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LABOUR

CAW auto deal sets
‘pattern of progress’

With two of the ‘‘big three”’ auto giants
Signing breakthrough agreements with
the Canadian Auto Workers this montha
little bit of labour history has been made.

The contracts signal a coming of age
for the youthful Canadian union, which
according to its president, has finally
“shaken the yoke’’ of U.S. labour rela-
tions. The deals may also signal a new
trend for collective bargaining in Canada
and, most significantly, will set a prece-
dent for pension plans and pension legis-
lation across the country.

The six-year settlement makes auto
Workers the first wage earners in the pri-
vate sector to have their pensions in-
dexed. Workers with 30 years service
will receive an immediate boost from
$1,205 a month to $1,505, rising to $1,875
by 1993.

For those with less than 30 years, the
Pension jumps from $22.05 to $28 a
Month times years of services. Those
retiring in subsequent years, receive an
additional $1.50 in each of the next four
years and $2 in the fifth year to reach $36
by 1992.

Pension increases are pretty standard
fare in collective agreements. What is
different in CAW’s case is anyone retir-
ing after October will have their pension
automatically linked to the Consumer
Price Index.

Someone retiring this year at the $28
base rate will also receive increases of 90
per cent of the CPI. However the new
Tate can’t exceed $29.50, the rate for
Someone retiring in the next year. In ad-
dition, a retiree can carry forward index-
ing unused in low inflation years, to those
With high inflation, providing the ceiling
isn’t exceeded.

The indexing formula, designed by a

CAW-team under the union’s chief eco-
homist, Sam Gindin, was based on the
Principle of retirement earnings linked to
Pre-retirement wages. This avoids hav-
ing someone who retires earlier, paid
More than a later retiree.
. Adisappointment for the union was its
ability to win inflation protection for
those already retired. However current
Tetirees do receive $90 a month extra,
Be annual increases over the life of the
Plan,

Pension on Political Agenda

Pension indexing is a contentious issue
for business. Chrysler’s Bill Fischer

Labour briefs

went into negotiations vowing not to seta
precedent for the industry, and General
Motors has voiced its vehement opposi-
tion.

Capital fears both the unpredictable
costs and the pressure that such bargain-
ing patterns exert on the state to pass
legislation. It has been prepared to pay
heavily to: keep indexing out of labour
contracts. Recently, when the Steel-
workers made a concerted run at index-
ing for its Stelco members, the company
retaliated with very substantial hikes in
pension payments.

Indexing will cost industry. Chrysler,
with the largest number of employees
eligible for retirement, will see its pen-
sion costs triple.

For CAW the timing of the issue was
opportune. Ontario was already exam-
ining pension indexing legislation. But
with no details released on what the legis-
lation might look like, the settlements at
Ford and Chrysler will, without doubt,
influence its final wording.

Business submissions to the Freidland
Commission which didn’t argue the
impossibility of indexing, conceded very
minimum standards including the exclu-
sion of past service; phasing in over a
30-year period; protection kicking in
only after a three per cent rise in the CPI
and then only at 60 per cent.

CAW shattered the impossibility
myth, and while legislation will probably
not match the union’s victory, the
government will have to move forward
considerably.

The union is banking on secured in-
comes being _ the
“*hundreds’’ of older workers to retire
now. This scenario allows younger
workers to move up the seniority ladder,
hopefully away from the layoff notices
which CAW predicts will hit the industry
over the next five years.

While it doesn’t have exact figures,
initial estimates see 6,000 Chrysler
workers alone benefitting from the plan.
Whether they will all retire is another
question. Leaving the work force is a
social as well as a financial question and
the union is looking at implementing a
counselling program to help workers
make the break.

Ironically it is the $100,000 a year child
care fund negotiated with Chrysler which
may help provide a solution. That fund,
coupled with the 50 cent an hour fine

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Announcing the “best auto agreement ever,” Canadian Auto Workers president Bob
White says pension indexing has been placed “on the political and collective bargaining

agenda in Canada.”

leveled against the company for exces-
sive overtime, will generate $1.8-million
over the next three years. With 7,600 of
Chrysler’s Canadian work force centred
in Windsor, the union is kicking around
the idea of a complex in the city, which
could house both child care facilities and
a place for retirees to gather, allowing
them to maintain the social links which
the workplace provides.

Cushioning for Shakedown |

The union made other gains in income
security to offset the shakedown which
looms ahead in auto. The industry has
eliminated 85,000 jobs in North America
since the early 70s and while plants are
running at full capacity now, streamlin-
ing, new technology and changing trade
patterns predict mass layoffs and plant
closures.

To cushion this, the union negotiated a

~$30-million. plan..which..gives. workers

with over 10 years seniority 90 percent of
their income for two years after a full, or
partial shutdown, and 60 per cent for the
third year. Previously negotiated top ups
to unemployment insurance will provide
some protection to younger workers.

While CAW president Bob White
adamantly maintains he is not in com-
petition with his former U.S. parent,
there were undeniable signs that the
United Auto Workers manoeuvred to
limit the success of the Canadian
outcome.

Still feeling vindictive about the 1984
divorce from its Canadian Section, the
U.S. union in negotiations with Ford
took the unprecedented action of moving
back their strike date deadline, waiting

‘for word on the Canadian settlement.

: 3

;

This had a double-edge effect.
Chrysler, left out in the cold as the only
strike-bound auto company, ordered its
negotiators to find a settlement, but pres-
sure was also placed on the union to
make compromises on such issues as
indexing for past retirees and out sourc-
ing.

CAW got a ‘“‘wishy-washy”’ letter of
agreement on out sourcing, promising
“consultation’’ on a case by case study.
However, White has warned the com-
panies they can bring the parts in from
outside ‘‘but there is no guarantee that
they will get into the cars.”

Still it was an obviously self-satisfied
union president who announced the out-
come of negotiations to the press. ‘‘This
has rounded the circle of CAW’s inde-
pendence as a Canadian union, by forc-
ing a U.S. corporation to bargain without
reference to U.S. conditions.

agreements as part of the international
union. We would never have been allow-
ed strike authorization or the latitude to
pursue bargaining goals that are not
attainable in the U.S.”

With Ford settled, the union moves on
to General Motors, the largest of the auto
giants. White expects GM to step into
line with the other two and hopes the
auto package will set a ‘‘ pattern of prog-
ress’” across the country.

‘‘For many years workers have been
fighting to keep what they’ ve won over
the years. This agreement really does re-
store the original purpose of collective
bargaining, which is to make progress for
working people.” ig

York U staff
set up pickets

Staff at York University in
Toronto set up picket lines
Sept. 30 after a last ditch
bargaining effort with
Management proved fruitless.

“‘We went to them asking to
See some movement on equal
Pay and improved ergonomic
Standards for work stations but
they refused to come any-
Where near what we asked”’,
the president of the York Uni-
Versity Staff Association told
the Tribune.

_ The administration is offer-
Ing the 1,000 secretaries, lib-
ary, technical and computer
Support workers the minimum
€qual pay standards in the as
yet unproclaimed pay equity

law. Celia Harte says the law
would bring little benefits to
her union’s members and has
asked instead for an equal pay
plan which would include a
neutral third party to rule on
disputes. ;

“The university's offer just
doesn’t go far enough. Besides
why should we accept _the
minimum standards contained
in the legislation?’’, Harte
asked.

The union is asking students
and faculty not to cross their
lines. The Faculty Association,
which struck in 1986, and the
Canadian Union of Education
Workers, which was out in
1984, are both in negotiations
with the university and have
set up an off campus joint
strike headquarters wit
YUSA.

The student newspaper"has
come out in support of the
strikers and solidarity pickets
have been held with the educa-
tional workers and are planned
with unions from other cam-
puses.

This is the third time YUSA
workers have been forced on
strike by the university. In
1984 they were out for six
days.

CPU strikes

Great Lakes

Great Lakes Forest Pro-
ducts Thunder Bay mill was
shut down at midnight Sept. 24
as members of the Canadian
Paperworkers Union (CPU)
struck over job security,
contracting out and wages.

Some 1,500 members of
CPU Local 39 and 160 mem-
bers of Local 257 set up mass
pickets blocking all entrances
to the sprawling pulp and
paper mill.

Two days later the com-
pany’s offer was accepted by
the skilled workers making up
Local 257, but the mill remains
closed as a comparable offer
was rejected by 75 per cent of
Local 39’s membership.

The key issue for the mill
workers is job security. During
the past year, Great Lakes
made over $30-million in after-
tax profits but closed down its
waffer board plant in the city
leaving 150 workers, members
of Local 39, in the streets.

Over the past three years,

300 jobs have been lost in the
pulp and paper mill due to
mechanization and more job
losses are feared.

Carr to meet
Gorbachev

Canadian Labour Congress
Shirley Carr is to meet with
Soviet leader Mikail Gor-
bachev this week. A statement
issued by the congress, says
Carr will be in Moscow as vice
president of the International
Confederation of Free Trade
Unions and will focus on ‘“‘hu-
man rights and world peace’’.

The statement also says a
meeting has been arranged “‘in
the near future’’ between Carr
and U.S. president Ronald
Reagan.

ees

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 7, 1987 e 5

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