Striking members of the Council of Pres newspaper, the Vancouver Express, despite the makeshift offices at 554 East 15 Ave. wer edition hit the streets. ss Unions have published three editions of their strike threats from the Employers’ Council. Express workers in. € already preparing for Friday's edition as the Wednesday — Express photo Pressmen defend manning policy Continued from Page 1 could be transferred - elsewhere behind newspaper picket lines in other cities.” Gary Dunster, speaking for the Printing Pressmen, echoed Needham’s charge. “Pm sure you have all heard the charge from Paddy Sherman, publisher of the Province, that the Printing Pressmen are feather- bedding,’’ he said. “Properly stated, it’s simply a question of the number of em- ployees required in the press room on a given day, determined by the number of pages being printed and the colors being used in the ads — more pages, more colors, more men . . . fewer pages, fewer colors, fewer men. “If this system, which has been in effect for. years, entailed em- ployment of men just to stand around, the employer would never have agreed to it in the first place. “We have to look deeper for the real reason. By its proposal to allow reduction of the work force by attrition, the company is merely using a device to increase the work load over period and accustom the © workers to sweat shop conditions.”’ One delegate asked Needham about “that redneck: columnist, Doug Collins, who was slamming you guys on TV last night. I thought maybe he was scabbing on you guys behind the picket lines.”’ Explaining that columnists had’ the option of joining the Newspaper Guild or remaining outside it, Needham said Collins did not belong to the guild — “‘and thank God he doesn’t.” : The United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union has pledged - to Steelworkers at the strikebound INCO smelter in Sudbury to donate salmon to the striking workers — but the pledge is waiting on a Fisheries Service opening in order that UFAWU member can catch the fish. UFAWU secretary George Hewison said this week that he had been in.contact with Dave Pat- terson, president of Local 6500 of the Steelworkers apprising him of the situation and assuring him that the union was doing everything’ possible to secure an opening or, failing that, to make some alternate arrangement. ; “The problem is that we’re nearing the end of the season, and in the places where we expected openings there haven’t been enough stocks,”’ he added. Whatever the difficulties, the solidarity offered by the UFAWU to the INCO workers, now into their 12th week of strike against the huge: multinational, has been in- dicative of the support given the Steelworkers local elsewhere in the country. “In Sudbury itself, Local 598 of the Mine-Mill and Smelter Workers at Falconbridge Nickel Mines voted to double their union dues and donate half to the INCO workers, an action that is expected to contribute some $21,000 a month to the strike fund. The Steelworkers local at Falconbridge, representing office workers, had earlier voted to donate $1,000 a month to the strikers’ defence fund. Also in Sudbury, a meeting of 3 representatives of union affiliate Employees, the Internations the Canadian Union of Pubjj employees, the Internatioys Typographical _ Union, thi Newspaper Guild, The Canadigg Food and Allied Workers Unig and the Canadian Union of Sta Workers established a strike Support committee and called jo the “full support of the trade - movement in Sudbury and acrggs the country.’’: = Backing for the local has alg been voiced in resolutions on t ¢ floor of the labor council in Toronto and other Ontario centres. < “every wheng management is trying to take things away from the workers,” The local has only been offereg an increase of 10 cents an hour —4f which six cents was already dye the workers in a_ cost-of-living increase scheduled for this month, The strike has also caught the attention of the Ontarig Legislature where the threg Sudbury area MPs applauded the steelworkers for “putting theiy dignity and integrity as a union the line” and denounced INCO foy personifying ‘‘the arrogance any nobility of capital.”’ They also took, issue with former Ontario NDN leader Stephen Lewis who, soon after the strike was called, at, tacked the local leadership foy being ‘‘militant and un predicatable.”’ a Ps The 11th biennial convention of the Hospital Employees’ Union, Local 180, held last October, raised some important questions for the trade union movement. This is an independent union based in British Columbia. Ac- cording to the report of the secretary-business manager, it now has 21,547 members in 124 units. In 1970, the union terminated its seven-year affiliation with the Canadian Union of Public Em- ployees, now Canada’s largest trade union. The separation was sparked by differences over per capita payments and provincial union autonomy. According to the secretary- business manager’s report to the October convention, if the H.E.U. was still affiliated to CUPE, it would be paying approximately $600,000 per year in per capita and strike fund assessments, which they have no desire to pay. The report points out that H.E.U. has its own servicing staff and that its strike fund stood at $600,000 as of July, 1978, with a target of $1 million. Here, it should be noted that while $1 million wouldn’t go very far if 21,457 members were on strike at the same time, the union leadership does not anticipate this will ever happen. Under the Essential Services Dispute Act, the cabinet can order a 40-day cooling- off period, during which no strike will be permitted. Further, the cabinet can request the Labor Relations Board to designate those facilities, productions and services it considers ‘‘necessary or essential to prevent immediate and serious danger to life, health or safety”’ and to order the workers involved to continue performing their normal duties, which means taking away their right to strike. The convention documents leave the impression that the leadership is prepared to live with these restrictions. LABOR COMMENT BY JACK PHILLIPS Although the H.E.U. has made application to become a direct affiliate of the Canadian Labor Congress, it has ‘been rejected. Having seceded from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, it cannot affiliate directly to the CLC without the written consent of that union, which is not forthcoming. The executive Council of the CLC Could, under the constitution, bypass the CUPE objection and by a two-thirds majority issue a Certificate of affiliation, but that does not seem to be in the cards at this time. The secretary-business manager’s report quotes from his Statement to the 1976 convention: “It is time for the Canadian Labor Congress to make up its mind. Barriers to our re-entry must be lifted soon; otherwise, the direc- tion of affiliation taken by our union will, of consequence, be altered.” The convention referred that 1976 statement to the in- coming provincial executive. As reported to this year’s con- vention, the executive adopted the following policy in respect to af- filiation: 1) to continue its unofficial PACIFIC TRIBUNE—November 10, 1978—Page 16 ‘directory published by members, connection with certain labor councils, because “local labor councils are the foundation of the strength of the mainstream of organized labor — of the Canadian Labor Congress. 2) To discontinue pressing for affiliation to the CLC, because that body “has made no real effort to deal with the Union’s application.” The orientation of the executive in respect to affiliation is perhaps indicated in the adoption of revised resolution numbér 13, calling upon the provincial executive to look into affiliating with the Con- federation of Canadian Unions and report back to the next convention, “so that a vote may be taken on affiliation with the Confederation of Canadian Unions.” According to the 1977 ees the provincial ministry of labor, the CCU had some 16,000 members in B.C., representing 3.6 percent of the organized workers. The CLC, on the other hand, had 314,707 representing 71.5 percent of the union membership. On the national scene, the CCU itself reported 26,000 members in all of Canada (1978), which represents only 0.8 percent of all organized workers. Whether the Hospital Em- ployees’ Union is making this move as a pressure play to make the CLC leadership more receptive to their application is debatable. If it af- filiated to the CCU, it would be a tremendous boost to the latter body. However, it would do very little for hospital workers. For example, the unofficial connection with a number of labor councils would be endangered; because H.E.U. would then belong to a rival center which is often in conflict with CLC affiliates over jurisdiction, with frequent charges and counter charges of raiding and dirty tricks. It is my opinion that the hospital union should mount a campaign to obtain support for its reaffiliation to the CLC. The leadership of the CLC, on the other hand, should look at the facts objectively. If the H.E.U. membership is not prepared to return through reaf- filiating with CUPE, should the door remain closed to a direct affiliation as a provincial union? Personally, I believe this matter should be re-examined. When the union disaffiliated in 1970, it had less that 9,000 members. Today it has more that 21,000 members. The 1978 convention sharply condemned the drive for right-to- work laws (to outlaw the closed shop and the union shop) and declared that the ultimate ob- jective is the destruction of unions. In line with some sharp criticism of the Bennett Government, $100,000 was set aside from the defence fund to establish a political education committee. This money is to be used “for the purpose of: supporting those politicians who support the aims and objectives of the Hospital Employees’ Union and for the purpose of fighting right-to- work campaigns.” The convention voiced some dissatisfaction over the role of the Registered Nurses’ Association and the Health Sciences Association in collective bargaining, alleging that these two groups undermined the position of the H.E.U. in the 1978 contract negotiations. : According to the secretary- business manager, unless his union (the largest of the three) is able to establish a strong council of trade unions on a voluntary basis by the with that country. It also called for Y next convention, it may apply to the Labor Relations Board to establish such a council by decree, It is to be hoped that the unions will be able to settle this problem on a voluntary basis. Going to the Labor Relations Board would be an ad- mission of failure. and would provide encouragement for the provincial government to again intrude into the internal affairs of the trade union movement. Among the general resolutions adopted by the convention was one on South Africa, which called upon the Canadian government to cut off all commercial and diplomatic ties with South Africa and to ban all trade and financial transactions a boycott of all goods from South Africa or produced by South African firms in Canada. Another resolution called upon all nations to put an end to the production of nuclear and biological armaments and to work towards peaceful co-existence. _ Members of this union have told me that in their opinion, there is room for improvement in terms of taking up grievances, notification in respect to membership meetings and inner-union democracy. That is for the membership as a whole to” judge and to make any necessary corrections. : In the meantime the members should concern themselves. with government policy as it affects the level of health care and staffing, — the strong campaign to take away. free collective bargaining rights from public employees and the future of their union in terms of affiliation. No one union,no matter how big, can afford to stand alone in face of the concentrated attacks on living : : standards and trade union rights.