LABOR

Defeat of CAIMAW raid urged

The officers of the Canadian
Association of Industrial,
Mechanical and Allied Workers
(CAIMAW) hopeto cash in on the
wise dissatisfaction which followed
the recent settlement at Cominco in
Trail and Kimberley. That is why
they are mounting yet another raid
to take over the certification from
the United Steelworkers of
America.

__ The last raid took place in 1973,

when CAIMAW came within a
few votes of achieving the
necessary 50 percent plus one in
order to replace = as the cer-
tified bargaining ag

To kick off its Seog of-
ficially, CAIMAW distributed its

wooD

Continued from page 1

weeks and at 24 years to six
weeks.

An important feature of the

IWA contract is a long term
disability program, funded 70
percent by the industry, to begin
in July, 1982.
In spite of the gains achieved,
which will see average hourly
wages rise from $11.55 to $15.17
over the two years, many
unionists in both the IWA and
the pulp unions feel that a better
agreement could have been
achieved if the unions had been
better prepared for the strike
and had worked together.

Disunity among the three
unions plagued the dispute from
the beginning, Although Forest
Industrial Relations, represen-
ting the lumber industry, and
the Pulp and Paper Industrial
Relations Bureau, representing
the pulp industry, integrated the
industry’s bargaining and
presented identical offers on key
issues to all unions, each of the
wood unions insisted on

employers.

Due to a buoyant pulp
market and a slump in lumber
markets it had been estimated
that the industry may have been
prepared to offer the pulp
unions more. However the op-
portunity to use that leverage to
raise the general wage offer was
not used. The IWA negotiating
committee accepted the propos-
ed contract, although not
unanimously, three days before
the CPU bargaining committee
voted on it.

If the contract is ratified
Outstanding local issues could
interfere in the return to work.
One potentially sharp confron-
tation could occur in Port
Alberni where 28 suspended
IWA members, mostly
tradesmen, have yet to be

reinstated by MacMillan
Bloedel.

first issue of the Trail-Kimberley
Canadian Unionist, dated August,
1981. The following quotations
should give Tribune readers an idea
of the kind of fight that is shaping
up:

“‘The decision made individually
by Cominco workers in the days
ahead will have a tremendous im-
pact on the future of Canadian
labor. A positive decision for
Canadian unionism at Trail and
Kimberley can be a decisive step in
the struggle for a sovereign labor
movement in this country.

. Steel has been bargaining

at Trail and Kimberley for 14 years

now. It has failed to win general
respect among the membership.
That failure is not due to lack of ef-
fort or ability by members at the
local union level and of the
membership. Moreover, Steel’s

failure is incurable, because the
source of it is the undemocratic

structure of the parent organiza-
tion.’ ””

In these few words we have the
essential guidelines which motivate
the leadership of CAIMAW. First,
the only way to achieve an indepen-
dent, united and soverign trade
union movement is to promote
raids and breakaways of Canadian
locals of international unions unions from
their parent bodies. Second,
structure of Steel is so inherently
undemocratic that there is no use
fighting for better policies at the
grass roots level within Steel,
because as the Canadian Unionist
Stresses on its front page, “‘Steel’s
failure is incurable, because the
source of it is the undemocratic
structure of the parent organiza-
tion.”

In the Tribune Nov. 27, 1979,

_after an interview with Jess Suc-

camore, national secretary-
treasurer of CAIMAW, I made the
following comments:

‘“When I raised the question of
raiding other unions, Succamore
said it is the policy of his union not
to raid another Canadian union.
This implies, of course, that
CAIMAW reserves the right toraid
any branch of an international
union.

. when a general union
such as “CAIMAW i is prepared to
sign up new members belonging to
an international union in Canada,
it argues that its mission is to pro-
vide a sovereign trade union move-
ment by ‘liberating’ a very large
section of the organized workers
from established unions. Frankly, I
don’t believe that this is the method

| by which the Canadian trade union

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUG. 21, 1981—Page 8

movement will be transformed
fundmentally, irrespective of the
many legitimate grievances that ex-
ist within the international unions.”’

In my follow-up article I advanc-
ed this position:

‘I would be the first to agree that
there will be breakaways from the
so-called American Union from
time to time that will, in the long
run, advance the cause of
democratic unionism. However,
not every breakaway will con-
tribute to that end. To elevate them
(breakaways) to the level of ab-

Labor Comment
Jack Phillips

solute principle is to do great harm
to the trade union movement. A
potential situation of this type
should be weighed specifically to
determine whether it is likely to do
a service or a disservice to the labor
movement as a whole.”’

Today, almost two years later, I
believe that position to be sound
and applicable to the Trail-
Kimberley situation.

Throughout the history of the
trade union movement, the respon-
sible left has struggled for trade
union unity in order to express
‘most effectively the trueinterests of
working people. Within that con-
text, and without placing one
against the other, the left has
fought for full Canadian
autonomy for Canadian sections
of international unions, with the
objective of a fully independent
labor movement in Canada. As an
integral part of the fight for these
major objectives, the left has con-
sistently struggled for the widest
possible degree of inner trade union
democracy. This fight for
democracy is not confined to
Canadian branches of interna-
tional unions. I can name a numbér
of large, purely Canadian unions
where there is wide dissatisfaction
over alleged bureaucratic control
and undue influence of paid staff
who are not under the direct con- :
trol of the membership they are
assigned to serve. Bureaucracy and
manipulation of the membership
of a popular organization, as any
knowledgeable trade union activist
knows, isnot a disease of American
origin which would not exist in
Canada if all Canadian branches of
American unions were ‘‘liberated’’
by raids mounted by unions like
CAIMAW.

If the faults of Steel areincurable
because of the structure of the
organization, how then do we ex-
plain the election of Dave Patter-

son as director of District 6 (On-

tario) of the Steelworkers?
Patterson, as president of Sud-
bury Local 6500, led the historic
eight-and-one-half month strike
against International Nickel Com-
pany (Inco) in Sudbury. Today, he

'-heads Steel’s 995000 niember

district in Ontario. In his own local
in Sudbury, he defeated the
establishment candidate by 6,447
votes to 1,115. In the big Stelco
Local at Hamilton, he polled 4,477
votes to 1,099 for his opponent.
In a statement shortly after his
election, he made the following
comment:

“No one was promised staff
jobs. Nobody was promised they’d
be looked after. They just went out
and did their jobs. They said ‘this is
my union and I am doing what I

think is best for my union.”’ (That
was in reference to hundreds of
volunteers who worked for him.)

Patterson, one of the youngest
of the top leaders in Canadian
labor, advocates a separate Cana-
dian constitution for Steel?

“T don’t think it was a question
of nationalism’’, Patterson said. ‘‘I
think it was an indication of which
way steelworkers want togo. .

“*They take pride in their union,
but they also take pride in their
cultural, philosophical and
political differences on this side of
the border. It isn’t an indication
that they’re saying to our American
brothers and sisters: ‘Well we don’t
want you guys anymore’.

“‘They’re just saying: ‘If we’re
really going to be an international
union, let’s spell out those dif-
ferences and let’s base the constitu-
tional question on equality’, he
said.

“T also think what our Canadian
Constitution will do’’, Patterson
said, .‘‘is bring some power to our
national director and our national
office. It will bring the national of-
fice back in the prominent way it
should be, speaking for 180,000
steelworkers.””

It would be wrong to claim that
there are no legitimate grievances
against the top leadership of Steel-
nationally and provincially - in
Trail and Kimberley. On the other
hand, and the Tribune has publish-
ed a number of articles on this,
there is significant dissatisfaction in
the Canadian Union of Public
Employees across the country, a
purely Canadian union and the
largest union in Canada. Some
locals on the prairies have pulled
out of CUPE and many others
across the country are objecting to
the over-centralization of finances
in Ottawa and what they consider
to be the lack of accountability of
the servicing representatives ap-
pointed by the head office in Ot-
tawa.

The left and progressive forces
within CUPE are fighting to save
the organization by making it more
democratic, through structural
reforms and the adoption and im-
plementation of sound trade union
and social policies.

I submit that this is the way to go
in Trail and Kimberley, which
means, in the first place uniting the

ranks to defeat the CAIMA Wraid. —

In giving support to such an effort,
the left and progressive forces
should make it very clear that what

_ they are fighting for is not the status

quo, but for the kind of program
advanced by Dave Patterson in
Ontario, for more rank and file
participation, for a Canadian con-

stitution for Steel, for co-ordinated

bargaining and for organizing the
unorganized in British Columbia.

Correction

The Tribune wrongly reported
last week that Steelworkers’ Local
480 president Ken Georgetti had
“‘disassociated the local leadership
from (Steelworkers regional
representative Monty) Alton.’

That inference was erroneously
drawn from the criticism of Alton
that had resulted from his com-

ments in a CBC radio interview in -

whic he referred to opponents of

‘the recent contract settlement as

“nut cases ”

In fact, the Local 480 executives

sent a letter to the trail Times sup-

porting Alton. At the same time
Georgetti told the Times July 7: ‘I
do know Alton infuriated a lot of
people around here and I think his

credibility is kind of gone.”’ td

‘board for Building Trades

Laborers |
retum to |

CLC spiked

The Laborers’ International
Union has apparently spiked
any intentions it may have had
to re-affiliate to the Canadian
Labor Congress and has openly
declared support for the
breakaway Canadian Federa-
tion of Labor, established by |
Building Trades unions which |
have withheld dues from the
CEE .
Ina special letter entitled ‘‘To | |
Our Canadian Brothers’ and} |
published by the international |
journal The Laborer, general | |
president Angelo Fosco} |
declared: ‘‘The recent action of ||
the Canadian Labor Congress | |
has led the Canadian executive |

unions to the conclusion that |
justice is not to be found in the } >
CLC. Therefore they have pro-
posed and the international
unions’ have accepted the
responsibility for creating a}
new, democratic labor federa-
tion in Canada . . . to be called
the Canadian Federation of | > —
Labor.

“The new federation will
receive receive the full support
of the Laborers’ International
Union.””

The letter, published in the |
June edition, which was just |
received by local members in |
this province last week, marks a |
complete about-turn for the |
Laborers’ Union which had |
been negotiating with the CLC |
on conditions for re-affiliation |
of its Canadians members, hav- |
ing declared its intention June [> —
16 to resume per capita f-
payments to the Congress. EF

Fosco had also stated his |
strong reservations to the pro- |
posaltosetupthe CFL inaletter |
Mar. 18 to Robert Georgine, |
president of the AFL—CIO |
Building and Construction |
Trades Department. _ . i

However, on July 6, Ugo |
Rossini, Laborers represen- |
tative on the CLC Building |
Trades department, - reported | |
that the union was “‘not that |
close’? to clearing away dif- | -
ferences with the CLC. He cited
a number of issues in dispute in- |
cluding the issue of ‘‘enforcing |
the constitution in Quebec’’, an |
indication that the Laborers put | |
demands back on the table to |
stonewall negotiations. 4

Fosco, in’ his letter in The | }
Laborer, also repeated all the |
building trade’s complaints |
about lack of representation at |
CLC conventions, jurisdic- |
tional disputes with industrial | |
unions and failure to discipline f
the Quebec Federation of fF
Labor, clearly indicating that | ~
the Laborers have now fallen in- J
to line with the other interna- |
tional building trades unions. |

The only possible recourse |
now would be independent ac- |
tion by Laborers locals in |
Canada to affiliate directly to-F
the:-CLG; Z

In an apparently unrelated | ©
development, Angelo Fosco, his |
son Paul, who is an executive | —
for an insurance company |
which did business with the | —
Laborers, and former general} _
secretary-treasurer Terrance} —
O’Sullivan are among several |
people who were indicted in} —
Chicago in June along with top |
Mafia leader Anthony Accardo

| funds of the Laborers Union. _}

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