By ART WALLING

HAMILTON — The steel industry here
has been called one of the most modern

_ and efficient in North America. Steel-

= Workers, members of Local 1005 at Stel-

_ 0's Hilton Works, might agree that this
_) efficiency exists in the exploitation of their
| labor as well as in the production of steel.

However, despite its expertise in steel

sed Production and exploitation, the economic
4) 8nd political crisis of the capitalist system

aro has not passed over the steel industry. A

look at the layoff figures makes this abun-
tly clear.

: __ Stelco in all of Canada had 16,000 union-
' this workers in 1981. In January of 1982,
¢ ing salaried and non-union employees,

was down to 10,000 not includ-

ire Who have also suffered considerable lay-

mW

offs.

This is simply a reflection of the general
Crisis of the capitalist world as expressed
vee ne markets, particularly in the
USA where the steel industry is only
Operating at 30% capacity and marked by
the closing of entire operations such as the
Most recent closure of operations at Lack-
awanna in New York state.

The level of productivity at Stelco and

© in Hamilton has been touted as
among the highest and best in the world.
The Phoney argument of declining pro-
paevty cannot be used as the scapegoat,
re.

Stelco is Canada’s largest producer of
Steel. In 1981, the company forced their
Workers on to the street in a bitter strike
battle that ceased production for four
Months. ee
_ The members of Local 1005 were able to
Overcome economic and political attacks
and still emerge from the conflict with signi-

t gains.

‘No concessions!’
— Stelco workers

leadership, by and large, renewed their
mandate by scoring victories in the local
unions elections.

Dofasco, Canada’s and Hamilton’s sec-
ond largest steel producer, has forced
concessions on its workers, who aren’t
organized into the trade union movement.
The corporation has been successful in
keeping the United Steelworkers at a dis-
tance over the years by matching the gains
of union workers won in sharp struggles.

Another myth was exploded when
Dofasco laid off 2,100 workers and imple-
mented a reduced cost of living (COLA)
schedule that will freeze wages well below
those at Stelco, Algoma, (Sault Ste Marie)
and several smaller fabricating shops.

Stelco has not been idle in the pursuit of
cutbacks and concessions. It has frozen
COLA payments to its non-union salaried
workers which will save the company
$12-million by 1984.

According to Local 1005 president Cec
Taylor, if the same freezes were applied to
unionized workers, Stelco could net
another $30-million in the same period.

Needless to say, Stelco has launched a
campaign to have the contract with Local
1005 re-opened. There are 4,000 Hilton
workers on layoff, and the company has
seized on their hardships with a cynical
proposal to negotiate around the mainten-
ance of the supplementary unemploy-
ment benefits (SUB) fund if the contract is
re-opened.

Currently, there is $1.8-million sitting as
a surplus in the medical benefits fund, of
which the company proposes to use half,
along with the 14 cent per hour contri-
bution by workers to stabilize the SUB
fund.

The company will let the workers do
this, i.e., finance the fund out of their own
pockets, if the union agrees to re-open the

RIBUNE PHOTO — KERRY WILSON

contract and negotiate unspecified con-
cessions.
1005: No to Concessions!

Stelco has cried the blues in their
magazine “‘Stelco Flashes’’ and attempted
to outflank the union by communicating
these demands directly to the workers by
letter, and through the media to the com-
munity at large.

Stelco workers are being called on to
save the steel industry for the common
good, even though there has been no men-
tion of job security, recalls, or any other
tangible benefits for their requested sacri-
fices.

The union has replied with an emphatic,
‘‘No!”’ to the company demands and have
taken steps to rally the members in de-
fence of their contract.

Even as this battle rages, Stelco has
maintained production and staff at their
new Lake Erie operations at Nanticoke,
even hiring some workers. The raw steel
produced at Nanticoke must be shipped 47
miles to the Hilton works in Hamilton for
reheating and finishing, at considerable
cost.

It is very obvious that Local 1005 is the
target of a vicious political and economic
thrust as a means of punishing the workers

for their strike victories and to force them
to accept concessions that have already
been forced upon non-union and salaried
help, and the non-union producers at
Dofasco.

The Nanticoke workers are also mem-
bers of the Steelworkers, and no one in
Hamilton is suggesting they shouldn’t be
fully employed and productive. However,
the fact remains that the members of Local
1005 and their militant leaders are the
targets of Stelco’s union-busting and greed
campaigns.

No Openers or Concessions!

The union has indicated it intends to
fight for the contract at Stelco to give no
quarter, no openers, or concessions, be-
cause these would do nothing to alleviate
the crisis in the steel industry, nor put one
worker back on the job.

It is merely another case of a large corp-
oration, trying to finance the hardships
and failings of the capitalist system out of
the pockets of the workers.

Local 1005 is maintaining a militant and
principled defence of its membership. It is
undertaking very aggressive campaigns to
unite the public on behalf of the un-
employed.

Shortly after the strike, the militant

Workers at the giant Stelco mills in Hamilton are being
confronted, perhaps, with the most serious problem they
ve encountered in their work life.

_ The company has requested an opening of the collec-
tive agreement for the purpose of ‘“‘moderating projected
Wage and benefit cost increases during this period of
Severe economic depression”. The union has declined
the company request and the company has gone directly
to the workers in a letter signed by Stelco chairman J.P.
Gordon. :

_ Inhis letter, Gordon draws a bleak picture for the steel
industry world wide. He notes the U.S. industry, operat-
ing at 35% ofits capacity, has slashed steel prices by $100
a ton to improve its competitive position. Brazil and
‘South Korea are brought into the picture as “Third
World countries that have the advantage of modern
facilities, low equipment costs and in some cases low
raw material costs, scrambling for a share of a steadily
shrinking market.”’
After all the preliminary preparations Gordon comes
to the entire point of the letter: “If we are to emerge from
_ the very serious financial crunch in which we find our-
Selves, if we are to restore some measure of the cost and
price competitiveness that is essential to our survival,
and if we are to preserve existing jobs and have any
chance at all of calling back at least some of the 7,400 of
our colleagues now on indefinite layoff, we simply have
to find some way of moderating the rate of escalation that
is taking place in our employment costs. We feel it ap-
propriate and timely, therefore to propose that the
economic and monetary clauses of the current collective
agreement be reopened.”’
What then are workers being asked to consider?
- According to chairman Gordon they must decide bet-
ween agreeing to reopen the economic and monetary
clauses in the agreement for the purpose of cutting their
real wages, or convicting the 7,400 workers already laid
off to permanent unemployment and possibly as well

Unity key to Stelco workers’ future

jeopardizing the very future of Stelco and the jobs of all
remaining employees. A very difficult problem indeed
for workers to wrestle with. No worker in Stelco, or
anywhere else for that matter would like to be held
responsible for the joblessness of his fellow workers,
directly or indirectly; nor are they unprepared to con-
sider making some sacrifices themselves if they think it
would help the long term good of all Canadian workers,
and people in general. That is in the very nature of
working people who have nothing to sell but their labor
power and realize they hold this characteristic in com-
mon with the majority of all Canadians.

Those same Stelco workers may have heard on the
CBC news on Jan. 18 ex-leader of the Ontario Liberal
Party, Stuart Smith, speaking from a conference on
employment and employment-trends in Hull, Quebec,
predict that most Canadians now on layoff would not get
their jobs back. We will never again see full employment
in Canada, he concluded.

Smith based his predictions on the same evidence
recited to the workers by Stelco’s Gordon. The world
market is shrinking (one might well ask why); modern
technology (robots and micro-chip technology) are re-
ducing manpower requirements and at the same time
substantially increasing production potential.

If both Gordon and Smith are correct it means that
neither Stelco or any other multi-national corporation or
giant monopoly hold out any hope for the unemployed,
nor for a very substantial proportion of those presently
employed. What is involved for Stelco is not the return of
the jobs of the 7,400, nor the securing of the jobs of those

still employed, but the continued ability of Stelco to tum
the maximum possible profit in the cannibalistic world of
international monopoly.

The decision facing Stelco workers in the end is
whether to place their fate in the same pot as that of
Stelco (whose assets they and their fathers created) or to
demand that Stelco either operate in such a manner as to
utilize these assets for the good of all Canadians, in the
first place the people of Hamilton, or these assets be
taken over and operated under public and democratic
control to ensure this is done.

Workers in Canada may well appreciate the essence of
what Stuart Smith said about the economy, but they will
most violently disagree with his bland acceptance that
we will never again see full employment in Canada.
Working people never will accept this cruel concept. If,
in fact, it proves that this system is not capable of manag-
ing and operating the huge wealth and potential of
Canada to provide jobs and an increasing standard of
living for Canadians, the problems lies with the system,
not the resources or capacity of our people. In this case
working people will opt for a system that is able to
overcome this unacceptable contradiction.

Stelco deserves a united response from all Stelco
workers, laid-off and still working: No way Mr. Gordon!
We will unite our ranks in solidarity to win back the jobs
of the 7,400 and protect the jobs of the rest of us. We will
join together with all Canadian workers, farmers, small
business men, intellectuals and democratic-minded
people to accomplish this task at the bargaining table, at
the polls and in the streets. Anyone who trics to divide
the workers from the unemployed, or the workers
among themselves, such as you are doing will receive
short shrift. Our strength lies in our unity and the justice
of our cause.

Under such slogans Stelco workers can and must win.
They must and will receive the support of all workers in
this just cause.

CA NTA

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 28, 1983—Page 9