CLC meet
faces new

andscape

As the Canadian Labour Congress
counts down to its decisive biennial con-
vention in Vancouver this May, commit-
tees are at work preparing papers on a
broad range of questions affecting the
trade union movement and working peo-
ple in general.

Labour in
action | 4

Looking back over the past two years,
the political landscape on which the
labour movement has operated has
changed substantially. Many of these
changes will be reflected in the papers and
resolutions brought before this upcoming
convention.

There is little doubt that among all of
the questions to be debated, the Mulroney-
Reagan trade deal and the fight for Can-
ada will provide the focus.

Canada’s trade unions are a major
player in this fight and, their participation
is growing. At the same time that they are
fending off the stepped-up attacks from
big business and the state, trade unions are
frequently involving themselves in other
fights of the people.

In fact, these questions — theattack on
the trade unions and the people, the
nuclear arms race, and the attack on Can-
adian sovereignty — are becoming increas-
ingly merged as far as the unions are
concerned.

In the past two years, labour’s struggles
have been moving the trade unions well
beyond “narrow” electoral politics. An
advance beyond previous syndicalist ten-
dencies of leaving the political field only to
the bosses’ political parties. Today, the
idea of mobilizing the trade union move-
ment in its own name, and the idea of
coalition building, are being recognized as
means of taking the labour movement
from a defensive to an offensive position,
without in any way diminishing — in fact,
enhancing — the pursuit of electoral
politics.

Simultaneously, other movements of
the people are beginning to look to the
trade unions with renewed hope that they

will provide the leadership for all of the
popular struggles.

Clearly such a struggle does not develop
ina straight line, or without setbacks. This
is all the more true of a country such as
Canada with its bi-national character, and

‘its vast regional differences, and tradi-

tions. The history and tasks of the trade
union movement should, therefore, neither
be ignored in formulating realistic tasks
for the period ahead, nor be used to justify
inaction in this critical period.

The first imperative for the trade unions
remains unity in face of the attack. There
are several well-known potential land
mines facing delegates to the upcoming
CLC convention.

The committee on structure will be gin-
gerly hauling a keg of nitroglycerin in and
around the convention, as it attempts to
balance two laudable principles that mix
marvelously in theory, but are proving
difficult to integrate in practice — namely,
an end to raiding on the one hand, and the
right of workers to a union of their choice’
on the other.

Such a dilemma for the trade union
movement cannot be resolved in a narrow
constitutional framework alone. It requires
a new type of leadership in the trade union
movement based on a new awareness of
the interests of the working class as a
whole, an awareness of the nature of the
attack and a willingness to rise above nar-
row sectarian interests. Such an awareness
must involve breaking with all vestiges of
class collaboration.

It must involve commitment to a much
greater voice and participation by the rank
and file in the running of unions. The
attack on labour demands a committed
rank and file, and a committed rank and
file can only be one which feels in control.

It must involve a commitment to Cana-
dian autonomy. It should have been
obvious; from the recent past, that Cana-
dian workers were determined to belong
to unions which did not stand in their way
during the fight against concessions.
Today, with the working class moving to
the centre of the fight for Canada, what
started as a trickle towards Canadian
unionism has now become a river.

Unity, class independence, sovereignty
and democracy are watchwords that are
needed to guide the trade union move-
ment through this tricky period. Any
attempt to pick out three of these at the
expense of the fourth, will run aground on
the rocks of reality.

HERE AT OUR FISCAL LABORATORIES
IN OTTAWA WE FIND THAT THE

FORMULA FOR LOW INFLATION AND

STEADY GROWTH 15 AMERE
9% UNEMPLOYMENT RATE!

TO — MIKE PHILLIPS

Hospital workers picket at Toronto's Mt. Sinai hospital in province-wide action.

Ont. hospital workers
protest pension grab

TORONTO — Hospital workers
throughout Ontario opened their offen-
sive Feb. 29 against an employer move to
rob their pension fund in order cover
government failure to properly fund
health care in the province.

Hospitals in Toronto, London, Sault
Ste. Marie and other points throughout
Ontario were the scene of noon-hour
demonstrations called by a three-union
coalition representing some 45,000 hos-
pital workers in Ontario. The coalition
includes the Canadian Union of Public
Employees, the Service. Employees
International Union and the Ontario
Public Service Employees Union.

The focus of the campaign was the
Nov. 16 decision by the Ontario Hospi-
tals Association not to kick in the $80
million they owe this year to the Hospi-
tals of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP).

The unions say the money belongs to
the pension plan and should be used to
improve pension benefits, such as pro-
viding full indexing with inflation and
better early retirement provisions.

The current economic climate has
been kind to HOOPP, with the fund
chalking up a $943-million surplus over
its liabilities. Rather than pay its $80-
million share into the plan this year, the
OHA wants member hospitals to use the
funds to renew facilities and update
equipment.

But on the steps of Mount Sinai Hos-
pital, Feb. 29, OPSEU vice-president
Fred Upshaw told more than 100 angry
hospital workers that such capital fund-
ing should come out of the government’s
general revenue and not the deferred
wages represented in management’s con-
tribution to the pension fund.

“Hospital workers want pension
indexing, not a contributions holiday,”
Upshaw said, adding that the workers
had the right to expect nothing less than
a “first class” pension plan from
HOOPP.

“HOOPP should be a leader in
pensions — why not? There’s enough

pension fund money in it to tum
HOOPP into a well-invested first class
plan, but we need control over it.”

Judy Darcy, representing CUPE’s
Ontario division, warned the OHA that
the fight by hospital workers to get the
maximum benefit from their pension
plans was only just beginning.

‘“*A contributions holiday is a pension
rip-off, whether its OHA, Ontario
Hydro or Conrad Black and the Domin-
ion Stores workers’ pension”, Darcy
declared. ‘““We’re going to fight this ...
we need improved health care in this
province but it’s not going to be funded
on the backs of the workers.”

Contrasting the fat salaries of the
OHA executives and the corporate
majority sitting on the HOOPP commit-
tee with the $400 a month an average
pensioner gets, Darcy reiterated the
unions’ demands for full pension index-
ing, and such benefits as dental plan cov-
erage and paid OHIP premiums, which
pensioners are currently denied.

Ted Roscoe of SEIU also stressed the
unions’ determination to escalate the
battle. He reported that the coalition has
taken the OHA to the Supreme Court of
Ontario to challenge the legality of the
contributions holiday.

“Tf further demonstrations are needed
on this issue, I’m sure all of you will be
out in March, April or May, until we
make our point,” Roscoe said.

In an interview, Roscoe added that the
unions were also moved into action by
what they see as a bad precedent. “If they
can take a holiday from paying into the
plan in 1988, they may take another one
in 89 as well. We just want to stop it
now.”

The other issue in the campaign is
joint union-employer control over
HOOPP. At the moment, the unions,
including the Ontario Nurses Associa-
tion, each have one representative on the
committee, which puts them at a 14 to 4
disadvantage when such important deci-
sions as the premium holiday comes up.

Pacific Tribune, March 9, 1988 e 7