REIGN OF TERROR IN ONTARIO HOSPITALS TORONTO — Throughout Ontario, hospital administrators are exacting their pound of flesh from hospital workers who stood up for their rights and struck 51 hospitals defying the province's anti- labor law banning hospital workers’ strikes. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) reports the toll of the bosses’ revenge so far: four members of the union executive at Toronto West- ern were fired for their militant leader- ship of the strike there, with suspension notices sent to 20 other workers; four indefinite suspensions at Toronto Queensway; four-day suspensions for everyone at Grace Hospital; 18 workers in Sudbury’s hospitals have been inde- finitely suspended with assorted other suspensions ranging from one to 10 days for rank and file workers; at Ottawa's Grace Hospital 10-day suspensions were handed out to the local CUPE executive and the steward body, while other work- ers got suspensions ranging from one to three days. CUPE locals throughout the province are answering these vindictive management actions, at this stage, through the grievance procedure. In ad- dition to doing a job on the workers, some ‘hospitals are going after CUPE, such as four in Toronto which have filed policy grievances against the union, seeking ‘‘damages” as a result of the strike. ANGRY WORKERS CONFRONT DAVIS CORNWALL — More than 100 angry hospital workers and members of the Canadian Paperworkers Union on strike against Domtar for several months wel- the ‘‘Seaway City’’ with a shower of eggs and protests over the government's smashing of the hospital workers’ strike. Domtar workers wanted to know why the Tory government and the *‘jerk”’ who leads it could give their bosses $10-million last year yet won't force the company to meet the workers’ just wage demands. N.B. CIVIC WORKERS STRIKE FOR WAGES SAINT JOHN — More than 400 out- side municipal workers in this major New Brunswick city went on strike Feb. ness agent Bob Davidson called “‘a ridiculous wage offer by the city.’’ The strikers vowed to stay out until a contract is signed. Pressure is on the municipal government to get off the dime and negotiate because the city has been clogged-up by two weekend snow- storms. Bargainers for both sides met Feb. 10 before TV cameras with the mayor claiming the city couldn’t afford CUPE’s demand for a 34% one-year wage and benefits package, and the union charging ‘‘political monuments” are being built by civic authorities at the expense of the workers’ living standard. CUPE is also bitter about the city’s con- tracting out of union members’ jobs. 92% STRIKE VOTE _ FOR PHONE WORKERS CALGARY — The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, (IBEW), went into negotiations Feb. 9 with management at Alberta Govern- ment Telephones, and provincial government officials in Edmonton, backed with an overwhelming strike mandate from its members. The 1,700 IBEW telephone operators recently voted 92% for a strike unless their de- mands for a new contract are met. - comed Ontario premier William Davis to - 9, following what CUPE Local 18 busi-~ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 20, 1981—Page 6 Metro labor backs hospital strike, — arrested Boise Cascade workers — By MIKE PHILLIPS TORONTO — Metro Toronto’s 160,000-member labor council, Feb. 5, pledged its all-out support for hospital workers and the strikers at Boise Cas- cade, who are both under the iron heel of the Queen’s Park Tory government. Both the hospital workers and the Boise strikers are being dragged before Ontario’s courts for putting up a militant fightback against their employers and the Tory government to improve their wages and living standards. Delegates unanimously approved an executive board statement calling on Queen’s Park to: drop all charges against hospital workers and their union leaders in the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE); repeal the anti- union Ontario Hospital Disputes Arbitra- tion Act, the filthy law denying hospital workers the right to strike; step in to force the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), to bargain in good faith with CUPE and other unions representing hospital workers and stop hiding behind compulsory aribitration as a way of av- oiding serious negotiations with the workers. The council also demanded that the OHA drop all charges against CUPE, and its members, drop any and all discip- linary measures against hospital workers > for taking part in the strike, and return to the bargaining table immediately to negotiate an equitable contract. Lucie Nicholson, president of CUPE’s Ontario division, asked for the support of the entire labour movement in defending the hospital workers under prosecution by the OHA and the government. -“*Nicholson reported that CUPE On- tario has called on the Ontario Federa- tion of Labor (OFL), to convene a con- ference of public sector union affiliates to hammer out a common strategy to deal with the government and defend the EA One ‘The strike ended because we fought the employer, the provincial govern- ment, the attorney general, his injunc- tions and his troops, the Ontario Provin- cial Police on the line’’, she said. ‘It’s difficult when you're on a so-called il- legal strike and every member has 4 $1,000 fine over their head. You can’t pay $1,000 fines when you don’t even earn $1,000 a month.” She also pointed out how the au- thorities had bullied many of the workers who are immigrants and afraid of how - legal charges could affect their prospec- tive chances for citizenship. Nicholson confirmed the wave of re- prisals by both the government and the OHA against the strikers throughout On- tario. She cited instances of suspensions and legal charges being placed on the workers in Toronto, Hamilton, Sudbury and other spots, and suggested that CUPE may calloneach workerin Ontario to donate one day’s pay to the legal de- fence fund being set up to back hospital workers facing charges. She also hammered the Tories for ‘‘cutting the care out of health care,” because of the budget and staff cuts in hospitals inspired by provincial govern- ment restraint policies. . Hospital workers, she said, are report-- ing that many patients, particularly those in chronic care facilities aren’t being properly fed. ‘‘When some elederly per- son can’t have a glass of milk or a cup of tea at night, then as far as we're con- cerned they’ re not getting enough care’, she said. Council treasurer Bill Baker declared, “there’s no place in this country for compulsory arbitration because it de- are citizens of this country. When we in- the trade union movement sit back and allow this to go on, we are taking part in this slimy process along with the Davis (Ontario) government. “Hts up to the labor movement’’, he - said, ‘to throw its full weight behind hospital workers. Maybe then, the little people will be the spark in the process which will throw this rotton Tory government out of office.” CUPE member Heather Smith stres- sed the need for labor to back the hospital tees. wt _ grades the people who work in it and who. -. workers and pressed the New Democra- tic Party to be bolder in its support for the right to strike for all workers. ~ Postal workers” delegate low reported on support Toronto po workers gave the CUPE strikers on the picket lines and she initiated a collection from the delegates which netted some $340 to kick off the labor council’s hospk tal workers’ defence fund. On the Boise Cascade resolution, council executive reported it has com tacted the OFL urging it to co-ordinate 4 province-wide defence fund on behalf of the members of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union on trial in Kenora for their militant strike actions. The executive statement condemned the way Boise strikers are being ‘‘haras- sed in a vindictive manner by the policé authorities.” The delegates unanimously adopted the statement which placed the labor movement in Toronto ‘ton record aS being opposed to the tactics being used against the (Lumber and Sawmill Work: | Eileen Lud- — the ers) union .. .’’ and called on the provi cial government to immediately drop all charges against the Boise strikers. Newspaper Guild delegate Kerry” McCuaig detailed the harassment of LSWU members who were arrestee, brought many miles to Kenora by the. OPP, charged then released and told to find their own way back home. McCualg recalled how the OPP, working for Boise — Cascade, had wasted millions of Ontario _ taxpayers’ dollars in trying to break the strike by harassing and beating strikers; their children and wives on_ the picket lines and in their communities. — “This council should remind Canadiat Labor Congress president Dennis — McDermott of the commitment he made to the Boise Cascade strikers to bring. down the weight of the entire labor movement across Canada in support OF the strikers”, she said, urging labor 10 mount a Canada-wide campaign in SUP” — port of the persecuted Boise strikers. Feb. 5 also saw the annual labor cout cil elections which returned the incum! bent executive and brought a number of large and the expanded standing commit a Admiral shuts down Quebec plant By HERVE FUYET MONTREAL — Canadian Admiral ’ Corp., had a pretty lousy Christmas pre- sent for 252 workers at its St-Bruno re- frigerator assembly plant, when they told the workers by mail the plant was closing its doors forever. ‘Further manufacturing activities can no longer be economically or financially TG a Se aa is Ra as bell ‘ See ee rte se wwe § 71.¢1-RO AUTO -ECONOMICS: justified’’, the company declared in its press release. Admiral said it was trans- fering production from St-Bruno, a community near Montreal, to Missis- sauga Ontario where the company is headquartered. Last December, the Quebec Superior Court had forced Admiral to compensate the St-Bruno workers for illegally lock- ing them out for a few weeks over a dis- pute involving better pay for piece work. Members of the Confederation of Na- tional Trade Unions, (CNTU-CSN), the St-Bruno workers accused Admiral management of incompetence and bar- gaining in bad faith. The union also-de- clared ‘‘it is unacceptable that the Quebec government should fold its arms. ‘while the Caisse de dépot et placements, (a Quebec-government run deposit and investment fund) is at once the principal shareholder in the York Lambton Co., positive additions to the executive } | i which owns Admiral, and the princip#! stockholder of Sogerby Company® shares which control York Lambton. — The CNTU also sent a telegram © Quebec Industry and Commerce Minis: ter YVES Duhaime demanding the ful glare of a public inquiry be tumed of “this move to Ontario which is sub sidized by Quebec workers through the Caisse de dépét et placement’. Plant closures and run-aways are tak ing place in Quebec with increasing fre quency, affecting not only the worker involved, but the entire regions whe the run-away industries are located. In a press release, the Communit Party of Quebec declared its total sup port for the laid-off Admiral workers ant called on Quebec’s Parti Québéc? government to also investigate the clos ing of the Cadbury plant, whose owne® ran away more than two years ago. 5 Jobless total TORONTO — A huge rise in the number of Canadians unable to find work in January produced contrasting head- lines. Toronto’s Tory Globe reported: Total jobless up to 945,000. The city’s Liberal Star noted: Unemployment rate _ worse, rises for Jan. lower. In fact, while “‘official’”’ employed leaped from, 810,000 in De cember, Statistics Canada, expectisl considers the rise at ‘improvement’ over its estimates — cd a drop in rate from 7.4% to 7.3%!.