Special to the Tribune

OTTAWA — “Corporate merger in the news-
Paper industry”, was the theme for the 1981 Con-
vention of the Canadian Federation of Printing
Trades Unions, (CFPTU), held here May 1-3.

-More than 55 delegates from the four unions in
the newspaper and graphic arts industry addressed
this theme and various ways to fight the growing

concentration of corporate ownership in the news- -

Paper industry.

The situation in‘Canada today is that only five

Cities — Calgary, Edmonton, St. John’s, Toronto
and Winnipeg — have more than one daily news-

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_ labor and public |

By YVES LAWLOR

SHERBROOKE — ‘When

‘you've spent 28 of your 50

months of union life on strike or
locked out, you gather experi-

ence very quickly’’, Onil Proulx ©

president of the union at CJRS
recently told a press.conference.

CJRS is part of the Mutuel
= Radio Network. Fourteen union
= members have been locked out

installed a billboard on the
busiest street in Sherbrooke
which informed the public of the
issues in the strike and published
the names of the companies
which still continued to advertise
on CJRS. The union also pub-
lished and distributed a leaflet on
the strike throughout the town.
Their militant work in explain-
ing the issues to the public
brought the CJRS workers a

paper. The fifth, Winnipeg only recently acquired -.
another daily the Sun, following the closure of the
Tribune. The Sun began as a-three day a week
Paper and last month went over to daily produc-
| _ tion, though it remains to be seen if it will survive.
Two chains, Thomson Newspapers Ltd., and .
Southam Inc., control 49% of the English language

4 since last November 21, only be-

i cause they wanted to hang onto
© the gains from their first contract
9 and especially because they
w y wanted to maintain their union.

They're up against a notorious

great deal of public and political
support in Sherbrooke. Elected
municipal and provincial politi-
cians and other organizations put
together a brief supporting the
workers and presented it to the

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dailies in Canada.

Delegates addressed this question from two per-
Spectives: first, protecting their members from
being thrown on the street; and secondly, protect:
ing “‘freedom of the press”’, ensufing that people
have access to information that is-to their benefit
and not that of the Thomsons and. Seuthams.

The closing of the Ottawa Journal and the Win-
nipeg Tribune, last year resulted in,the loss of 745
jobs. And when Thomson bought FP Publications
Ltd., he eliminated the FP news service and the
jobs of 11 seasoned reporters rather than use their
talents in any of the 37 dailies the Thomson chain
Owns.

The impact of technological changes i is equally
felt on all aspects of communications in addition to
the newspaper industry. Already in several places,
People can view Sears catalogues on their televi-
sion sets.and order their products directly, elim-
inating any need for the printed catalogues. Adver-

‘tising-is being stored and viewed.on television in

much the same way they appear in newspapers. .
The newspapers recognize they need to get in-
volved in these new forms of communication to
ensure they can control them. Torstar, (the To-
Tonto Star Corp.), Southam and Bell Canada have
all expressed interest in the Telidon system being

developed and produced by the Canadian:
Development Corporation; a federal crown ~

Corporation.
concer expressed at the conference was

hot to oppose the introduction of new technology
Per se, but to ensure that such technological pro-
gress directly benefits the public and the workers,
and isn’t solely for the benefit of the corporations.

The graphic arts industry was originally or-
8anized around craft lines. There used to be ap-
proximately 10 different unions, and it wasn’t un-
Usual to find 10 different unions in one shop.

This naturally created many problems — juris-

- dictional fights, eck of co-ordination of negotiating

demands, and organizing problems.

The logical answer to these problems would ap-
Pear to be merger of the unions into one industrial
Organization rather than a number of craft
Organizations competing against one another and
Weakening the workers’ bargaining clout. The de-

to the conference seemed to agree.

An emergency resolution on the merger crisis
between the Newspaper Guild and the Inter-
national Typographical Union, (ITU) urged in part

“that the federation (CFPTU), endorse new and

“Stronger initiatives by all affiliates of the federa-
tion, and all printing trades and newspaper unions

across Canada, towards implementing counter
Strategies ... including organic merger ...””

In the early 70s, three small craft unions merged.

to become the Graphic Arts International Union,
(GAIU). Today it is the largest union in the indus-
try. They had many differences to overcome, in-
Cluding financial ones, but in the end they suc-
‘ceeded, proving the benefits and wisdom of the
merger.

For the past several years, the Newspaper Guild

and the ITU have been discussing a merger of their
two organizations. They are the two largest unions
in the newspaper field and technological changes

fies, rapidly spe the separate jurisdictional

While many major points in the talks were ag- -

reed on, including the new union’s structure and

~ craft barriers and strengthening the logic for the

Tec! nological c ange is breaking down the oid

emergence of one industrial union in the printing
trades.

officers, the talks collapsed without.a merger tak-

ing place. From the workers’ viewpoint and their
interests, this failure was possibly the worst that
could have happened in the face of the growing.

trend to corporate mergers and newspaper clos-

ings:

In fact, Editor and Publisher, a magazine that
speaks for the newspaper owners and the pub-
lishers, in a recent issue gleefully called the term- -
ination of merger talks between the Guild and the
ITU after three unsuccessful years ‘‘a wise de-
cision.’

The question many workers in both unions are
asking is why the talks broke down and what can be
done about it? Delegates to the Ottawa conference
demanded to. know.

The ‘two international vice-presidents of the
ITU attending the meeting said they thought an
sagreement could still be worked out and that both
the Guild and ITU memberships would have to put

- more pressure on the merger committees.

Their opinion was that the Guild was at fault for
rejecting the last proposal without providing any
explanation: But neither ITU leader could offer
any positive suggestions on what to do now except
getting the membership to pressure the union lead-
ers, or about how to go about applying this pres-
sure.

William McLennan the Guild’s Canadian direc-
tor, said he felt the Newspaper Guild’s member-
ship wasn’t ready for a merger of the two unions at
this time, and that the Guild leadership wasn’t
promoting merger among the rank and file. _

To increase pressure on the two unions, the
CFPTU is circulating petitions to both unions for
local members to sign, demanding that unresolved
questions in the merger talks be dealt with at a
founding convention of the new union.

Much work remains to be done before the Guild -
convention in June and the ITU convention in
August to get the leaders of the two organizations

‘to consumate a merger.

anti-union boss, in Mutuel’s ex-
president M. Bazinet. He has
never accepted the organization
of the CJRS workers into the
Confederation of National Trade
Unions, (CSN-CNTU).

He has done everything he
could since the signing of the first
contract to try to break the
union. There have been seven
layoffs to intimidate the workers. :

Bazinet replaced them with
pro-management workers, and
has hired part-time, non-
organizable workers. During
negotiations he called the work-
ers together, completely by-pass-
ing the union, to present his final
offer, which contained a prop-
osal which would mean the death
of the union.

In effect he offered to replace
the salary scale with a minimum
and maximum wage.within which
the workers would be paid ac-
cording to the bosses’ estimation
of their ability, or how close they
are to his positions.

The workers turned this anti-
union offer down, and on Nov. 21
Bazinet decreed his lockout,
keeping the radio station on the
air with six anti-union workers:

‘Immediately, the day after
the lockout our organization was
functioning with both a financial
and battle plan which had been
carefully thought out. The 14
locked out workers from that day
on took part in the struggle and
that is what has kept us strong”’,
Proulx told reporters.

The locked out workers
launched a campaign to boycott
the station, which attracted a
great deal of publicity. The union

Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commis-
sion (CRTC).

The CSN’s National Federa-
tion of Communications Work-
ers filed its own complaint with
the CRTC, objecting to what it
called ‘‘electronic scabbing’’,
since CJRS is broadcasting
through pirate stations.

The locked out workers’ de-
termination has steeled them
against management’s blows.
Not a single injunction could be
used against them, and their
militant-struggle is already bring-
ing successes.

Bazinet has lost his job with
CJIRS because of the conflict with
the union. The station is showing
weekly -losses in revenue of
$50,000, while the union doesn’t
show any sign of weakness and
remains united.

Negotiations have resumed.
The union says it won't settle
until the seven fired workers, are
given their jobs back.

One important event in the
strike has been the breadth of
labor support to the workers.
Not only does the CJRS union
get the total support of the CSN,
but a common front in support of
the locked out workers has been
set up with the regional offices of
the Quebec Federation of Labor
and the Quebec Teachers Cent-
ral. This contains an important
lesson for the workers of
Quebec. Trade union unity ad-
vances everyone’s cause and al-
lows even small groups of work-

,ers like the CJRS workers to

mobilize successful struggles _

aonae corporations like Mutuel

10-month strike continues

ST. JEAN, Que. - — The multi-national pulp and
paper corporations, CIP and Quebec North Shore,
employing 1,500 and 1,700. respectively, and
Donahue Inc., which employs around 125 workers
have all used scabs at one time or another instead of
negotiating a new collective agreement.

This has resulted in the fact that some 2,500 bush
workers have been on strike for more than 10
months even though it’s been a few weeks since the
wood cutting season began.

The three companies, located respectively at La
Tuque, Baie Comeau and Girardville, near St.
Jean, aren’t.about to collapse from weakness. On
the contrary, even Donahue, which is mostly
owned by the Quebec Government had more than
doubled its sales by the end of December, 1980
compared to the same period in 1979.

CIP argues that getting rid of the piece-rate sys-

. tem isn’t an important issue among its workers. But
in fact, CIP refuses to go over to an hourly rate

_ because ‘‘it would reduce productivity’? — -in other

words cut profits.

At Donahue, the company by-passed a union
by threatening the strikers with closing the sawmill
unless they accepted management’s “‘final’’ offer.
The strikers at Donahue want parity with workers
at CIP.

As for Quebec North Shore (QNS), where a
settlement is closer at hand, a mediator proposed a
compromise which would allow for a gradual phas-
ing out of the piece-rate system. The union has
accepted the proposal but ous management hasn’t
totally approved.

The 600 strikers there, are also demanding that
the union members fired during the strike should be

‘ re-instated before the union goes back to work.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 22, 1981— Page 7