TORONTO — A tentative, two-year pact was initialled, Sept. 15 between the Canadian section of the United Auto Workers and General Motors, on behalf of GM’s 33,000 Canadian workers. The offer, which was unanimously re- commended by the UAW-GM master ining committee some 11 hours be- fore the 12:01 a.m. strike deadline, Sept. 15, saw the UAW lose the 10 personal paid holidays, (PPHs) which had once been heralded by the union as an impor- tant advance toward the shorter work week. GM workers packed meeting halls in six Ontario and two Quebec locations, Sept. 19, to decide whether the contract was good enough, despite the conces- Sions, to see them through the next two years of rough economic times. In addition to the loss of the PPHs, here’s what they had to mull over. Ac- cept or reject: e maintenance of the three PPHs al- ready negotiated under the current agreement; e retention of the current COLA, which is based on a calculation weighted 90% of the American inflation index and 10% on Canada’s, witha switch in March 1984 to a completely Canadian-based COLA formula; e no wage increase till March of 1984, when a general wage hike of 28 cents will take effect. The major difference between the Canadian agreement being proposed for ratification and the pact signed between the American UAW leadership and GM is the gaining of a 28-cent increase in the last six months of the Canadian pact, the | retention of the COLA and the introduc- tion of a Canadian COLA formula for the first time. The U.S. agreement saw the workers lose their PPHs, forego a wage hike for duration of the agreement, and con- ined an 18-month deferral of the COLA. Canadians will lose some money be- cause the COLA won't be folded into the basic wage rates at the end of the con- tract. This will affect such calculations as sickness and accident benefits and over- time payment. The fact that the COLA remains tied to a mainly U.S. formula has been a source of discontent among Canadian auto workers since the U.S. inflation rate began dropping relative to the steadily climbing Canadian rate. St. Catharines GM worker Don Quinn pointed out how his COLA payout drop- ped drastically when the U.S. rate of in- flation began to descend. ‘‘Over the last couple of years’, he said, ‘“‘we would get 21-23 cents over the last three-month period as a COLA adjustment. When in- flation dropped in the States, the COLA payout dropped to 12 cents even though Canadian inflation continued to climb.” LABGR UAW initials pact with concessions deal the union could get out of GM under the circumstances, and said the member- ship would have to decide on Sept. 19, whether the contract was an advance or demand for concessions. There’s no question of the vast array for forces lined up against the union in its fight with GM. Pushing for its Cana- dianized version of the U.S. concessions agreement, GM threatened to pull up stakes and leave the country in an effort to intimidate the workers into surrender. In its campaign, GM had the full backing of big business and its media, losing few opportunities to attack the UAW leader- ship for the campaign against conces- sions. “Younger guys are concerned about their jobs because the PPHs are cancelled . . . older workers say you don’t give up the things you've achieved without a fight.” GM management weren’t particularly gloomy about the deal they negotiated with the UAW. Rod Andrew, GM’s di- rector of personnel for the Canadian arm of the multi-national said the proposed pact would save GM some $50-million over the next two years. ‘‘We certainly bargained with the idea that it took some- thing like this (the Canadian conces- sions) in order to help the economy and spur car sales, and the union has shown the willingness to co-operate in that fash- ion and come to a tentative agreement’, he said. UAW director for Canada, Bob White, . admitted in his announcement of the tentative agreement that the union was under great pressure to sign an agree- ment without resorting to a strike. If there were two messages that the Cana- dian UAW leader hammered on during the talks it was that the union was not going to bargain away any concessions, and that the union did not want to strike unless forced into it by the corporation. White maintained that it was the best Then there was undoubtedly pressure from the American section of the union, itself. It was no secret to observers of the talks that the top UAW leadership south of the border wasn’t keen on a major Canadian victory that moved in the op- posite direction to accepting concessions and would demonstrate to critics inside the union that militant resistance to concessions served the workers’ inter- ests better than collaboration with the corporations. The Canadian leadership argues that with retention of the COLA, a partial wage increase and introduction of the ‘principle of a Canadian COLA formula- tion, it has made significant advances over the contract American workers were saddled with. Pressure was also felt by the intimidat- ing atmosphere created by Ottawa’s and the provincial government’s projection of their ‘6 and 5 world”’ of wage controls against the federal and provincial public sector workers. Responding to the ques- tion whether he felt the loss of PPHs _. FHANKS POE DICE guppy , the union’s record, challenging other an accommodation to the company’s * _ bent holds the Oshawa constituency that _ Winnipeg labor backs Cruise protest WINNIPEG — Labor council delegates voted Sept. 8 to throw their full support behind the Oct. 30 *‘Refuse the Cruise’’ (missile) demonstration being planned here as part of a national day of protest against proposed Cana- dian Government participation in nuclear weapons testing. The request for support from the Winnipeg Co-ordinating Committee for Disarmament, (WCCD), the umbrella group or- ganizing the march and rally, was strongly endorsed by rank and file delegates despite an attempt by: the council’s executive to down- play the disarmament issue. The executive had suggested that individual union locals and would sabotage the Canadian Labor Congress’ fightback against wage con- trols and concessions, White defended }) unions to match the UAW’s high profile | in the campaign. TL However, the question wasn’t put to the UAW leader as to what he thought of the total silence of the CLC either during | the auto talks or the negotiations in B.C. | over the imposition on the B.C. }} Government Employees by Premier Wil- | liam Bennet’s 6.5% and 5% wage guide- | lines. a The only union leader to demonstrate | the spirit of the CLC convention’s man- || date to fight concessions and controls was Sean O’Flynn, president of the On- tario Public Service Employees, (OP- SEU), who last week responded to speculation about the ‘introduction of public sector wage controls by Ontario’s Tory government by calling it ‘‘class legislation’’ and: pledging the -union would fight it tooth and nail. The CLC’s silence so far has only been matched by that of the New Democratic Party, whose federal leader Ed Broad- GM sits in. Sandy O’Dell chairman of the Unity Caucus, in St. Catharines GM and a member of UAW Local 119 noted ‘‘an underlying current of anger’’ among his fellow workers over the proposed con- tract. ““Basically the guys don’t under- stand how we can put all this effort in the no concessions fight, then turn around and take a contract with concessions’’, he said. The loss of the 10 PPHs will mean the loss of 1,500 GM jobs, and in St. Catharines it will mean an estimated 300 layoffs. O’Dell cited the discontent of younger workers as well as GM vete- rans. “The younger guys are concerned about their jobs, because of the cancel- lation of the PPHs,’’ he said. ‘‘The at- titude among older workers is that there’s no way you give up the things you’ ve achieved over the years without a fight.”’ trade union members should be — left to take their own initiative for the protest. However, other council members insisted the | labor council must be officiall rep- _ resented at the rally with its ban-— ner. ‘ The council reinforced its deci- sion to support the rally by voting to have a representative from the labor council to the WCCD. These council decisions represent an important step forward from last spring when the executive could only be forced into luke warm support for the June 12 | peace rally which attracted nearly ~ 20,000 Manitobans to the provin- cial legislature grounds to demon- strate for disarmament.