Westinghouse’s decentralization plans cost Hamilton 5,400 jobs By ED McDONALD Ontario Organizer, Communist Party of Canada The recent announcement by Westinghouse Canada Ltd., that it would be phasing out 700 jobs in its switch gear operation in Hamilton is another example of . the callousness of multi-national corporations. In a letter to the members of United Electrical workers Locals 504 and 555, whose jobs are on the line, the corporation spoke in terms of decentralizing the switch gear and control operation into other Canadian facilities. Similar *“decentralizing”’ plans in the past have reduced the work force from a high of 6,500 in the mid-50s to . the current 1,800 Westinghouse workers in Hamilton. ‘Thousands of jobs in the man- ufacture of steam turbines and water wheel generators have been ““decentralized’’ to the USA while thousands more jobs in the manufacturing of small and major appliances have been shipped overseas. The call by the UE on the fed- eral government demanding legis- lation to curb the power of the multi-nationals is to be com- mended. The Hamilton Westinghouse workers’ response indicates the lessons they have learned over the past 20 years — that there is no way to reconcile the interests of the Hamilton community: workers, small businessmen, professionals, and intellectuals, — with the interests of the U.S.- owned multi-national, Westing- house. Beyond Hamilton, the lesson to working people and all democrats is becoming clearer every day. What’s happening at Westing- house is either happening, or is possible at the operations of any other multi-national operating in Canada. Neither the resource nor manufacturing industries are excluded from this process. In 1972, Inco Metals Ltd., Sud- bury, employed 18,000 working people. Today, the determined members of Local 6500 United Steelworkers enter their seventh month on the picket line number- ing some 11,700. Across Ontario, where most of the auto industry in Canada is concentrated, there has been a loss of some 20,000 jobs to the cities and towns hosting the auto and auto parts industries. Exam- ples of the vicious devastation to the Canadian standard of living by such multi-national corporate de- cisions, are endless. With more than 60% of the elec- DARTMOUTH COUNCIL WARNED Give back strike right or accept consequences HALIFAX — The Dartmouth City Council was wamed March 14 to rescind a recent motion cal- ling for the banning of the right to Strike in so-called essential ser- vices or face an angry protest by labor. The city council motion also called on the Nova Scotia government to adopt such anti-union legislation. Dart- mouth’s stand came only two weeks after provincial attorney- general Harry Howe proposed compulsory arbitration laws be- fore the Nova Scotia Law Socie- ty. - Ina press release March 14, the Halifax-Dartmouth and District Labor Council announced plans to march on City Hall, March 20, to deliver a brief to the council outlining why the council should rescind its anti-labor call. Attorney-General Howe’s re- marks before the law society were immediately attacked by the Nova Scotia Federation of Labor and even by members of his own . Tory government. Premier John Buchannan felt compelled to say that Howe’s remarks were the cabinet minister’s personal views and not those of the government of Nova Scotia. Rick Clarke, vice-president of the local labor council said, as a Dartmouth resident he was “flabbergasted"’, and ‘‘very dis- turbed that city council would make such a stupid move. The right to strike is an essen- tial bargaining tool’”’, Clarke said, “and council should stick to its own business of running the city and not labor relations.” . The March 20 protest was also going to condemn a Dartmouth Social Services Department pro- gram threatening to disqualify so- cial assistance recipients. Clarke charged the department’s ap- proach ‘‘almost relates to the work gangs ofthe 30s.” He said the department’s program is geared to disqualify recipients who re- fuse to take whatever job the department finds for them and de- cides they are capable of perform- ing. “Most of the jobs offered are minimum wage jobs’’, Clarke said, ‘‘and the majority of reci- pients are single parent families who would no longer be able to pay for childcare services. “Dartmouth is trying to lead the-country in controlling labor’’, the Halifax labor leader charged. “Dartmouth is attacking the un- employed not unemployment — the same approach being used by the federal government.”’ Plans for the March 20 de- monstration also included par- ticipation by the Nova Scotia Federation of Labor, other local labor organizations, and the Halifax Coalition for Full Employment. The March 14 labor council meeting singled out the four Dartmouth aldermen who op- posed the anti-labor motion. De- legates predicted their record would be remembered favorably . by the labor council for endorsa- tion in the next municipal ballot. The remaining aldermen seeking re-election will be on their own. Plans were also announced to repeat last year’s successful May Day Parade. It was decided to stage the event again with plan- ning meetings to begin im- mediately between last year’s sponsors the Noya Scotia Federa- tion of Labor, the Halifax Dart- mouth Labor Council and the Halifax Full Employment Coali- tion. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 30, 1979—Page 4 trical industry dominated by for- eign ownership, there can’t or will never be any meaningful control over such corporations short of their take-over and operation by the public. This requires basic structural reforms through public owner- ship of the U.S. branch plants in Canada. Only through such Canadian ownership, under demoeratic control, in the long term can the crisis facing the 700 Westinghouse workers in Hamil- ton, along with countless thousands more’ workers throughout the country, be coped with. Also, government legislation is immediately called for, making it mandatory that companies con- sult the unions they bargain with at least a year before decisions ‘regarding layoffs, moving plants, and plant closures are made. Such legislation must be combined with mandatory severance pay by the employer for the laid-off workers for at least one full year after the lay off. The Tory government in Queen’s Park must move to stop The strike of 11,700 Sudbury miners and smeltermen has now entered its seventh month. The — insulting offer of the New York- based International Nickel Com- pany that sparked the solid strike last September was meant to ter- rorize its employees and force them to capitulate. Instead they solidarized their ranks and dug in for a long seige which has drawn both Canadian and world-wide admiration and support. The whole community of Sudbury has become transformed into a for- tress of resistance to this multi- national corporate octopus. The Sudbury strike developed ‘on the background of an all but - brilliant strategy in basic steel negotiations last summer and fall. That strategy allowed each com- pany to take on its employees without any industry-wide coor- dination of bargaining by the international union. Indeed the strategy appeared to be a con- scious and defeatist approach based on a class collaborationist “‘no strike’’ policy. When it came to Inco’s turn to negotiate, the union even allowed a situation to develop where the Port Colborne refinery workers were allowed to break ranks with Sudbury in spite of the traditional joint bargaining procedure of former years. The Sudbury workers’ decision to strike met with opposition from top leaders of the international union in Canada. Spokesmen for the New Democratic Party, representing Sudbury in the Ontario Legisla- ture and House of Commons at Ottawa, took a stand in support of the strikers. But right-wingers, like former Ont. NDP leader Stephen Lewis, condemned the strike as ‘‘sheer lunacy.’’ Boon to Inco It came as no surprise, there- fore, that some union leaders y ya Lat Over 1,800 striking Westinghouse workers filled Hamilton Place last deal August to hear their union’s assessment of the latest company offer. With the new won contract still in effect, Westinghouse has handed 700 workers a letter warning them of a possible permanent layoff. the lay-offs of the 700 Westing- house workers. Failure by the corporation to agree, demands the government take over the multi-national in the public in- terest. : The struggles of the Westin- ghouse workers and their union to save their jobs, deserves the unqualified support of the or- would be only too happy to achieve a quick settlement with- out a strike at Thompson, Man- itoba, this month. Likewise there were sure to be others who would hesitate, in view of the continued strike at Sudbury. After all, it was the same company and the same union. Any concessions that Inco was prepared to make, would be for the purpose of breaking union solidarity. with the Sudbury workers. By the same token any separate contract at Thompson could be expected to prolong the strike at Sudbury. In the long run, the absence of inter-union solidar- ity in this case would be a boon to Inco to the detriment of all its employees. This became evident. im- mediately following - the Thompson settlement when On- tario’s Tory Labor Minister, Robert Elgie, offered to appoint a disputes. advisory commission to recommend proposals for an end to the Sudbury strike. This prop- osal for strike-breaking collabora- tion was identical with that of- fered in the Fleck Manufacturing strike at Centralia, Ontario, last summer and, likewise, in the con- tinuing strike at Boise-Cascade in Kenora and Fort Frances, On- tario. In both these cases the out- come of acceptance would have meant a defeat for the union. In the latter case such a commission was set up and former NDP On- tario leader Stephen Lewis was a member of a two-man panel that recommended compulsory arbit- ration. Needless to say the union turned that down. In Sudbury, Local 6500 presi- dent Dave Patterson said accept- ing Elgie’s March 12 proposal would make a mockery of the 15 months of contract talks the union has engaged in with Inco. ‘“‘Our members”’ he said, ‘‘know it was Elgie who told us to accept the Inco strikers united — in face of adversity — ganized working class and all forces committed to policies of economic expansion for the well being of the Canadian people. Ed McDonald, was a Westin- ghouse worker for 14 years, and for six years a national repre- sentative of the United Electrical Radio and Machine workers, UE. four-cent offer back in Septem- ber.”’ Offer Unacceptable _ There are no words strong enough to condemn this _per- fidious alliance of corporations like Inco, governments like the Ontario Tory administration, other kept politicians in the ser- vice of the. corporations and, those who profess to be friends of labor but end up by siding with management against the workers. | According to press reports, an Inco official is reported saying the company is now willing to offer its Sudbury employees a wage and ~ benefit package comparable to that accepted by workers in the basic steel industry last July. But union Officials are quoted as say- ing the offer is unacceptable. After seven months on the pic- ketline during one of the coldest winters in our history, and with all the various efforts made during this time to undermine the work- ers’ solidarity and break the strike, one has to admire the courage and fortitude of the Sud- bury miners and smeltermen. Their position has never been unreasonable — as was surrep- ticiously implied by Prime Minis- ter Trudeau while answer a ques- tion put to him by John Rod- riguez, NDP MP for Nickel Belt, in the House of Commons. As the Tribune has emphasized in its pages from the first day of ‘the Sudbury strike last Sep- tember, Inco’s intransigence can be broken and, a decent contract that the Sudbury miners and smeltermen and their families can live with, can be won. What it takes to achieve that is continued and strengthened solidarity and all-out support for these heroic men and women workers, who at this stage of the struggle are not — likely to accept any wooden nic-' __ kels from this arrogant employer.