REVIEW

White (left foreground) marching in 1986 Labour Day parade in Toronto.

Bob White and the Auto Workers

HARD BARGAINS: My Life on the Line.
A biography of Canadian Auto Workers
president Bob White. McClelland and
Stewart, 1987. Available at Co-op Books.

This book is easy to read because it was
written for Bob White by June Callwood,
an experienced journalist, and edited by
another professional, Dinah Forbes, from
tape-recorded material.

As we are told, the book is not a history
of the union but a biography of Bob White
and his long association with the union.
Because the union leader relied mainly on
his memory, there may be some factual
errors, as he freely admits.

In September, 1985, after 25 years as a
staff member and Canadian director of the
United Automobile Workers, White was
elected president of the new Canadian Auto
Workers union (CAW), at its founding
convention. That convention broke the
direct affiliation link with the international
that went back to 1937.

When the break came, the UAW had
140,000 members in Canada, of whom
100,000 were in auto and auto parts. The
remainder were in agricultural implements,
communications and electronics, airlines
and various food industries.

The CAW president took out his first
membership card in the UA W in 1951 at the
age of 16 and rose steadily through the
ranks. According to this book, he was at
one time being considered as a candidate for
the position of international president.

Between 1979 and 1984, while White was
Canadian director, relations between the
international office-and the Canadian sec-
tion worsened, to the extent that a split

Public
Forum

November 20
7:30 p.m.
Speakers:
Emil Bjarnason,
Ben Swankey.
Centre for
Socialist Educa-
tion.

1726 E. Hast-
ings.

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 4, 1987

became inevitable, because the interna-
tional office refused to accept the fact that
the bargaining reality in Canada was differ-
ent from that in the U.S.

White gives a good picture of this conflict
but he seems to give credit for the estab-
lishment of a Canadian union to himself
and to Dennis McDermott .and George
Burt, both of whom preceded him as Cana-
dian director. There is no mention of the
consistent struggle of the left and progres-
sive forces in the union, over many years; to
achieve Canadian autonomy with the even-
tual goal of a Canadian union. However,
this a biography of Bob White, not a history
of the union,

Before the break, White and his close
associates argued in Detroit for Canadian
autonomy within the international but ran
into a stone wall. As the book points out,
the Canadian section was fighting the inter-
national leadership almost as much as the
big auto corporations.

The world-wide recession of the 1970s
rocked the North American auto industry
and shook the union. Whereas the UA W in
the U.S. agreed to concessions in wages,
benefits and working conditions, the Cana-
dian section bucked this trend and began to
bargain separately and got better settle-
ments. Because of the devaluation of the
Canadian dollar, together with government

support for health and other social services,

Canadian auto workers were working

cheaper that their American counterparts.

This meant, as White tells us, that American
bargaining patterns did not meet the needs
of the Canadian membership. The failure of
the international to recognize this fact and
its open interference in the Canadian bar-
gaining process made the split inevitable.

In balance, White notes that the interna-
tional finally agreed to a division of.assets,
albeit after a long fight. In addition, the
international did not contest the CAW’s
application to have 520 certifications trans-
ferred from the UAW to the new union.
Had there been a challenge, CAW would
have spent years organizing on a plant-by-
plant basis.

The book also deals with two major
defeats suffered by CAW, the drive to
organize the Michelin plants in Nova Scotia
and the struggle for certification after:a
number of mergers in the airline industry.
Labour activists will find this part of the
book informative and interesting.

When CAW recently agreed to accept
into affiliation 23,000 members of the New-
foundland Fishermen’s Union, affiliated to
the U.S.-based United Food and Commer-
cial Workers, it stirred up a storm inside the
Canadian Labour Congress and the union

was accused of violating the CLC constitu-

tion by raiding another affiliate.
White admits he doesn’t know where this
matter will end because the international,

which had refused to grant a reasonable
degree of autonomy to the Canadian local,
is NOW using every trick in the book to hold
on to the 23,000 members. “My hope,” he
says, “is that it will lead to some changes
within the CLC so that if another union
finds itself in a similar position, there is a
procedure to determine their own destiny
and protect them from the heavy-handed
tactics of their international union.”

’ The book closes with White speculating
about his own future. At age 52, he is one of
the most prominent trade union leaders in
the country and the national vice-president
of the New Democratic Party. He is a strong
public opponent of free trade with the U.S.
and opposes cruise missile testing in Can-
ada. He belongs to the “social justice”
school of leadership in the trade union
movement, urging a partnership between
the trade unions and the NDP and calling
on unions to be involved in community
affairs and big social issues at the local,
national and international levels, and not to
confine themselves only to collective bar-
gaining.

White strongly suggests that he will not
remain as CA W president until the compul-

sory retirement age of 65. Will he enter the -

political arena? The answer given is neither
yes nor no, but he does not rule out the
possibility.

Some may wonder if he will follow his
predecessor as Canadian director of the
UAW, Dennis McDermott, to become
president of the CLC. The answer to that
also lies in the future but we can expect to
hear and read a lot more about Bob White
in the months and years to come.

— Jack Phillips

November .
12-14 & 16-21 |8 pm

Vancouver East
Cultural Centre

Chernobyl
film to be
screened

British Columbians will have an
opportunity for the first time to see
Warning, Warning, the powerful
Soviet documentary on the Cher-
nobyl tragedy, when the B.C. Peace
Council holds the premier screening
of the film Nov. 10.

Produced by Soviet radio and tel-
evision, the film includes rare foot-
age of workers actually running
through the “hot” wreckage and
miners tunnelling under the build-
ings to prevent the radiation seeping -
into the ground water supply. It cov-
ers the. evacuation procedures, the
resettlement and the political conse-
quences of the tragedy, both inside
the Soviet Union and around the
world.

The film concludes with the pow-
erful message that a thermonuclear
war or even a conventional one,
given the large number of nuclear
power installations around the
world, would be disastrous for
humanity.

Tragically, one of the filmmakers,
producer-director Vladimir Shev-
chenko, paid with his life for his
efforts, having developed radiation
poisoning in the course of his work.

A work of particular interest to
peace activists, Warning, Warning
will be Shown Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m. at
Chalmer’s United Church at 12th -
Ave, and Hemlock St. in Van-
couver. Admission is free.

New Titles

HARD BARGAINS:
My Life on the Line.
By Bob White .

$26.95

(hardcover)

CANADA:
Not for Sale.
By Thomas Axworthy,
Shirley Carr, etc.
$6.95

(paperback)

FREE TRADE
‘and the Future of
Women’s Work.
By Marjorie Cohen
$7.95
(paperback)

Mail orders please include
50¢ per book.

1391 COMMERCIAL DRIVE
VANCOUVER, B.C. V5L_3X5

TELEPHONE 253-6442

Reservations 254-9578