Out since December, Brantford local won't be starved into submission No concessions to FBI union-buster By MIKE PHILLIPS _ TORONTO — With their United Auto Workers flag and Canada’s maple leaf flapping defiantly on a cold blustery first day of spring, about 80 angry strikers from Hussman Refrigeration Ltd., in _ Brantford, picketed the Ontario labor Ministry under the puzzled gaze of de- puty minister Vic Pathe. No one will probably ever know what _ Was on Vic’s mind, March 20, as he sur- veyed the militant protest outside 400 University Ave., but there was abso- lutely no doubt of the angry deter- mination of the members of UAW Local 397 not to see their union smashed by the former FBI man leading the current con- ’ Wact talks for the company. Bob File, the local’s vice-president Said the union didn’t have a bit of trouble filling the bus it chartered to ferry strikers Into Toronto to back the union’s Unsuccessful bid before the Ontario Labor Relations Board for leave to. Prosecute Hussman’s chief negotiator Ray Hawley for refusing to negotiate with the union. The union decided to Charter only one bus in order to conserve Its funds for the marathon strike it is Conducting against the U.S.-owned cor- Poration which under Hawley’s “expert” guidance, came to the bargain- ing table last year with a list of some 100 ~ Concessions demands aimed at literally. 8utting the contract. : Trail of Broken Unions _ File said that the 325 strikers are solid in their determination.to prevent their Union from being smashed by the former I employee who boasts a trail: of bro- ken Unions including the United Steel- workers’ local he tried to smash at Hussman’s St. Louis Missouri plant dur- Ing the late 70s. The Steelworkers have Since re-organized the plant, but it re- mains an open shop and the workers have yet to fully recoup their losses in a contract that one union official in Canada has called a ‘‘disaster’’. The list of company take-aways is practically endless, but the highlights ofa short list presented in December to the workers by their bargaining committee included: total elimination of the COLA; no increases in wages, benefits or pen- sions; cancellation of two holidays at Christmas; a $2 an hour cut in the new hires starting rate; several proposals that would virtually destroy meaningful seniority rights, including management’s right to call out of line in the event of a recall following layoff; workers must pay 20 per cent of all benefits costs; numer- ous language changes severely eroding _ the union’s right to represent the workers on the job; no time-and-a-half or double time payment for Saturday and Sunday work if a worker has missed a day during the regular work week; foremen doing bargaining unit work; and the list goes on. : Ray Hawley’s brutal attack on the union, on the multi-national refrigeration company’s behalf stands in stunning con- trast to 31 strike-free years at the plant during which the union saw only three grievances go to arbitration. Game Plan Clear There’s quiet anger in Bob File’s voice as he describes what every Local 397 member knows is Hussman Ltd.’s aim. “I think his game plan is to break the union’’, File said, as he outlined Ray Hawley’s detailed strike preparations while contract talks were under way. “In October. they built.a.brick..walk. around the transformer unit, and mount- - ed security lights on the roof of the plant’’, he said. es ~ Since the beginning of the strike, Dec. TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS 16, Hawley has brought in security guards from a firm based in Toronto. “On March | they brought in trucks to move all of the office furniture out’’, File recalled, ‘‘and we understand they’ve moved it to a location at 6711 Mis- sissauga Road. I guess they think this move will demoralize the pickets’’. But the workers are too angry to be impressed by the former FBI man’s TH A About 80 picketers marched outside the Labor Ministry backing the UAW’s re- quest to take the company and Ray Haw- ley to court. made-in-USA union busting ploys. They were so angry with the company’s bar- gaining stance, they hit the bricks two weeks before Christmas, thus foregoing their Christmas pay. What they do find impressive is the solidarity that has been shown to them first and foremost by their union and by other unions in the vicinity. Last week the local toured the big UAW plants in southern Ontario collecting thousands of dollars at plant gate collections. The take at the huge Oshawa General Motors plant for example was estimated at around $7,000. Really Pulling Together - Buzz Hargrove, administrative assis- tant to the Canadian director said the UAW is determined to win this strike. _ *There’s no question Hawley’s trying to starve the workers and defeat the union. But that’s just not going to happen. “We're going to keep on pumping money into that strike and we won't allow Hussman to starve the workers or defeat the union.”’ Following the March 20 rejection of the union’s request for leave to prosecute Hawley and the company in the courts the UAW, Hargrove said, will go ahead with a charge against the company of bad faith bargaining before the labor relations “board. And, he added. as always the union is ready at any time the company’s prepared, to return to the bargaining table. Meanwhile, Bob File observed that as the strike wears on, discipline on the line improves and the bonds of solidarity be- tween the strikers get stronger. “‘You see things like younger guys on the late shifts spelling the older pickets earlier so they can get out of the cold and go back to the trailer”, he said. “‘Everyone’s really ‘pulling together and they're looking after each other.”’ Neither the leadership of the Canadian Building Trades Unions, nor the leadership of the Canadian Labor Ongress were able to preserve the unity of their ranks. The consequences of their failure has been a serious Matter for the entire labor movement, for Building Trades workers it has been a disaster. _Faced with one of the worst crises in the industry’s history Building Trades workers find themselves alone, outside the ranks of the main trade union centre. Taking advantage of this the employers, working hand in hand with governments have launched an attack, not just on their wages and conditions, but on their very unions. Whole major areas of the industry are in the process of being taken away from unionized workers, and turned Over to non-union contractors. These so called non- Union contractors are usually the same union contractors they work for under dummy names. Labor laws have _ been passed in some provinces facilitating this process. Some of the’ building trades unions’ leaders have reacted to their dispute with the rest of the trade unions in Canada by making sweetheart agreements for mainte- _ Nance work in factories cutting the wages of their own trades and also existing wage patterns held by industrial workers in the factories. This in turn has caused some industrial unions to attempt to gang up with companies to kick the Building Trades out of factory maintenance agreements where they have them, or keep them out where they are trying to break in. - Wages and working conditions for the Building Trades unions, which have been models after which many other unions sought, are suffering drastically under these circumStances. 5 Amid all these difficulties the Building Trades in British Columbia found common cause with their fellow solidarity struggles and established the kind of working unionists in the organization of the unemployed, in their 2 @'| Labor in action 4 William Stewart. unity which had been squandered by their own leaders and not sought after sufficiently by the CLC leadership. It is this unity which is reciprocal, which has brought the determined struggles of British Columbia workers to stop the corporations. from breaking their unions and turning the industry into a non-union jungle as they have - succeeded in doing in the United States. The mass pickets mounted by the Building Trades and supported by workers from all unions, is a fitting answer to the anti-union hijinks of the companies and the Soc- reds. It is this very determination, struggle and unity which built the trade union movement, and the time is clearly here to make it a feature of the fightback of Canadian workers. ¢ Illusions which may have been held that scabbing and union busting was something for the fringe areas of the economy, Mac’s Milk, Irwin Toys, etc. etc. are bemg shattered. Union busting has in its sights the most pow- erful and entrenched unions. Unless, that is, they agree to all the companies’ terms. A. somber illustration of just how weak is the under- pinnings of major unions in Canada, was given last week ‘when workers from the International Woodworkers -Union in B.C., crossed the picket lines of their fellow trade unionists in the Pulp Industry. The workers are certainly not to blame here. What led to that was the complete failure of the IWA leadership to consistently answer the lies and attacks on labor over a long-period, . B.C. workers give lesson in unity and to build up the underpinnings of the union to with- stand such attacks. An even more alarming situation is the spectacle of miners crossing the picket lines of the British Miners Union. A spectacle we would have considered very re- mote a few years ago. But even more ominous is the massing of eight thousand — we repeat eight thousand — police to ride scabs through the miners picket lines and break the strike. It is still too_early to predict the outcome of that immediate battle: the British Miners and trade union and labor movement may have much more to say on that battle. But what is clear is clear. Nothing much has changed from the old days. The companies are essential- ly just as anti-union, anti-working class as ever. When they can’t co-opt unions to suit their needs, they will move to smash them. Governments have not changed much either. When their help is called on, either in the form of laws, or police, they will oblige. Its called the class struggle. Sometimes it is waged under peaceful circimstances, sometimes it invokes vio- lence. These decisions are made by the corporations, workers merely respond. And when they respond they respond with the only weapon they have. Their unity in their cause. Sse It is that precious unity which the workers in B.C. are forging now on the front of struggle against the Building Trades Contractors. ie It isa corollary of the same unity they forced in Opera- tion Solidarity against the Socred Government. It is the jewel of jewels of the working class. With it they are invincible, without it they are at the mercy of the system. Hats off to the B.C. Building Trades workers and the trade union movement which is backing their just strug- gles. Every honest worker in Canada is in their corner with them. “h, PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 28, 1984 e 5 c