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: By MIKE PHILLIPS
QUEBEC — “Unions are strongest when
they're fighting’, Yvon Charbonneau said last
Week as 90,000 striking teachers voted to defy the
Quebecois government’s Bill 111.

_Facing what many believe to be the most repres-
Sive anti-labor legislation to be seen in Canada, the
Iti Quebecois government’s back-to-work legis-
lation was rejected in province-wide teachers’
Votes by 64%. They were the first to launch the
8eneral strike of the 250,000-member Common

Tont of public sector workers, Jan. 27.
The teachers’ defiance has galvanized labor soli-
ty in Quebec and there were signs last week of
@ bstantial support from labor in English-speaking

Jean-Claude Parrot, leader of the 23,000-mem-

ret Canadian Union of Postal Workers, (CUPW),

€b. 17 announced that CUPW was launching a

Puntry-wide referendum of its members to get

heir Support for a $10 per-member per-month dues
IN support of the Quebec strikers. ae

*s National Executive Board, meeting in

and the provincial labor federations to initiate simi-
at solidarity actions and said it was contacting the
Quebec Federation of Labor to ask if it would
approach the Confederation of National Trade
Union (CNTU-CSN) to see if they could jointly
Teanize rotating support strikes leading to a gen-
€ral walkout.

CUPW also called on the CLC to organize simi-

Labor is strong when it fights
— Quebec teachers’ union head says

Ottawa, called on the Canadian Labor Congress —

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This was buttressed by Rene Levesque’s Feb. 17
statement that he may call a provincial election
over the teachers’ defiance. Few believe the PQ
would win such an election.

The government introduced Bill 111, Feb. 15. It
provides for the firing of any teacher between now
and the end of 1985 who: participates in a so-called
illegal strike or work slowdown; refuses to return
to work by Feb. 17; and who encourages others to
defy Bill 111. :

It suspends the automatic dues check-off, six
months for every day the strike continues. It levies
automatic fines of one day’s pay for every day on
strike after Feb. 17, which is the same as taking
away two days’ pay from the workers. It takes
away three years’ seniority for every day on strike.

Civil libertarians, and the legal profession are
outraged by the fact that Bill 111 supercedes the
Quebec Human Rights Charter and the federal
Charter of Rights by presuming guilt on the part of
any teacher who appeals firing or discipline before
special arbitration hearings.

In addition, the fines decreed by the Quebec
Labor Code for participating in an ‘‘illegal’”’ strike
were doubled for the striking teachers. Individuals
now face fines of $50-$200 for every day they defy
the government’s law; union leaders $2,000-
$10,000 a day; and for the unions themselves, it’s
$10,000-$50,000 a day.

CEQ president Yvon Charbonneau called Bill
111 an act of repression against the labor move-
ment. The vote results showed how widely the

= action if the efforts of the Quebec labor move-
so aren’t enough to press the PQ government to
| “°P trying to smash the labor movement.
ban tot said the labor movement can’t afford to sit
| teagy 2nd wait to see what will happen to the
Genet: “If it is not able to organize something
| “imilar to what we're proposing then we don’t de-
| S€tVe the title of trade union leaders”’, Parrot, who
also a CLC vice-president, said. ;
ae leaders of the other two Quebec trade union
tautrals, the QFL and the CSN reacted with anger
i f the government, and messages of support
| {ot the teachers’ defiance. QFL president Louis
© mere Condemned Bill 111 and called on his
| “émbers to honor CEQ picket lines.
§ Natien Corriveau, president of the CSN wona
handing ovation at a mass meeting Feb. 15 when
© said the PQ was finished in Quebec and urged
S 8,100 CEGEP teachers, who are part of the
™mon Front, to stay out.

the CSN

Tracers to press, Feb. 17, the ke
||P 20's common strategy of labor mobilization be-
| hind the teachers.

The latest stage in the PQ’s confrontation with
se People and their trade union movement has led
 'O angry and widespread predictions that the PQ’s

da

YS as a government are over.

has called for its entire eitieet te

TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS

government miscalculated in trying to stampede
the teachers back to work, and force them to ac-
cept the government’s 20% wage cut and swallow
the rollback injob security and education services.
The teachers even proposed to accept the wage
cut, in the tense hours before their vote, if the
government would relent on the service cuts that
will mean the disappearance of at least 8,500 teach-
ing jobs throughout the province by next Sep-
tember. The government said no.
‘The voter turnout was heavy among the striking
teachers. Montreal’s 5,000 French Catholic
teachers voted 64% to defy; the Federation of En-
glish Catholic Teachers, more than 81%; 2,300
Montreal Protestant teachers, 65.5% and the

Pepper, the second part of a two-part
hich consisted of the 24-hour den

‘puties inside were rushing Bill 111 through.

Its companion, Operation Salt involved public
information meetings and an ad campaign where
teachers explained their position in defence of

‘tion outside the National Assembly while the de-

education cuts to parents and the general public.

1
£0;
AS To THE Econonic

CRISIS, ITS ALL

VAS 11-77

Recalling the great unemployed marches of the 30s, labor and
the jobless in Quebec have launched a massive campaign that will
be capped by a huge rally in Montreal, May 28. Some 22 regional
organizing committees have been struck throughout Quebec re-
flecting the broadest community representation.

Each region is developing protest and action plans to build for
the May 28 protest which is being co-ordinated by a central body
comprising the three labor centrals, the provincial welfare rights
organization, the Quebec council of unemployed organizations,
and the young Catholic workers’ organizations.

Organizers are looking at ways to involve the rest of the Cana-
dian labor movement in similar, parallel actions on the 28th, and
they’re expecting a flood of support messages from across
Canada on that date.

* * ak

Jobmart, the job listing “‘service’’, which critics charge fleeces
the unemployed at $50 a shot just to look at a job lists they could
buy for a quarter in any newspaper, remains under the gun as
unemployed groups dog them in every community where they
operate.

St. Catharines’ newly-formed Unemployment Action Alliance,
Feb. 8, was the latest group to warn the unemployed of Jobmart’s
scam by staging a mass picket of about 70 outside the local
offices. They were joined in the protest by the Welland United
Unemployed Organization. _

The company has tried to make a big deal in the media about
refunding the $50 fee to anyone dissatisfied with their ‘‘service’’.
More and more jobless are refusing to take the company up on its
offer by shunning Jobmart altogether and warning their friends
with more picket lines.

* * ok

Some right wingers in the leadership of the St. Catharines labor
council.and-United Auto Workers Local 199 probably thought
they scored a major coup when they brought in a hand-picked
slate to lead the unemployed organization and exclude the left at
its first official meeting. But proponents of such a narrow-minded
and short-sighted approach to mobilizing the unemployed find
their views are lagging behind the understanding of a great many
trade unionists and the unemployed themselves.

Delegates at a recent UAW conference on organizing t
unemployed challenged this kind of attitude by insisting that
unemployment crosses political lines and warming against the
danger of undermining the broadest possible unity in the unem-
ployed movement which is indispensable to making necessary
gains. Many also pointed out that the movement already unites
forces who have been in the front ranks of the fight for jobs at a
time when labor in certain areas has been slow to move on the
problem.

a * oF

Unemployment lines: Feb. 23 has been set as the tentative
opening date for Hamilton’s new unemployment help centre, run
by the Wage Restraint and Unemployed Co-ordinating Com-
mittee, (WRUCC). The opening will also draw attention to the
massive rally against wage controls, for extended UIC benefits
and government job-creating activities set for Feb. 26 at City
Hall. WRUCC’s new downtown office will be located in the
Century 21 Building, 100 Main St. E., phone 522-HELP ...
Toronto’s Union of Unemployed Workers, the first group to blow
the whistle on Jobmart, held a ‘“‘better-late-than-never’’ Christ-
mas party for about 30 kids, Feb. 12, and an evening get-together
which drew 100 people including Ontario Federation of Labor
president Cliff Pilkey. ‘We are with you, we will be supportive”’,
Pilkey told the guests. ‘“‘Together we can create a climate of
economic justice and social security for all’ ... More than 300
unemployed workers protested outside Vancouver UIC offices,
demanding extended benefits, and end to delays and no firing of
UIC staff. Unemployed Action Centre co-ordinator Kim Zander,
after the demo, promised more protests and spoke of the need to
step up mass pressure on the federal government ... Welland
municipal council, Feb. 15 endorsed in principal an eight-point
brief presented by the Welland United Unemployed Organization
which called on the council to join the jobless in demanding job
creation policies from senior governments.
tio of ajob aS a i hi man right ‘and fori

%,

the Farm Survival Association, will be a guest speaker, and the
unemployed committee will report on the Jobmart picket and the
Welland Council briefiing.

— Mike Phillips

workers hail, for 7 p.m., where Alan Wilford, president

giana
.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 25, 1983—Page 7