On eve of B.C. Federation of Labor convention

Elections underscore labor's

Delegates to the 25th annual
convention of the British Columbia
Federation of Labor, which will be
held in Vancouver Nov. 24-28, will
each have a blue-covered book
containing the reports of conven-
tion committees.

The following excerpt from the
report of the political education
committee, although written be-
fore the civic election in Vancou-
ver, underscores the big advance
made for organized labor and
working people in the Vancouver
election.

‘Municipal politics is an area
that for many years was virtually
ignored by labor, even though de-
cisions of municipal councils havea
direct bearing on our members.
The administration of our neigh-
borhoods, schools, hospitals, cul-
tural and recreational facilities all
fall into the municipal political
arena. It is in the best interest of
working people to have input into
this administrative process to en-
sure that the policy and programs
of each municipality are geared to
working men and women and their
families.”

The Vancouver and District La-
bor Council endorsed Michael
Harcourt for mayor and the candi-
dates of the Committee of Pro-
gressive Electors (COPE) for coun-
cil, parks board and school board.
An attractive poll card was mailed
to almost every home in Vancou-
ver. Now Harcourt is the mayor
and he will have three COPE alder-
men on council, all of them pro-
labor. Further, COPE won five of
the nine seats on the school board
and two out of seven on the parks
board. Thus 11 candidates out of
27 endorsed by the labor council
were elected in the biggest break-
through for the labor and demo-
cratic forces in the history of Van-
couver.

I am certain that the message of
this election will register with the
delegates: the need for organized
labor to play a more active role in
municipal politics and to unite with
other democratic and left forces
around labor and pro-labor candi-
dates.

The political education report
also calls for the defeat of the pro-
vincial Socred government in the

next provincial election. However, :

it warns that this cannot be ac-
complished without a lot of hard
work:

‘‘We cannot expect to win any
election without the dedication and
hard work we have had to generate
in the past. As poorly as Social
Credit has governed since 1975,
they will be able to win again if they
do not face a well-organized, dis-
ciplined and financed opposition.
Social Credit knows perhaps better
than any one of us that they will be
fighting for their political survival
at the next election. Such an atti-
tude will undoubtedly make them
fight all the harder. :

“The New Democratic Party
will form the next government. But
we cannot be lulled into a false
sense of over-confidence simply be-
cause Social Credit has demon-
strated that it is such a dismal ex-
cuse for government.””

I am certain that while the dele-
gates will endorse the political edu-
cation report, there will be a strong
demand that the trade union move-
ment should not subordinate itself
to the electoral fortunes of the
NDP where vital working class in-

terests are involved. The trade un-
ion movement must never hesitate
to speak out independently for the
workers they represent and it
should criticize the NDP when it
believes that the policies or actions
of that party are in opposition to its
own policies or vital interests.

Organized labor can play a posi-
tive role in guaranteeing the defeat
of the Socreds by pressing its own
anti-monopoly program and urg-
ing the NDP to adop that program.
It must also make it clear that any
legislation adversely affecting the
rights of organized labor will be no
more welcome from an NDP gov-

a) Labor
Comment
Jack Phillips

ernment than from any other gov-
ernment.

When the NDP government in
October, 1975 enacted Bill 146,
some 60,000 workers in four unre-
lated industries were ordered back
to work. Three NDP backbenchers
(Gabelman, Steves and Brown)
had the courage to vote no.

The federation executive brand-
ed this action as a complete be-
trayal of the working people who
helped elect the government. That
lesson should not be forgotten.

The best guarantee of defeating
the Socreds in the next provincial
election is to unite the labor move-
ment and all democratic and left
forces around program and poli-
cies in opposition to the Socreds
and the other parties of big busi-
ness.

A big victory was scored in the
Vancouver civic elections. An even
bigger victory — the defeat of the
Socreds in the next provincial elec-
tion — is possible, if there is unity
of purpose and action.

The resolution book contains a
wide variety of resolutions reflect-
ing the problems, the aspirations

and the moods of the membership.

at the local level.

For example, a number of reso-
lutions call for more decisive lead-
ership in the fight for a shorter
work week. Others call for the cost-
of-living clauses in all collective
agreements to protect negotiated
wage increases. The overwhelming
opposition to wage controls is spell-
ed out in a number of resolutions.

A large number of resolutions
express concern over the impact of
technological change as it affects
jobs, and a wide range of proposals
are advanced.

A resolution from the New
Westminster Labor Council calls
upon government “‘to enact legisla-
tion to make it mandatory for em-
ployers to give advance notice of
intended layoffs or plant closures
to a\government body established
to deal with such matters.”’ Then,
there are three proposals:

1) Such legislation should place
the onus of justification on the em-
ployer, with provisions enabling
the employees and their union to
make representations;

' 2) The government agency to
have authority to cancel or modify
any proposed layoff or closure;

3) If a layoff or closure is ap-
proved, then maximum notice
must be given to employees, pen-
sion rights protected, and adequate

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 21, 1980—Page 12

compensation and/or suitable em-
ployment provided for all affected
employees.

Another resolution calls for un-
ions to negotiate an agreement
making it mandatory for the em-
ployer to give 12 months notice be-
fore laying off workers and further
demands that where a foreign cor-
poration closes down a viable oper-
ation, that operation should be
brought under public ownership.
This resolution points up the need
for organized labor to fight the
problem of technological change
and layoffs on two fronts.

While pressing for government
action, it must also fight to expand
collective bargaining to deal effect-
ively with such vital issues as lay-
offs, plant closures, introduction
of new production processes and
capital investments. Everything
that affects the livelihood and wel-
fare of the worker at his place of
work should be the subject of col-
lective bargaining.

The energy crisis is reflected in a
number of resolutions. One from
the Kamloops Labor Council ad-
vances the following program:

1) Establish an energy grid
across the country that will include
two coast-to-coast pipelines to en-
sure that Canadian oil and natural
gas are available to all Canadians;

2) Stop the export of non-
renewable resources until all of
Canada’s present and future needs
are guaranteed;

3) The price of oil in Canada
should be based on the Canadian
cost of production with a uniform
price across the country; and

3) PetroCanada should be
maintained and expanded as a pub-
licly owned alternative to the oil
multinationals.

Similar proposals are contained
in a resolution from the Campbell
River, Courtenay and District La-
bor Council, but that resolution
calls for the nationalization of the
oil and gas industry. If this latter
proposal was carried into effect, it
would create a sound économic
base for a vast expansion of pro-
cessing and manufacturing in-
dustries in Canada, in a planned
and orderly fashion.

It is significant that the Regional
Council No. 1 of the International
Woodworkers of America and all
its B.C. locals have a joint reso-
lution in the book which makes the
following demand:

‘¢ _ vall levels of government in
Canada to restrict the export of raw
materials and energy from Canada
and require by law that manufact-
ure in Canada be an obligatory
condition for the use of Canadian
raw materials and energy re-
sources.”’

This reflects a widespread reali-
zation that Canada needs new pol-
icies in order to utilize fully our for-
ests, our minerals, our coal, our
hydro power, our petroleum re-
sources and our gas in the best in-
terest of the Canadian people.

If there will be any serious dif-
ference over such issues, it will be
around the question of public con-
trol versus public ownership of re-
sources. Those who advocate pub-
lic control will follow the lead of
Dave Barrett who proposes that
government should purchase eq-
uity in the B.C. Telephone Com-
pany, instead of placing it under
public ownership as in other prov-
inces. It is significant that four res-

olutions are in the book calling for
public ownership of this U.S.-own:
ed corporation.

A number of resolutions express
concern over the Building Trades-
CLC dispute. A resolution from
Local 389 of the Canadian Union
of Public Employees makes these
proposals:

@ That the convention support
the efforts to settle the dispute
through discussions with the ap-
propriate parties;

@ That any settlement should
be consistent with the CLC mini-
mum standards of self-government
for affiliated unions;

@ That should any interna-
tional union withdraw from the
CLC, locals wishing to remain in
the CLC be given the opportunity
to do so.

A number of good resolutions
on international affairs call for
Canada’s withdrawal from NATO
and Norad, ratification of the
SALT II Treaty, and a reduction of
Canada’s arms budget. One such
resolution quotes the presidential
address of Dennis McDermott to
this year’s CLC convention:

“The answer is clearly for each
of us to recognize the other’s place
in society whether we agree with
their ideology or whether we don’t,
and live with a policy of contain-
ment and peaceful coexistence. The
alternative is global war and the
eventual extinction of the species.”’

While the use of the word ‘‘con-
tainment’’ carries a certain cold
war connotation, this call for
peaceful coexistence is basically a
positive statement.

The wide interest in the public
debate on a new constitution is re-
flected in eight resolutions. A reso-
lution from Local 452 of the Car-
penters advances this proposal:

‘That this Federation work fora
new made-in-Canada constitution
guaranteeing a united Canada bas-
ed on the voluntary union of the
two nations (English and French)
and social and economic policies
that will provide full employment,
adequate funds for social services,
security and dignity for working
people, satisfaction of the just
claims for Native Indians and Inuit
people and full protection for civil
and personal rights.’’,

A joint resolution from Region-
al Council No. 1 of the [WA and its
B.C. locals raises this demand:

‘«. . .that the provisions of the
new proposed constitution be a
subject of extensive national debate
before any move is madeto adopt it
and that the views and interests of
the trade union movement and
other democratic forces be sought
and heeded in the process.”

As all resolutions are referred to
the appropriate committee before
debate, it is to be hoped that the
committee which deals with the res-

RiBbUNE

olutions on a new constitution for
Canada will bring down a positive
resolution that will advance the
fight for a democratic, made-in-
Canada constitution.

There is no need to patriate the
British North American Act be-
cause it is not a Canadian act. Ra-
ther than debating whether and un-
der what conditions it should be
patriated, it should be scrapped in
favor of a new made-in
constitution.

The convention will debate
many resolutions on other subjects
of vital concern to the trade umon
movement, such as the need to
fight for full trade union rights for
public employees, women’s rights,
racism, unemployment and hous-

ing: :

Iam hopeful that the convention
will demand a freeze on ICBC cat
insurance rates, until such time aS
the provincial legislature can exam-
ine the financing and rate structure
of the corporation.

In respect to the election of offi-
cers, there is a proposal to increasé
the number of vice-presidents 10

10. Counting the president and sec: ~
retary-treasurer, it would increas¢
the number of officers to 12. This”
must be seen in connection with the
fact that there are only 16 addi-
tional executive members who, t0-
gether with the officers, constitute
the executive council.

Thereis a strong feeling now that
the executive council does not meet
often enough and that the officers
have tended to diminish the role of
the executive members. Some exec
utives maintain that if the number
of officers is to be increased to 12,
then the number of executive mem-
bers should be increased to 20 and
that the executive should meet
more frequently.

In the past few months, the offi-_
cers have identified themselves
publicly with such struggles as the
B.C. Government Employees pet
sion protest, the Brewery Workers
strike, and the B.C. Telephone
strike. This followed complaints 17
some unions that they were not do-
ing enough in organizing solidarity
actions.

Unlike previous years, there has
been no media speculation about
any potential contests for leadet-
ship positions. Some interpret this
to mean that the current leadership
is home free and that the adminis-
tration slate will not be opposed.

However, many delegates be
lieve that every candidate should be
judged on the basis of past per
formance and program and poli-
cies. There should be a wide-ope?
debate on key issues and every cal-
didate should be on the record.
That process was initiated at the
1978 leadership convention and
should be continued at this conven-
tion.

Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,
Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186

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