TORONTO — DRG Packaging Ltd., likes to call itself ‘The Good Idea Company”’, but as far as its More than 400 striking workers are concerned, DRG’s ideas about what it will take to end their four-week old strike aren't so spectacular. Some 380 men and women in Local 466 of the - hewly-formed Graphic Communications Inter- National Union (GCIU), and another 35 DRG workers: in the lithographers’ local who have a Contract but are refusing to cross the GCIU picket line, are on the street demanding a contract that will provide better wages, improved working Conditions and benefits in line with other employers in the printing trades. The lithographers have a clause in their agree- Ment that protects their basic union right not to Cross another union’s picket line. GCIU is the result of a recent merger between the pressmen’s union, of which the DRG workers - Were members, and the Graphic Arts International Union, (GAIU). Money is important but working conditions and Management’s attitude toward the workers are also Sore points with the strikers. One picket summed it Up neatly: “‘Management’s got no respect for the Work we do. You can bend over backward trying to do a decent job for them but their attitude is that the More you do the more they’ll expect of you next e. ——— - Strikers determined at DRG Bob Townsend, a member of both the local executive and the bargaining committee praised the high morale of the strikers and their resolve to get a satisfactory contract. ‘‘It’s a good strike’, he. said, ‘I’ve never been more pleased with a picket line.” The strikers had the opportunity to experience the benefits of their recent merger, he said, when workers at a Michigan printing plant where DRG had sent color cylinders for a printing job they had contracted, refused to perform the work, because it was struck. ““We really appreciated that kind of solidarity’’, he said, “‘and I’m going to make a point of thanking them personally at our next convention. ”’ The Tribune spoke to the DRG workers the day before they were to resume contract talks with the company with hopes of settling the four-week old battle. *‘As far as we’re concerned we’re going into those talks with our eyes on a collective agree- ment’’, Townsend said. ‘‘But, if we can’t get this thing settled as a result of the meeting on Wednes- day, (Oct. 19), then it’s going to be ‘Happy Easter’.”’ | He said the members were determined to get a satisfactory contract but they hoped the company realized that the time had come for serious talks. ‘Up till now what they’ ve been offering just won’t do the job for our members’’, he said. Caravan campaign launched CLC cable protests OTTAWA — The president of the two-million-member Cana- dian Labor Congress (CLC), Dennis McDermott, sent a tele- gram to President Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Oct. 6 condemn- ing the re-arrest, two days earlier of Rodolfo Sequel, president of the Chilean Copper Workers’ Federation and of the Chilean Workers’ Command. Seguel was arrested for participating in an anti-government march in Rancagua, a city some 80 kilometers from Santiago. This marks the third time Seguel has been arrested and jailed since June. In his telegram to Pinochet, McDermott said, “this most re- cent arrest was further evidence of the disregard of (the Pino- chet) government for fundamental rights and freedoms in Chile.” “For millions of Canadians Mr. Sequel represents the heroic quest of the Chilean people for freedom from the repressive policies of the authoritarian Chilean regime,” McDermott said. “Men can be locked up, but the quest for ‘bread, peace and : CLC $175,000 peace fund freedom’, which is symbolized by respect for internationally OTTAWA — The two-million Member Canadian Labor Con- gress, (CLC) has committed itself to raising $175,000 as labor’s _ Contribution to the Peace Petition Caravan Campaign, (PPCC). In a letter to CLC executive Council members, provincial l€derations of labor and the rank- Ing officers of CLC affiliates, CLC president Dennis McDer- _ Mott urged the Canadian labor Movement to give generously to Campaign in line with the hgress decision to coordinate tough for all of us’’, McDermott told the union leaders, in the Sept. 30 letter. “‘ Yet this campaign rep- Tesents the best example of labor’s social responsibility. None of us can afford to remain complacent in the face of the growing threat of nuclear annihi- lation.”’ McDermott, in urging the labor leaders to donate to the $175,000 CLC Peace Fund, said the money will be used for newspaper ads. publicizing the PPCC, general fund-raising campaigning, and the production of peace and dis- targeted at union members. The CLC executive council has endorsed the PPCC from its be- ginings late last spring, and re- affirmed its support at an exe- cutive council meeting, last month. McDermott said the PPCC’s aim of channelling the broad popular opposition to Cruise mis- sile testing on Canadian soil into a massive movement for mutual ba- lanced nuclear disarmament and the declaration of Canada as a nu- clear weapons-free zone, ‘‘is fully consistent with labor’s traditional recognized trade-union and human rights, cannot be placed in Chilean jails or military concentration camps,” the telegram stated. “We demand that you cease your harassment of Seguel and that you free the people of Chile who long for the restoration of democracy in your country.” McDermott said the CLC is stepping up its long-standing support of the Chilean workers in their struggle against the Pinochet regime. In this connection the Congress sent a rep- resentative to Chile in July to investigate conditions there and meet with trade-union and other groups. The CLC president also met with Altamirano Guzman, Oct. 5, a representative of the Chilean trade-union movement who recently visited Canada. in his talk with Guzman, McDermott reiterated CLC support for the “reunification of Chileans with democratic government” and commended the Chilean people for their courageous stand against Pinochet. Union fund-raising for the PPCC. I appreciate that times are armament materials specifically and existing policies.”’ In the never-ending struggle of trade unionists in Capitalist countries to protect their immediate interests and to move toward a system which would end once and for all the exploitation of their labor power, two weak- Nesses constantly manifest themselves. One tendéncy is to act without the benefit of a suf- lent program to guide them. The other is to lean Obsessively on program and fail to act at all. _ It is worthless to argue about which sin is the darkest €Xcept to speculate that it is probably the one that is most Practiced at the time. 3 _ Right now it would seem fair to suggest that the sin of ‘naction plagues the trade union movement. Beginning at | the last CLC convention and onward, programs have been unfolded; seminars have been held; phone can- Vasses have been organized; educational campaigns have been undertaken; brochures have been circulated; lectures have been delivered; but with a few honorable | &Xceptions, everything has stopped there. Action is al- Most like a dirty word. — President of a prominent labor council told a dele- te who was complaining about the lack of action by T that the phone campaigns being organized by the OFL are much more effective than massactions such as demonstrations. Mass Action Needed ._ We beg to differ. Moreover the proof of the pudding is the eating. All the phoning labor has been doing for the t year or so, has neither deterred the government from her attacks on labor, nor does it seem to have pre- the workers to act decisively in the face of these {n British Columbia, on the other hand, galvanized by 8 actions, workers are taking the offensive against * Bennett government attacks and building up their s and confidence in the process. Nor is there Labor in action William Stewart evidence that they were, ‘‘phoned”’ into action. They were mobilized and the very actions themselves were far more effective than all the phoning and seminaring put together and multiplied by infinite numbers. The entire range of government-labor legislation from restriction on the right to strike to arbitration and con- ciliation procedures, are designed to prevent workers from acting in unison and to set the stage for settling all disputes on a one-on-one basis, and before the law. Behind this, aside from sparing companies from the disruption of job actions, is the intent of stopping work- ers in enterprises from discovering the value and-need of collective actions, and the great power workers possess if they act together in their own interests... Fear or Ignorance? It seems that many trade union leaders either don’t understand the power of collective actions, or are afraid _of that power. Otherwise it is hard to understand their resistance to mobilizing and activating their members into a powerful strike force against the bosses’ and overnments’ offensive. oe This paper and this column take second place to no one in campaigning for labor to develop a program which will give it an alternative around which to mobilize a fightback campaign. However it seems to us that the question of program and education is now being used as an argument against mass action. This just does not fit. There is no union in Canada, for example which has | The challenge facing CUPE delegates done a better job of developing an alternative economic program than the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Unfortunately there is also no union that has done a much worse job of mobilizing its membership to fight against the bosses’ and governments’ attack than CUPE. The critical element missing in the fightback of public workers’ unions in Ontario at this time is CUPE. It could, by its actions ensure a mass fightback against wage controls promised by the Ontario Davis govern- ment. The Ontario Public Service Union (OPSEU), proved by its actions in the first round of wage controls, and by its preparations for the second round, that it is prepared to fight. It cannot however win this fight by itself. CUPE Can Show the Way We can expect that the CUPE convention taking place this week in Toronto will address itself to this problem. As a union which a few short years ago had a reputation second to none for waging economic battles on behalf of its members, CUPE seems to be totally handcuffed in the. face of the assault by the government, confronting it not only as a bargaining opponent, but as a legislative force which brings the law into its team. ; The logic of CUPE’s continual retreat in the face of the actions by the government, will be the end of free collec- tive bargaining for all public service workers. Once the government finds it can take away the rights of collective bargaining easily, as it has so far done, it is indeed a short Step to take them away completely. This will undoubted- ly be the next step if the workers do not face up to the situation now. We are sure the membership of CUPE is. up to this struggle. Its convention needs to point the way and demand that the newly-elected leadership live up to the challenge and lead the struggle. : PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 26, 1983—Page 5