By RICHARD ORLANDINI When talks between Wardair Canada Ltd. and the Canadian Air Line Flight Attendents Asso- ciation (CALFAA) broke off in Vancouver, a strike began that quickly spread to Toronto and Edmonton. : Wardair Canada Ltd. is own- ed by a latter-day-scrooge nam- ed Ward who began his career as a bush pilot in the Canadian North and owned and operated a makeshift airline service. He quickly “accumulated” enough money to start a large world- wide commercial charter opera- tion. The trouble was that even with a large commercial fleet of jet aircraft, Mr. Ward still look- ed upon the business with a bush pilot mentality that saw the jet passenger planes as a covey of Piper Cubs held together with “pubblegum and baling wire. Not at all suprisingly, it was Wardair’s employees that suffer- ed the most from the owner’s bush pilot mentality. One of the stewardesses outlined the main dispute that led to the strike: 28-Hour Shifts “We want parity with the flight attendants in the other airlines. Before the strike, we often had to work 20-hour shifts with some shifts as long as 28 hours when flights were delayed due to weather or mechanical failure. The parity we’re de- manding would mean a maxi- mum scheduled duty of a 14- hour day and the right to refuse working more than 16 hours.” Ward did make an offer to the union before the strike but as one stewardess noted, “To ac- cept Ward’s ‘offer’ would have set labor relations in this in- dustry back into the Dark Ages.” Ward’s offer was for a 15-hour duty day. But a close reading of the proposal showed that Ward only considered “air time’”’ as duty. The time spent on the ground before take-off, the hour- and-a-half turn around -at the destination and the additional 15 minutes before leaving the air- craft upon its arrival back in Canada, were not to be consider- ed “duty”. : Dispute Over Duty Time The big dispute, however, arose around what is considered “duty” time during foul weather or mechanical failure. When air- craft are grounded until the weather clears or until repairs are made, the stewardesses were expected to remain on duty and serve the customers. It was under these circumstances that the stewardesses work up to 28 hours with no time-and-ahalf for overtime. Another section of Ward’s of- fer, which has been described in press releases as “generous,” was a clause which dealt with positioning. Frank Fabian, gene- ral chairman of the CALFAA To- ronto local explained, “Position- ing is a return flight, back to Toronto, on aircraft carrying no Passengers. Ward’s offer was to pay time-and-a-half for this air time. But the base pay for positioning is only half-pay so the time-and-a-half would only amount to 75% of the regular pay.” Pilots Wives Since the strike began, the union has had several occassions to contact the Federal Ministry of Transport. No sooner had the picket lines gone up, when the wives of many of the pilots be- gan scabbing and took jobs as stewardesses on the Wardair flights. Some of the scabs are ex-stewardesses but others have had no formal training in emer- gency procedures. The union has maintained that this is in con- travention of the Ministry of. Transport Air Navigation. Order Number Seven. When union of- ficials wired Jean Marchand, Federal Minister of Transporta- tion, to protest Wardair’s lack of concern for the passengers, they waited four days for a re- ply. Finally, when a reply was received, the union was informed “that the Minister would be informed of the protest.” To date no further action by the federal MOT has been taken. Dangerous Practices Nor has any action been taken by the paper-shuffling bureau- crats of the Ministry of Trans- port when they visited the To- ronto-Malton airport. On several occasions picketers pointed out Wardair service vehicles cross- ing landing and take-off run- ways. This also is against the Ministry’s own Air Safety Act but the Ministry has taken no action to stop a practice which could lead to a ground vehicle- aircraft collision. The striking members of CALFAA have received support from other unions. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Work- ers, who service the planes, and make electrical and mecha- nical repairs, refused to cross the picket lines. Other support may be forthcoming from the flight attendents of four other airlines including Air Canada and CP Air, who are considering a 24-hour walkout. More solidarity is needed if the stewardesses are to win a strike against Ward, who is claiming he needs to keep the pay low to maintain operations, while he goes through with the purchase of Wardair’s first multi-million dollar 747 Jumbo Jet. And that’s just a start, he has an option to buy on a second -Jumbo. Help lettuce workers to win By DON HUMPHRIES In the coming months Cana- dians will again be approached to help the United Farm Work- ers of America in its fight for fair wages and living conditions. The. UFW has called a lettuce boycott against the big growers in the southwestern, United States to back its demands for recognition as the bargaining agent for lettuce workers. The same farm workers, led by Cesar Chavez, forced the grape plantation owners to the bargaining table after five years of continuous boycott action. The issues involved in the let- tuce boycott are essentially the same as those in the grape boy- cott — obtaining basic human rights for Mexican-American (Chicano) workers. Settle Jurisdiction The lettuce boycott started more than two years ago in Sa- linas County, California, which produces 74.5% of all summer lettuce shipped from California and Arizona. The owners had signed “‘sweet- heart agreements” with the In- ternational Brotherhood of Teamsters in late July, 1970. But in August the Teamsters and UFW reaffirmed a 1967 jurisdic- tional agreement giving the UFW jurisdiction over all agri- cultural workers. Massive Strikes The UFW. called massive strikes against the lettuce plan- Un. tation owners on Aug. 24. Some 7,000 workers walked out in the Salinas and Santa Maria valleys to back demands that the UFW be their bargaining representa- tive. Because of the strike, one company, Inter Harvest, allowed a card check election supervised by the Catholic Bishop's Com- mittee. The workers overwhelm- ingly supported the UFW and . the union negotiated a contract with the company. A company representative said: “The Teamsters had our PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1973—PAGE 8 contract but UFW has our work- ers.”’ . Chose Boycott In September the plantation owners — mostly corporate in- Sweatshops at 30,000 feet terests — sought and obtained. an injunction prohibiting all UFW strike activity in the Sali- nas area. ; The workers refused to sur- render to the owners and held a vote to determine further action. They opted for the boycott. What will it mean for the let- tuce workers when they win the right to bargain through the union of their choice? Disease Rate Double Living and working conditions will improve drastically. There is no excuse for 15% of the farm workers showing symp- toms of pesticide poisoning. There is no excuse for California farm workers having an occupa- tional disease rate twice the rate for alt other industries combined and an average life expectancy of 49 years. Union organization means for them what it meant for the coal miners of earlier generations — an end to intolerable working and living conditions. But union is not altogether an accurate description. For the farm workers it is a movement, La Causa, the success of which depends on the support they can win for the boycott of non-union lettuce. —Abridged from an article in The Fisherman. By E, ROGERS THUNDER BAY — Many fac- tors in a complex civic situation contributed to a smashing vic- tory for the extreme right in the recent civic election. In many ways Thunder Bay has been unique, politically, being the pilot city for compulsory amalgamation, a city that went all-out in consort with land sharks and developers. The people’s fight-back was too loosely put together. It never took the form of a fighting civic organization that would have brought about a people’s mili- tant organization ‘for ousting reaction and winning council seats by progressives. A loosely knit Citizens’ Asso- ciation became the rallying centre for people expressing op- position to the City expenditure of one million dollars for the garage basement of a multi- million dollar complex’ plaza, to be owned and built by develop- ers. Linked with issues surround- ing inequitable taxation, urban renewal programs for big busi- ness interests rather than peo- ple. There were grand oppor- tunities for big victories in the civic elections. Need Participation The Association fought devel- opers and City, forcing the On- tario Municipal Board to hold hearings just prior to elections. But the OMB refrained from handing down any decision and has not yet done so. The Asso- ciation will have to take a new look at its organization. It has learned that it is political sui- Administration slate carries TLC voting — \ Delegates to the Toronto Labor Council faced a new and revealing experience last week. New — because it was election night and for many it was their first time at the council. And revealing because the meeting that followed the election af- forded them an Opportunity to watch trade union democracy corrupted. The elections brought out 266 delegates, a record for the coun- cil. Many of the new delegates seemed to be there as a result of the administration drive to win the elections for their slate. Steelworkers and textile work- ers appeared en masse to sup- port Sam _ Fox, Amalgamated Clothing Workers, for the Vice- Presidential position who was challenging incumbent Murray Tate of the Toronto Newspaper Guild. The other table office, secretary, was a contest be- tween Jim Buller of the Inter- national Typographical Union and Hugh Buchanan, who was Supported by the administra- tion slate. Told How to Vote The results were for vice- president: Fox 15] votes, Tate 114, and for secretary: Buchan- an 194 votes, Buller 68. On the Executive Board those elected were: C. Ballantine, J. Bentley, W. Chmielewski, J. Dobson, M. Fenwick, M. Federman, L. Hun- ter and W. Longridge (all of whom were on the administra- tion slate). Defeated for the Ex- ‘to fight and back militant tion can win anything for ple. It lost its only represel tive, councillor Florence Kos 1 the landslide victory of Tories to city council seats. The failure of the NDP to cf tinue in a united front for 0 ‘ people is largely responsible vf the Tories’ success. The Ni booted the Waffle in Thun” OV Bay before the Orillia meé * where further anti-Waffle act ‘i * was taken. This expressed if 4 in the civic campaign by. mi NDP federal candidates workh fic on their own, as civic candidal’ Continuing Struggle .. Clarence J. Martin campaigt on a sound program directed 3 exposing tax inequities W® favor big business, opers, speculators, real eS! 4 sharks plus their puppet ad istration. No doubt this progt . will find its way into a rejuv, ated civic organization prep® : n ples’ representatives in contif ing the civic struggles from 7 struck % sharply to defeat plans of deV), {mb till the next civic election C4™2™ paign. Some lessons have learned: a new drive for U a new approach with a new Ff, icy content can win back ci victory for the people. TOURIST RECORD VARNA The Bulgatl + init) Black Sea coast. in the vicinll of Varna was visited by 19 969 tourists in the first ™j months of 1972, a new ret ; The figure for the correspon” period of 1971 was 1,274,960: | pee ti ecutive Board were H. Brow J. Grabek and D. Ryan. Before the elections oné [ 0 the steelworkers who was tending his first council ™ wi }} ting told the Tribune: “We et to a meeting and our repre (0! tatives told us who to vote And they told us to make * | that we be there.” ‘al What followed in the mee after the elections was 4 of back for democratic proced | in the council. A first-time a gate tried to move an ame" ment to a resolution (a Pi tice allowed in many coum throughout Ontario). : Vote Questioned Murray Tate, the a chairman ruled that the m0 to amend was in order and 90% ed the labor council by that allowed for such ach The chair was immedi@y challenged and after som@ | cussion a standing vote | taken. Any vantage point on? floor or the stage suggest very close vote, but the acting pro tem chair ruled the chair was defeated. % calls for a counted vote | many of the delegates went | heeded and the meeting ceeded in’ its usual fashion. After the meeting several gruntled delegates suge® that although the motio? amend had been defeated, t LN _ struggle to regain their co? tutional rights on the floor the council would continue: