CHOUHAN OUTSIDE DAMAGED CFU OFFICES...

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

. “they can never succeed in frightening us.”

CFU condemns attacks by thugs

Barely three weeks have gone
by since the formation of the
Canadian Farmworkers Union
and it has been made the target of
violent \acts aimed at, according
tounion president, Raj Chouhan,
‘“ntimidating people from join-
ing with and working with the
union.”

Two weeks ago, the windows
of the union’s office in Burnaby

were broken on two Separate oc-
casions, but more serious was the
physical attack by unnamed
assailants on vice-president,
Jawala Singh Grewal.

‘‘Armed with beer bottles and
baseball bats, they also smashed
the windows in his house, broke
the windows of a car in the back:
alley, smashed the windows and
slashed the tires of Grewal’s pick-
up parked at a nearby garage.”’

Chouhan said they had faced
violence for over the past year by
farmers, contractors and their
agents during their organizing
struggles, and added that it would
not deter the union in its cam-
paign.

‘Their attempts have not ee
us from organizing and they can
never succeed in frightening us
from launching our upcoming
spring organizing drive,’ he said.

China-Chile collusion shown

Continued from page 1
tions and persons as well as their ac-
tivities over a number of years. This
information is of great value in the
building of our new political
regime.”’

The document continued:

“China is sympathetic to the
process of establishing a new na-
tional and Christian democracy in
Chile. The unconditional support
accorded to Chile by China at inter-
national forums is of great impor-
tance to the international image of
Chile. China has rapidly removed
all obstacles to normalizing its rela-
tions with our country and has
granted us, since 1975, important
credits at a time when there was an
international plot to encircle
RS ss

“The proposal of People’s
China to give us assistance in
nuclear technology with conditions
beneficial to us will consolidate the
defence position of Chile in face of
the potential threat of foreign ag-
gression.’

Another document, dated Mar.
18, 1975, from the Chilean secret
police to the minister of the interior
stated that the National Service of
Detention (SENDET) had been in-
structed “‘not to arrest Chinese na-
tionals involved in political ac-
tivities’’ and noted,
“* , .. Members of our service
abroad and representatives of
China have had very useful ex-
changes of information about
political exiles in Chile.

“This information is of interest

Workers

MAY DAY
RALLY

Sunday, May4 2p.m.
Templeton High School Auditorium
727 Templeton Dr., Vancouver

Hear: MIKE DARNELL

Northern representative,
United Fishermen and Allied

SVEND ROBINSON
NDP MP, Burnaby

MAURICE RUSH
B.C. leader, Communist Party
and: a member of the Canadian
observer team during
Zimbabwe elections
and: striker from Boise Cascade
sawmill in Ontario

Proceeds to aid Southern African refugees
and strike relief for Boise Cascade Workers

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 25, 1980—Page 12

to both parties,”’ it said.

The third document sent Jan. 9,
1979 by Pinochet to the director of
the secret police revealed the close
links between the intelligence ser-
vices of the two countries.

In the letter, Pinochet stated:

. I have the honor to inform
you that considering the advan-
tages of an increase in contacts bet-
ween the intelligence services of
Chile and. People’s China, the
government has decided to allow
the exchange of news and informa-
tion on the following points:

“1..The activities of interna-
tional communism directed by
Moscow against Chile and China.

“*2. The subversive actions. of
the social democratic parties and
other organizations against Chile
and China.”

The bargaining council for the
province’s building trades council
blasted what it called ‘‘pro-
vocative, unacceptable and
thoroughly unreasonable
demands’’ advanced by the
employers association as major
talks in the construction industry
— expected to be particularly
tough this year — got underway.

The bargaining council for the
17 unions faced Construction
Labor Relations Association in the
first round of talks covering all the
trades — the ‘‘main table’ talks —
Monday. The current contracct
covering some 45-50,000
tradesmen expires Apr. 30.

Already CLRA has put a hard
edge on its bargaining position, the
unions’ bargaining. council chair-
man Roy Gautier charged, deman-
ding rollbacks in several areas of
the contract including one key area
covering union security.

Gautier said Friday that the
bargaining council had placed ‘‘a
reasonable set of proposals before
the industry’’, aimed primarily at
obtaining ‘‘a catch-up for
tradesmen’s wages and conditions
that fell drastically behind during,
and as a result of, the infamous
AJB era.

But CLRA ‘“‘has decided to in-
troduce provocative . . . demands
implying a rollback of hard won
conditions .. .’’, he said.

He cited the CLRA demand to
‘hold the line”’ on travel and living
out expenses, a demand for a
special cut-rate contract for
sawmill construction and the de-
mand for elimination of unions’
affiliation clauses.

The CLRA bid for a separate,
inferior contract for sawmill con-
struction is linked to a still-
unresolved jurisdictional dispute
with the International Wood-
workers of America which does
some construction work but at
lower wage rates and on a longer.
work week than building trades
unions.

Gautier said that there was ‘‘ab-
solutely no way that we’re going to
do anything else but reject a
separate agreement.”’

Labor council applauds
nurses wage contract

B.C. Government Employees —
general secretary John Fryer’s crit-
icism of the registered nurses con-
tract was again repudiated last
week as representatives of Vancou-
ver unions voiced their support for
the catch-up pact recently negoti-
ated by the. Registered Nurses As-
sociation.

Delegates to the Vancouver and
District Labor Council meeting
Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to
“congratulate the RNABC for
their catch-up settlement’’ and to
give their backing to government
nurses in their continuing struggle
to win a just settlement.

Tom McGrath, president of the
seamen’s local of the Canadian
Brotherhood of Railway and
Transport Workers, rapped Fryer
for his attack on the nurses’ settle-
ment and told the council: ‘‘Rather
than criticizing the nurses, he
should be pushing for them to get a

fair settlement at the bargaining
table.”

Earlier, the CBRT local endors-
ed a resolution condemning Fryer
for attacking the nurses’ settlement
and for ‘‘fuelling the government’s
desire to hold government
employees down.””

He added that the attempt by the
CLRA to get the lower rated con-
tract ‘‘confirms in an oblique man
ner previous council positions.’

Building trades unions warned
earlier that continued construction
work by the IWA under inferior
contract conditions could lead 10
CLRA efforts to undermine
building trades wages and condi
tions.

The jurisdictional issue is still
before the Canadian Labor Con-
gress although a CLC umpire ruled
earlier that such construction wol
was properly the jurisdiction of the
building trades.

Particularly contentious among
the CLRA demand is that calling
for elimination of affiliation |
clauses — the clauses which give
union tradesmen the right to refuse
to work on the same job site wi
non-union tradesment. Gautiet
turned the clauses ‘‘our one protec
tion against attempts to introduce
non-union and low rate construc-
tion.’ :

The employers have sought the
elimination of the clause as part OF
their campaign to undermine union
organization and facilitate the in-
troduction of non-union subcon-_
tractors and tradesmen.

Some construction firms have
already chipped away at uniom
organization through the use of
“dummy companies” — com=
panies set up by a union contractor
under a different name and doing
work originally contracted by they
unionized employer.

The practice violates the labor
code but because of the nature
the industry in which jobs are com
pleted rapidly and because wi
do not have the right to carry ou
organizational picketing and face
long delays waiting for Labor Rela-
tions Board hearings, employefs _
are not often brought totask.

Although building trades unions
in this province have not faced the
same problems as the U.S.
Alberta where non-union — ani
anti-union — contractors havé
established a firm hold on con
struction, the efforts by CLRA 10
get rid of the affiliation clause -
signal a renewed effort to undef
mine union strength.

But the attack has sparked 4
reaction. Gautier warned,
«« |, . the main line attack by the
employer’s association on some of
the major elements of the
historically achieved collective °
agreement has already created 4
growing sense of resentment
among the various trades.” }

The building trades demands in
current talks call for a $3.50 total
package increase for all trades in
the first year plus other benefits.

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