BARB BYERS... returned unopposed as

SFL president.

SFL acclaims Byers as delegates
back new plan for labour action

Two years ago, Barbara Byers narrowly
won the leadership of the Saskatchewan
Federation of Labour, calling for a more
action-oriented, militant federation. This
year, a record 576 delegates to the SFL
convention, meeting in Regina Oct. 24-27,
gave Byers a powerful mandate. She was
unopposed in seeking re-election and
delegates backed her approach to the hilt.

In her opening remarks, Byers noted that
even the province’s far-right cabinet mini-
ster Grant Schmidt has told business groups
“to get organized and get their message out
like the labour movement is doing.”

Giving full credit to affiliates for carrying
out the plans of last year’s convention, Byers
noted some of this year’s highlights. These
included the extremely effective labour
response to the International Privatization
Congress which flopped in Saskatoon in
May; massive public education and polling
campaigns around privatization, helping to
virtually stall the Devine government’s ef-
forts; strong participation against the GST,
and more.

Cities vow concerted
campaign against GST

Tribune Combined Services
_ TORONTO—Canada’s largest _ city
joined with one of its smallest, Oct. 29, in
urging municipalities to step up the pressure
to defeat the Goods and Services Tax.

Toronto mayor Art Eggleton hosted a
joint press conference with Brad Cabana,
mayor of the village of Elstow, Saskat-
chewan, (population 150). An initiative of
the Pro-Canada Network, a coalition of the
labour and social movements, an appeal
signed by Eggleton, Cabana and Dartmouth,
N.S. mayor John Savage has gone to Can-
adian mayors and councils asking them to
draft an open letter to the Senate pressing it
to defeat the GST.

“This tax is more than bad news it is a
nightmare,” Eggleton told the media. “We
are the level of government closest to the
people. It is incumbent upon us to stand up
and represent their wishes.”

The mayor declined suggestions, how-
ever, that Toronto follow Elstow’s lead
where the town council, acting on a 98 per
cent referendum vote against the tax, de-
Clared itself a GST-Free Zone and served
notice it will not collect it.

Cabana says he and his council are will-
ing to risk prosecution or being placed under
trusteeship for their actions. But such ac-
tions by senior governments, he said, would
amount to “trashing democracy.

“This was a legal referendum. People
voted and they expect council to stick to
their demands,” he said.

The 26 year-old mayor had harsh words
for the tax which will add seven per cent to
almost every good and service purchased.
“Tt’s designed to reduce costs for corpora-
tions, but enslaves working people and
stifles any hope for economic growth.”

He urged other mayors to hold referen-
dums on the GST. “Give the people a chance
to have their say.”

Vancouver is sponsoring a referendum
on the GST along with its municipal elec-
tions Nov. 17. Eggleton said he couldn’t
justify the cost of a referendum in light of
Toronto’s budgetary problems.

PCN chair Tony Clark called the mayors’
actions an important initiative. “It represents
the coming together’of urban Canada and
rural Canada in a common cause,” he said.

The PCN, which brought together trade
unions and popular organizations in the fight
against the Canada-US. trade deal, views
the GST as part of the free trade agenda. “It
is a massive transfer of wealth from working
people to the corporations and wealthy who
tule this country,” Clark told the press con-
ference.

“We believe we can win this battle,” he
said outlining the PCN’s three-phase cam-
paign against the GST. Phase one was a
signature collection in April in which 2.5-
million Canadians voted in favour of a “fair
tax” system “where corporations and the
wealthy pay their share.”

Phase two was the Senate hearings where
hundreds of organizations voiced their dis-
satisfaction with the tax.

Phase three was to be a “National Recall
and Sign-up Day,” Nov. 10. In several pro-
vinces, activists were set to picket the offices
of Conservative MPs to signal they no
longer have the support of their constituen-
cies. Participants were also being asked to
sign cards pledging to get involved in future
actions.

While the protests continue, all eyes are
still on the Senate as activists urge the
Liberals to keep up their fight against the tax.
The upper house is currently debating the
first of some eight amendments the Liberals
are expected to propose as a means of delay-
ing a final vote on the bill and Liberal Senate
leader Allan MacEachen has vowed that the
stalling will continue well beyond the 90-
odd hours of debate scheduled for debate
under current procedures.

The Senate opposition leader also reaf-
firmed last week that the objective is to kill
the GST.

Meanwhile, more mayors have declared
they will not collect the tax. Robert
Featherstonaugh, mayor of East Gwillim-
bury, about 50 km north of Toronto, said he
is prepared to go to jail. “Mulroney’s going
to win this no matter what it takes. Well, this
is one city hall ready to fight for its people,”
he declared.

In Wellesley, Ontario, 120 km west of
Toronto, Judy Nykilchuk, a school bus
driver, has been swamped with orders for her
red buttons reading “Impeach Mulroney.”

Kimball Cariou

Labour has sought to create direct links
to struggles around the farm crisis, has won
picket line successes, killed the Tory
Employment Benefits Act — which would
have gutted the Trade Union Act— won two
25-cent an hour minimum wage increases,
and pushed for the implementation of a
workplace skills training program.

Despite the province’s economic
problems and population loss, the SFL grew
by 1,100 members over the last 12 months.

Much of the convention’s attention was
on the coming provincial election, which
Premier Grant Devine must call within a
year. Most observers expect an NDP victory.
Leader Roy Romanow got a rousing wel-
come when he outlined his program for
labour.

Should he become premier, Romanow
said he would: rewrite the Trade Union Act
“to guarantee fairness for workers and em-
ployers”; introduce stronger and better-en-
forced health and safety laws; improve
workers compensation; institute an indepen-
dent minimum wage board; hire in the
public service by qualification rather than
party membership; improve job security;
defend a day of common pause; and make a
commitment to full employment.

Delegates were pleased to hear what they
considered this overdue statement of the
NDP’s platform, but many considered it in-
complete. In reply to questions, Romanow
added pay equity but not anti-scab legisla-
tion to his list. Clarifying his recent media
comments on “belt-tightening,” he said:
there would be no additional sacrifice re-
quired of working people, but that not all
their priorities could be met due to the Tory
deficit. :

Any extra taxes to reduce that deficit
would be placed on “the Pocklingtons and
the Weyerhausers,” he said.

A similar pattern of eager anticipation
mixed with an understanding that labour
will have to fight for its priorities under
Romanow, was evident throughout the four
days. Resolution after resolution spelled out
that affiliates want an independent labour
alternative regardless of which party is in
office.

The key policy of the convention was a
twenty-three page “Economic Agenda for
Saskatchewan Labour in the 1990s,” to be
circulated for discussion and consultation
before adoption next year. Opening with a
sharp critique of the neo-conservative attack
here and abroad, the paper details labour’s
altematives, based on resolutions and poli-
cies adopted by the SFL in recent years.

It concludes: “We cannot separate the
nature and structure of the economy, and the
levels of economic and social justice en-
joyed by the people, from the political agen-
da of those in command of the levers of
power in society.”

The SFL leadership clearly intends the
process of wide public debate and final
adoption of the paper will give labour some
powerful clout in setting the priorities of the
new NDP government.

Although the convention’s natural focus
was on provincial issues, delegates also
spoke out loud and clear against the Mul-
roney government. United Fishermen’s rep-
resentative Jim Sinclair, a participant in the

|FROM REGINA

recent gathering of Mexican and Canadian
labour leaders, gave a first-hand account of
working conditions in Mexico, and a clear
waming of the dangers of the proposed
North American free trade deal.

The convention voted to take part in the
growing campaign against that big business
initiative, as well as to step up the fight
against federal privatization moves, airline
de-regulation, and the GST.

Other resolutions called for support of
aboriginal people’s struggles, opposition to
nuclear industry expansion, ongoing par-
ticipation in broad popular coalitions,
progressive tax reform, and a halt to the
Rafferty-Alameda project.

On international problems, delegates
called for stepped-up sanctions against
South Africa, and more federal aid for the
front line states. Debate and voting on dif-
ferent resolutions on the Gulf crisis revealed
a near-unanimous desire for an end to Can-
ada’s collusion in the U.S. military build-up,
including an immediate withdrawal of Can-
adian troops, in favour of efforts for a politi-
cal settlement.

In contrast to many previous conven-
tions, there was no bitter criticism of the
leadership up for re-election. While dele-
gates did note weaknesses within the
federation’s overall work, few doubted that
Byers, secretary-treasurer Dave Maki, and
others on the new executive are strongly
committed to carrying out the convention’s
policy in 1991.

It is a remarkable turnaround, helped in
part by the dynamic role played by Byers,
but also by the leadership’s commitment to
consensus and unity within the often-frac-
tured federation.

One example of this approach was seen
in debate around the always contentious
issue of delegate entitlement to SFL conven-
tions. Rather than simply bringing in recom-
mendations and forcing them through, the
executive carefully canvassed affiliates for
their views in advance, coming up with a
formula seen by most as more equitable.

Currently the system has tremendous in-
equities; the Communication Workers, for
example, are entitled to only one delegate
per 200 members, while PSAC and
RWDSU get one per 45. The executive for-
mula, one of four options presented for dis-
cussion, is now to be discussed by affiliates,
and if supported, presented for approval at
the 1991 convention for implementation in
1992.

Differences on this and some other inter-
nal matters will not be resolved easily. But
if the 1990 SFLconvention is any indication,
the labour movement in this province is
more united and ready to fight for working
peoples’ interests than at any time since the
days of the right-wing Liberal Thatcher
government of the late 1960s.

Grant Devine faces a formidable op-
ponent as he heads into his last year of this
term in office, and Roy Romanow has a
strong but independent-minded ally as he
contemplates his options should he become
premier in 1991.

Pacific Tribune, November 12, 1990 ¢ 7