A ect 5 @ | Walt TORO; BY MIKE PHILLIPS by RONTO — Solidarity with Quebec teachers Res ith workers in the rest of Canada fighting vernment cutbacks and assaults on trade union forum, nome, panelists in a Quebec solidarity ith Metro Toronto labor council President Y Majesky moderating the discussion, the ric 8 represented the Quebec Teachers Cent- » (CEQ), the Confederation of National Trade _,illons, (CSN), the Professional Government ary Sc vees Union of Quebec, the Ontario Second- tage ctool Teachers Federation (OSSTF), the On- re pablic Service Employees Union (OPSEU), FA) ork University Faculty Association (YU- ne Vice-president Raymond Johnson coupled Scien for financial aid for the. harassed hers with a call to action against all govern- nts — provincial and federal — attacking the the Union movement and the living standards of ~ People. sigh Utdamentally the best aid workers in (En- or Speaking) Canada can give us as we face this ca is to understand you have similar lems and that you must wage the same strug- : against your own governments’, Johnson said. Financial aid will also be crucial, he noted, be- sible government legislation now makes it pos- Perf to seize workers’ wages and force them to the orm “‘community services’’ without pay where Y refuse to pay fines imposed as a result of the vsition to, or defiance of anti-union laws like Current repressive legislation. Johnson outlined the current situation in Quebec Walch was to culminate, as the Tribune went to aa March 30, when teachers’ local union execu- Yes will meet to consider conciliation proposals. ; He charged that the government's strategy “was ee only inspired b 7 budgetary considerations, but th allow the private sector employers to maintain “€ir large profit margins and help the process of wateased mergers and concentration of wealth, ot would have an impact outside of Quebec as Hospital worker and CSN member, Remi Dion ®choed the call for solidarity and in condemning we actions of the Quebec Government declared: t re’s no government more honorable or honest han a group of workers fighting for their rights.”’ os Quebec panel also included the CEQ’s Sette Coté, a member of the central’s women’s Sommission, and Roger Le Court, of the public begins with fig ‘Solidarit y with Quebec teachers hthack at service workers’ union. “Coté skillfully outlined the impact of the government’s assault on women’s rights in Quebec and how the attack constitutes a major effort to roll back the gains women have made in the past two decades. The second panel included OPSEU president Sean O'Flynn, Malcolm Buchanan, newly re- elected president of the OSSTF, and YUFA presi- dent Janice Newson. O'Flynn, whose union in co-operation with the OSSTF-sponsored Coalition of Concerned Teach- ers organized the event, congratulated the Quebec teachers ‘‘for having the guts to do what public sector workers in Ontario and the rest of the coun- try should be doing’ to stop the attack on living standards and civil rights through bludgeoning pub- lic sector workers. _ He brought greetings to the meeting and support for Quebec teachers from United Auto Workers Canadian leader Bob White, and said he hoped the teachers’ struggle and the fight waged by the public sector common front in Quebec ‘‘will inspire us to go out and do the kind of slogging and organizing that will be necessary”’ to stop governments from carrying out their attacks on the people. Buchanan ripped into the Ontario Tory govern- ment for Bill 179 — Ontario’s public sector wage control legislation — and charged that one of the direct results of the law has been massive unem- ~ ployment, particularly among youth. The OSSTF leader said it would be ‘“‘totally irresponsible”’ for public sector workers to “take the blame”’ for the current economic mess, as the Tories charge, and that his union’s answer is to wage an all-out fightback to defeat the reactionary legislation. : He reported on the financial and solidarity cam- paign being waged on behalf of the Quebec teach- ers by the OSSTF. To date more than $200,000 has - been raised by the union. He presented the CEQ leaders at the forum with another cheque for $10,000 from the Toronto sec- tion of the OSSTF, which brings the total to $40,000 raised by Toronto high school teachers alone. Buchanan called for repeal-of bill 179, the intro- duction by government of sound, long-term job creation programs and substantial increases in provincial education funding. By KIMBALL CARIOU ' REGINA — ‘‘Put People Be- — Profits’ and ‘“‘We’re open for Obs” read the picket signs of 65 arpenters and paperworkers at Saskatchewan Legislature, March 25. unionists, many from as far away as Prince Albert and Saska- oon, were organized by the arpenter’s union provincial Council to put some heat on the Ory government. South Saskatchewan carpent- &’s organizer Mike Toth spoke briefly to the pickets before they tered the Legislature to meet flirtation with ‘prosperity’, Sas- hewan’s economy has gone downhill fast’’, said Toth, point- ing to informal surveys which in- dicate 40-60% of the province’s building trades workers, and over 50% of the carpenters in parti- ular, are out of work. He blasted recent Tory actions Which have made matters worse, Such as the minimum wage _ freeze, wage controls, back to Work orders, and cutbacks in their MLAs. “‘After a brief health and safety programs. Premier Grant Devine’s “‘Open for Business’’ policy was roasted by Toth, who revealed that ‘after a complete review of the building permits issued in cities and muni- cipalities throughout the prov- ince, we are finding that in regard to government jobs or tenders let, only one job in 10 is union’’. The most glaring example, he said, is the Nipawin Hydro- Electric Dam project, being built by KACR, a joint venture run by Peter Kiewit, an American ‘‘right-to-work’’ contractor who works out of the so-called “‘right-to-work’’ states. : Union members are systemati- cally screened out during the hir- ing process at the project, despite the fact that the dam was bid on the union scale of wages. As well, less than 50% of the workforce is made up of local people, at a time when northern Saskatchewan residents are suffering double digit unemployment. Toth also noted that renova- tions to the Legislature building are being done by W & R Saskatchewan ‘Open for Jobs’ unemployed tell Devine gov t Engineering, a non-union con- tractor from Alberta. “It is a crime that unfair employers can come into this province and make super profits at the taxpayers ex- pense!’’ Toth concluded. “‘We demand work. We de- mand a union workmanship pol- icy on government projects. Everyone who wants a job, should have one!’’ The demonstration was the culmination of a week of actions in Regina demanding jobs. Stu- dent union leaders recently or- ganized the University of Regina Campus Action Committee on Unemployment; the group held a symbolic soup kitchen on cam- pus, Tuesday, March 22. Then on the 24th, 70 students and members of the Unemploy- ment Committee of Regina (UCR) marched through downtown streets to protest the lack of summer and post-graduation jobs for students. Many of the stu- dent’s signs made the connection between unemployment and the arms race. UNE As the ‘‘organized resistance’’ of the unemployed spreads across Canada, it is confronted by forces trying to push the bankrupt idea that workers should give up wage increases in order to try and save their jobs. A phoney solution which had some impact on the workers during the early stages of the last ‘‘great depression, today’s jobless are rejecting this dangerous thinking. * * * Our Manitoba correspondent Frank Goldspink reports that a recent meeting of some 150 jobless workers in Winnipeg had to give a sharp rebuke to provincial New Democrat labor minister Mary Beth Dolin for making such a suggestion. Speaking to the annual meeting of the Community Unemployed Help Centre she noted that five separate components of the Manitoba Government Employees Association had “‘seen the need to forego increases to help save jobs.” An unemployed construction worker was among the many attending the meeting who took Dolin on. Giving up wage hikes, he said, wouldn’t create any jobs, but would simply be a case of the working people subsidizing the government. “I really don’t see why my brothers and sisters who are still working should be asked to take a wage reduction in the hope that it might create jobs’, he said. ‘‘If their work is worth a certain rate of pay as negotiated at the bargaining table, then that’s what they should be paid. They should not be asked to subsidize their employer.” Winnipeg Labor Council executive board member Leslie Spil- let had to tell Dolin the labor movement, in its entirety, had rejected thi, backward notion. Spillet, who’s with the Interna- tional Ladies Garment Workers Union told the labor minister she was ‘“‘really concerned with the impression being generated that workers should pay to solve the economic crisis which was not of their making at all. ‘*As garment workers we don’t believe that workers should have to give back their wages. All that will do is increase profits, not generate jobs’’, she said. oe * * ~ Farmers, union members and the unemployed met in London March 22 to set up an organization that will mobilize the city’s 20,000 unemployed. The meeting was organized by the London and District Labor Council. A 30-person steering committee has been drafted to set the unemployed committee up, and develop the organization’s strategy. John Clarke, an unemployed member of the United Electrical workers, (UE), and a council delegate, said the jobless in the community need a central organization to defend them from the banks and the big corporations. He said the isolation imposed on the jobless by the system has to be countered with ‘organized resistance”’ including demon- strations, stopping foreclosures and utility cut-offs. The group also plans to put pressure on federal, provincial and local poli- ticians for jobs and action to ease the plight of the unemployed, as well as approach local merchants to initiate price discounts that will give the unemployed a break. The group’s next meeting is slated for early in April. Canadian Farmers Survival Association vice-president Tom Shoebottom told the meeting to hammer business and govern- ments with their demands. He reminded them of the impact of mass pressure on these institutions. “The best thing is publici- ty,’ Shoebottom said. **Banks and other groups don’t like bad publicity.” * * * Dolin wasn’t the only politician at the Winnipeg unemploy- ment help centre to be given a stern message from the workers. Yvon Charlebois, benefit director for the Canada Employment and Immigration Commission was told by unemployed workers of the kinds of alternate strategies they'd like to see the federal government pursue to fight unemployment. ‘“‘What about legislation forbidding layoffs or forcing com- panies to open their books to justify any layoffs. What about the shorter work week in this age of increasing technology and productivity,’’ an unemployed construction worker asked? He challenged the federal government to explain why it is ‘*squandering billions of dollars on the military when this is widely acknowledged to be the least effective way to spend money and to promote job creation. Certainly, a large part of that money could be channeled into other more labor intensive and socially useful jobs.” Unemployed steelworker Mike Roberts won an enthusiastic response from the meeting when he invited the unemployed to help form ‘‘an organization of the unemployed to fight back against government policies and for jobs.”’ Commending the good work of the help centre, Roberts went onto say, however, that more is needed for the jobless *‘to defend themselves as people, as workers, and as unemployed.”’ Fore- closures and evictions have to be stopped, he said, and lobbying governments is needed. ‘The response tonight certainly indicates that the unemployed in Winnipeg, like the rest of the country are ready to take action to protect their living standards,’’ he told the Tribune after the meeting. \ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 8, 1983— Page 7