| “TAL WHOLESALE

Seagram's workers

- Never
Stance,

2

;

'
j

UNION -——

Afolt cto.

OCKED
T

... the union

has changed but the company has
modified its anti-labor

ILLEGAL LOCKOUT ENTERS TWELFTH MONTH

Boycott of Seagram's escalated

A campaign has been launched
to escalate the consumer boycott of
Seagram’s products following a
meeting in Winnipeg of repre-
sentatives of four provincial
federations of labor.

Representatives from the
Alberta, British Columbia, Saskat-
chewan and Manitoba labor
federations met earlier this month
to discuss stepping up the boycott
in support of the 240 workers at
Seagram’s New Westminster
operation who have been illegally
locked out since February last
year.

Seagram’s has defied both a
Labor Relations Board order anda
Supreme Court ruling in locking
out the workers, members of Local
604 of the Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union.

Although Seagram’s ,has long
been the scene of bitter labor
relations, the most recent dispute
was sparked by the decision of the
company to close its bottling plant
in New Westminster throwing 80
employees out of work.

Workers were informed. at 2 p.m.
February 26 that the bottling plant
would be closed and were only
given until 2:30 p.m. to get out of
the plant.

The union set up a picket line in
protest and appealed to the Labor
Relations Board which, in turn
declared that the dismissal of
employeés constituted an illegal
lockout and ordered their rein-
statement.

The Supreme Court of B.C. also
ordered reinstatement following
Seagram’s defiance of the Labor
Relations Board ruling.

The company has not yet com-
plied however, and has spurned
any talks with the union since
before the lockout.

Earlier, in 1973, Seagram’s had
provoked a lengthy strike with the
union then holding the cer-
tification, Local 69 of the Distillery
Workers. Because of active op-
position to the strike from. the
union’s international office, the
workers decertified and applied to
the Retail, Wholesale Union which
won the certification.

An effective boycott of
Seagram’s products as well as
widespread labor support helped
the local win the strike.

The renewed boycott, launched
following the failure of Seagram’s
to comply with reinstatement
orders, has been under way in
Ontario and several states in the
US.

A hot declaration coupled with
the refusal of the Liquor Control
Board under the NDP government
to handle Seagram’s products has
kept most of the company’s liquor
out of this province with the ex-
ception of products purchased by
the Board prior to the boycott.

Unionists have expressed con-
cern, however, with a renewed
company drive to overcome the
boycott.

Local 604 president Keith Sheedy

told the Tribune this week that two
shipments of Seagram’s products
have come into the port of Van-
couver although they are being
held there by longshoremen in

compliance with the B.C.
Federation of Labor’s hot
declaration.

Sheedy also pointed out that the
Liquor Control Board, currently
revamping its. staff, has hired
three former Seagram’s super-
visors as operations managers.

He emphasized, however, that

the boycott so far has been quite
effective — Seagram’s
acknowledged considerable loss of
sales in its annual report — and
added, ‘‘the escalation of the
boycott is intended to make it even
more effective.”

Seagram’s markets various
products including those under its
own name as well as Captain
Morgan Rum, Bolshoi. Vodka,
Leroux liquers and various liquors
under the Adams, Gordon’s and
Myers labels.

By MIKE PHILLIPS
TORONTO — _ Collective

_ bargaining in the province of

Ontario took another beating at the
nds of the Tory government last

_ Week as Metro Toronto’s 8,800

reiting high school teachers
x Urned to work under the gun of
Mpulsory arbitration.

Bill 1, the enabling legislation

forcing the teachers back into the

fiosstoom January 19 was given
aah eading late in the evening of
Tori lary 18 with the Liberals and
1€s voting as a block in favor of

© legislation.

: ng, did support it in its

ea
ac Stages and fought merely to
last It to provide for the board’s
offer as the minimum set-

@) .
Ment in further negotiations.

ane ADP also wanted the bill
Would So that no arbitrator
throughor appointed. Its position
teacher out the debate was that the
but thee pond return to school
tinue as aaa would con-

towne le8islation calls for a return
arbitrat and the appointment of an
Deals Or, Ontario Court of Ap-

st peeuce Charles Dubbin, who
Within a a report on a settlement
bitrator? days. However the ar-
Subject ‘a final award is. still
the f 0 review and approval by

€ ’
cutting Bake ments wage-

the achers returned en masse to

facing: srooms under protest,

legishgty nities for defiance of the

tearh lon of a $500 fine per

per q T per day and a $10,000 fine
ay to the federation.

none teachers vowed that
Classes hey would return to
retain th hey would, in order to
pidker: €ir self respect, continue
their schools in the

Clothing » and wear casual
r

€ached

until a fair settlement is

teachers have lost the
professional

re es,
maining 19

development days which they have
coming to them. In addition it has
been suggested by the premier in
particular that upon return to the
classroom, the school day will have
to be lengthened and that-teachers
would be expected to make up the
extra time without overtime
payment.
The teachers hit the picket lines
in November, asking for a 43.9%
increase over two years with a
cost-of-living clause. When the
board made its last offer of 24.6%

- jna one-year pact a partial cost-of-

living allowance and a lump sum
payment of $600 per teacher, the
teachers rejected it by a margin of
three to one.

Observers say that the wounds
opened up in the course of the
province’s longest teachers’ strike
will take a long time to heal. As in
the recent postal strike, the
teachers were exposed to a vicious
and persistent media attack as the
Toronto dailies worked overtime to
whip up public resentment against

m. :
a an interview with the Tribune
prior to the passing | of the
legislation, teachers chief
negotiator Douglas Dinsmore said
that the media, attempted to
“smear the seme in a cam-

‘on which he called ‘‘vicious.
P egayeliel his criticism at the
editorial writers and news rewrite
people for giving most of the news
coverage and editorial opinion an
anti-teacher bias. He called the
coverage of the strike by the two
major dailies “not ae even

bling objectivity.”
neeles Seeditied that the press
would have to take a large part of
the responsibility for the
disastrous situation which will
exist inside the school system asa
result of the demoralization of the
teachers. He said “‘the system is In
for a rough time,” and that the
teachers felt “bitter” that their
side of the question during the
strike had been left out. ;

The Communist Party, in a

statement issued following the

passage of the

legislation:

Ont. teachers forced back

denounced the back-to-work order,
saying that it “has delivered the
coup de grace to the collective
bargaining process as we have
known it in Ontario.”

The statement pointed out that
the teachers had accepted the
mediator’s report and declared:
“This most reasonable approach of
the teachers was rejected by the
school boards who ganged up with
the anti-inflation board to rip the
guts out of the teachers’ demands,
turning what remained of the
collective bargaining process into
a parody.

“For its part, the Communist
Party reaffirms its full support for
the legitimate demands of the
teachers, for an end to the anti-
inflation board and all other anti-
labor laws in the land,’’ the
statement said.

DERA grant refusal
protested to council

In what can only be described as
apetty vendetta, a joint meeting of
Vancouver city council’s com-
munity services and finance
committees voted 4-2 to deny the
Downtown Eastside Residents’
Association any city financing for
the upcoming year.

Only COPE alderman” Harry
Rankin and independent Darlene
Marzari voted in favor of the social
planning department’s recom-
mendation that DERA be given
$19,000 for its 1976 operations.

TEAM aldermen Jack Volrich
and Fritz Bowers joined forces
with Ed Sweeney and Warnett
Kennedy of the NPA to block the
grant.

DERA has been a very vocal
organization since its inception in

‘August of 1973, and has con-

sistently come into conflict with
city council over questions of
protection for. residents in skid
road rooming houses, and the
enforcement of city health and fire
bylaws which more often than not
seem to not apply to residents of
the downtown eastside.

DERA president Bruce Eriksen
said that his group plans to appeal
to council as a whole to reverse the
decision made in the joint meeting.
He said that a total of eight
aldermen will have to vote in favor
of the grant for it to pass.

“We’re going to go back to
council and ask them to judge this
grant on the basis of what we do
and not on the basis of their opinion
of my personality.

“They are voting on the basis of
their own personal feelings about
the leaders of the organization, not
on the basis of whether or not we
provide a good service.”

Eriksen said -that council has
moved on a number of issues that
DERA raised. “‘They agreed with
us on the fire bylaw, on the health
bylaw and on other matters that
benefited all of the citizens of this
city. The only reason we have to
use abrasive tactics with these
guys (council) is that they pass
bylaws and then make special
arrangements for their friends to
get around them.”

He cited the case of one alder-
man who was acting as legal rep-
resentative for a skid road hotel
while sitting in judgment of that
hotel as an alderman.

Eriksen said -that Mayor
Phillips’ claim that DERA uses
destructive tactics such as the
invasion of a provincial cabinet
meeting two weeks ago was simply
a “red herring.”

“Both of the daily papers took
great pains to show that DERA
was not associated with the in-
vasion of the cabinet meeting,” he
said. ‘What is bothering Mr.
Phillips is that he doesn’t like us
referring to him as the mayor and
his cohorts. He doesn’t like us
pointing out the thousands of
dollars he’s spent on the Orpheum
Theatre and the Granville Mall
while neglecting the downtown
eastside.”

Eriksen said that support for
DERA is coming in from
throughout the city, but more
particularly from organizations
and individuals who work in the
downtown eastside area. He urged
members of the public to write
letters of protest to council,
demanding that the DERA grant
be reinstated.

—

BEL? ROTEST
Bveen E

epomat

izabe

RALLY

Ot Sec,

ae i

Bennett Buggy, 1976 ... they may not allow him on the freeway but for this protester at last Sunday’s rally

in Surrey, hitching the dogs up may be the only way he can continue using his truck in the face of massive

increases in auto insurance.

—Sean Griffin photo

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 30, 1976—Page 3