By MIKE PHILLIPS

TIMMINS — The organized
labor movement in Ontario re-
affirmed its commitment to fight
to eliminate racism and bigotry
in this province at a weekend
conference on Human Rights held
here Sept. 27-28.

Organized by the Ontario Fed-
eration of Labor in response to

the growing and recent inci-«

dents of racist activities. in
many areas in the province in-
volving Native People and immi-
grants, the conference zeroed in

on three main themes during its

two-day sessions.
These themes were: the con-
cerns of the Indian people of On-

tario; racism in southern On-
tario; and labor’s role and re-
sponsibility in fighting racism.
The 80 delegates to the con-
ference heard representatives
from Indian groups, the Ontario
Human Rights Commission and
trade unions describe the role
played by the organized labor
movement in- establishing the

Human Rights Code and the Hu- ©

man Rights Commission in On-
tario. : :
However as pointed out by
United Auto Workers’ Canadian
Director Dennis McDermott, an
unspoken moratorium had been
declared since the victories of
the late fifties and early sixties

which had resulted in the labor
movement’s abdication of its re-
sponsibility in palicing the code
and leaving that responsibility
in the hands of the government.
. Need Concrete Action

McDermott also criticized the
labor movement for not speaking
out more forcefully against the
federal government’s Green Pa-
per on Immigration which he
labelled as ‘“‘one hell of a racist
document.” :

A recurring theme in the pan-
els and discussions of the con-
ference was the necessity to
translate the federation’s reso-
lutions and position papers into
concrete action.

| ABOR SCENE Country-wide effort needed
to support paperworkers

BY BRUCE MAGNUSON

Evidence is gathering that the
giant paper companies are using
all means at their disposal to
weaken and break the morale
and fighting stamina .of their
striking employees, to starve
them into submission and break
their new Canadian Union in the

process.

The strike against the Abitibi, ©

mest powerful newsprint pro-
ducer in the capitalist world, is
now in its thirteenth week. This
‘strike is the direct result of
wage rates far below anything
paid to workers anywhere out-
side the” paper industry and
eroded by inflation. It is the re-
sult of around the clock opera-
tions on a seven-day per week
basis, impairing the workers’
health. and sapping their social
and family life until they found
it impossible to endure any
longer.

During the immediate past
period, soft market conditions
permitted the paper companies
to turn the continuous opera-
tions into a weapon in the form
of large accumulated inventories
preparatory for a showdown
fight with the unions, of which
the new Canadian Paperworkers
Union is the main target.

No Strike Pay
Fully aware that the Canadian
paperworkers broke away from
their U.S. domination and deter-
mined to exercise their right to
be masters in their own house

within this country, the paper

companies also know that the
strikers are not receiving any
strike pay since they have not
had the time nor the opportun-
ity to accumulate any strike
funds for this purpose. The fin-
ancial pressure now _ includes
refusal to remit accumulated
vacation pay coming to the
striking workers, or to continue
arrangements for guaranteed
coverage under the Ontario Hos-
pital Insurance Plan (OHIP),
Blue Cross or Group Life Plans,
- and similar arrangements.

With the enormous profits
generated within the industry by
the labor of the now striking
employees, these conglomerates
and mammoth paper corpora-
tions can now expand through
mergers and new construction in
anticipation of overcoming the
marketing crisis and of captur-
ing new markets at the workers’
expense.

At present the Great Lakes
Paper Co. at Thunder Bay, own-
ed by the Canadian Pacific In-

vestments a subsidiary of the
Canadian Pacific Railway, is pre-
sently building a $170-million
extension to its mill. The con-
tract for this work has been let
to Sillman Co. (Northern) Ltd. A
fortnight ago this construction
outfit was used as the lever to
obtain an injunction, . limiting
Canadian Paperworkers Union
pickets at the Great Lakes plant
gate. :

On September 23, after much
news media agitation, police un-
der the command of Thunder
Bay Police Chief Onni Harty in-
duced construction workers to
challenge a 250-man strong pa-
per workers’ picketline with the
result that a fight ensued in

which 11 men were injured, two_

of them seriously — one with
a fractured skuli and another
with a serious neck injury. The

_next morning the Thunder Bay
Chronicle-Journal

carried the
lurid headline: “Pickets Quiet at
GLP;” as if to suggest the pick-
ets were to blame for the viol-
ence provoked by the company.

On Thursday The Times News
of Thunder Bay carried a picture
of policemen standing guard on
the road to the paper mill in full
riot regalia including truncheons,
face shields and tear gas, and
being inspected by a passing

motorcyclist. On Friday morning,~

the same newspaper carried an
editorial condemning “Union
Violence” (sic) and calling for
the city police department to be
beefed up.

What is needed, however, is
not a beefed-up police force to
induce and provoke more viol-
ence, but a serious effort at ne-

_gotiations in good faith by the

paper companies. The workers,
with wages as low as $4.50 per
hour are asking for $1.50 in-
crease in a one-year contract.
But here again, instead of seri-
ous negotiations, the companies
are using the lowest form of
trickery.

Carrot and Stick —

The Ontario-Minnesota Pulp
and Paper Co. Ltd., which sits
astride the Canada-U.S. border
at Fort Frances and employs
both American and Canadians,
has offered officials of four
union locals — one American,
one International and two Cana-

_dian — an interim agreement,

including an hourly increase of
50 cents an hour and a dental
plan, until the pattern of settle-
ment emerges in the industry.
The carrot dangled before the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 8, 1975—Page 8

workers here is that the offer of
an increase on an interim basis

is retroactive to May 1, 1975, —

and will mean somewhere be-
tween $500 to $600 in back pay
for each worker depending on
hours worked.

It is a neat trick to induce the
workers to stay on the job, to
create division within union

ranks and between the various

locals of the union. In effect it
is an effort to set the pattern for
a cheap settlement and to weak-
en and if possible break the
Canadian Union in the process.
The dental plan is based on
private carrier of the company’s
choice.
Need Funds

The above examples ought to
suffice to show the carrot and
the stick approach of the big
paper corporations to break the
present strike of the paper. work-
ers and to weaken and if pos-
sible break the Canadian Union
in the process. Will they suc-
ceed? The answer to that is pro-
vided in an advertisement pub-
lished September 27 in Lakehead
“newspapers by Paul E. Morrison,
president of Local 239 CPU on
behalf of four Abitibi local
unions. :

“,.. The difficult weeks and
months ahead are going to
provide us all with an oppor-
tunity to demonstrate that we
are a rank and file organiza-
tion and that we do have the
militancy, maturity and res-

ponsibility to deal effectively .

with those people who have

chosen to challenge us. . .”

This marvellous spirit of work-
ing class solidarity and unity
hitherto prevalent in the paper-
workers struggle is indeed the
key to victory in the long run.

But what is missing so far,
despite many examples of finan-
cial support from other workers
on a local basis, is a coordinated
effort right across Canada to col-
lect funds for support of the
paperworkers and their families.

The time has come to initiate
a country-wide solidarity move-
ment, including a national fund
to assist striking workers, with
particular attention to the paper-
workers struggle at this time.

The logical body to coordin-
ate such an effort is, of course,
the Canadian Labor Congress. In
the meantime, however, what is
there to stop individual unions,
locals and labor councils from
getting something under way?
Today the paperworkers. Tomor-
row, who knows?

OFL secretary-treasurer Terry
Meagher in his comments to the
conference made this clear when
he said that the purpose of the
conference was to encourage lo-
cal initiatives in the union’ and
the local labor councils for the
establishment of human rights
committees and in the conven-
ing of similar rights conferences
by various unions in the federa-
tion.

Increase Pressure

Dr. Daniel Hill, former chair-
man of the Ontario Human
Rights Commission and now a
consultant on human rights told
the conference that with the re-
laxation in the struggle to police
the code many minority groups
were losing confidence in the ef-
fectiveness of the Human Rights
Commission. He called on the
labor movement to increase the
pressure on the Human Rights
Commission and to fight for the
strengthening of the Human
Rights Code especially in the
areas of compliance. In addition,
he called for more public boards
of enquiry and more public pro-
secutions of offences against the
code.

Unending Racism

The keynote speaker for the
panel on the concerns of the In-
dians.in Ontario was the presi-
dent of Grand Council, Treaty
Number Nine, Andrew Rickard,
who very graphically outlinéd
the depressing conditions of life
and the unending racism direct-

_ed towards the Indian people of

Northern Ontario.

An incident at a-dance follow-
ing the first day’s sessions high-
lighted the reason for holding
the conference in Timmins and
reinforced the comments made
to the delegates by Rickard. -

Some of the Native delegates
to the conference were denied
admission to a dance sponsored
by a truckers’ organization in the
area after the organization had
agreed with the organizers of
the conference that delegates
would be admitted.

The following day the confer-
ence was unanimous in deplor-
ing the incident and expressed
approval of the suggestion ad-
vanced by Dennis McDermott
that this organization would be
refused the use of the Steel-
workers hall in future.

Bureaucratic Approach

Rickard’s address to the con-
ference focussed on the harsh
conditions of life for the prov-
ince’s Native Peoples and he
hammered both the federal and
provincial governments for their
inhuman and bureaucratic ap-
proach to the Indians’ problems.

Labelling the federal govern-
ment’s department of Indian
Affairs as ‘‘one of the worst
agencies ever created” he accus-
ed it of being a well-oiled public
relations machine designed to
mislead people about the living
conditicns of the Native people
and dedicated more to. perpetu-
ating the jobs of its 10,000 civil
servants and its tremendous bud-

TEACHERS FROM CUBA

’ PINAL DEL RIO, CUBA —
Prime Minister Fidel Castro an-
nounced here that ‘Cuba is
ready to supply .elementary
school teachers to any country
in Latin America that request
them.” Speaking at the opening

of the Tania La Guerrillera

teacher training school, Castro
said “if a sister country asks for
such cooperation, we know the
response by our volunteers will
be more than adequate.”

(Prensa Latina)

get than to passing on respo
sibility to the Indian people in
managing their own affairs.
Contrary to Indian Affairs
Minister Jud Buchanan’s state
ments about self government for
the Native People, Rickard
charged that the federal govern-
ment was maintaining “a huge
bureaucracy in Ottawa all under

the guise of self government” for |
the Indian people. He went on

to say that the out-moded ideas
and out-dated practices of thes
bureaucrats would never help his
people to become economically —
self-sufficient.

- He appealed to the labor move

ment for help in dealing with
these two levels of government”
and in their struggle for basic
human rights. :

LABOR
IN |
BRIEF |

TRANSIT WORKERS

FORCED BACK
MONTREAL — Provincial Je
gislation setting $50 to $200 4
day fines for strikers and up 1
$50,000 a day for unions, for
Montreal transit workers
on the job, Sept. 29, after 1!
days on strike. The vote was
to 213. Be
The maintenance workers had
criginally asked for $7.70 at
hour, but said last week they

_ would settle for $6.87. They

earning $114 or less and a 45
wage increase for all others
They settled last week for 4%

immediate 15% _ boost.

“We return because of a JaW
forcing us to; we don’t return of
our own free will,” said Jacques
Beaudoin, president of the Mont
real Transport Union, yesterday:
“But this doesn’t mean we havé
given up the battle. We will co™
tinue to fight.”

The back-to-work legislatio®
prevides for wage increasé
ranging from 5% to 15%
ing mediator negotiations. The
mediator expected to be named
at once, has 15 days to effect ®
settlement.

Ra sa

FALCONBRIDGE
SHOWS RELUCTANCE |

SUDBURY — Mine-Mill Loc! |!
598, whose 3,500 member
sttuck the big Falconbridg®
Nickel Mines Ltd. here, Augt®
21, reports in strike bulletin No
19, 11 proposals to the compa?
“So far, the company has said
the¥ are not disposed to m0
on any of them.”

Pointing out that the workem
“are not professional strike “a
but “miners, smeltermen #
tradesmen,” who voted 58% Ye
say “we think the price pro
ed for our labor is not ri
the bulletin noted: é

“The Christmas tree put uP #
the Hardy gate by our West
pickets is a good indication
are preparing for a long S
That doesn’t mean the union
bent on a long strike .. . Jf ©
company is really intereste¢ ©
a settlement, they will show

hesitation in re-opening

ing. The question is: is the Cf
pany interested in bargai:

ght" |