Labour Buoyed by success in Regina’s Oct. 26 Civic election — labour and NDP-backed Doug Archer won the mayoralty; six of 10 -Council seats won by candidates supported by the labour council — and by growing Opposition to the trade deal sellout, over 500 delegates to the Saskatchewan Feder- ation of Labour’s 33rd convention met in Regina Oct. 26-29. They emerged strongly united around the meeting’s theme: “Let’s Keep Canada; Let’s Win Back Saskat- Chewan.” For the first time in 10 years, the SFL has a new president: Barb Byers of the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union. Byers clinched her victory over former Steelworker Wayne Skrypnyk with a rousing election speech blasting the Tory agenda for the province. In her acceptance speech, Byers asked the support of every delegate to make the SFL “a fighting force like you wouldn’t, you’re not going to, believe”. She stressed the need for labour to campaign aggres- sively to win struggles which have dragged on for years, including strikes by members of the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union at the Nipawin Co-op, and by members of the Service Employees Inter- national Union at the Swift Current Legion. Skrypnyk echoed Byers’ call for unity, and although questions remain about the federation’s relationship to the NDP, it seems the SFL is more united than it has been for many years. It was clear on the convention floor that delegates wanted to . set aside debates over the NDP in order to concentrate on defeating the Tories in Ottawa and then in Regina. Byers is expected to give a strong lead, particularly in strengthening the SFL’s recent efforts to build local coalitions around popular demands. A resolution calling on trade unionists to help elect NDP candidates on Nov. 21 was one which passed without dissent. Many others deait with improving labour legislation, widely expected to be a prime target of the Devine government next year. Several others called for expanding BARB BYERS. ... dent. elected SFL presi- SFL militance seen in Byers’ election labour’s commitment to movements such as the Saskatchewan Coalition for Social Justice, and for another day of protest similar to the huge 1987 rally in Regina. For the first time in several years, dele- gates voted on peace resolutions, includ- ing an endorsement of the Canadian Peace Pledge Campaign. About 60 delegates and supporters of the Regina Coalition for Peace and Disarmament staged a noon- hour rally at the office of Regina-Wascana Tory candidate Larry Schneider, drawing attention to the Mulroney government’s anti-peace policies. A resolution submitted by RWDSU expressed the SFL’s appreciation to “Brother Bill Gilbey (who) has given long and dedicated service to the workers of Saskatchewan and Canada, and who has now been hospitalized for many months”. Among Bill Gilbey’s distinctions was his service as SFL president in the 1960s, the first Communist in Canada to win such a post. Fleck closure bares the free trade future By JIM SINCLAIR For 200 auto parts workers near Lon- don, Ontario, the brutal reality of free .| trade hit home Oct. * | 4 when a convoy of trucks arrived, load- ed up the plant and equipment and head- ed for Mexico. Within hours it was over. Fleck Manufacturing Inc. at Centralia, Ont., had slammed its doors ©n Canada, deciding instead that the free ttade zones of Mexico were more attractive. The closure immediately brought a warn- ‘ng from Canadian Auto Workers president b White that more jobs will be lost in SINCLAIR Canada if the free trade deal goes through. “ This plant made profits off the backs of Nadian workers, and now it’s going to € more off the backs of Mexican _ Workers at 75 cents an hour or in the U.S. at an hour,” White tolda rally of more than Workers outside the plant. € closure comes on the heels of a tour . the Maquiladora zones (free trade zones) if Mexico by three Canadians, who warned at the free trade deal will allow many _ Products from these zones to pour into nada as U.S. goods. Mp owichan-Malahat-The Islands NDP Jim Manly said their investigative tour ’ RE eR EE eae eae rs ate eine Soi at pee ee emi aS ‘The man whose company sent 200 Canadian jobs to free trade zones in Mexico rose to his highest national position as an advisor to Simon Reisman.’ tion as an advisor to Canada’s free trade negotiator Simon Reisman. When the trucks carrying the Canadian - machinery roll into Nogales, Mexico, it won’t be to an empty factory. The unload- ing docks are attached to two Fleck plants employing 1,200 workers. They were built one year ago, while Fleck was a member of the International Trade Advisory Commit- tee, the body giving advice to Reisman. Canadians might well ask how such a man rose to this position, but Fleck’s his- tory leaves little doubt who he represented at the bargaining table and why he was there. He is closely associated with the Cana- dian Alliance for Trade and Job Opportun- ities and the Business Council on National Issues, the most powerful lobby in Canada’s history. It is these groups which have spent millions selling free trade. a Fleck admits the BCNI is not an original creation of Canadians, but is “modeled on the U.S. Business Round Table, its US. orate counterpart.” ceeawee to 2 1984 conference at York University, Fleck laid out clearly the forces behind the pro-free trade lobby when he described the BCNI. _ “Although the council has only some 150 members, the membership consists solely of the heads of firms administering in excess of $550-billion in assets with annual sales of more than $190 billion employing almost post. Government reports show a dramatic increase in the office budget to more than $1 million annually from $350,000 under Pre- mier John Robarts. In the process he became the highest paid civil servant in the province, taking home more than even the premier. The situation prompted former (ntario Liberal leader Bob Nixon to comment: “Bill Davis has surrounded himself with a mil- lion dollar buffer zone of advisors. He seems to have hired the same guys who advised John Kennedy to invade Cuba.” In 1972, Davis and Fleck travelled to Centralia, where they were on hand to cut the ribbon at the ceremony marking the expansion of the plant. From a company of eight women attaching plugs to cords imported by Fleck’s father, it had grown into a major supplier of electrical compo- nents. The same day, Davis would tell a local audience that Canada should have “national economic objectives . ..and these should be applied on a national basis to matters of economic and cultural nationalism.” By 1976, Fleck was travelling the country on behalf of the Ontario government calling for a better climate for business, higher pro- ductivity, and closer ties with the United States. At the time he advocated more limited bilateral agreements with the U.S. like the Auto Pact. (The Canadian Auto Workers point out that the trade deal pulls the teeth from the Auto Pact.) While Fleck’s paycheque from the Onta- rio government appeared more than ade- quate, his workers weren’t faring so well. By 1978, workers at the Centralia plant had grown tired of low wages and poor working conditions. Organizers from the United Auto Workers union found a receptive workforce, and soon bargaining was underway for a first contract. ; The company’s anti-union attitude led to a strike. Before the dust settled, the people of Ontario would pay more than $1 milion for police to escort scabs through picket lines. Opposition parties and the union called for a public inquiry into the role of the police and the connection between police activities and James Fleck, still a top civil servant at the time. It is interesting to note that the strike lasted four months, largely because the company refused to sign a collective agree- ment which contained mandatory dues check-off. It’s a basic provision in most union contracts. Throughout the high-profile dispute, which grabbed national headlines after picket line confrontations, arrests and charges of police brutality, Fleck denied any direct connection with the company. His shares had been turned over to his wife and children. His friend from school days ran the company. Despite his denials, Fleck left his government job during the strike and once again headed south. This time he would teach “Canadian Studies” at Harvard. This is a story full of ironies. While he was in the U.S., the company would rebound from the strike. Fleck vice-presi- dent Grant Turner told reporters the plant prospered because of the workers. Much of the credit for the plant’s revival belongs to the employees “‘who are pulling together as they used to,” he said. Ten years later there is no plant, and their jobs are history. As Canadians head to the polls, it’s important we make the Fleck workers liv- ing examples of the grim economic future which awaits hundreds of thousands of Canadians if the trade deal passes. But just as important, men like James Fleck must be brought out of the board rooms and presented to Canadians so we ~ can truly see that the architects of this trade deal are men who have no allegiance to Canada or is people. Just ask the Fleck workers. Jim Sinclair is a staff member of the Uni- ted Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, This article also appeared in the Pro-Canada Dossier, published by GATT- ~Fly. Pacific Tribune, November 14, 1988 e §