KINGSTON — Members of
the United Electrical Workers’
;, Union and his many friends were
| Shocked at the death of UE Rep
/) ug Tyner, who was instantly

Killed in a tragic highway mishap
| 0M Aug. 17 near his home in Marl-
bank, Ont. He was 62.

Ross Russell, former UE direc-

T of organization, gave the eul-
| 8y at the funeral in the village of
amworth,

I first heard of Doug Tyner

| Sell““It was in the early 40s. Our
| “Nion’s représentative in Kings-
‘on had joined the army and word

€ to Toronto that the men in

. Injunctions

‘Restrict
' Saskatchewan

Nearly 40 years ago,’’ said Rus-

the Kingston Locomotive plant
had elected a young farm boy,
who was*working at the plant, as
their full-time union representa-
tive. It was clear that Doug had
learned very quickly that in fac-
tory work it wasn’t the individual
that counted but rather it was the
unity of all the workers, skilled,
unskilled, men and women work-
ers, all the employees regardless
of race, religion or color must
band together if they were to im-

prove. the relatively low wages

and poor working conditions then
in effect.

‘‘He learned the intricacies of.

labor law, and how to use it in the

By KIMBALL CARIOU

REGINA — More than 2,000
members of four building trades
unions remain on strike in Sas-
katchewan following a tentative
settlement by 1,400 Carpenters
in the province. Most construc-
tion projects are still shut down,
despite emplyoyers’ use of
injunctions and scabs to try and
break the strikes.

The carpenters had held out
solidly since early May, but

were hit with a crippling injunc-:

tion Aug. 18. PCL, a major
construction firm, began hiring
strikebreakers in early August at
its Bank of Montreal site, here,

leading to a confrontation of the-

picket line.
The carpenters’ union sought
an injunction to stop the hirings,

best interests of his fellow work-
ers,”” Russell said, observing that
over the years he and Doug had
been like brothers.

‘**He learned to sit across from
management and their hired

lawyers and negotiate with them.

as an equal.

“In the Kingston area, Doug
Tyner was ‘Mr. Labor.’ He was
highly regarded and respected by
workers and management as a
faithful and outstanding represen-

* tative of the workers there.

‘The accident was a tragedy —
nothing can change that. His wife,
his children, and his grand-
children will miss him most. But

but Justice W.J. Vancise sup-
ported PCL instead. He also
prohibited picketing within 150
feet of the site’s gate and banned
all attempts anywhere, by union
members or anyone else, to
dissuade scabs from working at

the site. The union has appealed.

Vancise’s rulings and the appeal
will be heard in court Sept. 29.

Following the unprecedented
legal decisions, some. 200
carpenters and their families
demonstrated at the one-day
session of the provincial legis-
lature, August 20, which was
called to break the strike of
cancer clinic workers. Thepro-
testers demanded that the Con-
struction Industry Labor Rela-
tions Act, passed by the NDP in
1979, be rescinded.

wise counselling and, yes, for his
great sense of humor,’’ Russell
said.

UE secretary-treasurer Val
Bjarnason,
organization Art Jenkyn, rep-
resented the national union at the
funeral, which was:attended by a
large number of Doug’s fellow
staff members, members of UE,
and representatives of other
unions in the area.

He is survived by his wife
Faye, children Karen, Russell,
Betty-Ann and Heather, and eight
grandchildren.

Many in the labor movement
warned at the time of the pos-

sible dangers of the Act. For.

example, it forces building
trades unions to strike all
employers at once, restricting
their freedom to choose where
and when to. withdraw their
labor.

Big contractors like PCL are
taking advantage of this provi-
sion, and the slack economy, to
strain the resources of the
unions and prevent smaller firms
from settling.

Faced with a- situation in
which employers can now leg-
ally hire strikebreakers, the car-
penters reached their tentative
agreement in order to regain

and director of |

Auto mishap takes life of UE organizer

_those he called friend and brother i
will also sorely miss him —for his. }

DOUG TYNER ... eastern Ontario
representative for UE members.

their jobs at sites where work
had begun. They had been seek-
ing a clearer definition of their
trade in their collective agree-
ment, to maintain their jurisdic-
tion, and were fighting employer
proposals which would allow
contracting out to non-union
firms.

Several other unions have set-
tled for pay increases in the
range of $4.90 per hour over two
years, and the carpenters were
demanding the same.

The millwrights, electricians,
plumbers and pipefitters, and
insulators who are still out are
fighting to retain allowances to
live outside construction camps,
as well as for wage increases and
other benefits.

Monopoly and its Liberal and Tory Party. govern-
Ments have a multi-faceted, co-ordinated assault going
against the entire front of living standards of working
People, farmers, middle income small business and small
Manufacture. ‘

_Its main prongs are: the wage control programs de-
Signed to lower real wages by holding increases below
Nsing living cost§ and; the concessions demand openly
aimed at wage cutting.

In addition, high interest rates take back much of what

People appear to have earned through constructive
labor; and mass layoffs and plant closures reduce overall
Purchasing power and depress the lives of the people.
Add to this the widening discrepancy between the grow-
Ing proportion of taxes paid by working people, and an
€ver smaller percentage paid by corporate wealth. In-

| | Slude tax forgiveness for big business and large public

donations to corporations and Jesse James and his
Cronies look like small potatoes compared to the modern
Corporate thieves and plunderers.

Taking on GM

General Motors Corporation, which netted a $560-—

Million second quarter profit for the current year is lead-
| Ing the concessions parade, demanding wage and benefit
Concessions from its Canadian employees. GM is
threatening to pack up its plants and take them to the
USA where such concessions have already been made if
anadian workers do not knuckle under. :
Ottawa is shafting its public employees with a 6% this
year 5% next wage ceiling and attempting to foist the
Same guidelines on all workers. The provinces are shout-

‘Ing in unison — not:enough — even tougher action _

against the living standards of the people is needed.
The United Autoworkers union appears prepared to
Ke on the arrogant GM corporation. Public service
Workers have declared they will not be the goats for big
Usiness nor will they stand idly by while essential social
Services are dismantled. po ae
_ But where, oh where, is the Canadian labor movement
in this hour of critical battle? The Canadian Labor Con-
8ress appears ripped down the middle between pro-
Posals to stand up and fight, and to retreat with its tail
tween its legs until the crisis ‘‘blows over’’. :
Some leading Canadian journalists have described this

Split as a split between public sector workers and private.
industry workers, with the former prepared to do battle _

_ and the latter heading for their fox holes. In fact however

‘tis much more basic than that.

-s4)| Labor in action
3 William Stewart

There are those who are prepared to fight against being
made victims of a monopoly-inspired crisis and who see
the need for entirely new policies and a new alternative
to present government and private industry solutions.
And there are those who accept the system as it is and are
prepared to have the working people shoulder the bur-
den of the crisis. In a word it is a split based on class-
struggle policies versus class collaborationist policies.

Class Struggle vs Collaboration
While one can have some sympathy with the CLC’s

__- top leadership which finds resistance in its own ranks to
catrying through the convention decisions, one cannot

condone their literal abdication of leadership in a critical
period. No meaningful direction has come down from
the CLC office to its affiliates since the announced inten-
tion of wage controls by the Liberal government in June.
Governments across the country, as well as the entire big
business machine have proceeded without organized re-
sistance to put in place a major offensive against the
economic well-being of the majority of Canadian people.
True, CLC President McDermott has made a number of
press statements opposing the action of the government.
This, however, constitutes neither policy, program nor

_an alternative.

The leadership of the CLC-has a clear mandate and
clear instructions from the highest body of the trade
union movement, the biennial convention. If some in its
ranks defy this mandate it is the leadership’s respon-
sibility to take the matter to the member unions and fight
for the policy laid down by conventions. The excuse of
cabinet solidarity even when it immobilizes labor in the
face of fierce attack, is unacceptable.

The fight is on in the trade union and labor movement
for a new, militant CLC which can meet the task before

’ jt. Irresistable support must be mustered to carry

through the convention mandate.
In addition, the political parties of the left, the Com-

munist and New Democratic parties, must be counted on »
by the trade unions for full support. The Communist

Party has given such unqualified support and is mobiliz-
ing its ranks to play its maximum possible role. Unfor-
tunately the same cannot be said for the NDP.

Parties of the Left

It is not our wish to make brownie points at the ex-
pense of the NDP at atime when maximum unity of labor
is essential. However aside from its welcome opposition
to the wage control program introduced by the Liberals
in the House of Commons, there is evidence to the
contrary out in the field. :

In B.C, the NDPis putting the brakes on the economic
fightback to the best of its ability, fearing injury to their
electoral chances in such a major confrontation between
labor and the B.C. Government. In Saskatchewan the
NDP opposition unanimously supported a Tory back-
to-work order for Health Care workers on strike for
catch-up pay.

The Manitoba NDP government for the most part
went along with the rest of Canada’s (mainly Tory) pre-
miers in their call for more drastic sanctions against
working people, for further Americanization of our
economy, at the recent premiers’ conference in Halifax.
This must end if the NDP wishes to receive the con-
tinuing support of the trade union movement. The trade

| Where, oh where islabor’s leadership?

- unions, as_well.as the rank and file of the NDP; must

demand forthright actions by their party in full support of
labor’s economic struggles, inside and outside parlia-
ment.

Lastly, what about the left? Where is the Action

Caucus that was set up with such high hopes at the CLC
convention? What role has it played in this struggle for
the implementation of CLC policy? It can hardly blame
the leadership for inaction while it has not got its own act
together. .
_ One can conclude that there is a lot of flabbiness in the
labor movement at a time when lean, trimmed-for-action
condition is imperative. The struggle to cleanse from
union and labor ranks all inhibitions in the way of mili-
tant, united, mass actions and struggles is essential.

On this Labor Day we can say with certainty that the
membership of organized labor have indicated their
readiness to respond to such leadership. But clearly the
rank-and-file have an additional task. That task is to
build up pressure on leadership at all levels to speed up
the process of differentiation in favor of class struggle
policies and unite the labor movement into a ‘decisive
force for fundamental economic and political change in”

>

‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 10, 1982—Page 5°