BELL WORKERS PULL THE PLUG QUEBEC CITY — Without a contract since last November, 700 of Bell Canada’s 13,000 techni- cians held a one-day strike April 10 to protest the phone monopoly’s lousy contract offers. Members of the Communications Workers of Canada, the technicians are await- ing the appointment by the federal labor minister of a conciliation commissioner or his permission for the union to strike if it wants. Talks broke down in January and con- ciliation collapsed in March. PAPERMAKERS ON STRIKE ST. JOHN — MacMillan Rothesay Ltd., was shut down by a strike April 11 of the 475- member Local 601 Canadian Pap- ermakers Union. The workers are demanding a 9% wage hike and voted with their feet against the company’s tiny 5.5% proposal. OPSEU TESTS BAD LAW TORONTO — The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) challenged the provincial government’s right to bar public service workers from participating in the federal elections. OPSEU in the Ontario Supreme Court April 11, that the Public Service Act, which bars Crown employees from canvassing in elec- tions or standing for public office doesn’t apply because the Act has no jurisdiction over a federal elec- tion. The action is on behalf of three OPSEU members either running or playing a prominent role in the federal election cam- paign. HOLMES WORKERS LOSE A WEEK SARNIA — The American Motors Corp., subsidiary Holmes Foundry Ltd., calls it a furlough, but the 250 workers call it alay-off as the company announced April _10 the workers would have to cool their heels at home until April 16. More than half of the plant’s 400 employees are getting the week- long lay-off so the company can “adjust its inventory’’ of engine blocks. AMC in the U.S. called the shots. DEAFNESS A GROWING PROBLEM TORONTO — A consultant with the Workmen’s Compen- sation Board told an industrial ac- cident prevention seminar, April 10, that industrial noise can step up the effects of aging by as much as 20 years and it’s only through the vigilance of the labor movement that the issue is becoming known. Compensation claims for hearing damage has reached about 2,500 per year over the past three, with mining, steelmaking and pulp and paper industries taking the lead. SUPPORT THE HEALTH CUTS DONT GET SICK ! URS “&- TENE More hospital beds demanded Timbrell told to stop cutbacks TORONTO — Armed with a petition containing some 5,534 names from the Thunder Bay reg- ion a citizen’s delegation de- manded that Ontario Health Minister Dennis Timbrell and the Tory government stop health ser- vice cutbacks. Led by Thunder Bay alderman John P. Packota, the delegation representing the Northwestern Ontario Conference on Hospital 4 April 3 to demand: e a stop to further hospital bed closures in the area; -e the re-opening of all active treatment beds previously closed in the district hospitals outside Thunder Bay, as active treatment beds, and the re-opening of those closed in Thunder Bay as ex- tended care, chronic care or re- habilitative beds, ‘and to fund them accordingly; e Ontario provide enough funding to adequately staff hospitals; e more chronic care and nursing care beds for northwestern On- tario; e and, that Ontario abandon its reactionary user fee policy on chronic care beds. Packota told reporters, ‘‘It’s more than just a number of beds being phased out. I believe people are actually dying as a result of the cutbacks.” The brief presented by the de- legation, with the 5,000-name pet- ition was the outcome of a citi- zens meeting in Thunder Bay on Hospital Bed Closures, held Jan.. - 29, 1979. Some 98 delegates regis- tered, with: many more taking part, to do something about the Ontario Tories’ arbitrary cutback of 114 active treatment beds on top of 230 Thunder Bay hospital beds which had already been cut. The cuts, the brief noted, are aimed at setting an arbitrary ratio of four active treatment beds per 1,000 of population with the vei- Ottawa, UN called to pressure China’s withdrawal Calgary labor supports Vietnam CALGARY — Labor council delegates condemned China’s ag- gression against Vietnam, and heard calls for support from the striking Inco workers and Cana- da’s 23,000 harassed postal work- ers, April 2. Council delegates unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for the withdrawal of all Chinese troops from Vietnam and urged the federal government and the United Nations to support Chinese withdrawal and call for both countries to settle their dif- ferences through negotiations. . Gary Patterson, representing Local 6500 United Steelworkers was warmly received by the dele- - gates as he appealed for more financial help for the epic strike against Inco Metals. He told dele- gates of the $2-million a month cost of keeping the strike going and that with the $385,000 pro- vided weekly by the international union there was a short-fall of $250,000 a month which had to be filled. Patterson praised the ‘‘Wives Supporting the Strike commit- tee’’ saying, “‘we would not have made it over Christmas, if not for the women.” Canadian Union of Postal Workers delegate Jim Hall in- formed the delegates of the con- tract settlement imposed on postal workers by Judge Tremblay. Hall noted that it in- cluded a loss in the real purchas- ing power of postal workers’ wages relative to 1976, and that the. so-called agreement was based on the terms of the employer's latest and lowest of- fer. It included provisions for re- introducing electronic surveil- lance, and unilateral re-classi- fication of workers that will per- mit the boss to engage in favoritism. Hall said that individual work measurement will be re- introduced and said of Tremblay: **He was employed by the boss to do his bidding, and served him well. Let no one look for im- provements in the postal service with this settlement."’ Once again, the council re- jected the request from the Un- ited Appeal for three labor volun- teers in its fund drive campaign. Ron Brown, Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 37 rep- resentative, and newly elected president. of CUPE’s 23,000- member Alberta division, blasted the United Way for the under- “PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 20, 1979—Page 4 handed way they operate in Cal- gary and for the way some of the groups belonging to it, oppose labor. He spoke of workers who in the past had been pressured to donate generously with the suggested promise it would make their jobs more secure. Brown then cited the example of one guch employee who gave in to the pres- sure and found himself laid offjust before Christmas. When his 12 months of United Way deduc- tions were taken off, he was left with a pay cheque for $15. Calgary CUPW local president Jim Hall said by giving in to chari- ty, labor wasn’t solving any prob- lems because there would always be another charity found. He con- trasted the $4billion Alberta Heritage Trust Fund held by the Tory government and questioned the need for social service cut- backs or an appeal to working people for charity. The delegates also agreed to support the campaigri by the Amalgamated Clothing and Tex: tile Workers against J.P. Stevens and agreed to organize a post card campaign to be sent to Eaton’s Co., a major retailer of J.P. Ste- vens products. Bed Closures met with Timbrell 2 i led threat that this ratio may be cut even more. : Despite these cuts, the delega- tion told Timbrall, the group’s re- search shows that where 707 sick people were awaiting hospital beds in 1977, in 1979 the figure climbed to 1,000. In an average month more than 100 patients are spending at least one night in emergency. The cuts have led to elective surgery of seriously ill or poten- tially ill patients being postponed or cancelled. The information quoted to Timbrell came from a letter from the Board of Gover- nors of a Thunder Bay hospital to the district health council.. Patients are being discharged too early in some cases, the brief charged. Timbrell was told about’ one particular night when every intensive.care unit bed in the hos- pital was filled, and asked what would have happened to these pa- tients in the event of a serious ac- A citizens’ delegation from Thunder Bay demanded the Ontario Toy government stop its health care cutbacks and the user-fee system — proposed for chronic care patients. Left to right: Alderman John Pack ta, Pearl Davidson, Vera Hall, and Donald MacLean. ‘to MPPs, and the government”’ cident or illness, in the commis ‘ ty. ° The Tories tried to sk around the use fee issue by ta about the exemptions introdiigel under opposition press Though these exemptions § ttened the impact of the origind proposal it is still widely criticized as another dangerous step awa) from universal and public healt care system. The Thunder Bay delegation was supported by many. local or ganizations and institutions ir cluding the labor movement, t0 finance the trip to Toronto and conduct a pressure campaign of the government to stop scuttling) the health care and social services| — system built up over the yea ol) hard fighting. “We're going to carry ou pres: - sure campaign with more lettery - Packota said outside Timbrell’y Office. “After all they are our ser vants.” Demand for fightback against health cuts Special to the Tribune LONDON — A health care conference here, April 2-4, of On- tario unionists has appealed to the Ontario Federation of Labor to host an all-in, province-wide gathering to deal with the crisis in Ontario health care and hospitals. A resolution passed at a Cana- dian Union of Public Employees health care conference has also been forwarded to the union’s provincial convention which takes place in May. The St. Catharines Labor Council also passed a similar re- solution directed to the OFL. These actions come while a groundswell of public outrage against health cutbacks is sweep- ing Ontario. Queensway Hospital officials called in the press last week to view more than 20 patients, most of them seriously ill, waiting in the lobby for admittance. The hospi- tal had informed all abulances not to bring in any more cases. __ The health ministry was pro- ceeding with the phasing out of Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in the face of unanimous reaction against it in the community it. serves, and in mental care circles. More than 40 people were carted out last week. Stung by the public reaction to - the health cutbacks, Ontario Health Minister Timbrell met _ joy to the backroom boys at Bay a with the Ontario Health Associa tion officials representing docto and tried to give some assu to the public after the meeting thal) the whole health scheme was crumbling. Sy ‘Inner government circles , divided on the health cutback is sue. Strident cutback advocates) — such as Timbrell, quote reports showing public support for such measures. More moderate ele ments in the Cabinet, including many who see a threat to the T rule at Queen’s Park, answer while people may seem to sup; the ‘‘general principles’’ of cut) backs, when it comes to key affecting them, such as health, education, etc., they are stro: opposed to government actions. The government is not likely to feel the full impact of the gro movement until after the federal elections as no one wishes to dup licate the British Columbia scené of two elections at the same time: With the Federal election out of the way however the full wrath of the people could be brought to bear on the Tories in Queen’s Park, possibly forcing an election on the-health care issue. It is not a scenario that brings St. It could however show some light at the end of the tennel fora long suffering casts across. the province.