CPC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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All-sided struggle

A people’s coalition

THE ATTACK ON TRADE UNION RIGHTS

There is a new level of attack on
the organized trade union move-
ment.

The Supreme Court of Canada
ruled on April 9, 1987 that the right to
strike is not specifically enshrined in
the Constitution. Furthermore, the
Court stated that since the Charter is
silent on the right to strike, the rights
of the ‘‘individual’’, i.e. capital, take
precedence over the collective rights
of workers.

This confirms the wisdom of the

Communist Party’s campaign, at the
time of the patriation of the constitu-
tion, for a Bill of Rights for Labor.

Labor legislation introduced into
the B.C. legislature April 2 is the
worst of its kind in North America.
Both right-to-work and
union-busting in character, Bill 19,
the Labor Relations Reform Act, st-
rives to replace the old Labor Rela-
tions Board and with it the concept
of the labor court and ‘‘neutrality”’ in
labor relations. Bill 20 singles out

teachers, designed to dismantle the
30,000-strong B.C. Teachers’ Fed-
eration and imposes a government-
controlled College of Teachers.

The proposed legislation is not.
only openly pro-employer and anti-"
union but authoritarian and
ultra-right. Its main purpose, its au-
thors avow, is to foster a better in-
vestment climate for international
capital. The rhetoric about pro-
tection of the ‘‘public interest’’ and

the rights of innocent third parties

and individuals is not only consistent
with the Supreme Court ruling, but
also with the rationale used to justify
police state repression in Chile and
South Korea.

Furthermore, if state monopoly

capitalism is successful in establish-—

ing a beachhead for the non-union
open shop in British Columbia, it
could well serve as a pattern for all of
Canada. °

mums T/1e legal noose...

The Merv Lavigne case (backed
by the National Citizens’ Coalition
and big business forces in this coun-
try), too, is headed for the Supreme
Court where the legal noose will be
increasingly tightened around the
neck of the trade unions.

This year, close to one million
workers are locked in a sharp strug-
gle over new contracts. These nego-
tiations are largely centering on job
security, wages, and stepped-up
employer demands for concessions.

Increasingly, negotiations are oc-
curring on a backdrop of privatiza-
tion and deregulation: A number of
critical transportation strikes,

among them rail and shipping, are
looming.

Nowhere is the anti-union agenda
more graphically illustrated than in
negotiations with Canada Post. The
federal government, bent on pri-
vatizing large parts of the crown cor-
poration, has tabled 52 pages of con-
cessions to postal unions, fired Letter
Carriers’ Union president Bob
McGarry from the Board of Canada
Post, started training scabs, and is
making other plans for a major show-
down with postal unions. The postal
negotiations are therefore taking on
all of the characteristics of picking up
where Gainers left off.

Despite the sharpened level of the
attack, working people are increas-
ingly demonstrating their prepared-
ness to fight back. The struggle being
mounted by the workers in B.C.
against Vander Zalm’s anti-union
crusade stands out. So too does the
overwhelming re-election of Dave
Werlin at the head of the Alberta
Federation of Labor and its clear
program of united fightback.

The sharp rejection by Hamilton
steelworkers of a settlement package
worked out by their leadership
which would trade pensions, with no
indexing, for wages is also a sign that

the struggle is sharpening.
Steelworkers at Algoma Steel in
Sault Ste. Marie, despite massive
lay-offs and corporate propaganda
about the need for further sacrifices,
have compelled the’company to take
the concessions off the table, and are

demanding major contract adjust-
ments involving wages and job se- -

curity.

The recent actions by auto-
workers to save their jobs and their
recent militant bargaining con-
ference all point to the preparedness
of workers to struggle to defend their
livelihood, their standard of living
and, if necessary, their unions.

ems Maximum unity...

At such a time, the maximum
unity of the trade union movement is
paramount. Raiding, and juris-
dictional warfare, which pits the
trade union movement against itself
and not labor’s enemies, must be
combatted.

The Canadian Labor Congress
must defend and extend its minimum
guidelines for Canadian autonomy
because unity, class struggle poli-
cies, autonomy and increased union
democracy are all vital to maintain-
ing an effective fightback against the
attack on labor.

The attack on labor cannot be sep-
arated from the fight against free
trade. The drive by the Mulroney,

and other  neo-conservative
governments and the transnationals
for a ‘‘level playing field’’ all aim
directly at working people. So, too,
does the Meech Lake Constitutional
Accord, and so-called tax reform.

The trade unions are rapidly con-
cluding that their struggles on the
economic front must be com-
plemented by all-sided political ac-
tion, whether in the fight for better
laws to protect workers, or for new
policies for full employment and
against free trade.

Trade unions are also rapidly con-
cluding that the struggle in defense of
basic rights will of necessity develop
in many forms. As Bills 19 and 20 in

British Columbia indicate, a new era
has been ushered in which will re-
quire the combination of extra-par-
liamentary, parliamentary, eco-
nomic and all other forms of struggle
which the trade union movement en-
gages in.

The attack on the trade unions of
Canada is related to similar attacks
occurring on the trade union move-
ment throughout the developed capi-
talist world. At its roots is the drive
for increased profits for the mono-
polies and transnational corpora-
tions, a drive to place the burden for
the growing crisis of the system onto’
the backs of the people, the working
people in particular. The attack is fed

by growing corporate rivalries, and

attempts to reverse the tendency for }

a declining rate of profit.
Trade unions are singled out for

especially strong attack because }

they are the main obstacle to maxi-
mization of profit, and because they
have the capacity to rally all of the
sections of the population against
monopoly’s offensive.

And it is precisely in the rallying of ©

all forces opposed to neo-con-
servative reaction, to free trade, to
war preparations, and _ to
union-busting that trade unions can
help bring about a change to a more
favorable political climate within
which to effectively fight back.

Trade unions can be instrumental
in rallying forces around themselves,
including farmers, women, youth,
pensioners, environmentalists,
peace forces, First Nations and
Métis, civil libertarians, the NDP,
the Communist Party and all pro-
gressives to forge a new political
alignment in Canada — a People’s
Coalition.

A part of this process is the re-
placement of the current Mulroney
and other neo-conservative gov-
ernments with new governments
along with new policies of peace,
independence, and social progress.
The defence of trade union rights is

emmmmms Fighting back...

not only a concern for trade
unionists. Trade union rights are in-
separable from basic democratic

rights.

The Communist Party of Canada
pledges to stand firmly and unequi-
vocally for the defence and ex-
tension of trade union rights in Can-
ada. It believes that the following
measures are needed in order to suc-
cessfully beat back the attack on
trade union rights:

e Maintain the maximum unity of
the trade union movement in face of
the corporate attack. No one union
can afford to stand alone against the

combined state monopoly offensive
against labor;

e Develop the broadest campaign
for a Labor Bill of Rights to guaran-
tee for working people the unfettered
right to organize, to bargain collec-
tively, to strike and to picket. The
amending formula, as it stands,
makes an amendment to the Charter
an exceedingly difficult task. Such a
campaign by labor, and its allies,
must of necessity, therefore, be
linked to all of the other campaigns
with which labor is engaged, not the
least of which is the struggle on the
collective bargaining front;

e Establish broadly-based sup-

port committees throughout the
country in defence of postal work-
ers. Such committees to not only

raise picket line support, but also to |

develop the broadest political cam-

paign to compel the Tories to drop —

their privatization and union-busting
plans;

e Step up the campaign against a
comprehensive free trade agree-
ment, such a campaign to include
popularizing labor’s alternative pro-
gram.

Central Committee,
Communist Party of Canada,

May 16 - 18, 1987