6 AHEAD? members, such as still exist in Canada. __ swell corporate profits. ‘teelworkers need a fighting program and firm leadership to implement it! As the Tribune pointed out last March, the danger then facing Canadian union members in basic steel bargaining was that it could bring cheap settlements along the line of the Experimental Negotiating Agreement (ENA) in the USA. South of the US.- Canadian border ENA means accommodation between the union and the largest U.S. steel companies on the basis of a no strike policy. The acceptance of this policy by the Steelworkers Union back in 1973, was the result of the exclusion of the membership from the negotiating process and the fact that U.S. members of the USWA still have no right to a membership ratification vote on negotiated settlements by means of a referendum involving all Unless Canadian members of the union are vigilant enough to protect their rights, they can stand to loose significant gains made over.the years through hard struggles.- These gains include the right - to a membership referendum to ratify all contracts, a right which is crucial to the fullest involvement of all union members in the collective bargaining process. It: could also mean the smuggling in of gimmicks such as work-sharing at lower pay, complete reliance on the so-called Cooperative Wage Study (CWS) program, which is.a “rob Peter to pay Paul’’ program, and cannot ever become a substitute for maximum wage gains based on a policy of aggressive bargaining. Or, it could mean some psychological gimmickry, such as ‘‘profit-sharing’’ to make workers produce more for less pay to The United States steel industry at its low point last February . produced 9.6 million tons of raw steel with 300,000 production workers. But by May, the latest available figures show this had risen to 12.3 million tons, while employment was still only 338,000. This means that from February to May, production increased by 28%, but employment only 2.4%. This was accomplished through massive speed-up, job combinations, harassment, forced overtime, neglect of health and safety, contracting out of jobs and general violations of contract. Steel Program. It is this which the Canadian Tribune warned against last March, when it presented a program published by the Central Executive - Committee of the Communist Party of Canada. Here is that program in full. e A firm stand for adequate wage increases to maintain and improve living standards and to compensate the workers for inflationary price rises and rising productivity. The concept that workers should forego wage increases ‘“‘to make industry competi- tive and to save jobs’’ should be firmly rejected, as a bankrupt policy that will do the exact opposite by extending inflation and unemployment to enhance monopoly profits. e A four-day 32-hour work week at 40 hours pay; no forced overtime. This is the only realistic way to combat unemployment and to save jobs, while at the same time maintaining the workers’ take-home pay and living standards. e No layoffs, relocation of plants or plant closures without negotiations with the union based on extended advance notice of no less than one year. Workers to be provided with adequate severance pay, plus adequate pensions, indexed against inflation. e The, unfettered right to strike during the life of the union contract on all matters, including those pertaining to managerial abuse and against intolerable working conditions, to enforce health and safety on the job and against employers’ violation of contract provisions. For speedy and efficient handling of grievances on the job and an end to costly and procrastinating system of arbitration _ and other legalisms which bring no results but only endless frustrations. e Involvement of the whole membership in the negotiating process, coordination based on solidarity between local unions and the backing of the entire union behind workers involved. Day-to-day information on progress, or lack of it, will make the members ready to respond to whatever action may have to be taken, including all-out participation in any ratification referendum on final contract terms when that time comes. : e Any annexationist and continental approaches need to be combatted inasmuch as they serve both United States and Canadian monopoly interests. Despite U.S. economic domination, Canada is an independent country with laws, customs and a political life of its own. The assertion of full Canadian autonomy through the upgrading of the Canadian office of the union and a higher profile for its Canadian director is the best way to assert both true Canadian patriotism and international solidarity and working-class inter- nationalism. that we ‘‘agreed”’ to in accepting the con- tract. What we got was essentially a weakened version of the 1975-1978 con- tract. Prior to settling, rumors abounded about imminent cutbacks and layoffs. Stelco as usual pleaded poverty. It ap- Stelco worker: Inco strikers must have our support — : By ART WALLING HAMILTON — Now. that the dust is Settling over United Steelworkers Local 1005°s contract settlement, we are be- ginning to see the consequences of that Settlement. After almost ‘‘secret’’ negotiations. We were presented with proposals which were sizeably incomplete. All that is re- quired to prove this is a comparison of the Negotiating Report and the Full Con- tract with its several changes. Almost no one knew of the changes, (good or bad), peared that we'd have been on strike for ‘tages’ to achieve nothing. Algoma struck for 10 days and got a better con- tract than we did. (Algoma Steel was poverty-stricken too, wasn't it?). So far, there have been no major cut- backs in operations at Stelco beyond those for machinery overhaul and in those departments which are “‘up and down” in-operations regularly. The steel industry here is very healthy at this: mo- ment. It may seem strange. such a sud- den turnabout after August I (and our settlement). Next time the “rumors” of 1978 will be remembered. What we are locked into is a three-year continuation of what we already had. The Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) is not enough since it does not reflect per- centage changes in the cost of living and is based on an inaccurate Statistics Canada Consumer Price Index (CPI) which the.government is proposing to revise to make worse. If it does so. what does this mean to our earnings based on CPI increases? A combined bargaining strategy for Stelco, Algoma and Inco would certainly not have hurt us: the contracts all expired near the same date. Since this is now done and over with as far as we are concerned, we must now give as much support as possible to the Inco strikers, who have taken on the stif- fest fight of all with one of the most pow- erful and ruthless multinational corpora- tions. Moreover this is a U.S.-based cor- poration which has exported both capital and jobs overseas with both the unpaid labor we do for them through exploita- tion, as well as by our tax dollars. Art Walling is an active member of Local 1005 USWA and a delegate to the Hamil- ton Labor Council. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 6, 1978—Page 5 -