LABOR SCENE BY BRUCE MAGNUSON The Canadian Labor Congress call to all white collar workers to get into the Association of Commercial and Technical Em- ployees (ACTE) is timely and should meet with a good res- ponse among a million unorgan- ized white collar office workers across ‘Canada. : Immediate targets of the cam- paign are headquarters staffs of large companies such as North American Life Assurance Co. in Toronto with an estimated bar- gaining unit of 500 employees. According to CLC executive vice-president Jean Beaudry there are some 390 insurance cormpanies in Canada. Ontario accounts for 279 of these and 249 of them are in Toronto. It is estimated that about 200,000 employees in financial institu- tions, from filing clerks to lib- rary statisticians and middle management come within the scope of the initial drive target in Toronto. Assist Unorganized CLC executive vice-president Wm. Dodge has said the scope of the organizing campaign will be nation-wide, although the im- mediate attention is on the To- ronto area. The last Convention of the CLC in May of last year decided upon a special per ca- ‘pita tax to be earmarked for a special organizing fund expected to provide $400,000 per year. The Convention decided upon this drive to organize the un- organized after hearing a report that less than one-third of new workers coming into the labor force (860,000 out of 2,580,000) between 1956 and 1971, had be- come members of organized la- bor. The report noted that the basis for initial organization and expansion of the labor move- ment rests upon “the simple un- selfish premise that the organi- zed make available their know- how, their resources, and their finances to encourage and assist the organization of the unor- ganized.” The workers the CLC now hopes to organize include filing clerks, clerk typists, coders, key punch operators, accounting clerks, stengoraphers, secreta- ries, computer operators and analysts, actuaries, legal clerks and others. Four Full-time _Four, full-time organizers will Support CLC drive to sign white collar workers head up a staff, and will be aid- ed wherever needed by estab- lished organizers from other unions. The whole campaign will be supervised and co-ordinated by CLC white collar specialist Arthur Kube, who in turn will be responsible to CLC organizing director Joseph Mackenzie. The Toronto ACTE headquarters is located at 185 Bloor St. East, close to many of the big insur- ance company head offices. _ The Employers Personnel As- sociation of Toronto held a spe- cial conference on January 24 on the theme: White Collar Union — Inevitable? Taking note of the employer Concern about the CLC organiz- ing drive, executive vice-presi- - dent Dodge has drawn attention to the fact that 317,000 white collar office employees in vari- ous fields are already in unions and working under collective agreements. % * * This organizing campaign to bring together workers by hand and brain against the forces of monopoly capitalism deserves to be a real success. This necessary step for building the greatest possible unity of the. working class, without which there can be no immediate economic jus- tice not to speak of more fun- damental social change, is not a job for any single union. It calls for the mobilization and all-out support of every union in the country. The drive must be based firm- ly upon all-inclusive cooperation of every union. It calls for in- dependent action by Canadian sections of international unions affiliated with the Congress, such as the Office and Profess- ional Employees International Union, and there may be others; to set asidé narrow concepts about craft jurisdiction and see ‘this as a boon to all organized workers including their own own members. The aim in this drive must be to organize: the unorganized in the most effec- tive way possible and as quick- ly as possible. It is not a matter of craft or jurisdictional empire building. % co Advancing technology has brought about a rise in white- collar employment and new oc- cupations. But with all the changing composition of the working class there is no rea- son to assume that we live in some “new society,” the pro- duct of a “post-industrial revo- lution.” What is taking place in no way invalidates the Marxist con- ception of classes and the class struggle. The process is not new. It has merely accelerated and acquired certain new features. These consequences of advanc- ing technology were noted by Karl Marx in his great work Capital. Se: At the turn of. the century Lenin wrote about it as follows: “In all spheres of people’s labor, capitalism increases the number of office and pro- fessional workers with parti- cular rapidity and making a growing demand for intellec- tuals. The latter occupy a spe- cial position among the other classes, attaching themselves partly to the bourgeoisie by their connections, their out- looks, etc., and partly to the wage workers as capitalism increasingly deprives the in- tellectual of his independent position, converts him into a hired worker and threatens to lower his living standard.” Collected Works, Vol. 4, P. 202. Despite the growth in white- collar employment, blue-collar workers still make up over one- half of the total work force (ex- _Cluding self-employed, officials and executives, which the offi- cial figures add into statistics of this category of workers). Today, unemployment reaches high into executive and mana- gerial positions, and the white- collar workers become more and more like blue-collar workers, suffering from the same rising prices and taxes, declining real incomes and growing unemploy- ment. Increasing exploitation is the lot of the whole working class, whose numbers increase both absolutely and relatively. No working man or woman to- day can escape organization and - struggle to improve his or her lot. It is a law of necessity in our private profit system of state monopoly capitalism. Fighting for union’s survival Three hundred and forty-four members of Local Union 173, In- ternational Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink and Distillery Workers in Waterloo, Ontario, have been on a legal strike against Dare Foods Ltd. in Kitchener, since May 29, 1972. Seventy-five per cent of the strikers are women. The workers’ initial contract demands were for a wage in- crease and equal pay for women. The company rejected the de- mands -and retaliated by em- ploying the professional strike- breaking firm, Canadian Driver Pool. Court injunctions were granted to the company limit- ing the number and activities of the picketers. As\a result scab labor passes freely’ in and out of the plant. The company’s disdain for the workers was manifested in the last. contract offer: a non- union shop, removing clauses that have been in agreement for 10 years, firing 10 of the union members and_ suspending 10 others for six months. Still in dispute is equal wage increases for women. The union’s last weapon is the boycott. Zehrs initially did not stock Dare cookies, but now they as well as all the other major food chains carry them. The Dare workers are fighting a battle for the survival of their union to ensure the employees get fair and just treatment. They are asking their brothers and sisters in the trade union movement and the consumer to support them by not buying Dare products. } PACIFIC TRIBUNE——-FRIDAY, FEBRUARY9, 1973--PAGE 6 : PHOTO —CHEVRON Strikebreakers trying to haul goods out of the Dare plant last spring were halted after an em- barassing collision with their Police. cruiser escort. This strike marked the first time professional scabs were used in Kitchener to break a legal strike. By CHARLES LUTZ EDMONTON — The striking stewardesses of Wardair Can- ada Ltd. have voted 78 to five to reject the latest offer last week by the airline in their contract dispute. A set of double standards seems to have guided both Wardair and the Federal gov- ernment in their treatment of the striking stewardesses, mem- bers. of the Canadian Airline Flight Attendant Association. The 102 members of CALFAA have set up picket lines against ardair Canada Ltd. in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Van- couver in. a dispute mainly over working hours. Fourteen months of negotiations have pre- ceded the January 12 walkout. Terry Braams, union represen- tative for the flight attendants, told the Canadian Tribune that in spite of the fact that Federal regulations insist on a crew of five to make a flight legal, flight attendants are still the only people whose length of duty day is not regulated by the govern- ment. - Tom Spalding, executive vice- president of Wardair, recently told the Edmonton Journal he did not deny that on certain oc- casions the stewardesses have flown long hours, in some cases between 15-20 hours in one day. Davs Off Denied In the same interview the company spokesman claimed that Federal Department of La- bor officials had inspected Ward- air’s work log books since the Hf strike began, “and they, co not find anything wrong. ‘i CALFAA demands Be ing hours should not ex¢e followed by a minimum period of nine hours. _ ein. The union also wants its if Fe Ue, n bers to enjoy guarantee off. Other air lines’ flight * ( n dants have a minimum Be a guaranteed days off each MU, Fe Before the Wardair walkouly. The company had been requt .€Ceiy employees to remain 4 reach of a telephone am available for duty any time ing their day “off.” et Differences in pay scales ut tween Wardair and other My of service and uses seven w bers where a five-membef © glibe would have been legally ™fe | cient — still thinks it C@% (fa away. with remunerating i ployeés' well below the CY je Canadian standards in the ®” Rive Inferior Pay Scale ? yet Where Air Canada and © \ pure offer $560 a month to @ (ath flight attendant, Wardalt wnt pay the same person 4 gf! $363. Maximum salaries af" jn for Air Canada and CP Al Bun $516 for Wardair. «thy, « Observers see a long * ve shaping up, with Edmonto? 2 ar weak link in. an. othe § | strong strike action. —_ gg 8) Although morale is still hilt among members here, SUF iit ory personnel and Pl b wives” have set up scab * lent ton crews who somehoW © ® the aircraft in the air. _/ The following letter Marchand, Minister leader, endangering hoth t have at times beén relief, It is all too obvious these conditions, erning conditions health and safety We are therefore r once by the federal Order-in-Co and applicable to i : that the present strike of air h0® esses is the expression of dissatisfaction with wor! conditions and failure on the part of the employer to rec’ ae What is perhaps. not so clear in Public's mind is the complete absence of regulations DEMAND ENACTMENT OF AIR RULES was sent today to Hon. J of Transport by William Kashtalh Communist Party of Canada: _ _ Despite vigorous denials by Mr. Maxwell W. Ward, presk dent of Wardair Ltd., that stewardesses employed by company are not overworked and fatigued to the point ° 3 heir own and passengers’ safety and well-being, it has been charged by crew members that a as much as 28 hours on duty with gov" of work in an area where the publi sibilit is concerned and the government’s resp® lity to take some immediate action on this matter. equesting that some steps be taken government through an immedi . uncil to establish suitable regulations gov ing hours of work and related matters in this line of work gh Working women is top! Equality for Working Women will be the topic of an open public meeting Feb, 7 in the Town Hall of the St. Lawrence Centre at_ 8 p.m. The program is being presented by the Com- munity Affairs Department of the Toronto Arts Foundation in co-operation with the Ontario Committee on the Status of Wo- men, Among Subjects under dis- Cussion will be such topics as Equal pay for work of equal va- lue, The position of women in the airlines, banks, crown cor- porations, and The enforcement of current labor legislation. The moderator will be Grace - Minister of Labor, Robert period will follow. The pre following the event. H ; i Hartman of the Canadian a of Public Employees. Pang) include John Munroe, re of the Secretariat of Social a4 Family Services, Flora Ma® vio ald, M.P., Fiona Nelson, ue chairman, Toronto Board 0 10 cation; Madeline Parent, Coe je of Canadian Unions, and Archer, president, Ontari0 eration of Labor. An open question and ans is free and everyone is invil to attend and participate i” discussion. Free coffee is 5* in the lobby of the Tow?