Chrysler’s ‘

‘TORONTO — As the Tribune went to press,
Canadian Chrysler workers were considering a
tentative two-year pact that would mark the re-
‘Overy of the losses sustained in the 1979 con-
Cessions agreement and restore wage parity with

Neral Motors and Ford workers. :
_ Chrysler and United Auto Workers negotiators
Initalled the two-year extension to the current
pe yment after two-and-a-half days of talks, Sept.

The previous agreement, resulting from a mili-

tant five-week strike last winter was signed last
~ Vecember. At that time UAW leaders promised
they’d finish the catch-up process those talks had
Started before the end of 1983. If ratified in local
Meetings Sept. 10-11 by the 9,500 Canadian
Chrysler workers, the $2-an-hour wage gap,
Temaining from the catch-up efforts of the De-
_ ember contract, will have been closed.

“Our goal that we started out to achieve in Dec.
82, that is parity with Ford and General Motors
Workers in Canada, has been achieved over the life
of this agreement’’, UAW director for Canada Bob

te told reporters after the Sept. 6 initialling of
the proposed new pact.

b “Of course you have to understand that we’ll be

ack in bargaining with Ford and GM in Septem-
ber”’, White added. This will mean the three-party
a Parity in auto will last for about one year.
€ post 85 talks.

In addition to the wage increase, White pointed
to Improvements to the Supplementary

hemployment Benefits fund, (SUB), as well as to

health and dental benefits. ‘We’ ve been successful
SO In achieving parity for retirees, winning back

wie things they lost under concessions’, White
aid,

LABOR é
concessions era’
~ ended with new parity pact

n Chrysler workers will have to play catchup in

Concessions beaten.

The determination and militancy of Canadian Chrysler workers
during last winter’s five week strike, eventually produced last
week’s victorious tentative two-year agreement restoring full
wage and benefits parity between Chrysler workers and those at
Ford and GM.

Details of the proposed agreement recom-
mended by the union and set to expire Oct. 15, 1985
include:

e animmediate $1 an hour wage hike retroactive
to last Aug. 15;

e another three per cent hike in March 84, 38
cents in March 85, 40 cents in June, and a further 23
cents Sept. 5, 1985;

e calculation of a cost of living allowance on an
all-Canadian formula, which added to wages
should produce a total hike of $3.42 an hour by the
end of the agreement, assuming inflation running at
five-and-half per cent.

One disappointment for 300 spring plant workers
was the company’s refusal to guarantee not to
carry through its planned closure of the plant.

U.S. Chrysler workers will be voting on a similar
agreement that was reached a day earlier in High-
land Park, Michigan.

If the Canadian workers ratify the tentative
proposal, it will mark the first successful recovery
of a major union from wage and benefit con-
cessions. :

The 1979 Chrysler workers’ concessions didn’t
save any jobs and were the root of the massive
profit bonanza the corporation. is currently enjoy-
ing. It was the Canadian workers who turned the
tide on concessions by standing firm last winter
against Chrysler’s efforts to take even more away
from the workers than they’d already given up.

The Canadians’ militant resistance to con-
cessions not only won them a higher wage hike at
that time than their American counterparts,. but it
killed a phoney profit-sharing scheme the company
was trying to foist on the workers. It forced the
company to negotiate one of the highest wage in-
creases to be negotiated that year, and opened the
way for the Americans to win another 75 cents an
hour increase they otherwise wouldn’t have won.

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_ Life bears witness to two quite opposite developments
In the trade union movement over the past short period.

First is the great victory of Canadian and U.S.
Chrysler workers who are voting on a parity settlement
as the Tribune goes to press this week.

The wage value of the settlement is $3.42 taking into
account a projected 542 per cent inflation rate over the
Period of the next two years.

This returns to the Chrysler workers most of what they
&ave up in concessions over the past four years and
according to Bob White, Canadian Director of the
United Autoworkers, ends the concessions era in the
auto industry. :

The victory belongs first of all to the UAW and the

sler workers, but more than that, it is a victory for
all Canadian workers who will see it as a fitting response
‘to the clamour for concessions being raised by
€mployers across Canada.

Unfinished business for the auto workers, however,
Temains the regaining of 10 paid holidays (Personal Paid
Holidays, PPH Days) lost during the concessions drive.

Othing was said about this major issue in the public
announcement of the settlement but it was not expected
that that loss would be turned around in the Chrysler
Settlement.

When the GM negotiations come up next year how-
€Ver it will undoubtedly be high on the workers agenda.
, At the same time as the auto workers are putting an
€nd to concessions, another industry in Canada is bid-
ding to literally smash most of the major gains achieved

»y the work force over several decades. The construc-
tion industry, in consort with government has literally
€clared war on their workers. Moreover evidence
Shows that many of the top leaders of the industry are
Playing the employers’ and governments’ game.
Kitchen Sink Too
For example: The plumbers and pipefitters union,
(UA) has signed an ‘“‘Open Shop”’ agreement between
al 599 in the Barrie Region and the Mechanical Con-
tors Association which gives away everything in-
Cluding the kitchen sink.

The agreement was signed in July of this year by J.R.
St. Eloi (Russ St. Eloi Canadian Director of the union).
The Opening statement of the agreement called Purpose,
States that: ‘‘This agreement is to allow contractors to

Labor in action

William Stewart

conduct business on terms and conditions generally at-
tributed to an ‘‘open shop’’.

The agreement goes on to spell out what is meant by
the term ‘‘open shop’’. The employer will have the right
to hire workers, including non-union workers if Local
599 can’t provide them. ‘“‘The employer shall have the
sole right to establish hours of work, travel arrange-

ments, room and board conditions, straight and overtime

rates.
‘When conflicts arise between the ICI (regular union

agreement for Barrie) and the “‘Open Shop” agreement,
the Open Shop ‘‘concept shall prevail’’.

From Alberta comes a set of proposals for concessions
from the Provincial Building Trades Council accom-

panied by a pitiful plea to the governments to be nice,

and for the media and governments not to use the
concessions as a club over public sector and other
workers. é :

The Federation proposals include:

e cooperation with the employers in a quality of work
program; :

e the ‘‘free travel’ zone to be extended 30 kilometers

in Edmonton and Calgary; :
e 8-hour.day to be standardized (many trades now

work 36 hours.)
Three-Pronged Attacks
Several unions including the electricians refused to
accept the proposals. The Federation wound up its pro-
posals with a note that these were all the concessions

they were prepared to make on a “concensus” basis,
leaving the door open for individual trades to add to the

package.
Alberta contractors produced a market survey which

demanded in their eyes far more extensive giveaways
than even those put forward by the Building Trades

-Federation.

The agreements and proposed agreements referred to

~~ Concessions — Win One, Lose One! =

here show a trend in bargaining and pre-bargaining rela-
tions in the construction industry which point to a three
way gang up on construction workers.

The contractors are turning the screws for conces-
sions on the grounds of competition from non-union
contractors. The government is supporting them as part
of its campaign to reduce living costs as the key to
wrestling inflation to the ground, and top building-trades
officials are supporting the demands in an attempt to
make deals with the employers.

In this way they hope to avoid a further erosion of their
membership which stands at below 20 per cent of
construction workers in the USA. It is a continuation of
the long term disastrous policy of the U.S. building
trades leadership of organizing the bosses rather than the
workers in the industry. at

Faced by this three-pronged offensive on their wages
and working conditions construction workers have the
difficult task of organizing their ranks to protect them-
selves.

Fightback Needs Mobilization

Fortunately the sell-out policies being proposed by the
top leadership have far from unanimous support among
the lower levels of leadership in the unions. Also there is
no full agreement between all the construction unions on
the need for concessions. Most important of all is the
militant tradition of construction workers faced with
defending and advancing their own immediate interests.

The task remains of putting these three elements to-
gether into the kind of movement needed to resist the

. demands for concessions and to get at the job of organiz-

ing the unorganized workers in the industry; ending the
top-imposed isolation of building trades workers in the
phoney Canadian Federation of Labor; stepping up the
fight for shorter hours in the industry and, together with
all the labor movement, mounting a campaign for a mas-
sive public construction policy by governments which
would overcome the present induced crisis in the
construction industry.

This will test the mettle of the left and progressive
forces in the construction industry. The workers are
faced by far the most serious challenge of the post-war
period. Their ability to face and surmount it will deter-
mine the lot of construction workers for many years to
come.

‘

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 14, 1983—Page 5