There are some who maintain
that the struggle of Local 2 of the
Association of University and Col-
lege Employees is ‘‘the focus of
resistance to the Socreds’
cutbacks.’’ However, AUCE is an
independent union with 2,240
members and the overall trade
union strength in the province is
more than 450,000 members. Local
2 has some 650 members.

This means that if the Simon
Fraser . University strike is to
become ‘‘the focus of resistance to
the Socreds’ cutbacks”’ then it re-
quires the active and public support
of the more than 100,000 organized
public employees in the province
and the powerful British Columbia
Federation of Labor with its nearly
300,000 members.

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

Recently a leaflet was distributed
to students of Simon Fraser by
members of the Communist Party
of Canada and the Young Com-
munist League enrolled as students
at the university. The opening
paragraph stated the issue concise-
ly: ‘The strike at Simon Fraser
University is a classical example of
how public employees are a major
target in the current war against the
living standards of working people
and their trade union rights.”’

From 1950 to 1966, I was a full-
time officer of an independent trade
union of municipal employees. We
were not independent by choice,
but because we had been unjustly
expelled from the old Trades and
Labor Congress of Canada as a
result of the cold war persecution.
However, we worked hard to main-
tain good relations with unions in

_ understanding of

the two major congresses and later
with the Canadian Labor Congress,
following the merger. I personally
spoke at labor council meetings
when we were involved in strikes
(although we were not affiliated).
Also, on many occasions we ran
large ads in the daily newspapers on
issues of concern to our local and in
a number of cases those ads carried
the endorsement of an impressive
list of trade unions. Our representa-
tives also met with the officers of

the provincial federation of labor ~

from time to time, to solicit their
advice and cooperation. All this of
course, was part of our overall con-
cept that there should be one trade
union congress in Canada, that all
unions should belong to it, and that
we wanted our rightful place in that
congress (which we eventually
won). In short, we acted at all times
(and not only when we needed help)
as part of the trade union move-
ment as a whole, donating money to
strikers in other unions, respecting
picket lines and even taking a vote
of our membership when the pro-
vincial federation, to which we were
not affiliated, was moving towards
a possible general strike in protest
against anti-labor legislation. We
may have criticized certain CLC
policies from time to time, but we
did not become permanent,
vituperative critics like the ultra-
left:

Frankly, I don’t believe that the
leaders of AUCE have so far
grasped the concept that a united
trade union movement is the answer
to the gang-up of big business and
big business government against the
living standards and trade union
rights of working people.

The concept of a student strike
support committee is a positive one,
although it must be said that some
of the ultra-left elements who have
attached themselves to -this move-
ment have a very infantile
the tactics
necessary to win the strike at SFU.

Canfisco-Marubeni ties
threaten Canadian jobs

Continued from page 1

Labor Relations Board back to
work order and the shoreworkers
returned to their jobs Friday morn-
ing.

“Last year we had to fight these
companies to stop them from bring-
ing Japanese nationals to work the
plants in place of Canadian

_ workers,’? UFAWU secretary

George Hewison explained to the
Tribune this week, ‘‘This year ‘the
Japanese multinationals are telling
the Canadian multinationals that
they won’t buy fish unless the roe is
exported ungraded to Japan.”’

The large scale export of herring
roe coupled with the massive influx
of foreign capital into the industry
have wrought havoc with the fish
processing industry, Hewison said,
as a substantially reduced herring
catch is being spread over 120 shore
plants, double the number in opera-
tion last year. At the Oceanside
Cannery, shoreworkers had receiv-
ed only about one week of work in
the herring season before the news
came of the elimination of 30 more
jobs.

The same issue — export of
ungraded roe herring — sparked a
two hour work stoppage at the
Canadian Fishing Company Home
Plant in Vancouver Friday after
shoreworkers learned of 32 jobs be-
ing lost.

And a large scale protest is ex-
pected this week on the west coast
of Vancouver Island with the news
that the Canadian Fishing Com-
pany’s Tofino plant will be shut

down completely, eliminating 300

jobs.

Workers in Tofino haven’t
received any work this year at the
plant and the word was passed last
week that the plant has been put up
for sale.

Fishing industry jobs should be a
major federal election issue in B.C.
he said, ‘‘Any candidate who won’t
stand up and say that plant must
Stay open doesn’t deserve a vote.”’
_ In all three cases, the company
pressing the export of herring roe is
the Canadian Fishing Company,
the second largest company in the
industry. The company has a $100
million agreement with the giant
Japanese multinational, the
Marubeni Corporation, which last

year had world sales of $26 billion.

Marubeni has led the massive inva-
sion by foreign capital into the B.C.

fishing industry and now controls’

Cassiar Fishing Co.

Canadian Fishing Company: is
itself owned 100 percent by the New
England Fishing Company of New
York,.and according to UFAWU
information, New England has
issued a series of debentures, totall-
ing more than $35 million,
reportedly to Japanese financial in-
terests, and has put up Canadian
Fishing Company as security.

“Obviously this company can not
be counted on to look after the
needs of Canadian workers,’’
Hewison declared. ‘‘It bends to
Japanese pressure and are exporting
our jobs and shutting down plants
at will.’’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 6, 1979—Page 12

AUCE STRIKERS .

For example, a large number of

students have crossed the picket line
to go to their classes and they have
been publicly branded as scabs. A
scab is a person who hires himself
out to do the work of a striker. A
student, who has no direct stake in
the strike, and who does not
understand the issues to the point
where he is prepared to make a
sacrifice to help the strikes, is not a
scab.

Personally, I believe that AUCE
and the support committee should
avoid extreme confrontation tactics
in their efforts to win student and

- faculty support. They should place

more emphasis on persuasion. |
believe the situation calls for a
strong trade union support commit-
tee, made up of representatives of
the major unions of public
employees, the two labor councils
in the Greater Vancouver area and
the B.C. Federation of Labor.
While such a support committee
would not rule out a similar com-
mittee made up of students, faculty
members and teaching assistants
from the university, it would have
much more influence with-the labor
movement as a whole, and with the
general public (including the
students) and, of course, it would
have more clout.

The Communist Party leaflet
referred to above advances some
ideas worthy of serious considera-
tion, stated in more sober terms
than some of the scribblings on this

subject by certain ultra-left journals .

and leaflets. For example:
@AUCE has.been more than

reasonable in its demands, but the.

Board of Governors seems deter-
mined to break the union. This
must not happen!

e@Jt should be obvious that the
strike and all the inconvenience it
has caused was brought about by
the hard-nosed, provocative at-
titude of the Board of Governors. It
should be equally obvious that the
Socred government in Victoria,
which has been cutting back on
funds for education and services,
and putting pressure on municipal
and educational authorities to hold
the line on wages, is the main in-
stigator of the attack -on public
employees in B.C.

eThis situation calls for unity
between AUCE and trade union
movement as a whole to- bring
pressue to bear on. the Board of
Governors to settle on terms accep-
table to the AUCE membership. It
also calls for the widest possible
degree of understanding between
the strikers and the students at
SFU. All attempts to place students
in opposition to the strikers should
be challenged and defeated..

.. The last paragraph of the leaflet

educational

AU.C.E.
LOCAL 2 SFU yy

. need for cooperation with public employees’
unions, Federation of Labor.

deserves the serious consideration
of over student, every teaching
assistant and every faculty member
on campus:

@ Students should realize that the
strikers are fighting for a just
cause.. They should also realize that
in the long run, a victory for the
strikers will mean a defeat for those
reactionary forces in our society
who would, if they could get away
with it, make every greater cuts in
financial support to higher educa-
tion and would further restrict
opportunities for
young people.

‘The arrogance and anti-labor
bias of the SFU Board of Gover-
nors is demonstrated by three facts:

1. AUCE has agreed to submit
all outstanding issues to voluntary,
binding arbitration. The
negotiating committee representing
the Board of Governors wants con-
ditional arbitration, stipulating that
the arbitrator would not consider
the cost of living or the principle of
equal pay for work of equal value.
Also, they have demanded that
AUCE wage scales be set on the
basis of comparison with non-union
and inappropriate wage scales,
which could bring wage cuts. This is
the reverse of free collective
bargaining!

2. The university negotiators are
offering a six percent wage increase
over two years, to March 31, 1980.
Even the Bank of Montreal, which
is conservative in these matters,
predicts an increase in the cost-of-
living of 7% percent for 1980.

3.. AUCE has reduced its wage
demands to 6 percent up to
November 22, 1979, to be increased
by an additional 3 percent to March
31, 1980. The university negotiators
replied they had no authority to of-
fer more than 6 percent over two
years.

It is my personal opinion that
these facts should be made known

again and again, particularly to the:

trade union movement. There is a
strong tradition of working class

RIBUNI

AUCE needs help to win SFU strike

~ cabinet determines it is necessary i

solidarity in this province, pal |
ticularly around issues flowing from |
the struggle of workers to better |
themselves through economic ag
tion.

The Communist Party leafle
deals with the danger of the use of
the Essential Services Disputes
in this fashion:

“The recent amendments to
Essential Services Disputes
placed university, college, schol
board and municipal employees
under its coverage. That’s why th
Board of Governors is sitting ba¢
and refusing to bargain realisticall}
on the basis of the very mod
demands of Local 2 of the Associa:
tion of University and Colleg
Employees (AUCE). Instead, th
Board is counting on the provincial
cabinet to invoke the Essential Ser
vices Disputes Act, if and when th

order to bring the strike to an é
without satisfying. the legitimat
demands of the workers. As matt
stand now the cabinet does not f
it is necessary to use the Essentié
Services Disputes Act. It is of tht
opinion that the strike can: b
defeated without such intervention
but..

“The strike must be won! It m 1s
not be allowed to degenerate into
squabble between members of thi
Student Strike Support Committ
and students who are not convinced
they should respect the picket line.
More effort should be expended in
persuading student teachin
assistants and faculty’ members that
if the university is closed dow!
completely, in concert with a publi
campaign by the trade union move:
ment, then the administratiol
would be compelled to bargain if
good faith, to the satisfaction o!
AUCE members.”’ _

If this AUCE strike is to be w
(and it will be a defeat for organizet
labor if it. is lost), the leaders 0
AUCE need some practical, hard
headed advice from the more ex
perienced trade union leaders in thi
province. For a starter, I would sg-
gest that they should approach the
officers of the B.C. Federation o
Labor with a proposal to work oul
the best possible campaign ol
solidarity and, mobilization o
public support. While AUCE has ¢
right to guard it s autonomy and |
maintain control of its own affair:
it should not place any pre-
conditions for such discussions and
it must be prepared to accept new
ideas.-At this moment, as I see it,
the Board of Governors is of the
opinion that the strike is lost. The
combined strength of organized
labor and public opinion ca
reverse that situation and compel
the university negotiators to
bargain realistically. In the last
analysis, that’s what the strike is all
about. ‘

There is a very close connecti
between the Employers’ Council of
British Columbia and the SFU ad-
ministration.

The best answer to this university
connection with the guiding force
for big business in B.C., in respect
to labor relations, is for AUCE to
win the full support 2 organized
labor.

ame

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