LA SOR

Valiant controllers
defy Reagan order

Valiant U.S. air traffic controllers stood up to the brutal
recriminations of U.S. president Ronald Reagan and the U.S.
courts and refused to return to work Wednesday as ordered.

Only about 10 percent of the 15,000 member Professional Air
Traffic Controllers Organization were reported to have crossed
their own picket lines and returned to work by Wednesday, the
oe set by Reagan for the workers to report or face being -

PATCO president Robert Poli said on the eve of the Reagan
deadline: ‘ “The union is willing to meet the challenge. We will stand
by our decision.”

The controllers are denied the legal right to strike and were forced
to sign farcical ‘‘oaths”’ that they would not take part in illegal
strikes upon taking employment with the Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration.

However the controllers otuligverhhelnaats to take strike ac-
tion in defiance of the U.S. government to back their demands for a
substantial wage boost, a ‘‘20 year and out”’ retirement clause, anda
reduction in the work week from 40 hours to 32.

The controllers, most of whom are under 30 years of age, launch-
ed strike action Monday at 7 a.m. and were immediately hit with a
‘massive anti-union onslaught from the Reagan administration.
Although it is unusual for a U.S. president to become directly in-
volved in labor disputes, Reagan himself read the ultimatum to the
strikers giving them 48 hours to break their strike or be fired.

The union also faced court action in different cities. A district
court in New York ordered PATCO to pay the airlines a fine of
$100,000 per hour, or $2.4 million per day, while the strike con-
tinues. The same court assessed fines on PATCO president Poli of
$1,000 per day. Another judge in Washington, D.C. levied another
escalating fine which could reach almost $5 million by Sunday even-
ing. The fines greatly exceed the union’s total assets.

In addition, 22 strike leaders have been named in criminal actions
in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles and Cleveland.

In spite of the harsh action against the strikers, the controllers
strike has grounded about 6,000 of 14,000 daily flights in the U.S.
The major U.S. airlines are suffering losses of $100 million per day.

If the FAA is successful in carrying through Reagan’s vicious
plan to fire the controllers en masse and blacklist them for life from
all federal jobs, it would leave U.S. airports without over two thirds
of their trained controllers. It would take a minimum of three years
to hire and train replacements, but it would take many more years to
regain the standards set by the fired professional controllers.

The U.S. administration’s insane determination to crush the
union ‘would substantially reduce air safety and throw flight
schedules into havoc for more than a year.

USWA hits Stelco

Militant Hamilton steelworkers have closed ranks against
Canada’s largest steel producer, The Steel Company of Canada

(Stelco), as their strike for a new collective agreement pushes into its _

second week.

The United Steelworkers of America struck Stelco and Canada’s
second largest steel mill, the Algoma mill at Sault St. Marie, last Fri-
day. However 10,000 USWA members at Algoma voted narrowly
Tuesday to accept a new contract.

The three year Algoma pact raises hourly wages immediately by
$1.50 per hour to $10.30 from $8.80 at the base and to $11.71 from
$10.03 on the average. Wages will increase 40 cents per hour in each
of the remaining two years, plus a COLA. According to USWA
Local 2251 president Jack Ostroski the average hourly wage will rise
to $15.13 at the end of three years.

The Algoma settlement has been touted as the basis for negotia-
' ibns t Stelco, but USWA Local 1005 at Hamilton president Cec
Taylor said the Algoma settlement is insufficient to get negotiations ©
going again.

Alarge acceptance vote was expected at Algoma but the pact only
narrowly passed by a 58 percent margin. Of 5,917 ballots, 3,418
were in favor and 2,496 opposed. The 40 cents in the last two years
of the pact ‘‘apparently wasn’t enough for many’’ said Ostroski.

At Hamilton, USWA pickets had allowed supervisory workers in
and out of the plant until it became clear that some of the manage-
ment personnel had taken up residence in the plant. Stelco has ad-

mitted that there is still some coke production in the plant. Tuesday, -

the USWA turned back 1,000 management workers who attempted
to report to work.

The Strike at Stelco is expected to be a lengthy one. There are no
negotiations at present and no plans for future talks.

The strike is also significant coming only weeks after the stunning
victory of Sudbury’ s Dave Patterson in the USWA District six elec-
tion. Patterson ran on a platform of Canadian autonomy and mili-
tant job action and he decisively defeated business unionist Stu
Cooke. Heimmediately pledged to put the full weight of the 100,000
strong steelworker organization in Ontario behind locals entering
collective bargaining.

Borrowing on some of the strike methods which Patterson used

A front page news story in the
Vancouver Province of August 2
opened with the statement that a
settlement in the forest strike
“could be only a few weeks away.”’

That statement was prompted
by the request to return to the
bargaining table made to Forest In-
dustrial Relations by the
negotiating committee of the Inter-
national Woodworkers of
America.

The writer speculated that. the
IWA ‘would accept only a few
percentage points more than the re-
jected offer-of a 26 percent general
wage increase over two years along
with a guaranteed increase of $1.50

in each year and a 40 cents an hour

increase for tradesmen before the
application of the general increase.
However, the same story carried a
negative response from the
spokesmen for the other two

- unions on strike, the Canadian

Paperworkers Union and the Pulp,
Paper and Woodworkers: of
Canada: ‘‘. . . both CPU leader
Art Gruntman and PPWC presi-
dent Angus Macphee said they
have no plans to ask for a resump-
tion of negotiations. In fact,
Gruntman says he was surprised
the IWA request came so early in
the strike.””

It should be remembered that
the CPU negotiating committee,
headed up by Art Gruntman, of-
fered to settle just before the strike
if the employers would offer one
percent more in the second year (13
in place of 12), banking of overtime
after eight hours in place of 10'and
a special adjustment for some 200
members who load barges.

Gruntman publicly drew atten-
tion to the fact that the CPU pro-
posal would give tradesmen a rate
of $17.11 an hour in 1982, up from
the employers’ offer of $16.96. He
was immediately attacked in the
press by Bob Clayton, president of
the Forest Industry Trades
Association, asociety of tradesmen
who are members of all three

offer as a “‘sellout.’’ In his state-
ment, he described the industry of-
fer as close to what the production
workers would accept but falling
far short of what would be accep-
table to tradesmen. While produc-
tion workers in all three unions
want to see the tradesmen get a set-
tlement that would keep their rates
and conditions in line with the best,
comparable rates in other in-!
dustries, there is a growing feeling
among wide sections of the
membership that some FITA
leaders are interested only in getting
the best possible settlement for
tradesmen, irrespective of the size
of the wage increase for the other
workers, who are in the over-
whelming majority.

It is against this background that
we should evaluate the possiblities
of an offer acceptable to the unions
if FIR responds favourably to the

_IWA initiative. It should be

remembered that the giant cor-
porations who dominate the in-
dustry are integrated companies
producing lumber, pulp and paper.

The provincial government’s
labor directory for 1980 lists
Donald A. Saunders as chairman
of both Forest Industrial Relations

Wood unions need united
strategy to exact gains

ask: Why is that the unions are so
divided? We also haveto ask why is
it that their leaders fail to recognize
that in the face of such disunity, the
‘forest employers are not likely to
offer the IWA very much more
than was on the table when the
strike started? This projection is
underlined by reports which seem
to indicate that the giants who
dominate the industry are not
averse to a strike of two or three
months duration, in order to clear
their inventories and boost prices,
and thus increase their profit in the
current situation.

While we must welcome the fact
that officers of the British Colum-
bia Federation of Labor have met

with the [WA and CPU in order to
assist in any way possible, we must
also remember that the PPWC,
which is not in the Canadian Labor
Congress or the Federation, would
buck any settlement agreed to by
the IWA or the CPU if it con-
sidered it unacceptable. That could
lead to a situation where the
PPWC could continue on strike
after a settlement and would picket
operations manned by the other
unions. When the PPWC offered
to establish a common front with
the CPU, shortly before the strike,
Gruntman of the CPU replied that
a decision was made at the béginn-

-ing of negotiations to bargain

separately ‘‘and we intend to finish
that way.”
It is in this light that we should

: OMNce again examine the call for

“one union in wood” by Keith W.
Johnson, international president
of the IWA, directed to the IWA,

_ the CPU, the PPWC and the

is 5
riicussClayine beanded sheCPU cutber and Saxtanill, Workers in

Canada, and key unions in the in-
dustry in the U.S.A.

Johnson’s call opens with these
words: ‘‘Throughout the history of

the IWA a frequently stated goal of

our union has been the establish-
ment of ‘one union in wood.’ In
convention resolutions we have
stated our commitment to expan-
ding co-ordination and co-
operation with other unions in the
industry .

In my last article I advanced the
idea that the ideal situation would
be one union in wood in the U.S.A.
and one union in wood in Canada,

co-operating closely as separate en- .

tities bound by close fraternal ties.
However, the initiative of Johnson
should be welcomed by all
members of the IWA, CPU and
PPWC in si and used as a

Labor Comment
Jack Phillips

RiBsUNeE

starting point to achieve unity
this strike. Z
As I seeit, the situation wouldb
transformed if the negotiai
committees of all three unions
hammered out acommon program)
of demands and, with the backing)
of the B.C. Federation of Labor,
called for a joint meeting with the
representatives of Forest Industrial
Relations and the Pulp and Papef
Industrial Relations Bureau. |
Johnson of the IWA warned
that powerful multi-national cor
porations are acquiring forestry
companies through takeovers and)
mergers, while union membe:

is diminishing. An editorial in |

similar concern in respect to the at-
tempt by Brascan (formerly known | —
as the Brazilian Traction; Light and
Power Company) to take over
Noranda Mines and thus gain con-
trol of MacMillan Bloedell, the
largest forest corporation in B.C.
To quote from that editorial: ‘‘...
most wage-earners feel some pro-
prietary interest in their jobs. To
see the control of those jobs tossed
back and forth between economic’
giants in billion dollar deals can be
unsettling: Takeover fever in the -

boardrooms may be creating social”

chills in the workforce, the effects
of which may only be starting 08
show.”

Keith Johnson performed al
most useful service by drawing at-
tention to this ever-increasing con-
centration of ownership in the
forest industry and the’ pressing”
need for all unions to unite in order
to protect the vital interests of their
“membership. Members of all three
unions on strike in B.C. should
make it very clear to their leaders,
and to the leaders of FITA, that the
best place to start that process in
B.C. is where it is at now, the cur- |
rent strike. The workers cannot af-
ford to allow their leaders to ignore
thesound advice of Keith Johnson, >
international president of the

“Don't
| miss
an issue

a

Vancouver, B.C.

City or town

Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,
V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186

Read the paper that fights for labor -

Se eee ce a ee ee

to win the historic Inco strike two years ago, the Hamilton steel local
has organized a dental and medical plan to replace that cancelled by
the company when the strike begun, with all emérgency dental and
pharmacy bills to be paid out of strike funds. An entertainment
committee has also been struck with social nights and picket line
a entertainment planned.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUG. 7, 1981—Page 8

Poem ee eed etatg e eo oe
en ee en ee ee ere

Postal Code

I am enclosing:
1 year $12( 2 years $220 6 months $7 (1

OidO New Foreign 1 year $15 (1.
Billme esater O Donation$..........

Ltd. (FIR) and the Pulp and Paper
address in each case is the same: 8th
Floor, Bentall One, Vancouver.
With the forest employers work-
ing together so closely, we have to