STRALIA, U.S.A., FRANCE

Labor action against the war

The call was made to Austra-
-draftees in Vietnam to
ny by a special meeting in

€lbourne of 200 trade union

‘legates representing 31 Austra-

‘an unions. This is a militant
Monstration of how trade un-
nists in many countries are
OVing into action to compel
ace in Vietnam.

,, called by the Victorian Trade
lon Anti-Conscription Com-
ttee, the meeting by resolution
€ed the 3,300 Australian draf-
€s to lay down their arms in
Otest against “the heinous bar-
Tism perpetrated in our name
lon innocent men, women and =
ildren in Vietnam.”
Longshoremen, dockers and
amen in Australia have also
gaged in militant Vietnam
ace actions.
the departure of the Austra-

ship Jeparit was held
for more than two weeks be-

Use longshoremen refused to

ad the vessel which has been

trying military cargoes for

Ustralian troops in South Viet-

mM. The boycott decision was

ce unanimously by their~
mn.

The Australian Government

‘Nned repressive measures but
Australian Council of Trade

Nions supported the boycott
d threatened a national strike.
Government decided to

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Teachers strike in England

withdraw Jeparit from the juris-
diction of the Ministry of the
Merchant Marine and Transport
and transfer it to the Ministry of
the Navy, and to man it with
naval forces to get. around the
boycott.

The action of the Sydney dock-
ers is one of many by working
people. The crew of the Austra-
lian ship Pulta marched to the
town hall in Hobart (Tasmania to
present a demand for the with-
drawal of Australian troops from
Vietnam. The crew of the New
Zealand ship Kamiro halted work
for several hours in a solidarity

.action. Brisbane dockers went on

a 24-hour strike in protest
against Australia’s participation
in the war. Hundreds of dockers
signed an appeal urging youth to
refuse to serve in the army.
Signing such an appeal is punish-
able by a fine and/or imprison-
ment. Special courts are already
trying such cases.

Teamsters Union leaders in
the United States have called for
an immediate end to the U.S.
war in Vietnam and for Ameri-
can troops to be brought home
now. Speaking in Detroit recent-
ly, acting Teamsters president
Frank Fitzsimmons told 1,800
stewards and their wives, “It is
the Teamsters Union’s thinking
that this war must be brought to
an end quickly to save the youth

of our country ... We must put
all our efforts into changing the
priorities of the country to one
of spending $30 billion a year for
homes, hospitals, schools, help-
ing the sick and aged, and our
youth to get an education, in-
stead of a war in Vietnam.” Ad-
dressing the same meeting, one
of the Teamsters vice-presidents,
Robert Holmes, declared, “This
war is not worth the horrible
price in human lives that it’s
taking of both soldiers and civi-
lians. The Teamsters Union with
its two million members pledges
to work with the peace forces of
America to help end the war.”

France’s largest labor body,
the Confederation of Labor
(CGT), called on all its organiza-
tions actively to take part in the
““Assises nationales pour le Viet-
nam” (National Assemblies for
Vietnam) held on Dec. 13 and
14, These culminated the series
of assemblies initiated last Sep-
tember by the National Council
of the Peace Movement, which
have been held in the regional
departments of France. The Na-
tional Assemblies for Vietnam,
with the full support of the
CGT, will contribute to the Dec.
20 mass participation of French
peace forces in Vietnam peace
activities on the anniversary of
the creation of the National Lib-
eration Front.

15

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~ By JOHN’ WILLIAMSON

In the first-ever national strike
Ce state education was estab-
hed, the teachers of England
a Wales are putting up a
lendid fight. Last month over
1,000 conducted half - day
‘Sttikes. This month, as a further
arming to local authorities
“at they will not stop until their
*mand for £135 ($324) a year
(trease is granted, 5,000 tea-
€rs in a selected 327 schools
€ on a two-week strike.
These are mainly in the Great-
London and Midlands areas
d affect 180,000 school chil-
€n. Significantly, the teachers ©
Over 5,000 schools offered
€ir union, the National Union.
Teachers (NUT) with 294,000
€mbers, to participate in this
0-week strike.
It is difficult to convey the
Pth of feeling among the tea-
€rs and their determination to °
hieve a decent salary. In addi-
Mm to low pay, the teachers’
levances include  over-size
8Sses, old school buildings and
Uipment and refusal to employ
iliary workers.
The young teachers are the
Ce setters, with London, Liver-
©l and Manchester the main
Se. But strike action has
read to all towns, large and
all. Mass meetings, marches
d leaflet distributions are the’
der of the day.
le anger of the teachers is
© greater because they feel
ey have been. doublecrossed
‘the government. Last April,
der protest, they accepted a
30 ($144) annual salary in-
‘Tease because: they were told
at legally this was all that was
“ermitted under the govern-
€nt’s 314 percent incomes pol-
. The majority of their union
Xecutive accepted this, even
Ough London and Liverpool
lected it.
_ Immediately afterwards; other~
: oP 4 }

ue

‘forthcoming,
strikes. will be called every two

local government employees —
especially firemen and sanita-
tion workers—struck and forced
wage increases ranging from 9
to 16 percent.

At the union’s national con-
vention which met immediately
after this, the delegates by a
majority vote supported the mo-
tion of executive member Max
Morris, -(also a member of the
Communist Party’s executive)
that the union demand a starting
scale of £1000 ($2,440) as
against the present £860
($2,064). The delegates, once
they had the bit between their
teeth, went further and adopted
a London amendment that the

union immediately start negotia-

tions for an interim annual pay
rise of £135—which even then
would only bring them back to
their 1967 standards. The res-
ponse has been so overwhelm-
ing that all national officers are
now speaking out aggressively
in support of the new claim.
The small National Associa-
tion of Schoolmasters (NAS)
with about 40,000 members —
and who traditionally have been
backward by opposing women
in the profession and emphasiz-
ing their professional status —
has also joined forces in the
present strike for common de-
mands. ?
The teachers have the support
of the student teachers in the
colleges, and in. many schools

‘the active support of the par-

ents. There is a growing sup-
port from other unions, even
though the NUT is not affiliated
to the TUC.

To the hue and cry of the
newspapers about “the chil-
dren” the teachers point out
that improving their conditions
will mean better teaching levels
and attention to the children
also. Eos

If no satisfactory offer is
new and _ larger

S's

weeks. The unions are paying
the teachers their full pay and
are now to levy a tax on all
those still working to help cover
this. The teachers have given
encouragement to other low-
paid workers, with nurses next
in line to take drastic action.

_ The outcome of the teachers
struggle is directly related to
the effort of the Labor Govern-
ment to impose new wage res-
traints on the workers. Despite
the opposition of the TUC, both
Prime Minister Wilson and La-
bor Minister Barbara Castle are
proceeding with a White Paper
proposing a wage freeze that
limits increases to between 214
to 414 percent. It also proposes

to reactivate a section of their.

old legislation giving the govern-
ment power to hold up any wage
increases for four months and
fine workers who are in breach
of the Act.

-Simultaneously the govern-
ment has decided to relax the
statutory restraints on company
dividends, while price incretses
are too numerous to list.

With the unions, spearheaded
by the Transport and General
Workers, fighting to increase the
wages of the lower paid work-

- ers, Labor Minister Barbara Cas-

tle warns that “the lower paid
will only move up the table of

wage earnings, if other workers

will allow them to do some
catching up.’ This the unions
reject.

The recent Congress of the
Communist Party of Great Bri-
tain “plec 3d itself to support”
the fight of the lower paid work-
ers in every way. But it also
emphasized that “fighting for
higher wages’ is not enough
and called for a “renewed ef-
fort . . . to take over and na-
tionalize the trusts’. It also
pointed out that “no amount of
success in the struggle on im-
mediate demands can substitute

for the battle for socialism.”

uae sas

By BRUCE MAGNUSON

The most significant show- -

down on the labor-management
front during 1969 has been the
great strikes in steel and metal

mining. The strikes took place_

in the face of a hard-line policy

on wages by the big mining and

steel moguls, backed by Tru-
deau’s tough austerity program
aimed at the workers.

It is to the credit of the fight-
ing spirit, unity and determina-
tion ‘of the rank-and-file that
they succeeded in breaking
through the official guideline
which seeks to limit wage in-
creases at or below 74 percent.
It became clear at the time of
voting on final settlements that
workers were far from satisfied.

At the Hilton Works in Ham-
ilton, union members voted
against accepting a three-year
settlement placed before them
23 hours after the strike began.
Including fringes the total pack-
age offered came to $1.15, as
against original demands for

$1.40 for a two-year agreement. |

Seventy-five days later a settle-

‘ment was accepted by a two-to-

one vote in favor of a three-year
contract for a total packet valu-
ed at $3.27\4 including fringes.

The key question here is the .

haste with which the original
proposals were placed before
the membership. This gave Stel-
co a chance to sit tight for
another 75 days before coming
to the final proposal. Perhaps
the main problem that arose

was, that the Stelco procedure ©

established a pattern affecting
bargaining for 43,000 members.

At Algoma Steel Works in

Sault Ste. Marie the company
was more than anxious to shut
down operations, following what
looked much like provocation
to promote an illegal walkout.
The company then proceeded to
fire 37 union members. As a re-
sult, thousands of workers were
not entitled to strike pay for
four weeks.
_ Sixty-eight days after the le-
gal strike began, members of
Local 1111 voted to end the
strike on terms which were es-
sentially similar to those of
Stelco at Hamilton, by a margin
of 266. :

The opposition to settlement
was the strongest in Inco. It
would appear that the! Interna-
tional Union had to step into
the issue, by resorting to the
gimmickry of splitting the nego-
tiating committees of Sudbury
Local 6500 and Port Colborne

Local 6200. Even ‘with this, the
vote in the Sudbury committe

was only 7 to 6 in favor of sub-
mitting the final settlement terms
for a 3-year contract to a vote of
the membership. Only 50.8 per-
cent of the union members voted
to accept. The total wage and
fringe benefits come to $1.45.
None of the above settlements

“if there was
+P

But union officials claimed this
was the largest industrial set-

“tlement in Canada or the U.S.A.

this year.

Falconbridge Nickel Mines
Ltd., the second largest nickel
producer, whose employees ne-
gotiated separately with the
independent Local of the Mine,
Mjll and Smelter Workers
Union, whose agreement was.
ratified by an 83 percent major-
ity vote, provides for a raise of
$31.20 per week over a three-
year period. Average pay in
their old contract was $122.40
for a 40-hour workweek.

Because of rising prices, tax-
es and rents the above settle-
ments cannot by any stretch of
imagination be regarded as be-
ing above need. Canadian steel-
workers are the most highly pro-

‘ductive in the world, not exclu-

ding the U.S.A. Companies, en-
joying high profits cannot plead
inability to pay their workers a
living wage.

In the ‘case of Inco at Sud-
bury, an increase of 9¢ per,
pound of nickel was announced
in December of 1968...

Larry Sefton, Director of the
United Steelworkers of Amer-
ica, immediately challenged Mr.
Wingate to join the union in
asking for a public inquiry into
wages, prices, productivity and
profits in the Canadian nickel.
industry.

Today’s attempt by the ruling
class to make labor the villain
in the inflation picture is .not.
new. But it has become more
serious and is used to cover up
a deepening crisis, plus military
ventures, such, as Vietnam, out
of which companies like Inco
make millions: =

The failure in this particular
strike to unite the various sec-
tors for bargaining purposes,
including Quebec, Labrador and
Newfoundland, the obvious ef-
fort to deal with the employers
on a piecemeal basis, must be
characterized as a serious mis-
take. It weakened the union’s
bargaining power. Never has
there been anything as close to
a complete tie up of production
in the Canadian steel and metal
mining industry. -

In the case of Inco, there was
contempt for the membership.
No attempt was made to involve

- members and to mobilize them

for action in support of those
demands.

Strikes are won through pick-
et lines. “The longer the line—
the shorter the strike!’ was the
Slogan in the early days of the
CIO when SWOC carried on the

struggle to build the union of

steelworkers.

The only solution for this is
effective unity, a firm and prin-
cipled and democratic. ap- —
proach, that will serve to streng-
then the power of the member-
ship, standing together as one

‘in defense of their democratic

rights and needs.

%

a General Election tomorrow, which

arty would you stay at home for?”

“292 BACIFIC TRIBUNE =DECEMBER 19, 19
Ey) ~ .. 2. : S

eh 8