LABOR

TORONTO — The crucial role being
played by organized labor in North
America in the growing peace movement
must be heightened now that the peace
struggle is entering a more difficult and
decisive stage.

This was one of the unanimous con-
clusions drawn Jan. 26, in Toronto, at the
first North American regional meeting of
the International Trade Union Com-
mittee for Peace and Disarmament,
otherwise known as the Dublin Com-
mittee.

That name comes from the site in 1982
where the international committee was
formed, and since then regional meetings
have been held in Glasgow, where the
theme was “‘Nuclear Weapons Out of
Europe,’’ and Larnaca, Cyprus where
the focus of discussion was on making
the ‘Mediterranean a Nuclear Free
Zone’’.

“Peace, Jobs and Conversion” was the
theme of the Toronto meeting which was
primarily attended by trade union rep-
resentatives and individual trade
unionists from Canada and the U.S.

The participants unanimously issued a
two-page statement which welcomed the
renewal of arms reduction talks between
the U.S. and the Soviet Union as a posi-
tive development, but noted at the same
time that the discussions ‘‘are being held
in an atmosphere of heightened cold war
ideology and a major American

commitment to military spending on an .

unprecedented scale.”’

The trade unionists noted that U.S.
President Ronald Reagan’s so-called
“Star Wars’? weapons systems will not
only be the costliest weapons the world
has yet seen, but are designed to tilt the
current international balance in nuclear
weapons in favor of the U.S. “‘by giving
the Americans first strike capability with
a defense system that can block retalia-
tion.””

Growing Awareness

The statement also recorded the
Canadian government’s repudiation of
the peace initiative launched by former
Prime Minister Trudeau and the Tories’
total support for the U.S. arms build up
including backing for the Star Wars

Military spending will be a high prior-
ity under the Mulroney government
which has appointed one of its most right
wing members to be Minister of Defense.

“This government has given the green
light to the continued testing of American
Cruise Missiles over Canadian territory
and has openly endorsed the position
that Canada’s economic development
should be pursued by encouraging Cana-
dian industry to turn to military pro-

Conference links peace and jobs

duction for the American government’,
the statement reported.

At the same time the conference noted

the growing awareness by Canadian and

U.S. workers and the trade union

movement of the massive and destruc-

tive costs of militarism.

The Canadian Labor Congress and its
provincial federations of labor were sing-
led out for their policies which place
peace and disarmament as a top priority
for the trade union movement and for
rejecting military spending as a viable
way of building up the economy. Resolu-
tions adopted in convention by these
bodies show a growing understanding
among Canadian workers that military
spending creates fewer jobs compared to
the results of investment in civilian pro-
duction, and in addition to diverting
skills and resources from necessary so-
cial and human priorities, pushes the
world closer to nuclear annihilation.

Jobs With Peace

Canadian labor has also been a firm
advocate of the nuclear freeze and vigor-
ously opposed to Cruise testing on
Canadian soil.

The conference is calling on North
American labor to step up its participa-
tion with financial and human resources
in strengthening the peace movement,

Labor key in converting arms production

and urged unions to stimulate the de-
velopment of more local and regional
trade union peace committees.

The statement also noted the growing
support among U.S. trade unions for the
Jobs with Peace campaign backing the
freeze and increasingly placing the de-
mand for conversion to civilian pro-
duction as a key part of the union peace
program.

Emphasis was also placed on labor’s
role in identifying the transnational
corporations as the chief promoters of
the arms race.

The statement pointed out that ‘‘the
role of the transnational corporations in
fostering militarism, the economic con-
sequences of military spending on both
domestic and international economies
and the ultimate outcome of nuclear war
must all be made clear to our fellow
workers.” :

In his opening address to the con-
ference, Scottish labor leader James
Milne underlined the role of the TNCs in
fueling the arms race. ‘‘There is no doubt
in my mind that these (transnational)
companies have more than a vested in-
terest in supporting a cold war atmo-
sphere under which they can continue to
make ever increasing profits from their
weapons of death and destruction’’,
Milne told the gathering.

‘‘These merchants of death are about
as interested in peaceful co-existence as
was Attila the Hun.”’

Unity, Unity, Unity

Milne also tackled the myths spread by
big business that conversion from mili-
tary to civilian production will cost jobs
and fuel unemployment. Saying they to-
tally ignore the numerous trade union
research studies and alternative pro-
grams that show just the opposite is the
case, the Scottish trade union leader re-
called the massive economic conversion
that took place in post war Britain be-
tween August 1945 and.March of 1946.

‘During this period the whole of

British industry, which for six years had
been totally geared to war production,
was converted back to civil production’,
he said. ‘“‘If we take into consideration
that at the time there was no such thing as
‘new technology’, then you do not have
to be an expert to realize how much more
quickly it could be achieved today.”’

He concluded by recalling that 1985 is
the celebration of the 40th anniversary of

the defeat of fascism. He called for the —

same kind of all-in unity in-action that

was mobilized to defeat fascism, to be

turned toward solving the greatest threat —

facing humanity today.

THUNDER BAY — Can Car Rail
workers here said no to the company’s
latest contract offer Jan. 21 when
management refused to shift from its
demands for concessions and the right
to contract out work.

In rejecting the offer, by a huge 93 per
cent margin, Local 1075 was determined
to send the management of the provin-

message that the strike will continue until
the company wakes up.

The workers have been on strike
since Nov. 19, 1984.

Local 1075 recently uncovered proof
of management’s deliberate plan to
“clean house”’ and restructure labor re-
lations with the UAW in the wake of the
purchase of what formerly was a
Hawker-Siddely plant by the Ontario-
owned Urban Transit Development
Company.

The local released an internal com-
pany memo from Can Car’s vice-

cially-owned crown corporation the

Can car strikers reject offer

president of administration G.M. Cul-
len detailing the company’s 1984
bargaining strategy and including the
suggestion that the plan ‘‘may require
the acceptance of UTDC Corporate ofa
prolonged strike, without panic.”’

Can Car’s objectives in the 1984 talks
according to the memo included the
achievement of ‘‘contractural flex-
ibility, allowing management control’’,
cutting the cost of fringe benefits, and
introduction of incentive programs ‘‘to
increase productivity gains and reduce
the impact of the union.”’

The memo then detailed the com-
pany’s demands, most of which are
now sticking points in the two-month
long strike. These include increasing
the probationary period to 120 days
from 60; cutting out one statutory holi-
day; eliminating. the education leave
and other concessions.

The “‘incentive program’’ the com-
pany is trying to implement was ex-
pected by Cullen to become ‘‘the

toughest part of the bargaining pro-
cess.”’ Cullen noted that the UAW
“‘has resisted. incentive plans in North
America’’ and predicted that what he
called the ‘“‘UAW hierarchy incuding
Buzz Hargrove and Bob White (would)
fight this move with all their political
pursuasive strength.’’

Cullen admitted that the program,
which he predicted could achieve
“‘productivity gains of up to 42 ‘per
cent’’, would probably shatter con-
structive labor relations in the plant.

“It must be recognized that the
amount of labor unrest will increase,
including the possibility of ‘wildcats’”’,
he said.

Cullen recalled that there hasn’t been
a ‘wildcat’ strike at the company for 15
years but he went on tosay: ‘‘Griev-
ances will shift and increase. Ex-
perience of the experts shows that the
plan, if allowed to be loose or badly
managed, or not supported 100 per
cent, will cause production to become
controlled by the shop floor.”’

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fights

union’s
efforts:
on Hill

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: Ottawa

OTTAWA — The employer is
using every ‘‘trick in the book”’ to
delay the unionization of Parlia-
ment Hill employees, Jean Berge-
ron, vice-president of the Public
Service Alliance of Canada, said
after the Jan. 24 Canada Labor
Relations Board hearing on juris-
diction was adjourned.

“It’s going to take more than a
mountain of paper and a lot of
legal wrangling to stop the more
than 1,000 PSAC members on the
Hill from achieving the justice
they deserve,’’ Bergeron added.

Although the employer’s tac-
tics at the CLRB hearing were
“‘obstructionist’’, there is no
doubt that the House of Com-
mons management has finally

realized it can no longer ignore its
employees’ legitimate wishes for
union representation, Bergeron
said. ‘‘The question now is how
the CLRB will decide what con-
stitutes appropriate units for col-
lective bargaining.”

“House of Commons lawyers
arrived at the long-awaited CLRB
hearing armed with a veritable
mountain of paper. During the
employer’s presentation of its
case no fewer than 10 boxes of
documents pertaining to the
House of Commons organization
structure, salary scale and em-
ployees’ job descriptions were
distributed.

“Requests by the CLRB that
these vital documents be pro-

vided before the hearing had been
denied repeatedly by the House
of Commons representatives dur-
ing the last several months. As a
result, the hearing was adjourned
to provide the union and the
board with an opportunity to
examine the evidence,’ the
PSAC officer noted.

The employer has proposed to
divide House of Commons em-
ployees into the following seven
units: general services, indexers
and editors, technical em-
ployees, tradespeople, office em-
ployees, security guards and
supervisory/professional _ per-
sonnel.

“‘Conspicuous by their absence

‘at the hearing were the official

representatives of the Senate and
Library of Parliament, both of
whom were meant to respond to
applications for certification on
behalf of their employees,”’
Bergeron said.

“In fact, the request of the
board chairman that all Library
and Senate representatives in the
room identify themselves for the
purpose of the record was met by
silence as a couple of individuals
scurried out the door.

‘Despite the delays, Parlia-
ment Hill employees are con-
tinuing to sign up as members and
we are optimistic that it is only a
matter of time until they are
officially unionized.”’

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6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 6, 1985

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