit for
members with special needs.”

The union will ask the government to conduct a
review to determine the nature and the extent of
exploitation in sheltered workshops in the prov-
ince.

‘It is the responsibility of government to protect

the interests of disabled persons in workshop set-
tings, who have no pull or influence. ”’

The Union is also backing a national campaign °
‘launched Oct. 9. by the National Union of Provin-

cial Government Employees in Ottawa. The fed-
eral government itself has legislation that permits
employers to pay the disabled less than the
minimum. wage. ' si

NUPGE President John Fryer said in Ottawa
that the federal government and all provincial
governments with the exception of Quebec have
legislation that allows sub-standard wages to be
paid to disabled workers.

- TORONTO — Locked out
since Aug. 6 by their ‘‘bush

‘Ward, 725 flight attendants at

~Wardair are convinced their.

~ boss is out to break their union.

» As mediation talks began

Oct. 15, the union remained

__ firm on its position that Ward-

air isn’t going to take away the

~ attendants’ 24-hour rest period

between flights or weaken the
present sick leave plan.

Vandalism by hired goons on.

the union headquarters and the
use of scabs on Wardair flights,
right from the day Max Ward
locked out the members of the
Canadian Airline Flight At-
tendants Association (CAL-

FA) are seen by many of the-

pickets as a measure of Ward’s
hostility to the union.
~The recent quick settlement
between the company~ and
‘maintenance workers, mem-
bers of the International
_ Association of Machinists
‘tends to reinforce this view.
_The machinists were able to
wring a two-year contract out
of the company providing a
14.5% wage hike in the first
year and 14% in the second. —
The flight attendants saw the
‘company’s hastiness_ in
_ negotiating with the IAM as a
bid to step up pressure on
- CALFA to accept the roll-
backs in a new pact. CALFA
also points out that the wage
hike won by the maintenance
workers, if granted to the flight
~ attendants would bring them in

the same work at Air Canada.
_ Parity was one of the main con:

~ Teague, bush pilot boss’’, Max

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settle,
still out:
CALFA members at Ward-
air-are currently more than
$2,000 a year behind Air
Canada attendants. Wardair
wants to roll back the flight at-
tendants’ 24-hour rest périod |
between flights to 12 hours and
cut the 12-days-a-year sick
leave to 3.5 hours a month.
Though management tries to
maintain that in-flight service
on its scab operated planes has
never been better, the union
says it has photos of passen-
gers carrying their own trays
back to the aircraft’s kitchen.
The_attendants feel they de-
serve better pay and at least to
maintain working conditions
they’ ve fought so hard to win.
In contrast to the well-
promoted glamor which the
general public assumes goes
with the job, the flight at-
tendants point outthey have to
work long hours, are constant-
ly busy during flights and often
only seeing the inside of air-
ports and hotel rooms.
Wardair also has a practice
known as drafting, which
means the attendants are con-
stantly on call for a flight. They
are only paid for flying time but
have to be on the job hours
before a flight to make prepara--
tions. To earn nine hours pay
on a typical flight, the at-
tendants point out, they have ©
to work 14 hours.
The union, through the labor

councils and central labor

bodies, has appealed for sup-
port in their battle. They're _
to join them on the picket line,
and to boycott Wardair until
CALFA wins a satisfactory

_ CUPE meet opens debate for labor

_ Having had the opportunity to attend the convention
_| of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Win-
nipeg, as a guést I would like to share with you my
impressions of this important gathering.

‘It was evident from the moment the convention
opened until the gavel came down for its adjournment
four-and-a-half days later, that there was a mood of
frustration dominating the delegates. This frustration
was over what they perceived as the abnormal gap be-

_ tween convention decisions and policies, and the actual
performance of the leadership in the intervening two
years.

The criticisms of the delegates centred on two central
themes. Accountability and mobilization.

In the opinion of the majority of delegates the union
appears to be put together in such a way as to make it
difficult, if not impossible, for the membership to have
any day by day influence on the implementation of union
policy. They pointed to a ten-point program adopted by
the last convention of CUPE in 1979 which had hardly
got off the resolution paper it was written on. They
Pointed to the hospital workers’ strike in Ontario. They
Pointed to unresolved problems of womens’ equality on
the job, economic as well as social. They pointed to what
they considered an ineffective defensive posture of the
union in the face of an all-out assault by governments on
their jobs and working conditions and on social services.

_ In all these areas, delegates felt there was less than
adequate action by the leadership to meet and answer
what is obviously a major offensive by monopoly and
governments against the public sector and its
employees.

_ Mobilization was, in their opinion, the other side of
accountability. Gone are the days, if indeed they ever
teally existed, where leadership can sit down in offices
with management and settle these major issues. They

|. @| Labor in action

William Stewart

can only be won by mobilizing the entire membership for
action. Action on the picket line, action in the job areas,
action from below to back up the grievance procedure,
public action in the form of delegations, deputations,
lobbys, marches, public meetings, leaflets, newspaper

ads, educational work to deepen the workers’ know-_

ledge of the problems and their solutions, political action
at and between elections.

Grace Hartman, president of CUPE, who despite all
that’s been said, received an acclamation for another

“two years, told the convention that ‘‘she had heard the

criticisms of the convention loud and clear and would
indeed be influenced. by them.’’

Evidenced here was the same kind of spirit which led
to the election of Dave Patterson as District’6 Director of

the United Steelworkers union. The same determination —

and capacity for struggle which is typical of current

strike struggles like Stelco.

It combines a deep-going feeling for democratic
change in union structures to make them more rank and
file in character, with an understanding of the need for
mass struggle as an indispensable corollory of collective
bargaining at all levels of.the political spectrum.

: Occasionally during the convention this viewer felt a
tinge of impatience, speculating that some of the de-
mands for democratic restructuring of the union and
input from below on all matters, bordered on anarchy.
Howeyer in the cool light of post mortem I’m inclined to
feel that what workers are aiming for is to keep every-
thing which is useful, time tested.and valuable for them
in the present structures, while introducing a new

3 ‘

‘take part in union affairs, don’t know how to address

imprint on the convefttion. ~

character into the union which will preserve the time
tested role of leadership while bringing the membership
much more into the day by day processes.

Anything that leans in this direction must be welcomed
and advanced by all left thinking, left-wingers in the labor
movement. :

During the period of the cold war and “‘prosperity”’ in
Canada, business unionism and ‘‘top leadership’’ trade
unionism has taken over in Canada to. the extent that
many honest leaders who would like to overcome a
‘situation where a very small portion of their membership

themselves to the question. This is the only kind of trade
unionism they have ever known.

Even many in the left will have to plead at least par-
tially guilty to being a part of the problem while honestly
seeking solutions to invigorate the trade union move-
ment to cope with the great tasks on its doorstep.

The significance of the CUPE convention seems to me
to be that it brought some of these questions out into the
open for public debate and for consideration and imple-
mentation by the largest union in Canada.

A union caucus, calling itself the Open Caucus came
into being in preparations for the convention which drew
together members from Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan

. and British Columbia. It was a progressive caucus com-))-

bining left and left-moving workers and made a deep

It will continue to operate after the convention extend-
ing its role to include Manitoba and the Maritimes. It was
not an anti-leadership caucus but a policy caucus uniting
around a program of action covering national and inter-
national issues.

I doubt that things will ever be quite the same in CUPE
anymore. And I doubt that things will ever be the same in
the entire Canadian trade union movement as the new
young militants move more and more into the centre o
leadership from above and below.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCT. 23, 1981—Page 7