Hamilton Days

Continued from page one

accompanied by guard dogs were pre-
sent during the peaceful protest. Po-
lice barricaded themselves behind
concrete bunkers that surrounded the
convention hotel where Harris and his
supporters were gathered.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,”
says Brother Weber. “You would have
thought it was a scene from some
third world country and not Canada.”

Inside the convention Harris stood
in arrogant defiance of the protesters.

“We promise to deliver the ‘Com-
mon Sense Revolution’,” said Harris.
“No special-interest group or lobby

will stop us. No union-leader-led
demonstration will stop us.”

Fred Miron says that the public is
becoming more aware of the Harris
government's attacks on ordinary peo-

ple. It plans to cut $400 million from
Ontario’s education system over the
next four months and eliminate 20,000
of 130,000 teaching positions. The ef-
fects on overcrowded classes and
overworked teachers will be devastat-
ing as more kids enroll for classes.
The quality of education in Ontario
will suffer.

It has passed an “Omnibus Bill”
which will allow it to unilaterally shut-

down hospitals without public consul-
tation.

The government has eliminated
funding for women’s shelters, cut wel-
fare to the bone and gutted human
rights legislation.

These attacks on the province's so-
cial fabric have spurred a furious re-
action from the clergy, which joined
the protest.

Reverend Peter Hoyle of the Mount

Hamilton United Church said that the
Harris government “is based on big-
otry against the poor, it is based on
bigotry against women, it is based on
bigotry against visible minorities, it is
rooted in injustice.”

Leaders of individual faiths in
Hamilton-Wentworth issued a docu-
ment called a “Call For Social Jus-
tice.” Signed by representatives of
Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, United,
Anglican, Mennonite, Unitarian and
Quaker churches, the document calls
for adequate social services, defense
of senior citizens and the disabled and
the protection of women and children

The Ontario public is,
becoming more aware
of Harris’ attacks on

ordinary people

in society. It also includes the call for
the rights to universal health care and
an adequately public funded school
system.

Other speakers at the two day
protest included Ellen Morrow, Exec-
utive Director of the Ontario Associa-
tion of Interval and Transition Hous-
ing; Norma LaForme, an advocate for
Persons with Disabilities; Vicky Small-
man, Chair Elect of the Canadian Fed-
eration of Students; John Clarke,
Provincial Organizer with the Ontario
Coalition Against Poverty; Professor
George Sorger of McMaster Universi-
ty’s Faculty For Social Justice; and
Ron Robert, President of the Ontario
Teachers Federation.

Photo courtesy Tom Lowe

Trade Union speakers also included
Harry Hynd, Director of District 6 of
the United Steelworkers of America;
Gord Wilson, President of the Ontario
Federation of Labour; Buzz Hargrove,
President of the Canadian Autowork-
ers; Sid Ryan, President of the Ontario
Division of the Canadian Union of
Public Employees; and Judy Darcy,
National President of CUPE.

The Harris government is being
equally ruthless with the public sector
workers. The Ontario Public Sector
Employees Union (OPSEU) begun
widespread rotating strike action be-
ginning on February 25 in opposition
to the government's plan to eliminate
13,000 of 67,000 jobs. Essential ser-
vices for ambulances, jail guards, psy-
chiatric nurses and snow plows have
been maintained.

In addition Harris government has
passed legislation which will gut job
security provisions in collective agree-
ments, severance pay, pensions and
protection for workers whose jobs the
government wants to contract out.

“This is the most aggressive attack
on labour that we have ever seen in
Ontario,” says Brother Miron who ex-
pects that the government may try to
hire replacement scabs in place of
striking OPSEU workers. “We will not
be surprised at anything that Harris
tries to pull off.”

Miron said that Harris has taken
away successor rights and even the
OPSEU members’ rights to get a job
after their jobs would be contracted
out.

OPSEU members can have their
jobs taken away and award to non-
union private sector contractors.

“This anti-worker attack has dan-
gerous ramifications for the I.W.A.

and other private sector unions,” says
Miron.

“If Harris gets away with this then
it’s only a matter of time before the
Tories attack private sector successor
rights as well,” he says.

‘As a startling example of how far-
fetched and anti-labour the Harris
government is can be seen right in the
provincial legislature building in
Toronto, where it fired 80 unionized
cleaners and gave the work to a pri-
vate sector contractor. The unionized
workers, with an average of 15 years
seniority and average wages of
$358.00 per week and benefits, were

This is the most
aggressive attack on
the labour movement

that we have ever seen
in Ontario

— Fred Miron

replaced by a contractor who will pay
the cleaners $212.00 per week with no
benefits.

Dave Johnson, Minister of Labour,
has not ruled out the government's
use of strikebreakers in the public
sector strike.

In response Leah Casselman, Presi-
dent of OPSEU reacted: “I was think-
ing about scabs and Tories go nicely
together. They (both) think of them-
selves first. They destroy and don’t
build and they pick on people’s fears
as opposed to people's strengths.”

Harris plans to privatize Ontario
Hydro and the government liquor and
beer stores. Both the Power Workers
Union of the Canadian Union of Pub-
lic Employees and OPSEU have hit
back with an advertising campaign
aimed at the general pubic.

Ads warn against the sales of alco-
hol to minors which would contribute
to more social problems.

Brother Miron points out to the
public’s nervousness about giving
control of the province’s nuclear pow-
er plant’s to the private sector.

“I think the public is beginning to
realize that nuclear power plants
should not be in the hands of those
who would run them for profit,” he
says.

The Ontario of Federation of
Labour and social coalition organiza-
tions and groups are now planning the
next phase of the protest movement.

OFL affiliates have been asked to
donate $1.50 per member into a cen-
tral fund. Brother Miron says the re-
sponse for I.W.A. CANADA local
union affiliates has been excellent.

Another separate fund is being cre-
ated to assist union affiliates who re-
quire legal representation in the event
that employers take action against
them for closing down operations in
order to protest.

¢ At the NDP leadership convention in February, Glen Clark gives a speech af-
ter winning the nomination.

Glen Clark

Continued from page one

employment for largely local Island
residents. A fair wage policy and ten-
dering of contracts to British
Columbians has ensured that econom-

ic activity will benefits the people of
the province.

Clark has also committed himself to
BC 21 which will create jobs by in-
vesting in infrastructure for the
province’s future. That program has
resulted in the construction of
schools to accomodate 35,000 addi-
tional students with another 14,000
spaces available for 1996. It has also
created 14,000 new spaces in colleges
and universities.”

__ “Our membership should realize
that the re-election of the NDP is es-
sential to holding on to reform in the
forest industry,” says Brother Stoney.
“The NDP have made such initiatives
as the Forest Practices Code, Forest

Renewal B.C. and the settlement of
land-use issues a priority.”

Although the I.W.A. has not always
agreed on decisions that the NDP has
goverment has made, the alternative
parties would be unthinkable alterna-
tives, says Stoney.

The Gordon Campbell Liberals
would do away with the Forest Re-
newal Plan and turn the clock back to
the days of “sympathetic forest man-
agement” where forest companies
would do as they please.

Campbell opposed Forest Renewal
when it was introduced in 1994. He
ee that it was bad for business in
_ Campbell has also pledged to abol-
ish the current Labour Code which
will eliminate anti-scab legislation and
allow for employer interference dur-
ing organizing campaigns.

LW.A. will be mobilizing itself in the
near future for an election call. The
union has played a key role in sup-
porting NDP candidates in the past
and will in the future.

SSS
2/LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1996

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