PP Naa Te LABOR Action prescription for labor malaisé By FRED WILSON This is a year of centenaries which cast long shadows over the critical contempor- ary issues in the labor movement. It is Vancouver’s centenary — a’ city with a proud working class whose accomp- lishments past and present are outstanding on the continent. It is 100 years since the formal constitu- tion of a Canadian labor central — the Trades and Labor Congress — initiated three years before. Most significantly it is the centenary of May Day — born in the militant eight- hour day movement that climaxed in the May | Chicago strike and the May 4 police attack in Haymarket Square. Ever since, this day has represented the class militancy of the labor movement and its need to com- bine economic and political struggle in the fight for social change. These milestones which pointed forward to social progress and a new society put the seemingly intractable problems of today’s labor movement in an ominously dim light. Indeed these centenaries find the move- ment in a malaise and under seige and being driven backward by the drive for conces- sions and union-busting campaign of a hungry and aggressive employer class. Trade unionism has achieved institutiohal status over these decades, but it is precisely that status which today controls it, legislates it, enjoins it, and arbitrates it into a strait- jacket preventing decisive action. Repression is nothing new for the labor movement, nor are the problems of uniting the movement in styuggle against that repression. In fact the current malaise in the B.C. labor movement underscores a lesson repeated by a century of experience. Unity and progress for the labor movement can only be forged out of a program of class action, while class collaboration and retreat inevitably divides and demoralizes and | leads to set backs and defeat. B.C. Federation of Labor president Art Kube, represents a trend in the labor move- ment ideologically trapped in the malaise. He is currently weathering a storm of criticism for his statements that in 1986, “‘the trade union movement has rarely been in such a conciliatory mood.” His statements are dir- ectly contrary to the resolutions adopted by the B.C. Fed convention which warned the employers and Socreds that the labor move- ment would co-ordinate bargaining in both the public and private sector to defeat con-. cessions, and served notice that political action to mobilize the unemployed and focus the attention of the province on the issue would head the federation’s agenda. Not unexpectedly, co-ordinated bargain- ing has to date involved nothing more than a few meetings to pass information back and forth, leaving each union to work out its own strategy. The Federation has now begun publishing a bulletin in the name of co-ordinated bargaining which is a collec- tion of synopses of contracts and negotia- 32 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 30, 1986 tions. But in a revealing passage from the first bulletin, the federation sent yet another message to the employers that there is little in this style of co-ordinated bargain- ing they need fear. “The common thread which runs through all the unions’ strategy is refusal to be dragged into confrontation with the government and the employers,” it states, while Bennett and the private sector employers “want to escalate confrontation as quickly as possible.” That strategy is the “common thread” running through those leaders in the labor movement who still believe that the fight- back by the labor movement is a political liability to the NDP and who therefore sit on all of the action decisions of each con- vention. This is the malaise in practice, which projects defeatism and demoraliza-_ tion to the membership and looks for a political solution over which they have no control. (It is certainly not the strategy that the membership had in mind when it gave the Building Trades and public sector unions strong strike mandates, nor is it the strategy of some of the unions currently in bargain- ing who are preparing job action to secure an agreement. The Fed bulletin itself refers to the “surprising” agreement secured by the OTEU on the SkyTrain — after it began a program of escalating job action.) Three years after Solidarity showed the power that the labor movement can mobil- ize, the no-confrontation and conciliation strategy is seen more and more for the los- ing strategy that it is.: Instead of endlessly tying the hands and feet of the membership waiting for the elusive NDP government, there is a recognition of the need for an ideological overhaul of the movement anda re-dedication to all kinds of struggle. That message was given pointedly in recent weeks by the other officer of the B.C. Federation, secretary treasurer Cliff And- stein, who in an article published by the magazine New Directions, argued that the employers and the state have ripped up the social contract and that it is time for the labor movement “to go beyond the limits of the post-war agreement’ between labor, capital and the state that has shaped the business unionism of the labor movement. “... The labor movement has become too legalistic, too dependent on legislation in defending itself. Forty years of operating within a legal framework has caused much of that movement to forget that govern- ment intervention on our behalf occurred because unions and workers were willing to operate outside of the legal framework, to defy existing laws, to carry out strikes when necessary (legal or illegal), and go to jail if needed. Even in the Sixties and Seventies, federal and provincial government workers finally obtained collective bargaining rights only after strikes in defiance of the law, rallies, protests and political organizing.” Those union leaders gripped in the malaise often seek to rationalize their co- option into the system by hiding behind the least developed sections of the membership, or by pointing to what some unions are not prepared to do. The B.C. Federation of Labor has recently researched the attitudes of trade unionists and their families in B.C. towards the role of their unions and politi- cal action, and received some startling results: @ The business unionism of several decades understandably has left its mark on the awareness of workers. The largest single group of unionists identify with the “middle class”, although the great majority consider themselves to be a “working person” or an “average person”. A majority are politically uncommitted or support business parties. e A great many unionists, including the uncommitted, do not perceive the NDP to be a strong defender of labor, or a particu- larly strong alternative on any count. Rela- iely few consider that the NDP has a real- istic plan to improve the economy. ® Unionists, in general, are not ena- mored with the labor movement’s “parallel campaign” to elect the NDP in which the unions canvass their members on behalf of the NDP and try and convince them to vote NDP. © Incontrast to the attitudes citesays unionists in their great majority 3 support their unions and give thell leadership a full mandate to speak ould political, economic and social malt concern to the membership. None of these findings would com great revelation to the Action Cau@® its supporters who have been af years that the membership were @ for strong leadership and action and 4 resented being delivered uncritical | NDP while it moved farther and ™ away from the labor movement. But it is a fresh affirmation by thé bership of the mandate given a cent” and repeatedly since to unite theif 14 program of class action by the labor - ment itself which will defend and their rights. There is no better way to brea malaise and regain the initiative tha? ye up the mandate of the memberships") indirectly in surveys and directly at™ ‘i tion time in the policies adopted for™ 9) zation and a co-ordinated fightback 7) Aud fini MAY DAY Representative of C.U.T., ch J Sponsored by: Vancouver Trade UI oe - CELEBRATE | 100 YEARS | OF STRUGGLE Saturday, May 3, 19% Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Avenué y Doors open: 6 p.m. Program: 7 p.m. 4 Speakers: 1 Art Kube, President, — B.C. Federation of Labor 1 Bill Zander, President, | Provincial Council of Carpem Libby Davies, Councillol” City of Vancouver ' De Music Food Refreshments — | Childcare provided FREE ADMISSION May Day Committee and CUT, chile. y Per er ee ee Ce ee ew eie pe 0 6 weds © 9 6 6267-6) 9-084 0-0 Bill me later C1 lamenclosing 1yr.$1601 2yrs. $2801 6mo.$1001 Foreign 1 yt $ ~ IRIBUNE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 125. Phone 251-4186 . o ore 0 0 6 0.6), 0° Bweel @ae-9/ 78 8 Oe Be eee . s . 7° O00 le Wiee re © 0 Clee «6° 8 Bees 8 6 . 150 Donation$........ READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LAB® (em ees NSS SG A Oe