OFL rallies support
for rates protest

By MIKE PHILLIPS

_ TORONTO — Opposition to soaring
interest rates and support for labor’s
planned rally Nov. 21 in Ottawa, brought
Some 150 union members from across
Ontario to an early morning, rain-soaked
Protest outside a federal government
building here, Oct. 6.

Arriving at 6:30 a.m. from London,
Hamilton, Brampton, Sarnia, Guelph
and places as far away from Toronto as
Kingston, the protestors, representing
Unions and local labor councils through-
Out the province marched around the
building carrying placards blasting the
federal government for its disastrous
economic policies and the criminal rip-
off expressed in rampant high interest
Tates.

demonstration have begun. On Oct. 7 a
meeting was held in Toronto of the top
union leadership in Ontario to establish
the mobilizing structure.

CLC organizers at the Toronto meet-
ing stressed that every organization and
group in the country opposing the soar-
ing interest rates and wanting to protest
the federal government’s nasty
economic policies are welcome to join
with the labor movement in this impor-
tant protest. Efforts are being made to
bring some of these organizations to-
gether in a country-wide coalition to en-
sure the broadest possible participation
in the Nov. 2! rally.

Speaking at the Oct. 6 rally, Pilkey
stressed the importance of a hugely suc-
cessful protest on Nov. 21. He slammed

.CARABA

TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS

OFL head Cliff Pilkey .. . “we have to bring a message to Trudeau that we are fed up with

the way the economy is being run.

by sinking homeowners deeper in debt.
The federal government must be told
that unemployment and not inflation is

the country’s top priority and that Cana-
dians want jobs and lower interest rates,
the OFL leader declared.

the kind of ‘“‘voodoo economics’’ pro-

As they marched, representatives of )
posed by the Royal Bank which pretends

the 800,000-member Ontario Federation

of Labor handed out leaflets, postcards
protesting high interest rates. Organizers
of the fed’s massive card protest cam-
paign say the public’s response to the
drive has been phenomenal. OFL presi-
dent Cliff Pilkey later told the gathering
‘of reports filtering back from the Prime
Minister Office in Ottawa that they ha-
ven’t ever been swamped with so many
protests around one issue as they have
been with the cards addressed to prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Pilkey told the Tribune the rally, in-
tended by the fed to be representative,
Not massive had a two-fold purpose. The
first was to protest high interest rates
which have a direct effect not only on
working class homeowners but on far-
Mers, small business people, and ten-
ants, who will have the cost of high inter-
est rates added to their rents by their
landlords.

The second reason was to publicize
the Nov. 21 rally being organized by the
Canadian Labor Congress protesting the
same issue, he said.

The CLC has called for the biggest
demonstration the country has ever seen
to protest high interest rates and the
Trudeau government’s disastrous eco-
nomic policies.

Planning meetings for the giant

to lower mortgage interest rate payments

Shipyard workers strike over conditions

By PAUL PUGH

THUNDER BAY — Members of Local 5055 United Steel-
workers at Port Arthur Shipyards backed up their protests
against poor working conditions and cancellation of premium
pay with a five day walkout beginning Oct. 2..

Shipyard workers engaged in repair, conversion and con-
struction of ships face many hazardous, dirty conditions, Part
of the union’s efforts to improve these working conditions
include premium pay provisions for workers operating under
particularly bad conditions in the ships’ double bottom and
fore and aft peaks. ;

This summer Port Arthur shipyard management decided to
eliminate premium pay for work on the double bottoms of new
ships. Meetings between the company and union went on all
summer and reports circulated of company threats to cutoff all
work on new ships if their conditions were not met. The men
continued to work, although dissatisfaction grew.

The company proceded to further disregard established
safety practice, by prepainting the four by five foot sections
double hulls are welded together from. Welding of painted
section generates dangerous fumes and previously no painting
was allowed within nine inches of seams to be welded.

As work progressed, conditions became such that welders
approached union representatives for action and correction of
the “‘dirty work’’ premium issue. A petition asking for pre-

mium pay was circulated and endorsed by nearly the entire
welding department. Two stewards presented management
with the petition and informed them the welders would stop

work if the petition was ignored.

The company responded by calling a meeting of the union
executive stating that they would not re-instate the “‘dirty
work’’ premium. The welders, about one-quarter fo the work-
force stopped work on hearing this. Workers from other de-
partments joined them and soon about half the workforce was
off the job. By Monday, Oct. 5, about 90% of the men had
joined the walkout and the company was meeting with the
grievance committee including a stewart from the welding
department.

On Wed., Oct. 7, workers voted by a narrow margin to
return to work on assurance that the issue would be submitted
to a Ministry of Labor settlement officer. Failing agreement it
would go to arbitration within two weeks.

Port Arthur Shipyards has a new management and it is
appartently trying to cut away hard won terms of the labor
agreement. But shipyard workers have a long fighting history.
The first reported shipyard strike in Canada was by Quebec
workers 240 years ago in Oct. 1741. Port Arthur Shipyard
workers, faced with fines against their union have returned to
work, but their five day walkout is evidence of a readiness to
take action in defence of their rights.

See enna §

Boycott Irwin!

Trade union women gave their support to their sisters on
strike against Irwin Toys in Toronto in a solidarity picket Oct.
7. About 40 strikers mostly women, have been maintaining a
picket line in front of the company for 15 weeks. The base
rate in the plant which employes about 110 workers is $3.30.
The company offered $3.60 with no benefits. It has hired
about 40 scabs and trucks give the picketers two honks of
the horn before barging through. A striker was recently
struck by a car driven by one of the scabs
Steelworkers, the local is going for its first contract in what
will be a long battle, but as one striker said ‘I’m out here for
my rights and I’m going to win them.”

bs. Members of the |

Vote Sewell on Oct. 19— CP

By JEANNE McGUIRE

John Sewell has spent 10 years
in Toronto city hall and has a
commendable record on many
key issues. On questions of hous-

ing, civic democracy, urban de-

velopment and many other is-
sues, Sewell hs been a strong
voice for reform politics.

On the crucial question of tax
reform, however, his record is not

- totally satisfactory. His position

veers perilously close to the dis-
credited market value assessment
proposed by Darcy McKeough
when he was minister of munici-
pal affairs.

In this election John Sewell is a
strong candidate in a field of
little-knowns, lesser-knowns and
unknowns. Well-known and per-
sonally popular, he should have
no difficulty defeating the crop of
opponents he faces. The decision
of the NDP not to contest the by-
election is most welcome. Equal-
ly, John Sewell is to be admired
for his refusal to bow to the pres-
sure of the labor council and the
Metro NDP to either become a
member of the NDP or forfeit
their support.

Unfortunately, he has not car-

ried this non-sectarian approach
beyond his individual avoidance
of obligation to a particular group,
and has avoided working for the
creation ofa stable, on-going coal-
ition of a broad based character.
Rather, he has opted for alliances
based on single issues which lack
the overall cohesion to demand
accountability.

Nonetheless, the challenge
confronting the left democratic

circles and reform activists in the
Ward Six by-election is to ensure
that the voice and vote of former
alderman Dan Heap is replaced
by one who is also committed to
reform politics. That means
working for and voting for John
Sewell on October 19.

Jeanne McGuire is chairperson
of the Metro Toronto Committee
of the Communist Party of Cana-
da.

~ New labor minister backs —
wage freeze, strike ban

OTTAWA — Charles Caccia, Canada’s new labor minister, has
made plain, in a statement he made only a few minutes after
being sworn into the cabinet, that the only time he opens his
mouth is to change feet.

His very first pronouncement as labor minister was that he

thought the strike weapon had outlived its usefulness and should

be replaced by some other method to achieve the objectives of
working people.

Then he followed this by the federal government’s
imposition of wage controls in 1975, leaving the strong impres-
sion that he wouldi’t be adverse to their re-introduction at the
present time é

“of the labor scene say you have to go back a very

long time to find a statement by a federal labor minister that has —

so infuriated the labor movement.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCT. 16, 1981—Page 3