IL Ny By WILLIAM STEWART N EERIE silence hangs over the sprawling blue sheet steel and red brick build- ings. Massive parking lots stand empty. A thin trickle of smoke issues from the gaunt stacks into the cold winter sky. Across the street a black jeep sits, its exhaust showing white against the winter air. Engraved in white letters on its side are the words Windsor Police. Sit- ting behind the wheel is a mem- ber of Windsor’s finest—reading the paper. Three winter. clad men stand at the gate, warming their hands over a jerry built stove of two 15 gallon Chrysler paint cans, fed by slats of wood. Behind them looms a frost wire fence festooned with signs reading: “Parity and decent working con- ditions” “Our .contract is not for sale.” Chrysler of Canada strike. According to. the laws of the land the workers are on strike against the Canadian producers is on alf dewhurst RESIDENT Stavenes and Sec-_ retary Stevens of the Unit- ed Fishermen & Allied Workers Union languish in jail serving out a one year prison sentence. Their crime? Demo- cratically carrying out a consti- tutional vote of the union mem- bership. Here is how this “criminal” ‘action developed. During the course of a strike of West Coast fishermen last spring a court injunction was secured against the union order- ing the Union to dispatch a tele- gram to its members stating that the union gave permission for its striking members to unload boats, and ordering that the boats be unloaded. The union’s Officers. could not in. truth, and in compliance with the union’s constitution, send such a tele- gram. Firstly, the union had not given its permission to unload the boats. If the union officers had so stated in a telegram it would have been an outright lie. Secondly, the injunction or- dered the tuhion’ to require its members to Work in violation“of of Dodges and Plymouths. According to the workers, Chrysler of Canada is on strike against its employees. Therein lies a tale. Production ground to a halt in Windsor, Ajax and Etobicoke last Thursday as the 11,000 Chrysler workers poured out. of the gates to solve the gut issues which have hung up bargaining well beyond the November 15 expiration of the last agreement. Angry workers insist that Chryslers arrogant demand that they trade off hard won work- ing conditions for.parity, pushed . them onto the picket line. Tom Butler, who has worked ‘28. years for Chrysler told the Tribune: “They are trying: to take things away from us that we won in 1946. I came right out of the army onto the picket line and tramped that line for 103 days in 1946 to win some of these conditions. I’ll be damn- ed if I’m going to hand them back to the company just be- cause they have finally agreed to parity.” : Chrysler workers in Windsor signing up for picket duty at strike headquarters. “One thing you’ve got to understand when you talk about parity of conditions between Canadian and American work- ers,’ said Lou Harris, 16 years seniority, Paint Repair Depart- ment, “is that American work- ers have the right to strike dur- ing the life of their agreement. When the Company tries to chisel on them they can pull the pin. Here grievances pile up and pile up, most of them are never solved because the company just sits back and says, ‘take it to arbitration’. You know how many arbitration cases you win.” Union officials claim they had more than 7,000 grievances dur- ing the term of the last three year agreement, more than the 70,000 man Detroit UAW Local. Economic issues in bargain- ing are settled giving the work- ers 20 cents per hour retroactive to Nov. 15, 10 cents later this year and 9 cents in 1969 with a three year agreement. According to a top union official, parity, which is to go into effect at the end of the three year agreement, - transfers, De etd ila ‘ i ae Aine CHRYSLER STRIKE— is only worth slightly more than 16 cents per hour for assembly line workers although it ranges up as high as 43 cents for skilled trades. One union official expressed some agitation over the clause in the parity agreement worked out in the U.S. before Canadians got in on the act which he feels is the source of the present strike. Page Two of the agree- ment contains this paragraph “It is’ understood between the par- ties hereto that by reason of the granting of wage parity between Chrysler’s plants in the United States and the plants of Chrys- ler Canada Ltd. (Chrysler Cana- da herein) Chrysler is entitled to press vigorously for parity be- tween said plants with respect to working conditions, plant practices (including job posting, “open season,” applications for daily transfers and inter-plant bumping) and the UAW and its Locals 444, 1090 and 1459 agree to negotiate concerning such matters.” Considerable hostility exists amongst all Canadian UAW workers that the International would place such prime condi- tions on the block in exchange for parity. “These conditions are not for sale,” said Vic Baillargeon, the union chief picket marshall. We've got 250 days strike in- vested in them, (1946, 1962, and 1965) and I don’t care how long we have to hold out this time we're not going back to the pre- 1956 days.” Standing talking to the pickets while warming your hands over the pot burner you hear all kinds of talk ranging from Angelo Dia- mante, with 24 years of plant seniority who wants to know “how come we have got so much money for slaughter and war but ~. we want workers to slave thell) guts out under the worst pos sible conditions.” Or Georg’ Taylor, who drives truck be tween Detroit and Windsor with’ 18 years on the job who “thinks the union made a mistake i working past the Nov. 15 dead: line. It just allowed them 1 stock up on cars.” Angelo Mo destini, over from Italy in 1952) with 13 years seniority, “You gotta do what you gotta dd.’ We'll just have to stay out here six months, or longer, till wé win.” If you were rooting {0 Chrysler of Canada Limited yol would come away from thosé guys quite depressed. Me? ! wasn’t and there was an added spring to my step as I head down to the Local to warm up 4’ bit and start getting my stoly in order. | THE ISSUES Gs BROOKS, _ Local 444, United Auto Workers, told the Tribune they havé had to spell out many things 1 the agreement in a much more detailed way than in the U.S: The main issues according t0 Brooks, are: Morning and afternoon te? minute rest periods: This was negotiated six years ago. It 18 called “earned relief” becausé the workers agreed to produc at the rate of ‘104 percent”, oF to speed up the rate of the pro- duction line by 4 percent t0 compensate for the two 10 mit- ute rest periods. The Company is now demanding the same rate —— Free fishermen 's leaders a legal one) and of union prin- ciple. Thirdly, the work order by the officers would have been in violation of the union constitu- tion which requires that such questions must be decided by a vote of the union membership. It is perfectly clear that it was impossible for the Fisher- men’s officers to carry out the court order. However, in keep- ing with the union’s constitu- tion, they conducted a vote of the membership in order that the union could come to a deci- sion in respect to the injunction order, The court ruled, and this rul- ing. has been upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeals, that the tak- ing of this vote was in “con- tempt of court.” On this ruling Stevens and Stavenes were con- victed and sentenced to one year in prison. In addition the union was fined $25,000. Yet there was no other way that the union could legally make a decision, for it was the union which was ordered to send the telegram. Two basic conclusions must be drawn* frott this conviction. ¢ fhe law for the sstrikeswas a,4(}ksdnions may be ordered by FEBRUARY 9, 1968—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 4 the courts to break their own lawful strikes, by ordering their own members to cross their own picket lines. (2) Where the court order is against a union as such, the union as a whole may not consider the action it should take and the taking of a vote is in itself an act of crim- inal contempt. The use of court injunctions in trade union disputes with em- ployers is a process which is peculiar to Canada. In no other country are injunctions used as a strike-breaking device as they are in Canada. Over the past two years 50 Canadian trade unionists have been jailed through the injunctive proce- dure. Included in this number were 10 B.C. longshoremen sentenced 18 months ago to 90 days. Short- ly after this 24 trade unionists were sentenced to jail in Ont- ario as a result of an injunction in the Tilco strike. A number of Quebec teachers received similar treatment in that province. In , date 1966, four ,more, unionists . Were given. up to six months as ~ a result of the Lenkurt dispute in Vancouver. -Fund,, The directorss An important aspect related to these convictions (at least in B.C.) is the escalation of sent- ences that is taking place. The first case noted here drew three months sentences. The second case saw the sentences doubled _ to six months. It appears that the courts in B.C. have set a course of forcing the unions to follow their orders even at the price of scuttling union prin- ciples, constitutional procedures and the laws of the land. It should: be stressed that in this case there was no violence or even threats of ,violence in- volved. The “criminal actions” consisted wholly of the alleged responsibility of the officers for conducting a vote of the mem- bership, and in some critical re- marks of the court order made by Stevens. : The B.C. trade union move- ment has rallied to the fight of the Fishermen’s Union. A num- ber of CLC-affiliated unions have banded together and set up the Fishermen’s Defense ve this. fund are appealing = ppevery: : union in Canada for financial assistance in order that the fight -Fishermen's,,.De eng ind, c/0 + Roy C. Smith; Toroy -Dominion Bank, 199 East Hastings St., to set aside this anti-union con- viction and free Stevens and Stavenes can be won. The case has already cost the Fishermen more than $20,000 in legal costs in addition to the $25,000 fine. It is estimated that it will cost between $20-$30 thousand t0 fight the case in the Supreme Court of Canada. To date the Defense Fund has raised $13 | thousand. In a letter making this finan- cial appeal the Defense - Fund committee states: “The powef of the courts to issue injunc- tions in labor disputes must be taken away .. . All unionists must come to the defense of the convicted fishermen’s _ leaders. For although it is their turn this time, next time it will be some- } body else, and the courts have served their warning that next time the penalty will be even more severe.” If you want to get into this vitally important fight for. trade union and civil rights with‘a fin- ancial donation the address is: Vancouver 4, B.C.