By WILLIAM KASHTAN

S THE WORKERS march
this Labor Day they are
compelled to note that a
Wing ‘number of employers
Striving: through a_ liberal
; a injunctions to establish a
: Pattern in labor-manage-
J Rent relations.

Very few Strikes take place
Bln bei YS without an injunc-
tts €ing slapped on the work-

eis is the case in the Amalco

Vest in Markham, at Canadian
Mghouse in Brantford, at

Tal Printers in Oshawa.

‘Gene

_ wil © This was

| the case at Bradford
§ adtiord,

ey Walkerton, with the pottery

tom Workers i roronto:

of » a
it, This is the case at the Wol-

on, i

a Plant in London, newly
i by the United Auto
Iss than In fact this strike was
inctio Na day old when an in-
Burts “2S Obtained from the

0
ther Cases, other cities, other

bn
7g Could be cited to il-
M € this menacing trend.

0
ons fous makes no distinc-
ibaa unions or who
_ st. In the cases listed

Spe
iM
tee :
cel ‘e a histo
j of
out : jigh the €mployers, against the wo
tule "tion

' Gn effort to break strikes. All in the name o

“its place’ and to weaken the

.-Y speed-up and automation, the employers are

above the unions involved are:
UE, IUE, ITU, Teamsters,
Moulders, UAW. This list could
well be added to, showing that
no union on strike is immune
from attack.

What is equally disturbing is
the fact that the injunctions co-
incide with the ability of em-
ployers to bring scabs into their
plants with the aim of breaking
the strikes, as can be seen by
the action of the three daily
newspapers in Toronto and in
other situations. This is a more
recent phenomenon, something
employers were not able to do
so easily before.

Injunctions & scabs

The injunction and the scab—
this sums up the new pattern of
labor-management relations
being pursued by a growing
body of employers.

This slap-happy use of the in-
junction, with the courts and
the state on the side of manage-
ment, is aimed at defending and
strengthening management
rights and profits, and destroy-
ing the workers’ right to strike.

Its purpose is to put labor in

trade union movement.

Those workers who have had
illusions about the “impartial-
ity” of the law and of the courts
can now see more clearly how
partial these bodies really are
and how they protect the inter-
ests of the employers.

The trade union movement
has still to work out effective
counter-measures to cope with
this problem. But no one single
union can cope with it alone,
nor should it be left to its own
resources. No one single tactic
is adequate in this situation.

In the final analysis, the
workers and their unions: need
to face up to the fact that if an
injunction is to be nullified, they
will have to do what workers
have always done before when
their rights were threatened —
unite their ranks and demon-
strate their power and strength
in ways which are most effec-
tive.

Either the workers will smash
the anti-labor injunction or the

injunction can smash _ their
unions.
This infringement on _ the

right of the workers to strike
cannot be allowed to continue.

te have always been used on

ty of C P that the forces of the sta Beg
Ei saemibdiinty a ta Neaes as workers fight back the threat to their jobs
esorting to a more

f ‘management rights.”

frequent use of court

The labor movement needs to
win public support for the de-
mand that there be a complete
revision of labor acts so that the
right to organize, to bargain col-

lectively and to strike is fully

guaranteed.

The use of the injunction must
be prohibited by government
legislation because it contra-
dicts and in fact undermines
these basic democratic rights.

Merciless speedup

More than that, the right to
strike during the period of the
contract on all questions not
covered by the ccllective agree-
ment needs to be incorporated
into the labor acts. This is of
vital importance now sO as to
deal with merciless speed-up
which the workers feel on their
backs in every plant and indus-
try in the country. It is of equal
importance to the trade union
movement as we enter the age
of automation.

It should not be overlooked
that this growing attack on the
workers’ right to strike’ is de-
veloping in a period when man-
agement is preparing to install
automated machinery in indus-
try. The injunction is calculated
to tie the hands of the working
class and the trade union move-
ment so that there will be little
or no effective resistance to the
displacement of workers from
their jobs.

Despite all its fine talk about
the “promise”: of automation,
management is determined to
make the working class carry
the burden of automation on its
shoulders. The strike -at the
three Torcnto daily papers
makes this fairly evident. Man-
agement may be prepared to
make some slight concessions
here and there, but what it is
not prepared to do is agree that
the working class have a say in
the control and regulation of
automated machinery and in
production itself.

‘Sacred cow’

Management claims that its
rights are inviolate. But man-
agement rights is the cover
under which monopoly has. al-
ways striven to maintain its
power to exploit, to fire, to re-
strict trade union rights and, if
necessary, to smash strikes and
unions.

Unrestricted management
rights under automation would
multiply this evil a thousand-
fold with calamitous conse-
quences to the jobs and living
standards of working people
and society as a whole.

This “sacred cow’ which
monopoly has used to good pur-
pose for so long cannot be al-
lowed to continue if the public
interest is to be served.

It is high time that manage-
ment rights were curbed. This
holds true not only with re-
spect to the workers’ right to
strike but also their right to use-

It's time to end the myth
about management rights”

ful, creative labor now directly
threatened by automation.

“Management rights” says, in
effect, that profits come first,
last and always, irrespective of
social consequences. it is time
the trade union movement de-
clared that the worker has a
vested right to his job and that
where so-called “free enter-
prise” fails to assure that right,
the government, through effec-
tive national policies, must pro-
vide useful, creative work to all
willing and able to work.

What is involved is not the
sanctity of management rights,
but the right of the Canadian
people to work, to leisure, to the
good life. Management rights
increasingly stand in the way of
achieving this objective.

The demand now being raised
in the trade union movement

that labor should have a voice ©

on all basic issues having to do
with the welfare of the working
people is in fact a part—indeed,
a very important part—of the
demand that the democratic
rights of the trade union move-
ment be extended.

Workers’ control

The interests of society de-
mand that the trade union
movement should have a full
voice in the regulation and con-
trol of automation. The workers
should have some measure of
control over norms of produc-
tion so as to curb merciless
speed-up in plants and in indus-
try generally.

This makes it necessary that
democracy be extended into the
plants and industries; that the
role of the trade union move-
ment be strengthened, not re-
stricted as it is at present; that
the trade unions should have a
say in all aspects of worker-
management relations.

Only in this way is there
some assurance that automation
can benefit the whole of society,
that the machine under mono-
poly ownership will not be al-
lowed to become master over
man and that man in fact could
more effectively strive to be-
come master of the machine.

What is involved here is the
need for a new labor policy, one
that enables labor’s voice and
influence to be strengthened all
down the line.

This is of crucial importance
as we enter the age of automa-
tion. New times requires new
thinking and the type of -pro-
gram which can most effectively
defend the interests of the
working people.

But to achieve this will re-
quire a great effort, solidarity of
a high order and a re-united and
fully autonomous trade union
movement.

This ought to be the keynote
of the Labor Day. parades all
over the country expressing the
determination of the trade union
movement not to be pushed
back, but to move forward.

September 4, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7

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