By KIMBALL CARIOU REGINA — Twelve hundred Sas- katchewan potash workers will be hit by the deepening economic crisis here — they will be laid off for two months this Summer. Blaming high inventory, a world-wide glut of potash, and a drop of total sales last year of 12% for the in- dustry, the government-owned Sas- Katchewan Potash Corporation an- nounced the layoffs, June 10. Mining will be shut down at Cory, Lanigan, Allan and Rocanville. _ The workers are among the first vic- lms of the new Tory government. Pre- mier Grant Devine made it clear after his election that he intended to restrict crown corporations’ activities. Rather than continuing the NDP policy of trying to find other work for laid-off employees, the Tories will simply lay them off “‘to make crown corporations more competi- tive with private enterprise”’. Saskatchewan workers have been hit hard by a string of layoffs this year, par- ucularly in the resource sector. Several Privately-owned potash companies have reduced their workforces and cut back Production recently. In the forest in- katchewan have intermittently laid off hundreds of workers. For example, Simpson Timber at Hudson Bay reduced the work week at its mill from five days to four in Feb- ruary, then closed all operations indefinitely on April 19, citing the ‘‘long- est and deepest depression in the North American forest products industry in 40 years.’ Some 190 workers were af- fected. Destroy Industrial Base On June 8, 23 coal miners were laid off for one month at Manalta Coal in Este- van. This followed the closure of Man- itoba and Saskatchewan Coal’s Bound- ary Dam mine in the same area earlier in the year, leaving 33 workers out of a job _ until the fall. And of course, the depre- ssed world uranium market led Eldorado to announce the closing of its operations in Uranium City, a move which will vir- tually destroy the town’s economic base. Layoffs have also hit other industries. Interprovincial Pipe and Steel (IPSCO) which has plants across western Canada, announced June 2 that 300 more em- ployees will be laid off from early June to mid-July, raising the total to over 580 this year. Of those affected 416 work in the steel and pipe divisions of IPSCO in Re- gina. IPSCO’s total work force is now 1,600, down from 2,300 last year. After having to strike 41 days for a new contract, the 76 production workers at the Northern Telecom plant in Regina returned to work May 5, only to find that many of them were to be laid off im- mediately, with more to follow. Pay Cut Following earlier layoffs, the 105 workers left at Westank-Willock in Re- gina were put on a ‘“‘work-sharing”’ plan June 1, resulting in an 8-10% pay cut. Altogether, 49 work-sharing projects have been approved for Saskatchewan, covering 1,185 workers. Federal officials claim to have prevented 535 layoffs with the plan. There is little optimism that the Sas- katchewan economy will begin picking up soon, or at all. The Tory government has put a freeze on hiring while it decides which programs and services to chop. Virtually every sector of the resource industry is in trouble. The Saskatchewan Department of Labor, which monitors all job vacancies in the province, reports that total vacancies were down to 1,610 in the first quarter of 1982, from 2,859 in Potash workers join Sask. jobless the first quarter of 1981, with a steep slide beginning the middle of last year. Hostile Government Faced with a hostile government, a deepening recession, and growing pres- sure from employers to give back gains made in previous contracts, the labor movement in Saskatchewan is in for a tough battle. One early sign of this has been the string of strikes in the construction in- dustry. More than 3,000 plumbers and pipefitters, carpenters, millwrights, in- sulators and electricians hit the bricks in May, the industry has been halted for over a month. Several other trades — ironworkers, operating engineers, and sheet metal workers — reached agree- ments with the Saskatchewan Con- struction Labor Relations Council for a wage and benefit package totalling $4.90 an hour. But the employers’ association has stalled talks with other unions, for example by demanding give-backs on subsistence payments to workers who choose to live away from campsites, and by seeking changes in. closed-shop clauses. The building trades workers, however, have held firm in demands for maintaining benefits and for higher dustry, lumber mills in northern’ Sas- wages. Be 4 : i ng LABOR NOTES 7 oe: PSAC CAMPAIGNS AGAINST CONTROLS _ OTTAWA — The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), Pledged June 3, to mobilize its 185,000 members in an all-out Campaign against any form of wage controls in the public sector. The Alliance’s 28-member National Board of Directors (NBD), adopted a firmly worded resolution setting the campaign as the union’s top priority outside of negotiating new contracts. — _ It will include: a revised collective bargaining strategy, bring- ing bargaining groups on the concilliation-strike route into a common strike deadline; a full on-the-job canvass of every local PSAC member; a lobby of all MPs; an extensive ad campaign; a Cross country speaking tour of the PSAC officers; protest Marches across Canada; and, co-operation with the CLC eco- nomic action program. NATIONALIZE BANKS STEELWORKERS URGE OTTAWA — For $8-billion, all five of Canada’s major char- tered banks could and should be bought by the government, the United Steelworkers told a parliamentary committee investigat- Ing bank profits, June 14. he union criticized the unlimited power the banks have in determinining which economic sectors will grow, and they | Stressed, ‘‘nothing could underline the disaster that passes for an €conomic policy in this country more clearly; nothing expresses the sickness of our financial system better than the coincidence of record profits for the banks and the threat of economic ruin for thousands of working Canadians.” a -1IWA refuses to give up contract to ‘save’ jobs ~ THURSO — This little Quebec town, about 50 kilometres north east of Ottawa stands on the brink of falling into a disaster area as a result of heavy layoffs in the furni- ture and pulp and paper industries which dominate its economic life. ‘The future of about 80 workers at the Radisson Furniture Co., which has recently passed into the trusteeship of the Banque Na- tional du Canada after declaring bankruptcy, hangs in the balance. The workers have been told by the bank that it will hire some of them back, to close down the operation and fill outstanding or- ders but they have to sign a waiver freeing the trustees of any contractual obligations signed by the former owners, Radisson Co., and the International Wood- workers of America, ([WA). In effect they're being asked, to re- turn to work without a contract, and to give up vacation benefits. Their union’s automatic re- sponse was a firm, unequivocal — No way! IWA Eastern Canada regional vice-president Jean- Marie Bedard told the Tribune, in an. interview in Toronto that the union is advising its workers at Radisson not to sign the forms. He said the union is alerting the Quebec government, the Thurso city council and the mayor, and is calling on the Quebec Federation of Labor for support. The Radisson bankruptcy af- fects a total of 600 workers throughout Quebec and the unions involved, the IWA, the Confederation of National Trade Unions, the Confederation of Democratic Trade Unions and the Upholsterers Union were slated to meet, June 15 in Mon- treal to hammer out a uniform fightback policy. The job situation in Thurso, is further complicated by the recent announcement by Thurso Pulp and Paper Co., that it is laying off its entire workforce indefinitely after July 16. Bedard said the workers ex- pect to be laid off til mid-winter and even as late as March 1983. He added that since these two plants are among the main indus- tries in town, the impact of these corporate decisions ‘‘could al- most turn Thurso into a disaster area, if not a ghost town.” The IWA leader says the Quebec government should take over Radisson Furniture, rather than see it move the remaining jobs out of Thurso and dealing the community such a serious blow. ‘‘The bank and the bankrupt company have a moral and a so- cial responsibility to that town’’, Bédard said. ‘‘They just can’t be allowed to desert the place when they've milked as much profit out of the workers as they could. It’s almost like flying away by night, and it’s unacceptable. Hamilton transit workers strike to save COLA By LIZ ROWLEY HAMILTON — Seven hundred and fifty angry mem- t's of Hamilton’s Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Walked out on strike June 11, following a breakdown in Mediation talks in which regional government had re- fused to even consider a wage increase, and was propos- ae cut back the cost of living adjustment (COLA), by 0. The union, which had asked for a 2% wage increase in the first year and a further 2% in the second year of a ‘Wo-year agreement, with an additional 2% for licensed trades, was not proposing to touch the COLA formula Which stands now at one cent for each .25 rise In the Consumer price index, (CPI). The region’s proposal is to cut the COLA by 20% to 30 and this is the crucial point to ATU members whose Picket signs read: ‘COLA is everything’. Even though Hamiltonians are walking or cycling around town these days, the majority of the community stand behind the union and its demands. The full page ad printed in the local press by transit management didn’t go down very well with Hamilton’s 60,000 Steelworker families, many of whom just came out of a long but victorious strike against the giant Stelco chain. Nor did it go down well with electrical workers, 300 of whom recently settled with the multi-national Wabco Inc., following an arduous nine-month strike struggle. ATU Local 107 members, who’ ve been working with- out a contract since March 31, initially gave their nego- tiating committee a 93% strike mandate, but then on June 4, when astrike was at the top of the agenda, the mandate rose to 98%, showing that union membership is not only angry but is united in its determination to win a fair contract and a living wage. Concerned about the ability of senior citizens to rely on public transportation for medical attention, Local 107 president Bob Jaggard announced last week that the union will provide transportation to seniors who have medical or doctor’s appointments. Neither the region, nor its negotiating committee had any comment. June 14, the union marched on regional council’s regu- lar meeting, but received neither welcome nor answers ‘to their questions or demands. The union, meanwhile, is planning to step up its pressure on council by organizing a mass march and rally at the July 6 meeting of the Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Council. The Hamilton and District Labor Council and its af- filiates have been asked to join with the transit strikers in this rally, in an effort to bring all of labor’s muscle to bear on a government that is penalizing a whole community with its efforts to extract concessions from the transit workers. ——— PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 25, 1982—Page 3