TTA | ELLE J iA EDITORIAL Unity can bring victory An escalating spate of strikes has made for a battle-hardened labour move- ment but even the staunchest veterans are left a little breathless by the crusade of government and business to, if not smash, at least hog-tie trade unions. The neo-conservative agenda replaces the old “soft-sell” with the hard stick that workers have been receiving on the picket line. Any worker on strike today takes on not only his employer, but runs the gauntlet of anti-labour govern- ments, the media, the police and the courts. No union, no matter how large or prestigious, can single-handedly take on such a line-up. Fortunately this is a lesson labour is learning, and when learned well, victories can be won. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is a leader in this regard: The much maligned CUPW has battled through a decade of bruising strikes, many of them decided by law, in its struggle for justice for its members, and as front line fighters to maintain the post office as a public service. Through repeated overtures to postal users and to the rest of the labour movement — overtures which were sometimes rebuked — CUPW has won the respect of both labour and the public. Now once again Canada Post’s inside workers have been forced onto centre Stage and never before has the corporate-state partnership confronting them looked so vicious. Tearing a page out of the union-busting bible of Thatcher, postal stations have been turned into barbed-wire fortresses, strikebreakers have been herded in their thousands and the police are poised to attack. It is a showdown which promises to be even bloodier than the limited engagement with the letter carriers in June. The magnitude of the fight is different because the issues differ. The letter carriers went out to maintain the status quo; CUPW is the major impediment to the Mulroney government's plans for privatization, and the Tories are prepared to annihilate the union to do it. But CUPW also has power. As never before, the labour movement has responded to a call for united action and union centrals have issued bulletins outlining emergency plans to support the strikers. A vast public relations campaign by the union on the issues has boosted its prestige in the public eye. Also in the postal workers’ favour is an increasingly discredited federal government — an outfit which stoops to the all-time moral low of using the _ desperation it has created among the unemployed to turn them into scabs. — Everyone has a stake in the outcome of this struggle. CUPW members have placed themselves on the line to end the economic and social vandalism of privatization. All working people should be on the line with them. AFP EDLOPL Hi AO FEF # FARSI, < tl te a AS OR Vy ae Q NS < a - RON SCAN ARE NAME a MeN. Nurs le a a FIRIBONE EDITOR Sean Griffin ASSISTANT EDITOR Dan Keeton BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Proniuk GRAPHICS Angela Kenyon Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada @ $16 one year @ $10 six months @ Foreign @ $25 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 franchises to the private sector. carriers. The article states that Bradshaw, who | will visit other councils who have opposed *re all aware of the tough stance Canada Post corporation has adopted in dealing with its unions — most recently, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers whose members are now on rotating strike and who faced the employers’ intransigence when Canada Post broke off talks last ~week. The union, which offered concessions on its positions regarding hours of work and pay, was rebuffed because CUPW would not drop its opposition to the postal In case you thought the Crown corpora- tion’s tough guy attitude stopped with its workers, consider this item we picked up from a community paper in the Lower Mainland. It concerns Canada Post’s west- ern spokesman Mike Bradshaw and Coqui- Coquitlam council, along the lines of Vancouver city council and other area municipalities, has voted to oppose the installation of Superboxes in new subdivi- sions. The Superboxes are Canada Post’s way of. doing away with door-to-door deliv- ery at inconvenience to residential mail | users and ata long-term cost of jobs to letter According to the article, the less-than- diplomatic Bradshaw told the Coquitlam council during a recent meeting, “You may very well choose to rethink your resolu- tion.” He went to suggest that if the district continued to oppose Superboxes, residents in newly developed districts will be forced to pick up their mail from the even less conve- nient and less attractive — Bradshaw’s phrasing — “green” boxes used for rural People and Issues Superboxes, suggested that Coquitlam could always continue to oppose the boxes “for political reasons” while helping Can- ada Post by instructing their civic staffs to | “co-operate” with the installation of the new boxes. Coquitlam council subsequently voted to have Bradshaw put the options in writing. But consider the question an alderman put to Bradshaw, and the Canada Post representative’s reply: “You're saying that we in fact have no options.” “Tt doesn’t exist, sir.” When it comes to bashing, Canada Post doesn’t stop at its workers. * * * VW: have a note from Julius Fisher of Slim Evans Records and Tapes thanking us for the coverage of the Jobs Not Charity tour of B.C. in the summer while pointing out some errors and omissions in the photo coverage of the Vancouver con- cert carried in our Sept. 16 issue. Julius says that the $500 cheque he’s pic- tured presenting of Evert Hoogers of the Vancouver and District Labour Council’s strike support committee was raised from sales of the Hold the Fort tape of labour songs, not from the concert proceeds as was written. He notes that the New Westminster and Vancouver concerts raised close to $1,400 for the Vancouver Unemployed Action Centre and End Legislated Poverty. Julius also points out that he’s smiling in the photo because he managed to produce a 19-song tape — the aforementioned Hold the Fort — ”without (labour council secre- tary) Frank Kennedy ‘singing’ on any of the songs.” We'll let Julius and Frank sort that one out. He also passes on thanks to B.C. Federa- tion of Labour and federation secretary Cliff Andstein for supporting the concert, and Don Janzen from the International Wood- workers, Local 1-217 and the People’s Co-op Bookstore for the outstanding sales of Hold the Fort. * * * hile on the topic of working-class cul- ture, we have a note from the Van- couver Art Gallery concerning its current display, Industrial Images, Industrial Imagi- nation. Complementing the display of art works depicting Canadian artists’ impressions of industrialization from 1900 to 1950 will be two special performances by the Vancouver Folk Song Society and the Vancouver Indus- trial Writers Union. The society includes among its members Phil Thomas, who has unearthed so many of British Columbia’s historical “working” songs, and its members have performed at several trade union and progressive events. Their contributions of songs and poetry written about and by working people will be aired on Sunday, Oct. 18 and Sunday, Nov. 1, each event beginning at 2 p.m. The per- formances are included in the cost of admis- sion to the gallery. The display itself runs until Nov. 8. Among the works featured is the noted painting on Vancouver waterfront union organizing by labour cartoonist and artist — Fraser Wilson. | * * * eath is always shocking when it comes suddenly and early, so we were both shocked and saddened to hear of the pass- ing of Stan Walsh last week. Stan was only 66 when a heart attack felled him on Sept. 16. _ Stan spent the lion’s share of his working life — 33 years — at Cominco in Trail where he was active member of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, until that union was raided and eventually absorbed by the United Steelworkers of America. He later moved to Vancouver and worked in the building trades as a member of the Car- penters Union before returning to his Cas- tlegar home. Experiences as a trade unionist and in the Canadian Air Force during World War II sharpened Stan’s commitment to both the trade union and peace struggles. He was an active member of the Trail Peace Coun- cil from the early 1950s, maintaining a committment to disarmament until his death, and a member of the Canadian Legion. He also joined the Communist Party shortly after the war and was a member at the time of his passing. British Columbia CP leader Maurice Rush sent a telegram to the party club in Trail stating, “his passing will be loss to the people of Trail, to the labour movement and the CP.” A memorial was held on Sept. 23. ee 4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 7, 1987