CANADA Issues unanswered by Labor Code changes By NAN McDONALD Proposed changes to Canada’s Labor Code, introduced in the House of Commons, May 15, would directly affect the working Conditions of women. They out- law sexual harassment in the work place, and extend unpaid maternity leave to 41 weeks from 17. Such steps, while welcome, do not affect the vast majority of working women who are gov- ered by provincial, not federal, labor legislation. Even for the minority affected, mainly within the federal jurisdic- tion in the transport and commu- nications industries, the changes show their inadequacy. The government’s approach to the in- Sidious crime of sexual harass- ment will do little to reassure its victims that the government is Serious about stamping it out. To propose as Ottawa does, that employers set policy against sexual harassment is like asking arsonists to set policy against Starting fires. Studies indicate that the employer, or his represen- tative, is by and large the greatest offender. The law must be abun- dantly clear in not only defining sexual harassment, but in setting policy and applying it. Unpaid Maternity Leave There is little doubt about the importance of the other major proposal — the extending of- guaranteed maternity leave to working women through legis- lation. The impact of such guaran- tees on the mental and general health of pregnant working women is priceless. But the lack of legislation guaranteeing full paid maternity leave is surely one of the most blatant forms of discrimination against working women: Yet there is no provision to overcome this shortcoming. Those working women who have got the right to paid mater- nity leave have won it through the collective bargaining process;-and less than 10 per cent of all major collective agreements in Canada contain provisions for paid maternity leave. The gains made at the bargaining table by trade unions, unfortunately, affect only a minority of working women. The majority are concentrated in industries where minimum wages, poor working conditions and the lack of rights related to maternity are the norm. Unor- ganized, and unable to bargain for their rights, they have little hope of forcing their employers to agree to such benefits. These women suffer double jeopardy. Burdened with the financial pen- alty of a steep cutback in real in- come when they apply for unem- ployment insurance maternity benefits, many do not qualify be- cause the eligibility criteria is much stricter than for unemployment insurance. During 1980, 17,000 claims were rejected. 15 Years, and then... Rank hypocrisy characterizes. the federal government’s position on legislating paid maternity leave to all Canadian women. Lloyd Axworthy, when he was minister responsible for the Status of Canadian women, told a United Nations conference called to examine the progress women made during the first half of the U.N. Decade for Women: “T am delighted to advise you Madam Chairwoman and fellow delegates, that Canada willbe sign- ing this Convention this week. This Convention, so many years in the drafting (and I-am proud to ~ note that Canadian represen- tatives participated actively in its drafting) affirms the commitment of our separate governments and of the United Nations as a whole, not only to respect and equalize the rights of women and men, but, in my opinion it also gives full recognition to what all of us gathered here have known and what many others have stead- fastly refused to accept — that women have borne the burdens of discrimination in many ways and for centuries. They have been under privileged and- under- valued. They have endured unjust and inequitable situations for no other reason than that they were born female. Having given recog- nition to the situation, we now must remedy it. Canada is signing this convention not as a symbolic gesture, but as a pledge of action to all Canadian women — indeed to all Canadians.’’ So said Ax- worthy, on Canada’s behalf in Copenhagen, Denmark, July 15, +1980. That Convention, signed by Canada as a ‘‘pledge of action to all Canadian women”’ contains a commitment on the signing na- tions to introduce paid maternity leave. The United Nations Con- vention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, was adopted on Nov. 7, 1967, by the General Assembly. Canada’s signature was finally in- cluded 14 years later. But the fed- eral government failed to include this noble declaration in its own Peace walk nets $30,000 TORONTO — Sponsors of walkers in Toronto’s second an- nual Walkathon for Peace came up with $30,000 in pledges as more than 200 participants set out on the 22-kilometre route (13.7 miles). The route represented the estimated area that would be de- stroyed if just one Cruise missile hit Toronto City Hall — the start- ing point for the walk. Walkers, who raised the money by getting peace supporters to sponsor them at so much a kilo- metre, were entitled to donate half of what they brought in to their favorite peace cause. Fifty per cent of the money went to finance the further work of the Toronto Disarmament Network. Co-operative spring weather made it a gala event with particip- ants ranging in age from grand- mothers and grandfathers, down through all the categories to chil- dren with energy to burn. Not everyone went the full distance, but everyone’s participation added to the coffers and the cause. 6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 13, 1984 TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS constitution, let alone implement it. Of all industrialized countries, Canada and the United States rate among the worst in respect to the basic right of women to paid maternity leave. Socialism’s Priorities Fundamentally distinct from capitalist countries, socialist countries recognize motherhood as a social function, protected by the state and the whole of society. Women in socialist society not only enjoy and are guaranteed paid maternity leave, but a vast network of universal social pro- grams and services supports their ‘exercising of their democratic right. In the Soviet Union the winning of political power by the working class not only did away with the exploitation of all labor, it laid the’ base for equal rights for women and brought about a revolution- ary social transformation. Today women in the Soviet Union enjoy- ing the fruits of their struggle are guaranteed equality in all spheres of Soviet society. Canadian: women in their majority need to be alerted to the misleading election rhetoric of the Tories and Liberals. : Crucial questions such as guaranteeing women their basic democratic rights; real recovery based on full employment poli- cies, which includes affirmative action programs for women and minorities; the ending of United States terrorism all over Canada, by annulling the Cruise missile testing agreement, are still on the agenda. The proposed changes to the Labor Code do not address the real inequities in labor legislation which exist both at federal and provincial levels. This has already infuriated those in the women’s movement who see the need for fundamental social change. Their anger should be directed toward campaigning for a progressive electoral coalition, which would work for a large progressive group in the federal house. This offers the best prospect for legis- lation that truly responds to the needs of Canadian women. Nan McDonald is women’s direc- tor of the Communist Party of Cana- da. . Be \ mht ; STRIKE Cleaners strike q for decent wages TORONTO — They’re overworked and underpaid, and : they’re mostly Portuguese women who toil at night in the gleam- ing glass and gold-tinted towers of the Canadian monopoly establishment. : Some 250 of them, members of the Food and Service Workers Union of Canada have been on strike since June 4 against Feder- ated Building and Maintenance, ‘a contractor who cleans the Toronto Stock Exchange Tower and First Canadian Place for Olympia York, the real estate monopoly which owns the build- ings. 29% About 95 per cent of the strikers are women who work nights” about 27 hours a week for $5.83 an hour. The men, classified mostly as heavy cleaners are paid $6.97. ei Wages are the number one issue, with the union demanding a dollar an hour increase over two years, and Federated Building Maintenance trying to force down the workers’ throats a wage freeze in the first year and a 30 cent an hour increase in the . second. Federated, in addition to hauling scabs into the struck build- ings, has threatened the strikers with the loss of their jobs. They told FASWOC during contract talks that Olympia York would cancel its contract with Federated if the Union asked for too much. Such a cancellation would put the union and its members on the street. FASWOC points out that such contractual agreements are common in the cleaning industry. Recently cleaners at the Eaton’s Centre lost their jobs, their contract and their bargaining rights when the cleaning contractor changed and another.com- | tractor hired new staff at lower wages. a . FASWOC organized the workers at Federated in 1979 after a tough fight with the owners who tried to argue before the Labor Relations Board that the certification application should be dis- allowed because most of the workers couldn’t speak English, the language of the labor board notices. : Regardless of the company’s threat to their jobs, the 250 clean- ers voted by 96 per cent to strike, June 4. Federated had moved © from its first offer of 30 cents an hour commencing January 85, to April 13, 1984 the expiry date of the old contract. But it wasn’t a big enough move. ‘ With more than a dozen entrances to the building, many of them underground, the tiny picket line is hard-pressed to keep scabs out of the building. Federated has lost little time in showing — its mailed fist to the strikers as police were called out the first ; night of the confrontation to help escort scabs through the picket line. : In one incident about a dozen Metro Police moved in on the cleaners’ picket June 4 triggering a fight that résulted in the arrest of one striker and of the husbands of two others. Januaria Guerreiro, her ankle bandaged from having been stepped on in the fracas the night before, spoke of how a police- man threw her daughter to the ground when she went forward to assist her father who was being hauled away by the cops. Her - husband had moved to the defence of a striker who’d been | arrested and was being shoved into a police cruiser. The daughter ended up with a broken finger after a cruiser door was closed on her hand. “She was half in and half out of the car with the police trying to close the door on her’’, Guerreiro said. “‘My husband tried to hold the door open but the police hit him, and others threw him in the car too.” The three were released a few hours later charged with mis- chief and assaulting police. - e The strikers are looking for picket line support and are deter- mined to hang tough until they win a decent wage settlement. Already the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has pledged to support the strikers and will call on its Toronto members to support the FASWOC picket line. CUPW regional grievance — officer Karen Nichols pledged the postal union would do all in its power to support the striking cleaners. I | « e EASWOC | ON Ti = ae Most of the striking cleaners are Portuguese women who work at night and earn only $5.63 an hour, which is less than cleaners make, doing the same job at other buildings in downtown Toronto.