By CHARLES WEIR

. An end to _ discrimination!
Equality! Democracy! Justice!
With these ancient and stirring
watchwords as their rallying-cry
tens of thousands of postwar im-
migrants from Italy have opened
up a new battlefront in the
union movement of Toronto.

Half a dozen years ago it was
basically the same people who
shook Toronto in a series of
great mass meetings and strikes
around the issue of their right
to be union men, work under
union ‘conditions—especially in
the construction field. Tribune
readers will remember that one
of the prominent Union leaders
championing their cause then
was Gerry Gallagher, head of
Laborers Local 183.

If not immediately and fully
victorious nonetheless the effort
“was not in vain. Some of the
barriers to their admittance did
come down in many construc-
tion trades unions. Some more
jobs and industries became orga-
nized. Labourer’s Local 183 in
particular expanded mightily so
that now it has over 3,000 mem-
bers — three quarters of them
Italo-Canadians.

While in many trades and
shops these newly organized

_ workers seemed to become dor-

mant, not so in Laborers Local
183. Especially because of Gal-
lagher’s policy of “on the job”
training ‘in militancy — picket
lines, strikes, demonstrations,
stoppages on safety issues etc.
—they quickly absorbed some of
the best principles of fighting
-Canadian (and Irish) unionism.

It is therefore both ironic and
very natural that when these
large bodies of new Canadian
unionists began stirring for
“equality, democracy, justice and
an end of all discrimination,” in-
side their unions, as well as on
the job and in our society, that
the upsurge should have found
vent first in Local 183.

The initial rumblings were
mild enough. In 183’s Executive

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MAY 3, 1968—PAGIFICTRIBUNE“Pagei0~ ““"*e <

Board an Italian, Biagio Di Gio-
vanni, charged that Local Presi-
dent Mike Reilly (who also sits
on Ontario Federation of Labor

“Council as representative of the

Province’s Building Trades) had
arranged that the Company
where he (Giovanni) was union
steward had three Italian work-
men replaced by non-Italians.
Failing to get what he consider-
ed a fair resolution of his com-
plaint, Giovanni gave the story
to the two Italian language news-
papers published in Toronto.
These headlined the story—mind-
ful no doubt of the bitterness
they richly earned from their
own community for failing to
sympathize with’them in that
earlier (Brandon Hall) effort to
win through to unionism some
years ago. Giovanni was charg-
ed under the union constitution
by Mike Reilly.

The Trial Committee—a panel

‘of Executive Board and substi-

tuted members — recommended
removal of Giovanni from the
Executive and barring him from
holding any union office. (Later

‘Giovanni was also fired from his

construction job.) Giovanni pro-
tested that the Trial Committee
didn’t allow him an interpreter,
lawyer, or even opportunity to
submit powerful evidence he has
on tape. The rumblings increas-
ed! A Democratic Committee for
the Defence of the Rights of
Workers of Local 183” sprang
up, circulated a petition for the
calling of a special local meet-
ing on a Sunday, held a public
meeting, organized an hour’s
picket of the union office, etc.

The special meeting was not
granted, but nearly 600 members
attended the next regular one at
which the Trial Committee’s ver-
dict was to be dealt with—prob-
ably 500 of them Italo-Cana-
‘dians. Of course that meeting
didn’t have a chance. Before the
assembly could get to and vote
down the Trial Committee Re-
port a violent uproar took place

because the minutes were being .

translated into Italian. Fistfights,
broken chairs, meeting adjourn-

ed, twenty policemen clear the
hall. The Trial Committee ver-
dict, against Giovanni was there-
fore not wiped out. Any other
plans for getting ‘Democracy
and Justice” that the attending
Italian brothers may have hoped
for from that session neatly frus-
trated! The rumbling has turned
into a roar in Local 183—and its
reverberations are or will be felt
in many other corners of the
union movement in this so re-
cently cosmopolitanized city.

Of Metro Toronto’s two mil-
lion population half a million
stems from post-war immigra-
tion from Italy, Greece, Portu-

gal, Malta, West Germany, Hol-.

land and West Indies. Probably
an equal quantity from Great
Britain, Ireland, Canada’s Mari-
time Provinces, and the sinking
rural areas of our province.
Workers in most Toronto indus-
tries are today drawn over-
whelmingly from these new To-
rontonians, and in the low paid
and heavy industries mainly
from the first listed category of

‘nationals. Some unions have

adapted themselves somewhat to
the changed composition and
outlook of their present mem-
bership, but in many the adap-
tation was more apparent than
real. And some have held their
chauvinistic attitudes, undemo-
cratic practices and boss-type
bureaucracies virtually unchang-
ed.

The latest news from Local
183 is that Giovanni is making
some headway in pressing a slan-
der charge against Mike Reilly
for joining the Company in call-
ing him a “troublemaker” and
thus allowing the construction
company to get rid of him. The
local is also expecting interven-
tion from its International. And
there are many rumors—includ-
ing one that Mike Reilly may be
forced to throw in the sponge as
president.

But Laborers Local 183 is real-
ly not the main worry. With its
great traditions—plus now the
staunch persistance of its Italian

— “ eet

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ing hauled away by oxcart Encattes

majority — it can be confidently.

predicted that ‘equality, democ-

‘racy, justice” will. indeed prevail.

And, after all, among its Irish
members too, there are those—
starting with Gerry Gallagher
himself — who have not forgot-
ten that the Irish themselves
were for centuries discriminat-
‘ed, ruled and exploited, even in
their own homeland by a “su-
perior’ alien ruling machine.
Sometimes by the Velvet Glove
and “the Saxon Penny,” and oth-
er times the Mailed Fist and
Black and Tans. Discriminated
and exploited when they came
to this continent as penniless
workers. Discriminated and kept
to the lower paid jobs building
‘London Town’s great subways—
whence they brought the skills
that built Toronto’s, and with it
Local 183. The ‘Mike Reillys”
may not, but IRA-bred sons of
Ireland will finally choose the
road of brotherhood with, not
oppression of, their Italian fel-
low-workers.

But what about the many
other unions in this town with
large Italian and other immigrant

gle is raging

}

}
memberships? Most are far more |
culpable of discriminaiton tha? |
Local 183 ever was. What ale
they—and the “they” includes :
the higher Councils, Ethnic om ;
mittees, Human Right Comm
tees et al — going to do t0 eA
that these new brothers get al
equality, democracy and brot a f
hood they expected and are we
beginning to demand? What |
when in so many portions of
trade unions here there is damm
little of such to start with? |
ades of “Cold War”. and air
can-style business unionism ‘
seen to that! a

Perhaps the “revolt” of th

Italian immigrant workers
spark a movement that will oP
some long closed doors to P
gress, real union democracy 9” |
genuine fraternity for all 0
But, as of now, the only cé ibe
ty is that—in the words inser i
ed on an arch in Niagara F 4
to William Lyon McKenzie wt
those who gave their lives 17 fot
earlier noble Canadian battle * |
democracy — “The Floods ha is |
lifted up, O Lord, The Fl00
have lifted up their Voice.’

pat the worki

Joseph May
W & L Small
K. Post |
Garth White
A. Manouchio
Betty Wingert
Jeff Hurley
R. Grey
E. Ranford
R. Duff
J. F. Banning
A Paisnel
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Pearl Wedro
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M. Goldsmith
D. Kronis
H. Gold
G. Kautto
Rauha & Jurri Maki
Saga & Eino Salo
Mike Hudyma
Walter Sharabura
George Harris
Theresa Iris

£2 18 4 Seed é #2

tw

W. C. Moffat
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Chris M. Hanratty
Ivar Svingen |
Joe Wallace
Anne Hintsa
J. Faiesz
Jean Johansen
Thomas Oulett
Peter Boychuck
D. N. Ralley
Mrs. Angelin Ralley
A. T. Hill
‘ Veli Kentala
Tom Herala
Emil Rintala
Harry Raketti
Elis Kaartinen
Toivo Ranta
= Eido Pudas
Arthur Aho
Helen Smith
Oscar Kosela
Jacob Huhta
Jalmar Lampi
and
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