[_———-__— By GEORGE HEWISON

Reaching our youth

Congratulations are in order to Jacques Hebert for his coura-
8e0us stand on behalf of Katimavik.
Few Canadians had heard about let alone, could pronounce the
name of the youth program prior to the Senator’s fast. But the real
Significance of Hebert’s action lies not in his crash diet.
omether, we thank the Senator for fingering the biggest crime in
t country — the robbery being committed against Canada’s
Next generation, the theft of the future, ... a lost generation?
One half of Canada’s unemployed are between the ages of 15
and 25. But statistics only tell a part of the story. They don’t tell
about the frustration, insecurity and anger.
he destruction of jobs for youth are matched by the continued
assault on their educational system. Canada’s youth are maligned
°r refusing to take the few lousy jobs at union-busting rates of
Pay. that do exist. In some provinces, single unemployed are
€nied welfare even at rates that are insufficient to live on.

Reach Out to Youth

The pity for the country to date is that the youth of Canada are
Still largely unorganized and unable, as yet, to take back their
ture. The danger for the trade unions is that the young, who are
Ing baited to accept ‘‘jobs’’ at scab rates of pay, have little or no

Owledge of the past struggles of the trade unions.

i They are not likely to get that knowledge from a public educa-
‘on system whose primary function appears to be to train the
Next generation of workers, if in fact that function cannot be
Contracted out to the private sector. It therefore falls to the labor
movement to reach out to the youth of Canada, to become better
acquainted with their aims and aspirations and most importantly
© help them organize, in order to help themselves.

_|n this respect, the excellent start made by the Quebec Federa-
tion of Labor ought to be recognized. At its last Convention the
QFL urged its affiliates and labor councils to establish youth
Committees to reach out to the 1,200 youth organizations in that
Province and to help organize them in concert with labor.

uch a plan is similar to many in Europe where unions have
Youth sections and actually list young people searching for work
With the union while making efforts on their behalf to place them
: !N jobs, to fight for their training, and most importantly to fight
| “Ong with youth for full employement.

The lack of full employment affects not only those who are
attempting to crack the workforce for the first time. It impacts on
Ose who have devoted their entire lives to building the country
and are increasingly being shoved aside. Today the issue of
Mandatory’’ retirement is but another powderkeg which the
Tade unions must handle carefully.

f the issue is resolved simply on the basis of making room for
YOunger workers (even on the basis of adequate pensions) senior
Workers will be denied a most fundamental right, the right to
Ontribute their creative labor to society.

On the other hand, there are those who argue that in the
©Ontext of the ‘‘real society out there,” the absence of a fixed
Tetirement age leads ultimately to a sort of means test, which will
© arbitrarily applied, even prior to any fixed retirement age,
®Pening the door to all sorts of employer manipulation.
Neither prospect is particularly pleasant for the organized
| Workers’ movement of Canada. But surely the matter must be
_*Xamined in the context of the more long range objectives of
r.

: So the long-term resolution of the dilemma lies in creating
| Sufficient jobs, so that everyone who wishes to work may do so
.©Spective of age. The secondary issue therefore becomes

What to do in the short term?”
The Realm of Solidarity

Short of denying anyone the right to a job, labor must fight for
“arlier retirement, with adequate pensions, so that the issue is
| SNuinely a ‘‘voluntary”’ decision. A couple of years back, I was
; Ummoned along with a stewards’ committee by the company
| “Uperintendent on terminating the working career of one of the
dest workers in his operation.
_ this working woman was‘clearly beyond a reasonable retire-
| ent age. Badly crippled by arthritis, the price she paid for a
€time of service to her boss, she clearly had trouble keeping up
er workmates on the line.
€r pension wasn’t sufficient to keep her body, let alone her
ul, together. She was compelled to continue the agony of work.
he stewards supported by her workmates took the position that
the company, which had done ‘‘all right thank you’’ couldn’t
TOvide a decent retirement for their sister then perhaps they
Ould find some less onerous work somewhere else in the com-
Ny’s operations at her regular rate of pay.
at company still is attempting to foist mandatory retirement
on the workers and to inveigle workers into a splitting debate. But
“© younger workers understand
is het ethaps they all glimpse into the future. But more likely their
arts, unlike that of the company, extend beyond the balance
t into the realm of working-class solidarity.

89
Bt

L Labor in Action |

4

ST. JOHN’S — The 80,000-member Newfound-
land and Labrador Federation of Labor has
launched a program of mass protests and public
forums in support of striking provincial govern-
ment workers but left its options open for a possi-
ble general strike, if necessary to force the Tory
government to negotiate.

The campaign, which was launched by a meeting
of the province’s 80 top union leaders, March 22,
also set up a Solidarity Fund for financial support
to the Newfoundland Association of Public Em-
ployees from labor throughout the province and
across the country.

Last week, some of that support began to reach
the strikers. Both the United Electrical workers and
the United Auto Workers issued blistering attacks
on the government of premier Brian Peckford de-
manding the province settle a satisfactory agree-
ment with NAPE and condemning Bill 59 the
reactionary labor law at the centre of the con-
frontation.

Some 5,000 NAPE members have been waging
what the Tory government is calling an ‘“‘illegal’’
strike for wage parity with other provincial
government workers since March 3. On that day,
about 1,700 road maintenance and public works
employees struck in defiance of anti-strike legis-
lation and a court injunction.

Sixteen days later these strikers were joined by

the same issue — wage parity and for the with-
drawal of Bill 59.

The law is a weapon the government created for
itself to hobble public sector bargaining by setting
up a process where the union is required to join
with the government in designating as many as 49
percent ofits bargaining units as essential workers.

Right from the beginning NAPE has taken the
position that it wouldn’t surrender its right to un-
fettered collective bargaining and has refused to
comply with the legislation. Both the strike vote,
which has the backing of NAPE’s entire 14,000
srong membership, and the strike itself have been
in defiance of the bill.

At the root of the battle which has shut down
provincial government services, is the gap in wages
between NAPE members who negotiated con-
tracts prior to, and after, the Peckford regime
brought down its “‘zero and zero”’ percentage wage
controls in 1983.

| Newfoundland labor united
| against Peckford blackmail

3,500 white collar workers who are striking over -

A clerk working for the government currently
earns about $3,500 a year less than someone doing
exactly the same kind of job working in a hospital.

At press time, March 26, the situation was dead-
locked with the union insisting on negotiating a
wage increase and Treasury Board president Neil
Windsor demanding that NAPE end its strike be-
fore the government will agree to talks. ao

By all accounts the strikers are solidly supported _
by the overwhelming majority of public opinion. :
With about 40 per cent ofthe workforce organized,  —S_
Newfoundland is the most unionized province in |
the country. ;

The people see NAPE’s fight as a battle for
justice and equity and they’ ve been outraged by the
government’s hardline stance with the heavy use of —
police and some 120 arrests.

Two NAPE officials were jailed for several days, —
and John Fryer president of the National Union of —
Provincial Government Employees NAPE’s pa-
rent union, was among the many who were ar-
rested on the pricket lines.

Last week the province’s chief justice, T.A.
Hickman turned what had been an interim back to
work order into a permanent injunction. This
didn’t stop the union’s defiance of the unjust deci-
sion. =

In their messages of support for NAPE both the
UE and the UAW went after the Peckford govern- —
ment for refusing to bargain, and both demanded
the scrapping of Bill 59.

In a telegram to the premier, UE secretary-
treasurer Art Jenkyn called on Peckford to dropall —
charges against the strikers. The UE’s solidarity —
message to NAPE president Fraser March spoke
of “‘the Peckford attack’ as part of the general
corporate-government assault on workers right ac-
ross Canada.

“It is part of their plan to immobilize the trade
union movement, and to frustrate it in the fight for
jobs. Only total unity in the trade union movement
will defeat this corporate-government attack’,
Jenkyn said, pledging the UE’s full support in
NAPE’s struggle. ie

UAW president Bob White called on Peckfordto —
release the (then) imprisoned NAPE leaders and in ~
a message to the federation of labor pledged the
autoworkers’ total support to NAPE in its battle
with the Newfoundland government.

CRANBROOK — With a soar-
ing jobless rate of 21.4 per cent,
people here are starting to talk
about the Kootenays as the Cape
Breton of Western Canada.

Recently the Telecommunica-
tions Workers Union of B.C.
launched a campaign it calls,
‘*Keep Jobs in the Kootenays”’ in
response to a series of corporate
body blows to the local commu-
nities.

The first was B.C. Telephone
Co., which announced plans, last
November to shift 82 workers
from this B.C. town to areas out-
side the Kootenay region as part
of a massive technological
revamping of its operations.

Since then both Canadian Paci-
fic Rail and Cominco Ltd. have
also announced layoffs. Cominco
shocked the community of Trail
with news in February that it was
cutting some 300 workers from its
payroll — about eight per cent of
the workforce in the operation.

Then Cominco hit the town of
Sullivan, (near Kimberley) with

the announcement 92 miners
were to be bounced. CP Rail back
in November said 51 workers
were to be laid off throughout the
region.
Within a month, the jobless rate
in the region soared from four to

21.4 percent.

- Jobs for the Kootenays -

It was the TWU that got the ball
rolling in January with a door-to-
door campaign mobilizing the
people of Cranbrook against B.C.
Tel’s attack on their 17,000-
member community.

Soon, every storefront, and
building in the town was sporting
signs which read Keep Jobs in the
Kootenays.

In the latest stage of the
fightback, which has pretty much
united the community against the
corporate giants, the committee
has organized public meetings in
the major towns throughout the

region to mobilize massive pres-
sure on the companies and on the
Socred government to move into _
action.

At a March 11 meeting in Cran- —
brook, B.C., Labor Minister
Terry Segarty, who also happens
to represent the area in the Legis-
lature was told by a TWU official
that the government’s letters to
the CRTC asking it to block B.C.
Tel’s transfer plans, were in-
adequate. The minister was told
the government should ‘‘get offits
butt and do more than just write
letters.”’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 2, 1986 « 5