aftermath of the

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View of the Frood-Stobie open pit mine in Sudbury.

By RAE MURPHY

HE worn and beaten cliche
“united we stand, divided
we fall” comes true so

often. The tragedy is that its
moral is one we seem to forget.

The workers in Sudbury are
divided—split as it were almost
right down the middle. The
United Steelworkers have won
certification in the mines and
smelters of the International
Nickel Company, and the Mine
Mill, after three successive raids,
has maintained its position in
the smatler Falconbridge proper-
ties. The only victors in the
struggle have been the share-
holders of INCO and Falcon-
bridge.

Steel has a record of promises
of what it can achieve for the
miners and smeltermen, which
if they looked fantastic before
the certification vote look abso-
lutely ludicrous today.

Recalling some of Steel's pro-
mises during the raid, one miner
who was still not called back to
work after the. wildcat said:
“Steel promised they would
negotiate more holidays. Well, I

- can’t complain I am already into
my fifth week of holidays, only
problem is that they have been
without pay.”

Aside from the praticality of

the various promises Steel made
to the workers the main reasons
they cannot be met is the bitter
split among the miners and
smeltermen. The much vaunted
money and power and bigness
of the United Steelworkers or-
ganization means very little
when the organization is pre-
dicated upon cannibalism and
splitism. It wasn’t money or
“bigness,”’ research facilities or
public relations men which built
the trade union movement in
Canada. History and practice

notwithstanding, any union even:

one as large as the Steelworkers,
which implies it can pit its fin-
ancial resources and size against
a giant like the International
Nickel Company has just got to
be kidding.

The Sudbury workers once led
the way in wages and condi-
tions. Sudbury for years ranked
as the city with the highest per
capita income in Canada. This
is true no longer. Over the past
period when the workers fought
each other instead of fighting
the boss, grievances have piled
up and working conditions and
wages have deteriorated.

This year, perhaps the best
bargaining year in the last de-
cade, saw no abatement in the
intense inter-union fight. After
Steel’s application for certifica-

tion in Falconbridge was dis-
missed by the labor relations
board, Mine Mill succeeded in
opening its agreement with the
company. Although the contract
with Falconbridge does not ex-
pire until after the one at INCO,
an interim wage increase was
won by the union. Mine Mill
made overtures to the Steel lead-
ership for a common stand in
negotiations, and were rejected.
“No cap in hand” was the ap-
proach (whatever that means) of
Steel in rejecting interim nego-
tiations. And. so when the Steel
agreement with INCO expired
and negotiations seemed to be
getting nowhere a wildcat strike
broke out on July 15.

The strike started at the Lev-
ack ‘mine, when a worker was
fired for biting into a sandwich
before going on shift, and spread
rapidly throughout the vast
INCO complex. It is hard to de-
termine whether the strike was
spread by the men or whether
the company itself closed down
its operations. Whatever the
chronology of events, as one
views the wildcat in retrospect,
the company didn’t seem to
mind it at all.

This is borne out by the fact
that when the men voted to re-
turn to work INCO took the
trouble of placing a full page

bury tragedy

advertisement in the Sudbury
Star, which said they were quite
prepared to negotiate while the
wildcat strike was still on and
stating that during the period
necessary to start production
again certain overtime provi-
sions and seniority provisions
would. be suspended.

It may be noted in passing
that the American government,
chief purchaser of nickel was
planning to release much of its
stockpiles for opén sale, which
would have probably knocked
the price down, cancelled their
plan once the strike began.

The wildcat strike was an un-
fortunate experience. The hard-
ship of a 24 day walkout during
which. workers received no wel-

. fare payments ended in the men

being forced back to work with-
out any concessions, outside of
an accelerated conciliation pro-
cedure. This can be viewed as
nothing but a serious defeat.

-The workers were being called
back as the. company needed
them. Although the strike ended
on Aug. 7, by Aug. 18 only about
two thirds of the men were
back at work. The company
demonstrated that there is really
no rush to get production going.

As this is written, INCO is still

not going at full blast, and the

‘ workers who have been called

back, without regard to senior-
ity, have been for the most part
working at labor rate, which to
most is a wage cut of from 25
to 50 cents an hour.

Coming on the background of

intense bitterness among the
miners, the abortive wildcat
places the company in the posi-
tion of an innocent bystander,
the victim and hero of the epi-
sode. :

What happens now is anybo-
dy’s guess. The conciliation
board is due to report any day
and estimates vary.as to what it
will decree. It is generally as-
sumed that the contract will be
for a three year period with a
wage package of around 70
cents an hour spread over that
period, bringing INCO workers
within hailing distance of the
Cominco miners and _ smelter-
men,

Whatever agreement is reach-
ed, the belief is widely held that
the union’s bargaining position
has been so weakened that the
men will be forced to take
almost anything the company
offers.

Separate and apart from any
agreement finally reached in
Sudbury, the Canadian labor
movement has been dealt a
severe blow. It is a question that
goes beyond Mine Mill and Steel
because the victims are the rank
and file workers, and many are
reacting with an additude which
says “a plague on both your
houses.”

One of the activists in the
Mine Mill, with whom I had

-Jabor- movement the tragedy

a beer, said: “The first day back
at work, a bunch of guys tore
off their Steelworker buttons
and threw them on the floor. f
just went around and _ picked
them up and stuck them back
on their lockers — serves the
SOBs right.” The same man
later told me that he is going to
sit things out from now on. “
had my tires slashed, and rocks

put through the window of 2

new car, to hell with it.”
_ The raids in Sudbury saw the

importation of a type of gang- —

sterism which is completely
alien to our labor movement.
This has been a cause as well as
a manifestation of a degenera-
tion of trade unionism which
raiding makes inevitable. While
in Sudbury, I attended the trial
of a group of Steelworkers orgal-
izers who were charged and con-
victed of pursuing’a Mine Mill
organizer, dragging him from
his car and beating him — all
in broad daylight.

As the trial unfolded I was
reminded of Claude Jodoin’s re-
marks about the Steel raid and
the mission to “liberate” the
workers. a

An acquaintance of mine, 2.
university student who blossoms

out in the summer as a Steel-—

worker organizer in Sudbury,
told me how “sorry I feel
for Mine Mill, which is taking

-such a beating.” Whatever the

condition of Mine Mill, from all

evidence, one. could paraphras€ —

Mark Twain and say that re
ports of its death are. greatly

exaggerated. What this student

“organizer” seems not to grasP
is that the issue really isn’t Mine
Mill, or communism or sma
unions and big unions. The issue —
was, is, and will:always be the
workers of Sudbury.

“The trade union movement i

‘Sudbury was just too big for the

liking of INCO and the Amer.
ican State Department, and it
had to be smashed, There }§
plenty of evidence about the

Central Intelligence Agency, the

State Department and the Intet™

national operations of the AFL:
CIO to split and destroy. unions

around the world, and there !
absolutely no evidence to SUB”
gest they look upon Canada any

different than
Nicaragua. The real tragedy of
the situation is that they arf
able to use elements in the trad®
union movement itself to 4°
their dirty work.

In the long run the historic
battle between capital and labor
does not end in partial victories
or partial defeats. It goes on as
long as society is divided int?
those who own for a_ living
and those who must work for 4-
living. The development of
militant workers’ movement com

tinues and advances. As for t B Z|
raids and disruptions, they '°

shall pass. For the Canadiat

Sudbury is-a chapter. The b®
is far from finished.

Se aaa RT SS,

Guatemala Of

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September 2, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page ©