DEC. 1992

Delegates from eigh-
teen IWA locals met
in Vancouver in late
October at the
union’s annual con-
vention. See inside

for details
PAGES 9-19

“What we confront in this period of
history is a calculated and aggressive

assault upon our living
standards disguised as
free trade.”
JESSE JACKSON

NAFTA opposition starts to rally

SS

hose were the words of
American civil rights
leader and former two
time U.S. presidential
candidate Reverend
Jesse Jackson on Octo-
ber 18, as he addressed
a crowd of over 1,500
trade union and coalition activists at
the Canada-U.S. border Peace Arch
Park.

The rally, called "Hands Across the
Border," was a demonstration against
the proposed North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

It was organized by the Washington
State Labour Council and the B.C.
Federation of Labour in co-operation
with the Action Canada Network of
B.C. and the Rainbow Coalitions of
Whatcom and Skagit Counties.

Reverend Jackson was the keynote
speaker at the historic event which
was the first of cross-border solidarity
events to be held in the months ahead
as opposition to the NAFTA mounts.

Jackson said that NAFTA is purely
an initiative of the now lame duck
Bush Administration, that has taken
place on behalf of U.S. multi-national
corporations who are searching for a
new way to maximize profits in the
global economy.

Jackson said the right wing agenda
incorporated in NAFTA will continue
to do the following: cut wages, priva-
tize and deregulate whole industries
and services, lower the social safety
net, create an imbalanced playing
field of competition, expand corpo-
rate agribusiness at the expense of
small independent farmers, and attack

standards in the work-

place and community.
~ He called for international solidari-
amongst the working people of all
Nee countries and warned against

As Canadian and U.S. plants are

jobs are exported to low
fesny edt as Mexico, Taiwan

oe ee

and South Korea, the speaker said
workers must unite and oppose the
forces that can divide them.

"We must turn to each other and
not against each other," said Jackson.

"As a new wave of economic vio-
lence is launched against the working
people of Canada, Mexico and the
United States, we are allies and once
more we know it and that's our
strength."

He urged the Canadians to fight
against the erosion of their health
care system and reminded everyone
that there are over 37 million Ameri-
cans without health care and that
many Americans look to Canada's
health care system as a model.

However since the signing of the
FTA, which has provisions to poten-
tially increase privatization of medical
services, Canada has lost half a mil-
lion jobs and tax revenues and federal
provincial transfer payments to main-
tain the public health care system
have plummeted.

Reverend Jackson urged the crowd:
"Canada you must not go backward -
go forward!"

Jackson said that we need a fair
trade agreement - that's healthy for
workers and healthy for the environ-
ment.

He then refuted the Bush adminis-
tration's claims that there will be
more jobs and invoked a parallel be-
tween free trade and slavery.

"We're told by Bush that this agree-
ment will create more jobs... more
Jobs is not enough! It may create more
jobs. Remember in slavery there was
full employment - everybody had a job
- with no decent standard of living and
no health care and no respect for hu-
man beings!"

Jackson said it is not appropriate
for the U.S. to take advantage of a low
wage Mexican economy.

"Mexico needs development, not
exploitation," he said. "Let our com-

pelling moral imperative take this
stand against the agreement."

In a press conference following the
rally conference, Jackson said the
US. is trying to use Mexican workers
to undercut American workers.

"Cheap labour anywhere is a threat
to organized labour anywhere. So
whenever.the greedy and corrupt can
find another body of workers to ex-
ploit, they will."

Labour law
in B.C. is
step forward

Workers in British Columbia have
deserved better labour legislation
from their government, and they got
some of that recently. On December
17, 1992 the New Democratic govern-
ment of B.C. passed a new Labour Re-
lations Code called Bill 84, which
reverses, in part, the infamous Indus-
trial Relations Act of 1987.

The new laws will help unions, such
as IWA-CANADA, conduct their orga-
nizing and labour relations strategies
ona more level playing field.

Most importantly unions now get
new certification procedures which
stipulate that if 55% of workers in a
bargaining unit sign check-off forms
with an intent to join the union, then
the union wins automatic certifica-
tion.

This automatic certification proce-
dure will greatly reduce the likelihood
of employer interference during pro-
longed secret ballot union drives.
However, Bill 84 does still uphold the
employers' right to express opinions
to workers about unionization.

"We agree with the automatic certi-
fication procedure but we sure as hell
would feel better if the labour law
dropped the employers so called
rights to free speech," say IWA-
CANADA's Director of Organizing Lyle
Pona. "What that usually means is that
employers threaten closures, layoffs
and just about anything else to keep
the union out."

Continued on page three

icipate in new safety and skills upgrading program. See page 6.

¢ INSPECTING THE RIGGING - In the Nahatlach Valley in southwestern B.C. IWA
Local 1-3567 members Don Russel (1) and Rick Priest inspect high lead butt
rigging between turns. These workers and others will soon be eligible to par-
| tis

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