LOUIS LABERGE .

. . “workers have a stake in the referendum debate.”

QFL will call special meeting

on referendum, says Laberge

Quebec Federation of Labor
president Louis Laberge told dele-
gates to the United Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union convention
Tuesday, ‘‘Canadian workers
aren’t going to fight any wars forc-
ed on us.

“Maybe one day we can decide
as workers what wars we want to
fight,”’ he said.

The comments — made in reac-
tion to.Carter’s pro-war campaign
and Clark’s echo from Ottawa —
were part of a wide-ranging address
by Laberge to the UFAWU con-
vention and an earlier. meeting at
Presentation House in North Van-
couver, sponsored by Capilano
College.

In both addresses, he focussed
particularly on the Parti Quebec
government’s referendum vote on
“sovereignty association’’ in which
most of the province has been
caught up in debate.

Laberge said that the QFL
would be holding executive council
meetings and conferences all across
the province on the referendum is-
sue leading to a special convention
March 14 and 15 ‘‘where the main
question will be our stand on the
referendum.

‘But since our members would
not want me to speak for all of

them, I can’t tell you what our po-
sition is going to be,”’ he said.

He emphasized that the Federa-
tion wanted to convince its mem-
bership that the- referendum
*‘should not just be in the hands of
politicians, that workers have a~-
stake in the matter.”’

To arrive at a position would be
difficult, he said, not only because
of the numbers of delegates but be-
cause of the way the referendum
question will be posed: Are you in
favor of giving the government the
mandate to negotiate on
sovereignty-association?

“We are in a bind if we refuse to
vote for a mandate to negotiate,”
he said.

Others have also emphasized
that problem, noting that a ‘‘yes’’
vote could be seen as a vote for sep-
aration while a ‘‘no”’ vote would
simply echo the position of the Lib-
erals and the corporate establish-
ment.

It was that same dilemma which
prompted the Communist Party in
Quebec to circulate widely a peti-
tion calling for the inclusion of
another question giving Quebecers
the right to vote for “‘the negotia-
tion on the basis of equality of a
new made-in-Canada constitu-

tion’’ guaranteeing national rights
for Quebec.

Laberge separated the issue
of the referendum and the Leves-
que government, emphasizing that
the two should not be considered

_ together.

“This is a referendum of the
Quebec people — it is not a referen-
dum of the Parti Quebecois gov-
ernment or a Liberal government,”
he said.

The Quebec labor leader was
equivocal on the Federation’s ap-
proach to the Levesque govern-
ment, offering praise for the pass-
age of election expenses and health
and safety legislation and con-
demnation for the back-to-work
legislation imposed on hospital
workers.

“We like Levesque less than we
did when we first elected him,”’ he

said, ‘“‘but in Quebec you have to’

look at the alternative.

‘And frankly the Liberal alter-
native of Claude Ryan frightens the
hell out of me,”’ he said.

He also noted that the QFL
would be pressing for greater au-
tonomy for the Federation within

the Canadian Labor Congress °

when the CLC convention opens in
May.

Natives ask for labor’s support

Continued from page 1

Prince Rupert shoreworker
Emily Brown said that in previous
years there has been no real in-
come. She said her phone has
been constantly ringing with calls
from other shoreworkers fearful
there will be no jobs this year.
‘“We don’t know what we will do
without jobs this year,”’ she said.

Tenderman Dennis Brown,
fisherman Bruce Stevens and
several other delegates referred to
the battle to save the herring roe
fishery and protect. workers as
“the gut question’ facing the
union and said that they were
ready to strike over the issue.

The source of the herring roe
crisis has been the massive influx
of foreign capital into the in-
dustry in recent years with the
rapid escalation of herring roe
prices. A catch of 90,000 tons two
years ago has diminised to the
point where less than 35,000 tons

| are expected this year.

The union’s stand on the herr-

ing roe fishery has been backed by

the Native Brotherhood of B.C.
and its president Ed Newman
brought delegates to their feet
Monday with an emotional ap-
peal for unity between Native In-
dians and the labor movement.

Newman applauded the grow-
ing cooperation between the
Brotherhood and. the UFAWU
over the past three years and said
that Native fishermen shared
similar concerns over manage-
ment of the fishery, UIC and
compensation benefits and safe-
ty.

Last year Native fishermen in
the central area of B.C.’s coast
had no openings for the herring
season and then a poor salmon
season. And this year another
poor salmon season is forecast
Newman said. :

“While one arm of govern-
ment takes away our right to fish,
another is attempting to take
away our benefits,’’ he said,
“The working class shouldn’t be
asked to pay for the mistakes of
bureaucrats or the government.””

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— FEBRUARY 8, 1980—Page 12

Newman said he wanted to ask
the labor movement, through the
UFAWU, to support Native land
claims and ‘‘make sure that In-
dian people have the same rights
and same opportunities as non-
Indian workers.”

In other business before the
convention, a wide ranging of-
ficers’ report warned that if either
the Liberals or Convervatives are
returned to office with a majority
on Feb. 18, attacks on organized
labor will mount.

The continuing attack on the
union by the Combines Branch is
evidence of that, the report said,

and even though the union won |

key victories against the Com-
bines branch last year in the
courts, those court rulings are be-
ing appealed and the Combines
branch ‘‘appears to be exploring
all other possible ways to con-
tinue its vicious attack on the
UFAWU with its ultimate aim to
dismember it or make it com-
pletely ineffectual.”

GRIFFIN

Vancouver unionists will be tak-
ing action to support the epic
19-month strike by the Lumber and
Sawmill Workers Union against
Boise-Cascade in Fort Frances and
Kenora, Ontario, following an ap-
peal by the union’s business agent
Fred Miron.

Delegates to the Vancouver and
District Council voted Tuesday to
establish a Boise Cascade Strike

| 2 Support Committee to back the

© strike against the huge multina-
= tional corporation. The action was
Z initiated by the Carpenters which
= brought Miron here on a speaking
tour and to which the Lumber and
Sawmill Workers Union is affiliat-
ed in Ontario.

Miron told the labor council that
union members had been on the
picket lines since July 5, 1978
against a company ‘‘which is the
fifth largest wood corporation in
the world with a long history of
breaking strikes and busting
unions.”’

The strike began as a wildcat in
Fort Frances when Boise-Cascde
arbitrarily announced that the daily
pay rate would be replaced by a
system whereby workers would be
independent contractors working
on piece rate. Each bush worker
was also to be responsible for buy-
ing and maintaining his own “‘skid-
der’? — a tractor for moving logs
which costs up to $50,000.

When workers refused to pay
fines imposed by the Supreme
Court which ruled the strike illegal,
sheriffs began seizing bank ac-
counts. Faced with national
notoriety and the protest of even
local business leaders, Boise-
Cascade moved to the get sheriffs
to back off.

Since October 1978, the Fort
Frances workers have been in a

legal strike position and have also
been joined by LSWU members?
Kenora but the harassment by
Boise-Cascade, the Ontario Pro-
vincial Police and the courts has
been unrelenting.

“‘We need support all across the
country to. send the message 10
Boise-Cascade that we are not
alone, that we can’t be starved into
submission,”” Miron said.

Carpenters delegate Lorne Rob-
son urged unionists to give the
Boise-Cascade strikers “‘the kind of
support that we gave to the strikers
at Inco — where they won thei!
long strike.” :

Robson cited various actions
that could be taken to support the
strike including following the &
ample of Ontario union | ;
which have ‘‘adopted”’ a striker §
family by contributing $75 weekly:

In the annual labor council elec-
tions Syd Thompson and Paddy
Neale were acclaimed for the posts
of president and secretary
treasurer respectively. :

All but one of the other positions —
were also filled by acclamation with
the new executive now made up of
Syd Thompson, president; Frank
Kennedy, first vice-president; Col-
in Snell, second ‘vice-presidents
Lloyd Ingram, third vice~
president; Paddy Neale, secretary;
George Hewison, chairman of the
organization committee; Tom Kel-
ly, legislative chairman; Dave Mar-
tindale, public relations chairman,
Bud Devoe, grievance chairman,
and Walt Jacobs, education chalr-
man.

In the only election, Electrical
Workers delegate Jim Thomas was ~
elected as chairman of the
metropolitan advisory committee
by a 100-72 vote over Laborers ©
delegate Bob Hudson.

“Free Parrot’ — VLC

Continued from page 1

threat to the freedom and rights of

every working person in Canada,”’
he warned.

A packed meeting of the Van-
couver and District Labor Council
Tuesday unanimously endorsed a
resolution emphasizing that Par-
rot’s imprisonment was a “‘direct
result of his principled stand in
defence of trade union rights’’ and
called on the federal government
to:

e Free Parrot;

e Drop all charges against
CUPW members and officers;

eEnd all jailings of trade
unionists;

© Repeal all legislation that
obstructs the right-of workers to
free collective bargaining.

The same motion had earlier
been unanimously backed by the
United Fishermen and Allied

Workers’ Union convention
meeting in Vancouver.

UFAWU president Jack Nichol
warned council delegates that, in
addition to the three-month jail
term, Parrot would also face 18
months probation which would
cripple his efforts to defend postal
workers’ rights.

“It’s going to hang like-a club
over him and over the post office
negotiations,’’ Nichol said.

Postal workers have already run
up against the hard-line stance of —
post office negotiators, a problems
compounded by trials still facing
both CUPW national leaders and
the union itself.

Significantly, the- first trial
begins on election day — Feb. 18 —
when the union, first vice-president.
Andre Beauchamp, second vice-
president Dave Jones and national
chief steward Sid Baxter are to ap-
pear.

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