BW NAH win

AUTO — NEGOTIATIONS '79

Shorter work week high priority on
GM workers list of contract demands __.

By RUSS RAK
GM Oshawa

OSHAWA — For the past couple of
months, UAW Local 222 General
Motors Unit Shop Committee, repre-
senting about 14,000 GM auto workers in
Oshawa, has been busy formulating new
contract demands. The existing UAW
GM agreement expires Sept. 14, 1979,
and new contract negotiations between
the UAW and GM are slated to com-
mence July 16, 1979.

Harry Irwin, chairman of UAW 222
shop committee, reported to the Jan. 29
meeting of his entire committee that sev-
eral meetings of the top UAW bargaining
teams from the various GM plants and
the UAW Intracorporation Council had
already been held to discuss new con-
tract demands. He said ‘‘he was calling
the entire Local 222 GM Shop Commit-
tee out of the plants on Feb. 5 and 6 to
prepare amendments to our master
agreement. These proposed amend-
ments will then be sent on tothe UAW
Bargaining Conference (Crash Conven-
tion) for adoption. Before the new de-
mands’ are submitted to the company,
they will be presented to the membership
for approval.

Since last fall, the UAW membership
in the plants has been requested to sub-
mit their proposals for new contract de-
mands on special forms distributed for
that purpose. High on the list of priority
proposals from the membership, is the

om ki) for a shorter work week to at
ast 36

hours with no reduction in pay. A
36-hour work week would make it possi-
ble to eliminate the Friday night shift,
with both shifts working only four hours
on Friday, (day shift 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.
and night shift 1 p.m.toSp.m.) |
The reason Local 222 members feel
that this demand is winable and long
overdue is that there has been a lot of

publicity about making the shorter work .
week a priority demand in 1979 negotia- -

tions.
During the Local 222 union executive

Vs 1-78

and bargaining committee efection held
last spring, both caucuses promised to
make the shorter work week a priority
demand in 1979. Also, Abe Taylor,
vice-president and former president of
Local 222, in an interview with the

Picture is not rosey
for Windsor autoworkers

By GERARD O’NEILL
Laid-off Ford worker

WINDSOR — With unemployment on
the rise again, no matter how the Liberals
and Conservatives juggle the figures, re-
lief seems far away.

Here in Windsor, workers at the Ford
plant, members of United Auto Workers
Local 200, started the year with less than
a rosey picture. Plant re-tooling for en-
gine down-sizing will keep 1,600 workers
on layoff from four to six months. Be-
cause of the length of the layoffs, inverse
seniority was not used, so the younger
workers were the victims of the
company.

$3.5 billion for GM

DETROIT — General Motors
Corporation, giant of the U.S.
-auto makers, reported a net profit
‘for the year ended Dec. 31, 1978,
of $3.5-billion, on sales of $63.2-
billion. Fhe 1977 figures were:
profit — $3.3-billion, sales —
$54.9-billion.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 16, 1979— Page 4

While there is a feeling that the effects
of the layoffs are offset by Unemploy-
ment and SUB (Supplemental Unem-
ployment Benefits) to the tune of 95% of
wages, the figures tell a somewhat diffe-
rent story.

Taking the base rate and Cost-of-
Living-Allowance (COLA) combined of
$8.185 over a normal 48-hour week, we
arrive at $425.62, 95% of which would
give you just over $400 gross per week.

Using the same base and COLA, UIC
and SUB, would pay $154 and $89 re-
spectively for a weekly total of $243
gross, approximately $157 short of 95%
or $3,768 short over six months.

The loss of wages means a substantial
drop in the standard of living for laid off
workers and the community of Windsor
in general. This comes on top of last
summer's closing of the Chrysler truck
plant which eliminated 750 jobs.

While Queen’s Park and .Ottawa are
busy adjusting figures, auto workers in
Windsor are coming up against some
hard facts. UIC and SUB are only part of

the answer. Full employment “and a.

Canadian democratically planned and
controlled auto industry are a must to
safeguard jobs and insure a rising stan-

dard of living.

Oshawa Times, June 3, 1978 was quoted
as saying ‘‘he was certain the UAW
would make the short work week a firm
demand in 1979”’ and that ‘‘ . . . 36 hours
is anything but unreasonable.”’

Also high on the list of priority de-
mands submitted by the rank and file
membership are the demands for: pen-
sion indexed to COLA; improved work-
ing conditions; less speedup; improved
job transfer rights; elimination of health
and safety hazards. Some of the major
health:and' safety hazards in the Oshawa
plants are high noise levels in spray
booths, exposure to toxic chemicals,
fumes and dusts, and excessive heat in
certain painting departments in the
summer...

The retention of the present system of
rest periods where the production lines
are shut down for two 10-minute rest
periods during an eight-hour shift is also
a priority demand with Oshawa workers.
Last fall GM tried to get the workers to
trade their ‘‘rest periods’’ for the inferior
U.S. system of ‘‘tag relief’ which would
permit GM to operate the line without
stops for’rest periods. But the union flatly
rejected this attempt and informéd GM
that our ‘‘rest periods’ were not for sale.
Since-then GM has made no mention of
“tag relief’ system hoping, no -doubt,

that workers would think the company -

has given up on the idea.

However, there is one thing we can be ~

sure of, and that is that GM will be mak-

-ing the introduction of ‘‘tag relief’ and

elimination of ‘‘rest. periods’? a major

demand on the union 1979 contract .

negotiations. We have to be prepared to

fight the company all the way on this.

issue, and let our bargaining committee
know that we will not give away any of
our hard-won gains.

Branch plant —

economics
affecting
thousands

By DON QUINN
GM St. Catharines

ST. CATHARINES — The Niagara

Region has the distinction of having the
highest rate of unemployment in the Pro- |
vince of Ontario, and the second highest
throughout Canada. Part of this ‘‘distinc-
tion’’ were the 200 workers, with many
years of service, who were thrown into
the ranks of the unemployed when their
employer, Columbus-McKinnon, closed
its doors on August 18, 1978, and moved
the operations to the USA.

To date there still remain 20 workers
without jobs; the rest of the workers
were either forced into early retirement,
accepting jobs at lower pay, where they
could get them, or forced to upset their
home lives by working outside of town,
as far away as Hamilton. :

The workers’ fight was taken up by the
Canadian UAW Council, led by Bob
White, Canadian director of the UAW in
the form of a boycott of Columbus-
McKinnon products by all UAW mem-
bers.

committee of General Motors Unit of

‘Local 199 UAW, St. Catharines, has

unanimously supported the boycott of
Columbus-McKinnon products, and

workers in the plant have refused to use —

these products coming into the plant,

with the support of their bargaining

committee.

Despite this, Ontario Labor Minister
Robert Elgie knowingly stands by, while
C-M products, such as hoists, chain and

. dollies flow across the border into Cana-

da, and are being stored in warehouses
such as the one on Brant St., in Bur-
lington, Ont., from which they are dis-
tributed to industries across Canada.
This vicious form of branch plant
economics is affecting thousands of in-
dustrial workers, by forcing them onto
the rolls of unemployment and welfare.
At the same time, these corporations
are reaping record profits, at the expense
of the laid-off workers, and the workers
in the USA, who are victims of low wage
legislation and sweat shop conditions.

Be it an Elgie at Queen’s Park, or a

Horner in Ottawa, these big business
politicians serve their corporate masters
well, totally at the expense and well be-
ing of Canadian workers.

Question of this nature have to be high
on the agenda in forthcoming negotia-
tions.

ot

BYCAL 199 uAy

| STRIKE AGAINS;

COLUMBUS.

_ McKINNON
AKEAWAYS

Workers protesting the shutting of _
Columbus-McKinnon last summer. | va

At the local level, the bargaining