" inges in Labor Act called for ‘We've b OSHAWA — “We have been double-crossed. We bargained in good faith and compromised with the company to get a con- tract without a strike and then two days after the contract was ratified we find ourselves laid off,” an angry’ and frustrated employee of Duplate of Canada Ltd. told the Tribune. The more than 500 workers of Duplate — (which makes. glass windows) were laid-off for a - week after the company, in anti- cipation of a strike, stockpiled products during the negotiations. Members of the union bargain- ing committee of the Duplate unit of the United Auto Work- ers Local 222 insist that the company made no mention of the pending layoffs during the negotiations. Notification of the impending _ lay-offs .came only two days after workers at the Duplate plants in Oshawa and Hawkes- bury voted .to accept a new three-and-a-half year contract that averted a strike. In the past three sets of negotiations the union was forced into a strike to win its demands. : een double-crossed’ “We are calling the shutdown a lockout ... the company is calling it a layoff. Christ only knows that if the workers shut down the plant for a week, no-one would hesitate to call it a strike ..." MUU “This whole stupid situation wouldn’t exist today,’ another worker told the Tribune, “if we had some decent laws in the On- tario Labor Relations Act. We are calling the shutdown a lock- out but through loopholes in the Act the company is calling it a lay-off. Christ only knows that if the workers shut down the plant for a week, no-one would hesitate to call it a strike.” And because the “lay-offs” are only for a week the workers are not entitled to their supplemen- tary unemployment benefits. Those benefits only come to the workers after the first week of the lay-offs. “It’s so damned infuriating. We bargained in good faith, we won a cost-of-living allowance to offset some of the inflation and then the whole thing goes out the window when the com- pany ‘gives’ us a one-week ‘holi- day’ that takes away anything we might have gotten through COLA.” The unpaid “holiday” isn’t the only factor that’ is brothering the workers. When the “lay- offs” came there were 520 work- ers out of work for the week. When they return there will only 375 back on the job. The others will be parmanently laid off. “The' local is filling a griev- ance,” one production worker told the Tribune, “but that isn’t enough. We are going to have to change the Davis labor act so that~we can put a stop to these ° kinds of actions by Duplate (which is a subsidiary of the U.S.-based Pittsburg Plate and Glass). And that’s going to take much more than just filing a grievance — it’s going to take pressure by the whole of the labor movement in this pro- vince.” : LABOR SCENE ‘Unity, solidarity, coordination BY BRUCE MAGNUSON From press reports we learn _ today (Oct. 25/74) that four- of the mechanical craft unions in the pulp and paper industry, _ from the Manitoba border east to Newfoundland, have decided to bargain jointly in the com- __- Ing round of contract talks. The four unions are the Interna- tional Association of Machin- ists, the International Brother- _ hood of Electrical Workers, the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters and the Interna- tional Union of Operating Engin- eers. Mike Rygus, Canadian vice- president of the IAM, stated after a two-day joint meeting in Montreal that the four unions had agreed to go for a “hefty hike in wages”; a strengthened apprenticeship program to re- place a dwindling skilled labor force in the industry, and pen- sion improvements. . Now, as for joint bargaining between the four, this is nothing new. They have done that be- fore. They have also bargained with locals of the main work force in the paper mills, which now happens to be the Cana- dian Paperworkers Union. This time around, however, the crafts seem to want to avoid bargaining together with the main union in the mills, which represents more than two-thirds of the work force. Why? Voted Independence Mike Rygus explains it this way: “the split among the Casa- dian paperworkers’ locals could _ weaken them in bargaining and the mechanical unions decided to go into bargaining without them,” or words to that effect. The “split” herein referred to has to do with the fact that, ‘since the last bargaining with the industry, Canadian members of the United Paperworkers In- _ ternational Union have voted to _ become independent of the U‘S.- based international union and have set up their own Canadian Paperworkers Union. This in- cludes all paperworkers except a few locals who split away and way to advance in 1975 set up their indepenaent union ‘in B.C. some years back. With the new developments it is pro- bable that these workers will now merge, sooner or later, in- to one union. The ideal thing of course is “one industry — one union.’ But in as much as the crafts are jealous of their prerogatives as journeymen mechanics and skilled tradesmen, it is not to be expected that they will embrace the idea of one union in the same industry at this particular point in time, even though it will come to that eventually. But that is no reason why all workers in the industry cannot get together and bargain on a joint or federated basis, when they work for the same boss, or corporation. In fact mill work- ers should not only seek joint bargaining in the mills, but they ought to aim for the inclusion of the workers now cutting and transporting the raw material (pulpwood) to the mills. These workers are now members of the Lumber and Sawmill Work- ers’: Union, an affiliate of the United Brotherhood of Carpen- ters and Joiners. There is no reason why these workers should not seek closer coopera- tion and coordination of their bargaining efforts against the huge multinational corporations now dominating in this industry, playing off one section of the workers against the other. This need not interfere, with each union maintaining its inde- pendent status. It is not syno- nymous with organic unity. What is required is the will to cooperate to advance the overall interests of the workers in the industry, and coordination of bargaining to achieve the best possible results by pooling all resources of the unions involved towards that end. What the mechanical and building trades craft-union lead- ers are doing today — sabotag- ing the effort of Canadian work- ers to achieve an independent, sovereign and united trade union PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1974—Page 6 movement in Canada — is not in the interests of their own members, let alone any other workers. It is a policy of subor- dinating working-class interests to the selfish aims of U.S. and Canadian monopoly capital. To maintain that this is inter- national unionism, is pure balo- ney. It has nothing to do with working class internationalism and solidarity. On the contrary, it is a surrender to the cosmo- politanism of big capital — a North American continentalism that ‘leaves all the dominant po- sitions of control in the hands of the most powerful capitalist monopolies — in the main U.S. monopoly capital. : z * ae Such class collaboration is particularly harmful today when we need more cooperation and less domination. As in the late forties, we must insist upon “Cooperation, YES! — Domina- tion, NO!” Only ‘voluntary_ co- operation and solidarity can bring meaningful unity of ac- tion and beneficial results. to the working class in current bat- tles for wage increases to com- bat inflation, job security and higher standards. It is more than likely that the tenacious battles of Canadian - Rubber Workers this year could have been shortened and brought better results, had there been a unified approach to bargaining, and solidarity with firm leader- ship uniting the Canadian mem- bership, and seeking all-out community and public support during the strikes. Such coordi- nation of bargaining was unfor- tunately missing in the case of rubber workers, The same non-class approach to bargaining is also taken by purely Canadian unions — e.g. postal workers, who have taken a step backwards in this respect, instead of another step forward. To beat inflation and unem- ployment in 1975, the watch- word has to be: Labor unity, solidarity and coordination in Struggle against monopoly. Ses FARM WORKERS 50% BELOW __ AVERAGE WAGE OTTAWA—tThe average farm worker was paid $5,270 between Aug. 15, 1973 and the same date this year, less. than the $9,371.96 average annual wage paid to - employees in other jobs. Statistics Canada reported Oct. 24 that average wages paid to male farm hands had risen to $5,270 a year from $4,345 in 1972-73. : Less payments for board, the average wage was $4,325, up from $3,620 the year before. Wages were higher in West- ern Canada. In the West, aver- age annual wages amounted to $5,580 compared with $5,045 in the eastern part of the country. The statistics showed that farm workers generally paid about $955 a year for board. GM PLANS MASS LAYOFFS WASHINGTON General Mo