Labor Briefs

WERLIN DEMANDS
LABOR OFFENSIVE

EDMONTON — Alberta Federation of Labor president Dave
Werlin in his Labor Day message called on the union movement
in this province to unite and “‘go over to the offensive to protect
and expand the standard of living and the purchasing power of the
working people.”

Big-business and the multinationals, he charged are manipulat-
ing the governments they control in order to get tax advantages
and boost their power to take ever larger profits at the expense of
people’s living standards and jobs.

The AFL leader also called on Alberta’s working people to
take up the call of the 1984 Canadian Labor Congress convention
to fight for shorter work hours with no loss in take home pay; fight
to put an end to sexual and racial discrimination and for equal pay
for work of equal value; and to demand immediate action from
the federal and provincial governments to put people back to

ately caused by governments to curb inflation and increase cor-
porate profits.””

GERMAN PRINTERS
WIN 38'2-HOUR WEEK

BONN — Print workers in the Federal Republic of Germany
following on the successful strike campaign of the metal workers
have won a 38'4-hour work week with no loss in take home pay.
The print union followed a strategy of rotating strikes to make this

ous areas closed during the period of the strike, April 12-July 8.

The unions also won better protection against the introduction
of tech change, with a clause providing for one to six months
notice, depending on a workers’ seniority, before transfers or
layoffs can take place as a result of rationalization measures
flowing from computerization.

work and ‘‘end the scourge of unemployment which was deliver-

important advance which saw West German newspapers in vari- |

Ontario Tories ram through —
bill to ban transit strike

TORONTO — The Ontario Tory government
launched its pre-emptive strike against the mem*
bers of Local 113 Amalgamated Transit Union,
Aug. 29, with the passage, in an emergency Legis-
lature session of a bill outlawing a planned strike
against the Toronto Transit Commission set for
Sept. 12: :

To enforce his government’s five per cent wage
controls and using the forthcoming visit of Pope
John Paul II to Toronto, Sept. 14, Ontario premier
William Davis led his majority Tory government
back into the house to ram the bill through with the
support of the other big-business party, David
Peterson’s Liberals.

The bill swept through the legislative process by
a vote of 76-15, with the New Democrats voting
against it, but refusing to obstruct its passage, to
allow caucus members to get back to the federal
election campaign as soon as possible.

_ Davis’ move didn’t surprise the transit workers
who had twice rejected the TTC’s crummy wage
offer. TTC management cowered behind the
provincial government’s five per cent ceiling in
funding municipal services, as its excuse for hold-
ing their wage offer to that inadequate level.

The obnoxious bill sets fines of $1,000 a day for
each member who engages in a strike, and $10,000
a day for the ATU if it defies the bill. It also ap-
points an arbitrator who will set the terms of the
wage package.

The TTC workers aren’t banking on any good
arbitration results, because when the Tories
enacted the five per cent guidelines, they also in-
cluded provisions binding arbitrators to adapt their
rulings to the government’s fiscal policies, thus
binding them to a five per cent recommendation.

This is the third time the government has strip-
ped transit workers in Toronto of the right to strike.
It is, however, the first time that right has been
taken away before the workers took any action.

Davis ordered ITC strikers back to work in 1974 —

after a 23-day strike, and again after four days 02
the picket line in 1978. :

As the Tribune went to press, local ATU officials
were refusing to comment on the legislation OF
what their response will be. While rank and file
members were angry at the government’s move thé
general reaction was to wait and see what the union
recommends. - 4

There were sporadic demonstration of protest a
individuals workers at some locations set up picket
lines outside their work stations during the debalé
in the legislature. . i

Only the Communist Party stripped away the
false issue advanced by the big-business parties

_and the TTC of the Pope’s visit to expose the trué

facts of the situation. ‘It is clear that
management and the provincial government acted
in concert to take away the workers’ right to strike
and to impose a cheap settlement’’, Ontario leade!
Gordon Massie said following the vote.

“The TTC workers’ demands are perfectly
legitimate, in fact modest’, Massie said. ‘“‘Fo!
Davis and the others to say a transit strike wo!
have caused an emergency situation is balderdash.

“The democratic right to strike is more impo!
tant than any temporary inconvenience that may
be caused. Transit workers in Vancouver havé
been on strike for more than three months without
causing any catastrophe.”

Defending the TTC workers, Massie said,
“They wouldn’t have been striking against thé
Pope, they are fighting for a decent contract af
they deserve the support of the entire labor mov
ment and the general public.

‘Instead of trampling on workers’ basic rights,
the Davis government could, and should havé
acted to settle the dispute by providing the transit
commission with enough funds to produce @
settlement that would have been satisfactory to the
workers.”’ :

A papal prayer for de

mocracy? .

This column is quick to admit it is neither Catholic or
Protestant. Given that however it is still hard for us to
understand all this clatter about transit workers inter-
fering with the visit of the Pope, by the act of pursuing
their legitimate economic interests. :

The Pope, after all, is a man who has the ‘‘full interests
of unions at heart’’. Didn’t he prove this to the entire
world when he backed Solidarnosc in Poland? And they
weren’t just interfering with a Papal visit, they were out
for political power. :

But beyond that is it really the workers who are
responsible for the threat to halt transportation in Metro?
Never mind that it happened to correspond with his
Holiness’ visit. wie

Let's just look at the facts.

The Ontario Government has limited its increase to
provincially-backed municipal services to five per cent.
Implicit in this limit is an unspoken instruction for muni-
cipalities not to accede to wage increases of more than
five per cent for municipal employees. Thus nego-
tiations, to begin with, are set in stone.

Workers have seen their purchasing power steadily
diminish, particularly public employees bound by wage

_controls. Even to suggest, for example, that a five per
cent wage increase compensates for a five per cent in-
crease in the cost of living, is sheer trickery. First of all
the cost of living index does not nearly refiect the real
increase in living costs. Secondly a large part of the
increase is intercepted by government taxes before it hits
the worker’s pocket. It is thus estimated that the real
purchasing power of the average Canadian worker has
shrunk by 12 per cent in the past eight years.

Grist For A Sermon

The transit workers face an arbitrary five per cent limit
on economic issues. Thus the so-called lifting of wage
controls by the Ontario Government is exposed as a
sham. When transit workers refused to accept the take it
or leave it edict of the Toronto Transit Commission, the
self same provincial government stripped away entirely
their right to collective bargaining and ‘imposed com-
pulsory arbitration.

Labor in action

4 » William Stewart

This is surely the kind of stuff the Pope would find grist
for a sermon. Certainly it is a new definition of “‘mass”’
rapid transit.

Premier Davis may feel just a little bit uncomfortable -

pontification about feeling bad ordering the transit work-
ers back to work, this being the third time he has done so
in the past decade. The only difference this time is he
sent them back to work before they even went out. The
Pope should surely find an injustice there that would
wrench a cry from his soul.

Even in Bill Bennett’s British Columbia, where work-
ers’ rights are hardly held in high esteem by the govern-
ment, the transit workers have been on strike for 60
days, and somehow the people of B.C. have survived. In
Montreal long strikes have occurred recently by transit
workers and life went on in that city. What is so special
about Toronto? Are our legs shorter? Do we have fewer
cars? Are we lazier? Just why is public transit such an
essential service that the government orders workers
back to work at the suggestion of a strike here, and not
elsewhere? :

Scapegoating Public Workers

The difference we would suggest lies in the attitude of
the provincial government and the Metro government to
their workers.

It is the same kind of intransigent anti-labor attitude
which is being shown by Mayor Dennis Flynn of Etobi-
coke who is prepared to let garbage pile up until it fills the
Borough of Etobicoke rather than bargain in good faith
with the union.

Once again public and para-public employees are
being used by governments as a scapegoat to erode the

real wages of all workers and drive up the profits of
employers. :
An item ina recent UE News, the organ of the United |
Electrical Workers Union, reports a survey made by the
Wall Street Journal on corporate profits in Canada. It
shows an increase of 64 per cent for 142 early reporting
companies for the second quarter of 1984. For 38 Cana-_
dian manufacturing companies surveyed, second qual-
ter profits zoomed up 149 per cent from last year and first _
half earnings rose 253 per cent. '

Prayer For Democracy

Not bad one would think. But not good enough yet to
suit Mr. Davis and his corporate backers, the World
Bank, the International Monetary Fund, or in a word the —
transnational corporations who are demanding more.
Cut back on the cost of social services and get more out
of your workers is the demand, or we won’t invest in
your country and in fact will take our holdings out. This”
is what lies behind the irresponsible attack on transit
workers, garbage workers, packinghouse workers,
building trades workers, all workers. a

It ill behooves leaders of the trade union movement, -
who are supposed to be the servants of their members, tO |
give in to this blackmail and to attack their membership —
in the public media when they show beiter sense. Such

-leaders do not deserve the support of working people. -

There is no future for the working class in Canada in
trying to make ‘honest deals’ with corporations and»
governments. Working people will have to pit their col-
lective strength against that of the employers and
governments and fight like hell to win what they deserve: —
And we will win some and loose some. But in the end we
have the potential power to force our adversaries to the
wall. anaes ;
We won’t be seeing the Pope when he comes to town”
but if you do, ask him to issue a prayer for democracy if
our fair city and province, and maybe a little hurrah for
the transit workers who believed in it.

And, oh yes, in the spirit of Christianity, ask him t0
forgive Premier Davis for his sins, not because he knows
not what he does, but because, we like the carpenter are
just plain charitable. :

ee

Swathi wk

 4&e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 7, 1984

‘ oe ee ee
Tee Ee ew Rist Fee ee