Sectoral chains for Quebec labor

By JEAN PARE

UE National Vice-President

Sectoral bargaining, which is
a fancy name for imposed indus-
try-wide negotiations on a pro-
vincial scale, isa very important
matter for discussion these days
in Quebec’s trade union move-
ment.

~ During the last two years, new ©

laws have been enacted that
affect large groups of workers,
and recent statements by cabinet
ministers indicate that further
amendments to the Quebec labor
code can be expected that will
restrict or take away a number
of the hard-won rights that la-
bor has gained through struggle
over the years.” =

Lack of consultation, proper
preparation and needed new
mechanisms or structures, have
brought all kinds of difficulties
to the surface in three impor-
tant fields in which the new bar-
gaining system was started.

Forced by Law

Quebec hospital workers were
compelled by law to change
their system of negotiations
with each individual hospital to
one of province-wide bargaining.

The results produced a strike
some two years ago, and since
then, rotating strikes and work-
to-rule actions.

Teacher Strikes

In the education field, the
same situation has existed and
only recently have the rotating
strikes of Quebec teachers been
temporarily suspended.

The teachers’ rotating strikes
ended when the government fin-
ally agreed to begin public hear-
-ings in their dispute.

The other field in which the
government of Quebec decided
to move into province-wide bar-
gaining was the building trades.

Bill 290, ordering provincial.

bargaining, has compelled the
individual building trades unions
to combine their bargaining, in-
cluding unions of the two trade
union centres, the Quebec Fed-
eration of Labor (QFL) and the
Confederation of National Trade
Unions (CNTU).

That immediately posed a

problem for an important sector
of the building trades, namely
the Teamsters union. The Team-
sters, being outside of the Cana-
dian Labor congress, were also
outside the QFL.

Teamster Affiliation

The QFL accepted affiliation
of the Teamsters, with no vot-
ing privileges, by amending the
constitutional requirements of
its organization.

The alternative for the Team-
sters was. to affiliate to the
CNTU or else be left out in the
cold with no bargaining rights.

Eventually, Bill 290 was re-
luctantly accepted by the trade
unions involved and _ negotia-
tions started with five contrac-
tor associations.

No agreement was reached,
and finally this resulted in the
QFL and CNTU building trades
unions deciding to strike in the
Montreal area, while CNTU
unions followed later with strike
action in the rural areas.

Forced Back on Job

The Quebec government quick-
ly moved into the picture and
passed Bill 38, which forced the
CNTU building trades workers
back on the job and ordered
new negotiations for a 60-day
period.

Failing to arrive at an agree-
ment, the government gave it-
self the right to dictate what the
wages and working conditions
in the construction industry
would be.

Following the breakdown of
negotiations and the return to
work of the CNTU membership,
the government passed a collec-
tive decree last December that
provides that only some of the
building trades workers in rural
Quebec would get parity of
wages over a three-year period.

The unions had pressed for
the whole province and although
both the QFL and the CNTU
objected to the decree, they
have finally accepted it.

However, groups of construc-
tion workers in the province had
to take strike action in order to
compel the employers to imple-
ment even the imposed wage
increase under the new decree.

Under Pressure

Heavy pressures have. since
been applied to the government
and it is reported that the minis-
ter of labor is now reconsidering
the whole matter, and _ that
changes can be expected.

Now, Public Services Minister
L’Allier and Labor Minister Jean
Cournoyer are both suggesting
that amendments to the Quebec
Labor Code will be forthcoming
in the same three fields along
the following lines: .

1—Blue collar workers in hos-
pitals will also be forced to bar-
gain on a province-wide basis.

2—Blue collar workers in re-
gional and other school boards
will also come under the new
sectoral bargaining scheme.

3—The labor minister has
stated that there should be only
one trade union centre to nego-
tiate for all the construction
trades in Quebec and he has
suggested that a _ referendum
ing trades workers so they can
vote be held amongst all build-
decide which of the two centres
(OFL or CNTU) they wish to
have as their bargaining agent.

Likely Winner

In making his proposal, the
labor minister has stated that
the QFL would be the likely
winner as it has almost twice
the number of members in the
construction trades as_ the
CNTU.

This raises a number. of im-
portant questions:

e@ Will the government, once
again, pass laws that intervene
in the internal affairs of the
trade union movement?

@ Will the hard-won rights of
labor be thrown into-.the ash-
can by the enactment of new,
restrictive legislation?

@ Will leaders of the QFL and
CNTU, in the face of this threat
to their bargaining strength, sit
down and endeavor to find
agreement around the proposal
for the setting up of a single
trade union centre for Quebeck-
ers so that the united strength
of the organized workers there
can prevent further infringe-
ments on their rights?

—UE News

By WILLIAM ALLAN

DETROIT — Target date for
Hard Hat March down Pennsy!l-
vania Avenue in Washington,
D.C. of thousands of AFL-CIO
Building Trades members to pro-
test suspension of the Davis-
Bacon Act by Nixon, is set for
Tuesday, April 20.

Hard Hats from across Ameri-
ca will march from the Wash-
ington Monument to the White
House. A series of speeches will
be made before the White House
protesting Nixon’s suspension
of the Davis-Bacon prevailing
wage law and then the march-
ers will march back to the Monu-
ment. ;

Application for the permits
have already been sent by Stan
Arnold, secretary treasurer of
the Michigan" Building Trades
Council, to Washington police
and the Department of the In-
terior.

The AFL-CIO Building Trades
nationally are having a national
legislative conference April 19-
22. Some 5,000 delegates will
take part and since the proposal
~ by. Michigan Tradesmen for a
protest march to the White
House, backup support has been
growing. :

Michigan marchers, wearing

hard hats and work clothes, will
come in scores of buses from

here. Baltimore Building Trades ~

Council told Michiganders they
will bring hundreds to Washing-
ton. The Ohio and California
Building Trades Councils have
sent word they are supporting
the Hard Hat March.

Not yet official backing has
come from Chicago, with official
endorsement awaiting meetings
of the Councils.

Joseph F. Sedivey, executive
secretary of the Ohio Building
Trades Council said bus ~ loads
of marchers from Dayton, Cin-
cinatti and other Ohio cities will
be joining the March. Edward

_ Courtney, president of the Balti-

more Council, only 40 miles from
Washington, said they’d bring
about 5,000 down to Washing-
ton. The Building Trades Coun-
cil of Indiana told Arnold they
were backing the march all the
way.

The Detroit Building Trades
Council, it’s reported, will load
up 25 busloads for the unem-
ployed and others who will go
to Washington. Electrical Work-
ers Local 58 will send 5 bus
loads, the Bricklayers Local 2,
two busloads, Engineers Local
5, two busloads.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1971—PAGE 10

Meanwhile in upstate build-
ing trades locals, the prepara-
tions for bringing 250 delegates
from that part of the state alone
are well under way.

The Detroit-Wayne County
Port Council of the Maritime
Trades Department voted this
last week to add its full support
to the March.

The consequences of Nixon’s
suspension of the Davis-Bacon
Act for union construction work.
ers is seen by reports of what
is happening in Washington,
where 50,000 workers are em-
ployed in construction.

Contractors with union con-
tracts are now asking their
workers to accept a pay cut
averaging $2.43 per man_per
hour, plus changes in other con-
tract provisions, intended to
weaken or worsen conditions.

The contractors have propos-
ed they be allowed to hire more
$4 an hour apprentices, fewer
$8 an hour journeymen, an end
to payments into the union’s
welfare fund and pension funds;

a cut in overtime pay rate from’

double time to time-and-a-half
and the cancellation of a $1.07

hourly raise for journeymen’™

scheduled, Sept. 1.

the outrage.

The lobby of the CPUSA offices in New York show
bombing last week. The Jewish Defense League has been

effects ti
lin’ 7 |

Lakehead victory

Grain handlers win gail

By E. ROGERS

THUNDER BAY — The more
than 1,200 members of. the Lake-
head Grain Handlers Union, Lo-
cal 605, Railway, Steamship and
Clerks won a_ good contract,
bringing to an end several weeks
of intensive negotiations and
averting a strike.

Three years ago the elevator
workers carried out a protracted
strike forcing an end to real
sweat labor conditions. The new
contract did not achieve parity
with the grain handlers of Van-
couver, but it added 70 cents
to their basic wage of $3.35 over
the next two years.

The members of the Grain
Handlers Union have been made
the political goat for the agri-
cultural depression of the Prair-
ie area on more than one oc-
casion. With the Trudeau-in-
spired artificial depression and
lack of foreign markets contin-
uing to pile up grain, unemploy-
ment and inflation, the political
pundits single out the grainmen
and dub them the culprits or
scapegoats. All that is changed
now. When a glut of grain piles
up in the country a new goat
will have to be found.

The new contract has clauses
covering overtime, Saturday and
Sunday rates. From now on if
the companies require seven
days’ work in a week to move
grain they will pay for it at
time and a half fot Saturday
and double time for Sunday. If

‘government failure to go after

markets for grain causes stagna-
tion and pile ups in the country,
those responsible for it will be
exposed readily, rather than
seek goats in the labor move-
ment. Grain—may now move
freely out of the terminal points
if the government and Canadian
Wheat Board produce the sale
contracts.

The Trudeau government
stoops to all manner of fake
alibis. To those of us who have
called for financed sales of
grain on long-term issue to the
needy countries of the world,

ae

the prime minister’s off
torts it is not feasible oof
no means of internal UY ig
tion exists in the UNG” @
areas where the grain 8 ~~
needed. gt
The fact is the Trude. y
ernment exhibits callous? ig}
continues with its supP® nf
U.S. imperialists wh0 oa )
age to carry anything a if
tary nature into the + i
backward © countries i, 0
china! We can deliv a0e
grain in conditions ° dy 0!
trade intentions to ne” aff
tries. What is requ efi”
eign policy freed-from
iafluenes : and dedicat
peace. in
This new contract #8 yal
category of being a” oat 7
and up-to-date agree on |
flecting the determin@ ntl
workers to go after © oft”,
that get to the core 9 ond
needs and tie in new tific Y
growing out of scie?
technological progres’
Discuss Layoffs 5

The best clause 100 i qt!
on the issues of automa
job security. The unie e
clause which requires | gi
pany to discuss with of
first any proposed ult "y
workers that would : jo
technological progte>”: ply
past, automated an nave’ j
methods have played
the workers’ jobs. neat
The Lakehead has). tof
miles of harbor wit

(AES a EE ae «Sd SRE igh A i RS ea MER POs OR ay i NY a

capacity of well oven a
bushels of grain. 5,000 !
can hold more than
filled boxcars. The ne tY
mated procedures “ate ;
boxcars, and up- “vill Ww
tronic equipment
sort, clean and dry é it Oi
of grain and trans - js ?
per storage bins. es. proell
runner of the kind tio” a
we can expect to ¢ |
demands _ that union are
contain clauses t 5°44
benefits of technol0 rity:
mation and job sec

a?

af