In 1978, Jim Kinnaird of the
International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers won a close
race for the presidency of the
B.C. Federation of Labor. His
key supporters came from the In-
ternational Woodworkers of
America and the B.C. Govern-
ment Employees Union, the two
largest unions in B.C.

The contest between
Kinnaird’s slate and the slate of
Bob Donnelly of the Telecom-
munication Workers’ Union was
generally regarded. as a contest

. between those who were.prepared
to give uncritical support to the
NDP in the politican arena and
those who advocated that while
the Federation should support the
NDP as its political arm, it should
maintain its class independence

- even to the point of publicly criti-
cizing the NDP where working
class interests were involved.

At the November, 1980 con-
vention of the Federation, the
TWU was well into its long dis-
pute with the B.C. Telephone
‘Company, which was subse-
quently settled in March of this
year. When spokesmen for a
number of unions took the floor
to urge more active involvement
of the Federation and its affiliates
in support of the telephone work-
ers, it was Donnelly who rose to
defend the Federation officers.
He thanked the affiliates for their
support and commended the offi-
cers of the Federation for their
close cooperation.

A dramatic highlight of the
telephone dispute was the history-
making occupation of B.C. Tele-

phone buildings by members of
the TWU

When the strikers evacuated
the Vancouver premises of the
Telephone Company on Sey-
mour Street, some 2,000 mem-
bers and supporters of the TWU
held a mass meeting on the street.
Kinnaird addressed the rally, in
which he sharply criticized the
B.C. Telephone Company, com-
mended the telephone workers
for their organized, disciplined
ne gas during the occupation
action’”’ to win the strike.

. Three weeks later, there was a
regional general strike in the Na-
naimo-Duncan-Cowichan area in
support of the telephone workers,
organized by the Federation. The
settlement which soon followed
made it unnecessary to proceed
with the second regional strike in
the Kootenays.

When we examine the role of
the Federation leadership in this
and a number of other key strug-
gles, we can only conclude that it
was a positive one. The election of
Jim Kinnaird as president and
Dave MacIntyre as secretary-
treasurer in 1978 was seen by

} many of their supporters, includ-

ing officers of the TWA and the
BCGEU, not only as a victory for
a less critical approach to the
right-wing Barrett leadership of
the NDP, but also as a call for a
more moderate policy in collect-
ive bargaining disputes.

While it is true that the current
leadership of the Federation rare-
ly, if ever, criticizes the leadership
of the NDP publicly, it is true that
it has given .good leadership in
support of a number of economic
struggles conducted by its affili-
ates. In this, it has found itself, on
occasion, contradicting the policy
of the leadership of the NDP in
B.C. For example, a former cabi-
net ministér in the Barrett govern-
ment publicly opposed the re-

“total economic -

gional general strike on Vancou-
ver Island. Also, the Federation
has publicly demanded that the.
B.C. Telephone Company be
placed under public ownership,
but Barrett has made it clear that
if re-elected to form the govern-
ment, this question will be low on
his list of priorities.

All this goes to prove that the
struggle for progressive policies in
the trade union movement must.
be fought out on the basis of what
is best for the workers, not only in’

_the short term, but with due re-

gard for the long-term interests.
Trade union activists should ap-
proach this problem objectively,
and not subjectively. Sectarian
evaluations of leaders which put
people into fixed categories for all
time are a poor substitute for de-
veloping pressure for united ac-
tion.

Some 200,000 organized work-
ers in B.C. are at various stages of
arriving at new collective agree-
ments in 1981. The negotiations
of the IWA, the pulp and paper’
unions and the Steelworkers in

the Kootenays could be decisive in

setting patterns for the remainder
of the year. The B.C. Federation

of Labor may be called upon
again to act as the co-ordinating

. force in organizing solidarity in

defence of the vital interests of
one or more of its affiliates.

Those unions that settle for
1981-82 on a two-year basis will
be reopening their agreements in
*82, and other important sections
of the trade union movement —

like the Building Trades — will go.

to the bargaining table earlier in
the year. This pattern, with some
variations, could repeat ~ itself
through the eighties.

That raises the whole question
of what the labor movement can
look forward to in the eighties
and what policies are required to
meet the new challenges.

It is-obvious that the eighties
will be a time of a radical restruct-
uring of industry, accentuated by
issues of technological change,

- speed-up and plant closures.

_ The pressure of capital accum-
ulation will tend to give a more
working class character to office
and service workers as traditional
management practices will be ap-
plied to them. They will face in-
creased supervision, job insecur-

* ity due to technological change,

contracting-out and problems re-

lated to defining the bargaining
unit.

Looking across ‘the country,

labor could be weakened by the ©
-existence of a large reserve army

of unemployed, partly because of
the restructuring of the economy,
partly because of the interna-
tional weakness of Canadian

manufacturing and largely due to -

a conscious political decision to
let unemployment remain high.

Tke major corporations will”

also try to.weaken labor’s resist-
ance to bearing the cost of this re-
structuring (falling real wages and
social services, in security and lay-
offs) and they will attempt to inte-
grate the unions into this process
at the plant, provincial and na-
tional levels. Bill Hamilton of the

Labor in the '80s

. Employers’ Council of B.C., the.

collective bargaining co-ordin-
ator for corporate business, has
spoken very softly in response to
every strong move of the B.C.
Federation of Labor in-the past
few months. He hopes to keep the
door open for talks that will lay
the basis for friendly cooperation
between the Council and the Fed-
eration, based on what the Coun-
cil considers to be “‘the reality of
the market place’’ and. “‘modera-
tion. 9

The instability of such at-
tempts, as witnessed in the past
few months, means that direct at-
tacks on organized labor cannot
be ruled out, like thwarting the
organization of the unorganized,
limiting the legality of strikes and

-wage controls.

A key question for the period
that lies ahead is the nature of the
demands that will be raised by the
trade union movement, over and
above the traditional trade union
demands for more pay, shorter
work week and improved work-
ing conditions.

Certain demands can strength-
én the trade union movement and
are immediately both trade union
and political demands. For ex-
ample:

@ The right to strike: Some
workers don’t. have this. right.

Labor Comment
Jack Phillips

Others cannot strike during the
life of the collective agreement.
The recent picketing of Liquor
Distribution Brand premises by
members of the BCGEU took
place because of the extreme dif-
ficulty and time delays involved in
grievances. All work-

ers should enjoy the right to strike
during the term of the collective

ent;

@ Plant closure legislation:
The introduction of strong legis-
lation to limit plant closures
(notice, severance pay, public jus-
tification, seizure of assets) is
more than a way to save jobs. It is

‘a way to deprive the major cor-

porations of a big club when they
compel cuts in the collective
agreement by threatening to close
the operation. The demand for
earlier public pensions is also a
way to deprive the corporations
of threatening older workers with
the loss of their pensions.

New attempts will be made to
integrate the workers into capital-
ist planning and production by
profit-sharing schemes, seats on
the board of directors and. quality
of work life committees. It will
not be enough to reject these
overtures. A more sophisticated
‘response is required. The leader-
ship of the trade union movement
should seize such opportunities to
talk about more real control and
power for the working people,

_like opening the company books

to the union.

What the unions should ad-
dress themselves to is a radical ex-

tension of collective bargaining..

In other words, demands should
be made through existing trade
union organizations, and not
through special forms which by-
pass the unions.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MAY 1, 1981—Page 10

The road to unity of the Cana-
dian trade union movement has
been long and hard and the end is
not yet in sight. Some of the dif-
ficulties have been internal - the
uneven development of industry
and union organization, regional
and historical differences and the
two nation character of the Cana-
dian state. Others have been exter-

nal in their origin - the interference.

of U.S. international “unions in

By BEN SWANKEY

Canadian affairs and their at-
tempts, successful at times, to
dominate the Canadian trade
union movement.

Today, on its 25th anniversary,
the 2.3-million member Canadian

- Labor Congress, Canada’s main

trade union centre is again faced
with a split; and again’as in 1939,
when the Trades and Labor Con-

gress of Canada was split, the divi- .

sion is being engineered from
Washington.

The Canadian Labor Congress
was formed in 1956 by the merger
of the two biggest trade union cen-
tres in the country - the Trades and
Labour Congress of Canada
(TLC) and the Canadian Congress
of Labor (CCL). The third trade
union centre at that time, the Cana-
dian and Catholic Confederation
of Labor, remained aloof.

The Trades and Labor Congress
was formed in 1886. Most of its af-
filiates were international unions
with headquarters in the US.
Though nominally independent, it
was, in fact, subordinate to the
American Federation of Labor in
Washington, and was dominated
by the. international represen-

tatives, or ‘‘roadmen’’ as they were

called, who controlled the Cana-

dian sections of international.

unions.

Traditionally the. TLC pursued
right wing, conservative policies, in
keeping with the policies of its in-
ternational affiliates. However,
under, the impact of the alliance of
the Soviet Union and the western
powers during World War II and
the growing strength of the trade
union movement, progressive
forces made their influence felt
within the leadership of the TLC as
well.

The Canadian Congress of
Labor was founded in 1940 by a

_ merger of the All Canadian Con-

gress of Labor and CIO unions in

Canada which had been expelled

by the TLC in 1939.

_ The All Canadian Congress of
Labor, as its name implied, was

made up of only Canadian unions,

- some of them formed as a result of
breakaways from the international

unions. It was, however, by no
means a militant trade union cen-
tre.

The CIO unions had their origin
back in 1935 when a group of
leaders within the AFL began to

The CLC
anniversary :;
anot so happy
birthday —

- auto, ruber, packinghouse, “W;

. sibly directed against comm

demand action to organize the
US. industries most of which
still completely unorganized (S

electrical manufacturing). Unl#2,
the leadership of John L.
and with the support of
munists and other milit@l
workers, they brought millions ®

- U.S: workers into industrial uf

in 1936-37. ,
-. The CIO had come into Canl@ 7s
in 1937. It should be noted that")
Canadian organizing efforts
neither led nor financed by the

-in the U.S. but by Canadi@

themselves with well re

Electrical Workers in the ead.
Canada it succeeded in orga
workers in auto, steel and pa¥7,,
inghouse as well-as seamen @ ~
many other groups of workers. 1
militant policies and tactics 4 ovsat
ed and inspired the whole Ca™ |
dian labor movement. a.
In 1937 the AFL leaders in MM
U.S. expelled the unions that hi a
led the fight for indust Mc
organization. The expelled
together with those they
organized then set up a new f

-union centre, the Congress for“

dustrial Organization (CIO).
In 1938 the leadership of
AFL in the U.S. in effect o'

- the Trades and Labor Cong I

Canada to expel CIO unio
Canada too. The TLC refused
itially to do so. In fact the 1938

~ vention of the TLC passed ares

tion stating: ““Whereas a united
ternational trade union movem,
within Canada is essential for
welfare of the workers of ip ;
Dominion... the convent!
concurs in the desire expr

_ avoidance of division of our m

ment in Canada.”’ -

But the pressure from the
leadership in Washington inc
ed and the TLC leadership fi

capitulated. The CIO unions

expelled in 1939.
Support for the CCF was st
within the unions which merge?”

form the CCL in 1940. a.

Then came the period of ts
Cold War, openly declared 4

~ Winston Churchill in his Fulto%

Missouri, speech in March,
and carried forward: by
Senator Joe McCarthy to a
victory of fascism in the U.S. ItW
taken into. the U.S. labor m0”
ment as well with anti-labor leg
tion passed by the U.S. federal
state governments and with
militant trade union leaders rem!
ed from office and progressiv
unions that refused to bow to ¥™
Carthyism expelled from both ™
AFL and CIO. :
While McCarthyism was 0S a
it was in fact aimed at subvert i ;
democracy in the United States?
making the unions subservient ©; ‘
the state and the employers. |
In Canada too, McCarthy®
was carried into the trade um!