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Aletter from Canadian Labor Congress
president Dennis McDermott to all af-
filiated unions urging them to launch raids
against the Building Trades has sparked
angry denunciation from trade unionists in
this province — where for months CLC
unions have been working in close

with the trades in the fight
against the Socred budget.

Nov. 16, McDermott stated that the
leadership of the international Building
Trades, having disaffiliated from the CLC
and set up the rival Canadian Federation of
Labor, “‘is now actively involved in raiding
campaigns” and in ‘‘deprecating the
leadership, programs and policies of this
Congress

“These kinds of actions will continue
and increase,”’ he said, “‘and can affect any
Congress affiliate unless positive action is
taken to address the problem.”’

According to McDermott, ‘‘the only
real sanctions that can be placed against the
leadership of these unions is to relieve them
of as many units as possible.”’

The letter cited surveys taken of Building
Trades members showing them in favor of

In correspondence with CLC affiliates .

- Congress affiliation, and claim: if
we are to protect our interests sat give
members of Building Trades unions the
option to belong within the mainstream of
labor, our affiliates must provide the
leadership and the opportunity for these
members to exercise their democratic right
to join with their brothers and sisters in a
united labor movement.

“T am therefore urging you to take ap-
propriate action...Without your support
and cooperation in this effort, Congress af-
filiates will be subject to continuing harass-
ment and Building Trades members will
continue to be locked into a structure not
of their own choosing,”’ he said.

The call for raids was completely at odds
with the spirit of a CLC commission set up
earlier this year to study ways of bringing
non-affiliates into the Congress, a commis-
sion which now includes B.C. Fed presi-
dent Art Kube. And it was completely at
odds with the spirit of unity among af-
filiates, the Building Trades, teachers and
other created by Operation Solidarity
which was founded July 15 to battle the
Socred government.

Even before the advent of Operation
Solidarity, Building Trades unions had
been contributing an amount equal to per
capita dues payments to the federation and
were represented on some federation com-,
mittees.

As a result, the letter provoked a par-
ticularly angry reaction from delegates to
the B.C. Federation of Labor convention
which opened in Vancouver Monday.

Postal Workers delegates Evert Hoogers
said that he ‘‘couldn’t understand’’
McDermott issuing the letter calling for
raiding ‘‘at a time when we need unity
more than ever.”

Steelworkers representative and B.C.
Fed vice-president Monty Alton took up
the same point, reminding the convention
that when the May 5 election was lost ‘‘we
entered into a four-year war.

“We can’t afford division — we can’t
afford the luxury of raiding,’’ he said.

And raiding should not just be rejected
in this province but across the country,
United Fishermen’s delegate George
Hewison told the convention.

“There should be a clear message to

,

B.C. labor rejects McDermott’s raiding call

McDermott from this convention not to
disunite the labor movement,’’ he said.

“Raids are no good against those who
have stood shoulder to shoulder with us —
and not just in B.C. They are unacceptable
anywhere in Canada.”’

Brotherhood of Railway and Airline
Clerks delegate Gary Fane said that the
Federation had set an example for
unionists across the country by the way it
had brought the Building Trades and
Federation affiliates together and called
for an apology from McDermott for sug-
gesting that B.C. Fed affiliates should now
raid the trades.

Ironically, McDermott was scheduled to
address the convention immediately prior
to the presentation of the report on Opera-
tion Solidarity Tuesday. ;

UFAWU president and B.C. Fed ex-
ecutive council member Jack Nichol called
on the officers of the federation to prepare
a statement on the issue for presentation to
the CLC president.

Toa roar of.applause, he told delegates:
“‘We’ve got to tell McDermott that there’s
no bloody way that we’re going to get into
raiding.”

‘Renewed labor, community fightback urgec

Continued from page 1
the actions of Operation Solidarity and the
Solidarity Coalition were going to dominate
convention debate.
-_Kube, addressing his first convention as
president — he was appointed in June
following the death of Jim Kinnaird — told
the delegates: ‘‘During the first two weeks of
November we came to the eve of a total shut-
down of the public sector in this province.
Even without our ‘third wave’, it was one of
the largest labor-teacher mobilizations this
- country has ever seen. The education sup-
port workers in CUPE and the teachers of
this province demonstrated for all who
cared to see that they were determined to
preserve their rights and the rights of their

‘*What did we achieve? We won a victory,
albeit a small one, and we got the govern-
ment’s attention — they know we are
serious. I’m not going to mislead you it was
not the total victory we all yearned for and
deserved. But we had a victory in stopping
the legislative onslaught against the pubis
sector.”

Now, Kube said, “‘it is time for us to
regroup, to strengthen the Solidarity Coali-
tion and continue the struggle on behalf of
—— rights, tenants’ rights and social

But ] want to make one thing perfectly

clear: for us there is no splitting of commit-

ment in our belief between the so-called

: _ economic or bargaining issues and the social

or Coalition issues. We are equally commit-
ted to both.

“That is why we have worked so hard to
build the Solidarity Coalition and that is why
‘we must continue building local Solidarity
coalitions. That is why we must continue to
~ mobilize behind the program of action of the

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Solidarity Coalition.

“‘Our goal is two-fold: first, we must pro-
tect the rights we have and regain those that
have been stripped from us. Second, we

_ must initiate debate and discussion on alter-
native social and economic policies —
policies which will assure people meaningful
lives free of unemployment and other
miseries.””

Kube, who was given a standing ovation,
clearly caught the mood of convention
delegates, many, if not most of whom
had been participants in the escalating public
sector strike.

But if there was a militant.edge to his ad-
dress, it wasn’t echoed in the executive coun-
cil report presented to delegates Monday
afternoon.

The 37-page report which was adopted
following a lengthy debate, warned that a
“reactionary climate is sweeping this coun-
try’’ evidenced by the ‘‘rise to prominence of
the Fraser Institute’”’ and the ‘“‘government’s
legislative assault on the poor and the under-
privileged.’”

It noted that the federation unions had
given excellent support to the New
Democratic Party during the May 5 election
campaign — although the federation itself
had ‘‘played a low-key role throughout the
election”? — but that the results were “‘ex-
tremely disappointing.”

Since that election, it said, the Social
Credit government was using a four per cent
majority in the popular vote ‘‘to bulldoze
through its New Right philosophy...to
destroy dissent and the channels for express-
ing that dissent’? and was seeking ‘‘a
weakened labor movement...and a subser-
vient, low paid labor force.””

Regressive changes to the Labor Code and
even the chopping of the Workers’ Compen-

THREE MONTHS $2

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Pacific Tribune,
2681 East Hastings St.,
Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5

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‘we won a small

ART KUBE...
victory...and got the government's at-

tention.’

sation Board could both be expected, it
warned.

However, the report noted ‘‘it has been a
positive feature of the current crisis that the
labor movement has assumed its position of
bringing together and leading community
protest and indignation against repressive
legislation and the formation of the Solidari-
ty Coalition has again thrust us into a clear
leadership role. It has been our leadership
and our immediate mobilization of labor
and community protest that has prevented
Bill Bennett’s legislative package from
quickly and quietly passing into law.”

But whether that mobilization would con-
tinue in the campaign against the govern-
ment’s legislative package was clearly a ma-
jor question on many delegates’ minds.

The report itself noted: ‘‘There can be no
doubt that the strength and effectiveness of
our fightback at this juncture will influence
the Socreds’ course of action at a later date...

“‘We must stand together to fight each
piece of regressive legisation, to put into
practice the unity we value so highly.”’

That fight has to be mounted now, said
UFAWU delegate Jack Nichol since as far as
the government is concerned, ‘‘it wasn’t a
real truce that was reached.

‘“‘Bennett has already declared that he in-
tends to bring in changes to the Labor
Code,” he said, adding ‘‘it’s only through
unity that we have been able to repel the at-
tack by the Bennett government.”

Postal Workers delegate said that
federation could not “‘rest on its la’
with the victory it achieved over Bill 3 2
Bill 2 and should begin a “mobilization of
the affiliates together with those in the co
munity.” ;

He called for a fightback program ‘
will build our movement to be even stro Ps
that we have been over the past few wee! be

He also noted that there was *‘no
wrong’? with rejecting some of the points!
the Kelowna agreement that had b
negotiated between Premier Bennett 4
IWA leader Jack Munro Nov. 13. 5

One of those points, said Hoo
touching on an issue raised by several p
throughout the debate, was the five-me:
committee, made up of two labor rep’
tatives, two employers’ and a gove
appointee, to discuss changes to the
Code. ‘‘If we agree that to fight back
best way forward, then we should also
that we can’t sit down with governmen :
business to discuss an attack on the
Code,”’ he declared.

CUPE delegate Peter Wilson
delegates that it was ‘“‘ludicruous’’ for |
labor movement to sit down ona commit &
on which labor would be outvoted three
two and whose intent was to gut the Lat
Code.

Although the lines were blurred —
one side pressing the labor movement!
launch a renewed mobilization of unio?
and community groups against the re;
ive legislation and the other working
longer term agenda, emphasizing edu
and consultation culminating in an elec
four years away — the right-left policy
bate of past years also figured in Mone
executive council debate and was expect®
do so again Tuesday during the debate o?
Operation Solidarity report. .

B.C. Government Employees’ U!
delegate Jack Adams told delegates he
in full support of the report, noting that it
out clear priorities for the year ahead.

He added: “‘If there is a message, it is*
we must re-commit ourselves not 0!
fight but to throw this government out
next time around.”’

UFAWU delegate George Hewh
countered that the ‘‘war is on now.

“This convention should send 4 ©
message to Bennett that the Kelowna a
ment was not the end but the
the fight,’’ he said.

“When we leave here Friday we need
have laid out a program that will enablev

fight back here and today — not 3% ¥
from now, but here and now.”

O