University last month. Labor solidarity forced the administration to set-

| tle with the workers.

SFL BACKS

a INCO STRIKERS
. REGINA — With the Regina

r Council, the Saskatchewan
Federation of Labor organized a
Tally on behalf of the striking
Members of Local 6500 United

workers, currently battling
Inco for a decent contract. The ral-
ly, Feb. 24, takes place as four Inco
Strikers conducted a two-week tour
of Saskatchewan picking up
Morale and financial support for
the more than five-week-old
Strike. The strike costs the union
Some $100,000 a week for health

insurance’ premiums ‘and ‘strike |

pay. An SFL statement quoted

| Dave Patterson, the strikers’ pres-

ident, who has said, “the strikers
aren’t just fighting for a good con-

tract, but for the rights of Cana-
dians

to take control -of their re-
sources, :

‘NO NUKES TO

ARGENTINA: CLC
OTTAWA — The Canadian

Labor Congress supported oppo-

Nents of Canadian government

Sales to the fascist regime in

Argentina of nuclear technology,
pe cifically the CANDU reactor,

Feb. 14. The CLC issued its

Statement while the Group for the
Defense of Civil Rights in Argen-
ina was in Ottawa demanding the

eral government suspend its -

Proposed sales to Argentina until
t country signs the Inter-
hational Non-Proliferation Treaty
and restores full human and trade
Union rights within its borders.

TORY-BIG BIZ

COLLUSION

te ORT FRANCES — While |

loggers at Boise-Cascade
are being arrested left and right by
the Ontario Provincial Police, for

’ defending their union against the
_ company’s drive to smash the

Lumber and Sawmill Workers
Union Local 2693, here and in
Kenora, Ontario’s Attorney Gen-
eral said Feb. 20, that a local
magistrate was right to ban a
striker from Kenora-Rainy River
district until his trial. Roy McMur-
try also said Queen’s Park would
waive the charges against the town

of Kenora for the cost of bringing

the OPP in to help the company
smash the strike. This means the
taxpayer of Ontario will foot the
bill for Boise-Cascade’s goon
squad supplied by Queen’s Park.

CIVIC WORKERS -
UNDER ATTACK

TORONTO — The Associa-
tion of Municipalities“of Ontario
Feb. 19 urged ifs affiliates to re-
fuse to negotiate more than a 5%
total compensation increase with
Ontario’s 40,000 municipal
employees. AMO’s guidelines
suggest the municipalities deny
their employees any cost of living
adjustments or changes in fringe
benefits. Canadian Union of Pub-
lic Employees (CUPE) locals in
Toronto are confronting AMO’s

reactionary guidelines with the

solid demand for a one-year pact
with improved fringe benefits and
a 12% wage hike to keep up with
inflation. \

UNIONS TO
BLITZ SYNCRUDE

FORT McMURRAY — Seven
international unions are gearing
up for an organizing blitz at the
giant Syncrude Canada Ltd., oil
sands plant to organize the 1,700
eligible workers there.

This current drive will be the
second attempt to organize the
workers in the huge plant.

by “io
7

Halifax labor rallied in support of striking CUPE workers at Dalhousie

Dalhousie staff victory marked,

support pledged to postal workers

Special to the Tribune

HALIFAX — Labor council
delegates here, Feb. 14, cele-
brated the recent victory of the
Dalhousie University cleaning

. staff, and vowed to totally sup-

port the struggle of Canada’s,
23,000 postal workers.

Overwhelmingly, the delegates
to the Halifax-Dartmouth and
District Labor Council demanded
the full restoration of the collec-
tive bargaining and strike rights of
the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers: (CUPW).and agreed to
send a letter to its affiliates calling
for moral and financial support in
CUPW’s fight and to offset the
legal costs in the union’s defence
of members and officers sus-
pended, dismissed and charged
with disobeying Ottawa’s back-
to-work law.

The labor council resolution
pledged the council’s support in
CUPW’s National Action Days,
and agreed to urge affiliates to in-
vite postal union spokespersons
to bring the union’s case to
Halifax labor. The council also
condemned the federal govern-
ment’s continued intransigence at
the bargaining table as well as any
discriminatory laws against

-CUPW or any public sector

workers.
The council demanded that no
collective agreement be imposed

on CUPW that involves the elimi- -

nation of acquired rights of the
workers. Copies of the resolution
were. sent to all council affiliates,
labor federations, the Canadian
Labor Congress, CUPW, and the

federal government. A press re-_

lease was also issued announcing
the council’s decision.

Delegates also congratulated
the members of Canadian Union
of Public Employees (CUPE
Local 1562 for their victory in
forcing the administration of
Dalhousie University to negotiate.
a satisfactory agreement. Nova
Scotia labor was thanked for its
maximum effort in helping CUPE
defeat the union-busting strategy
of the university headed by
Senator Henry Hicks. The vic-
tory after 13 weeks on the bricks,
was credited to the militant unity
of the labor council, local unions
throughout Nova Scotia, the pro-
vincial labor federation, students,
professors and the Halifax com-
munity.

Correspondence from Hicks to
the council, was greeted with sh-
outs of ‘“‘burnit’’, by the delegates
instead of the usual ritual expres-
sing agreement to accept for in-
formation.

. In other business, the delegate
from the Canadian Brotherhood
of Railway, Transport and Gen-
eral Workers (CBRT) announced
an ad campaign opposing VIA
Rail’s decision to pull its train re-
servations department from
Halifax and move it to Moncton,
N.B. The move will cost 25 jobs
to the Halifax community. -

The campaign has had a mea-
sure of success as VIA Rail Atlan-
tic officials announced Feb. 15
they were reconsidering the re-
moval of all their clerks to
Moncton.

Railway workers at the labor

‘gates

council noted how more than half
of the train reservations made in
the Atlantic region were in
Halifax.

Delegates also rejected an

. executive board recommendation

to move the council’s offices from
their downtown Halifax location.

Recognizing the pressing
financial situation and the difficult
economic conditions confronting
the labor movement, the dele-
nevertheless  over-
whelmingly rejected the recom-
mendation because the move

would almost certainly leave the

Halifax Coalition for Full
Employment without an office,
since they share the same pre-
mises with the labor council.
Council president Jerry
MacInnes told the local media,
“the executive agrees with the de-
legates and we will remain in our
present location and the Coalition
for Full Employment will stay
1002
Predicting the decision might
mean the council will have to cut
back on services to its affiliates,
he nevertheless stressed, “we
will find a way. Where labor

- prople are involved there is al-

ways a way.”

A representative of the Cana-
dian Union of Bank Employees —
reported the certification of two
branches of the Royal Bank of
Canada in the province, and that
an application was presently be-
fore the Nova Scotia Labor Rela-
tions Board for a third. The union
has a full time organizer in the
province and the branches which
have been organized are in the
Halifax-Dartmouth vicinity.

Labor totally oppsed to C-22
CLC delegation tells Ottawa

OTTAWA — A delegation of
some 20 trade union leaders met
with Federal Labor Minister Mar-
tin O’Connell and Treasury
Board President J.J. Buchanan,
Feb. 13, urging them to have the
government publicly abandon Bill
C-22 which would provide for
public employees’ compensation

to follow that negotiated in the

private sector. .

‘‘We will tell Messrs. O’Con-
nell and Buchanan that we find
Bill C-22 highly objectionable and
will suggest to them that it should
be publicly lifted by the federal
government,’’ Shirely Carr,
executive vice-president of the
Canadian Labor Congress and
leader of the delegation, said be-
fore the meeting with the minis-
ters. —

‘‘The labor movement is totally

BEFORE

PROFITS

aS

. facts and figures showing that,

opposed to the legislation, both
on grounds of principle and of
fact,’ she said. ‘‘The purpose of
our meeting with these govern-
ment spokesmen is to put our op-
position on the record and to tell
them that Bill C-22 is unaccepta-
ble under any circumstances.”

The delegation, which repre-
sents 10 trade unions active in the
public sector, gave the ministers a
35-page supporting document
outlining its arguments against the.
proposed legislation:

The brief pointed out that Bill
C-22 is contrary to the inter-
fational standards prescribed by
the UN International Labor Or-
ganization, which enshrine the
right of all workers to organize
and collectively bargain the terms
and conditions of their employ-
ment, and which were endorsed
by the Canadian Government.

**Bill C-22 will virtually elimi-

, nate the bargaining rights of pub-
lic employees and their unions,”

the brief stated. ‘*The Canadian
Labor Congress sincerely hopes
that the government will spare us

‘the need for a full-scale battle

over Bill C-22 by letting it meet
the same fate as Bill C-28”’ (Bill
C-22’s predecessor, which died
on the Order Paper at the end of
the parliamentary spring session
last year). :

The CLC brief also supplied

contrary to suggestions put forth
by governments, the average an-
nual increases in the public sector
were only a fraction of one per-
centage point higher than those in
the private sector between 1970
and 1977, while in 1978 they actu-
ally fell behind by more than one
per cent; fringe benefits were be-
hind those offered in the private
industrial sector; employment
cutbacks and layoffs have been
on the increase in the public sec-
tor, reducing the much-vaunted
job security in the publice sector;
and the public sector employment
accounted for only 12.9% of total
man-days lost in strikes and lock-
outs during the five-year period
1973-1977 although the public sec-
tor represents 24% of the total
employed work force.

The organizations represented
at the meeting included: Canadian
Labor Congress; Amalgamated
Transit Union; Canadian
Brotherhood of Railway, Trans-
port and General Workers; Ser-
vice Employees International Un-
ion; Public Service Alliance of
Canada; National Union of Pro-
vincial Government Employees;
International Brotherhood of
Electrical. Workers; Canadian
Union of Postal Workers; Letter
Carriers Union of Canada; Inter-
national Association of Fire
Fighters; Canadian Union of Pub-
lic Enployees. ’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 2, 1979—Page 5