‘Imposing hardships’ says CUPE

Sudbury hits cutbacks |

SUDBURY — Bev Drane,
Canadian Union of Public Em-
Ployees staff representative for
: * Sudbury region, was extreme-
ry Ciitical of the provincial gov-
7ys™ment’s cutbacks at a mass
‘Meeting held here April 15.
|| Drane was addressing 250
Workers, representing four hospi-
tals In the area, gathered at the
| ‘Mine-Mill Hall. He also gave a
port on recent ‘bargaining
)ssions at the provincial level.
| Referring to the 60 workers laid
|) off at the Sudbury General Hospi-
as because of what the adminis-
b pevon termed ‘‘budget con-
| Mee and ‘“‘staff savings,”’
fane declared that this was
| M™posing hardships on the

a would appear that the two-
eek shutdown of operations at
-nson Mines Ltd. in Elliot
to Seana The vote to return
YOrk was taken on Saturda’
April 24, y

a Apparently the miners voted to
ae work on the promise of
‘WSide t-Inflation Board to recon-
7 Ta decision to roll back
Potted wage settlements at
GAS and at Rio Algom Ltd.
ce to reports of the mine
|. 28ement, volunteer shifts be-
y & Te-opening the mine and mill
.. Tation at 6 p.m. on the day the
| i, Was taken.
Hthre the meantime the company
i atened the miners with legal
‘ tay and refused to say whether
hin: Ould press charges against the
yy 109 as a result of the strike.
eo the company vice-
IT Ident of operations stated in
} nto that the return to work
Tesult in a company request
ear, Ponement of an injunction
con Ng scheduled for Toronto
Tts on April 26.
LWritin hot known at the time of
AIR ng what a new ruling by the
ie. be, nor is it known
“nick aa will also embrace the
7 itoba, miners at Thompson, Man-
balsa” whose wage increases were
© rolled back by the Board.

* kK OK

fe strike of the Elliot Lake
lanaes Shows increasing anger
| Tesige termination by workers to
“livin the all-out war on workers’
8 standards unleashed by
Aneorations and governments.
€r manifestation of this

8er was evident by the walkout
ik Aue at 80 hospitals in Sas-
. l€wan to back demands for
the a Salaries. That strike began
i Lak €ry same day that the Elliot

Wo “ Anes voted to return to
tegen’ he striking nurses are rep-
fea! by the Saskatchewan
| tim ot Of Nurses. At the same
Ruutses at Wascana Hospital
Saskeen represented by the

a atchewan Government
fi Ployees Association staged a

», -Our walkout in sympathy

In the SUN.

: the meantime 180,000 public
95 juts in Quebec, including
Spo _ teachers, are staging

© 24-hour strikes every

Or

i
;
}
}

workers.

‘*These job cutbacks are part of
the infamous Henderson Report
(Special Program Review) which
is affecting the social services,”’
Drane said.

‘‘This is tied into the federal
government’s scheme of things
such as tougher rules on Un-
employment Insurance bénefits

. meanwhile unemployment is
rising!

‘‘Again workers are being
made the scapegoats, made to
suffer and carry the tax burden.”

Drane urged CUPE members
to join the Ontario Federation of
Labor’s mass demonstration on
April 28 as a Day of Protest
against the cutbacks.

Said Drane: ‘‘It’s about time
the workers realized that the (On-
tario) government is not what it
presents itself to be — that is, for
the people — because the rich get
richer and the poor get poorer.”’

Before the meeting, the CUPE -

Area Council announced it would
sponsor a bus to Queen’s Park,
Toronto for the mass demonstra-
tion. :

At the bargaining table, CUPE
provincial negotiators have had
little progress.

The response has been ‘‘no
agreement’ on key. items pro-
posed by CUPE. One such item,
and a very important one, is job
security.

BILL C-73

MUST GO!

few days in defiance of a law (Bill
23) forbidding strikes for a period
of 80 days.

The Alberta Federation of
Labor at its convention, April
21-25, went on record for a coor-
dinated fightback, including a
general work stoppage.

xe *

What has been absent in or-
ganized labor’s fightback up until
now has been a failure to realize
the strategic aims and tactics of
the class enemy.

Business. columnist. Jack
McArthur, writing in the Toronto
Star, April 23, claims that mining
companies have complained for
years they cannot get enough
miners. At the same time national
unemployment has not been be-
low 5% in any year since 1969.
The inclination was to attract
miners by higher wages. But now
the AIB has rolled back wage in-
creases for the miners.

‘What to do’’? asked McAr-
thur. We may already see the be-
ginnings of an answer: Limit the
rights to unemployment insur-
ance and welfare of those who are
choosy about the jobs they will
take ... even to the extent of
creating conditions which may
force people to move hundreds of
miles to get work. (My emphasis
— BM)

“It’s the logical solution, too,”’
writes he. “‘It sounds cruel, but no
nation (2) is in a position to tell
people they have a right to work
at occupations and geographical
locations of their choice ... _

‘‘The only workable definition
of full employment, in fact, is
when the total number of availa-
ble jobs in a country matches the
number of those who want work
_.. Jobs result from the facts of
life in a country not from wishful
thinking.”

The facts of life under
capitalism — unlike conditions in
socialist society — is that un-
employment is being used as the
means of dictating conditions of
work, and pay for labor. Un-
employment and inflation up to a
point are weapons in the hands of
capitalists and their state power to
impose maximum exploitation on
the working class and all working

people.

* * *

Total war on living standards
by capitalist monopolies and gov-
ernments require total mobiliza-
tion for resistance if democracy
and genuine freedom is to be.at-

tained, and open terroristic dic- .

tatorship by big capital is to be
avoided.

The weapons in this class war
are unity and Solidarity, first of all
in the ranks of the working class
and its trade unions.

Solidarity. was largely .con-
spicuous by its absence in the
struggles of hospital workers,
teachers, postal workers and
paperworkers last year. Only this
year has solidarity on a wider
basis begun to appear, such as in
the March 22 Ottawa demonstra-
tion of the Canadian Labor Con-
gress and, the April 28 demonst-
ration in Toronto, organized by
the Ontario Federation of Labor.
In Quebec, as already indicated,
solidarity and united action on a
mass scale is much further
advanced.

The lesson of Elliot Lake min-
ers, and indeed of many larger
struggles this year, is that the time
has arrived for a much broader
and more serious mobilization of
labor across Canada in action to
defeat the policies of the federal
and provincial governments.

If an appointed committee of
bureaucrats are to be allowed to
run the country we can say good-
bye to hard-won democratic rights
and freedom won in past struggles.

If labor is to be serious about
challenging the federal law — Bill
C-73 — the AIB has to be ignored
and by-passed, as the CLC has
recommended to all unions.

This is not a matter for action
on a local scale, or even on a pro-
vincial scale. It is a country-wide
struggle that requires unity and
solidarity such as we have never
hitherto seen, including new
forms of struggle, such as
country-wide study sessions of a
given duration: even actions such
as a general strike aimed at the
removal of federal Bill C-73.

The demand for such action is
rising across the country. What is
needed now is coordination, sol-
idarity and firm leadership united
behind a program of demands on
federal and provincial authorities
all over this land.

WOMEN
IN

ACTION

By JEAN VAUTOUR
Executive Secretary,
Canadian Peace Congress

ONE OF THE DISTINGUISHING features of women is that
it is they who bear the children and assure that there will be
another generation to enjoy the fruits of our labors for a world
without war. Perhaps that is why women have always been in
the forefront of the struggle for peace.

To stop the arms race, to get agreement on steps toward
general and complete disarmament, is an absolutely essential
task particularly in those countries where arms production is
key to the maximization of profits. The enormous build-up of
the horrendous weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemi-
cal, biological, unless stopped can lead only to their inevitable
use.

Equally there is no solution to the economic problems faced by
people in the capitalist countries unless a cutback in ‘‘de-
fence”’ budgets is won. The ‘‘defence’’ budget of the USA is
now about $117-billion annually and Canada, with 24 million

~ people, $3-billion. Women, who in the main do the family

shopping for food and clothing know what that means when
they are faced with cutbacks in public services and with rising
prices, while their taxes are used to buy Lockheed aircraft for
NATO.

PEOPLE, MEN AND WOMEN, IN ACTION, collecting
signatures to the New Stockholm Appeal, 1975, organizing
meetings, delegations to city councils, and provincial legisla-
tures; speaking out on radio, T.V., at union meetings, at
church gatherings, in ethnic organizations are the force that
will win cutbacks in the ‘‘defence’’ budget, stop the arms race
and compel steps toward disamament. Women play a leading
role in these activities.

It is poor policy to honor only those who are no longer with us,
important as that may be. To recognize the work of those now
leading in the battle to advance from political detente to firm
and binding agreements to stop the arms race and to begin to
dismantle the awful implements of mass destruction merit
special honors.

THE EXAMPLE SET BY THOSE who took part in the first
Stockholm Appeal 25 years ago, and who are still with us, are
an inspiration. Mrs. Andony of Edmonton, who alone col-
lected 8,000 signatures was honored at the 1976 biennial con-
ference of the Canadian Peace Congress. She was presented
with the World Peace Council’s 25th anniversary medal. It
was accepted on her behalf by Mrs. Emma Shewchuk, secre-
tary of the Edmonton Peace Council. She told how Mrs. An-
dony who, though not a church member, went to different
churches each Sunday and collected signatures. How she
never passed a day without adding names to her lists. Mrs.
Andony was only one of the many who went well over the
thousand mark in the collection of signatures for the first
Stockholm Appeal.

Today many women play a leading role in the Canadian Peace
Congress: Mrs. Rosaleen Ross, a grandmother, secretary of
the B.C. Peace Council and active in the B.C. Continuing
Committee of the World Congress of Peace Forces; Mrs.
Emma Shewchuk, secretary of the Edmonton Peace Council;
Mrs. Lillian Atkins, chairperson of the Calgary Peace Council.
Mrs. Norah Jarbeau, another grandmother, is chairperson of
the Regina Peace Council; and Mrs. Edna Meakes of Saska-
toon, is secretary of the Saskatoon Peace Council and vice-
president of the Canadian Peace Congress for Saskatchewan.
Her co-worker, Reverend Eleanor Geib of the United Church,
is chairperson of the Saskatoon Peace Council. The Manitoba
Peace Council is headed by Mrs. Doreen Plowman, organiza-

‘tional secretary, and vice-president to the Canadian Peace

Congress for Manitoba. She has the help of Ms. Jill Glover as
secretary and Mrs. Hladiy as treasurer. In Kamsack Mrs.
Vemla Kausik, who helped to rebuild the Peace Council there,
is its chairperson.

In Toronto, among the founders of the Canadian Peace Con-
gress are Dr. Rose Bronstein and Mrs. Nora Rodd, both still
busy collecting signatures. New members of the Toronto As-
sociation for Peace, Mrs. Anna Sideris and Ms. Maura O’Neill
along with Mrs. Vickie Barker and Ms. Irene Kuusela lead in
the building of the peace movement in Toronto.

THESE WOMEN ARE BUT A FEW of those who call on all
women, mothers, mothers-to-be, students, working women
and housewives to get into the struggle for disarmament, for a
secure and lasting peace, to join the multitude of Canadian
women who demand that the billions now spent on arms be
made available for child care, health care, good free education
for all — a happy, secure future.

They along with many, many more women and men, will help
to assure that the names of 1,000,000 Canadians pledged to
support the New Stockholm Appeal by signatures and by
endorsement of the appeal by their organizations, will be
achieved. The Appeal’s demands for the calling of the UN
world disarmament conference will be placed before Prime
Minister Trudeau in October and along with many millions
more from all over the world, presented to the UN General
Assembly in November.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 7, 1976—Page 5