te

About 15 members of the Machinists and Operating Engineers and
300 members of the Marineworkers and Boilermakers Union struck
Canron Steel Sunday to back demands for a one year agreement.
Canron has insisted on a two year contract, offering 7 percent in the
second year. With AIB guidelines coming off in time for 1979, the
workers voted 84 percent to strike. No talks are currently slated.

Native workers strike

Muckamuck restaurant

Native employees at the Mucka-
muck, Vancouver’s only
restaurant serving Northwest
Coast Indian food, went out on
strike last week to back up wage
demands and to demand the
reinstatement of several workers
fired for union activity.

The strike, called by Local 1 of
the Service, Office and Retail
Workers of Canada _ which
organized the restaurant, involves
only some 18 people but has
already become a contentious
dispute because of the intimidation
against employees and because of
the attempts by the three, non-
Native owners, to use the Native
Indian community against the
strikers.

Union representative Christina
Prince told the Tribune Thursday
that the union organizer had been
fired the day that certification was
sought, in March, and that since
that time six more people were
either fired or. were intimidated
into quitting.

Wages at the restaurant consist
of the minimum wage for most of
the staff.

Contract proposals include an
average increase of $2 to $3, job
security, provision for uniforms to
be supplied, reinstatement of those
fired and a say in job scheduling.

Although the proposals were
placed on the table April 17, the
owners have refused to bargain in
good faith, seeking instead to
break the strike.

Forest plan
next edition

A comprehensive critique of Bill
14, the new Forest Act, and an 11-
point program for a completely
new forest management policy in
B.C., by Communist Party leader
Maurice Rush will be featured in
next week’s Tribune.

Orders for extra copies of the
issue will be received until Wed-
nesday, June 14.

Vicki Peters, one of those fired
from the restaurant, told the
Tribune this week that Doug Chris-
mas, one of the three owners,
sought to bring American Indian
Movement leader Russell Means to
Vancouver to urge the strikers to
quit the union and return to work.

“But it backfired,” Peters said,
“and Russell Means pledged his
support for the strike.’ Other
Native organizations have done the
same, including the United Native
Nations, the Union of B.C. Indian
Chiefs and the Vancouver Indian
Centre.

The owners of the Muckamuck
are planning to open a second
restaurant as well as an art
gallery, specializing in Native
crafts.

Will the election of Gerry ‘Stoney
to the presidency of the New
Democratic Party in. British
Columbia reconcile the differences
between the leadership of~ that
party and the B.C. Federation of
Labor?

The differences referred to
above found their sharpest ex-
pression at the 1976 convention of:
the Federation.

Shortly after the convention
Stoney, who is president of New
Westminster Local. of the In-
ternational Woodworkers of
America, gave his analysis in the
November issue of the newspaper
published by his local.

The division as spelled out then
by Stoney, can be summarized as
follows:

e The Federation was : almost
evenly split over the question of
carrying out the policies adopted in
convention and who the officers
should be.

e Most IWA delegates lined
themselves up with unions in op-
position to the incumbent officers:
Firstly, because the Federation
officers tried to work out a united
approach to the 1975 contract
negotiations between the IWA, the
Canadian Paper Workers’ Union,

and the Pulp, paper and. Wood-

workers of Canada. According to
Stoney, the IWA leadership was
“not interested’ in such unity
against common employers.

e The Federation officers
constantly ‘‘found reasons _ to
publicly criticize’ the Barrett
government during its term of
office ‘‘and attacked them in ways
which undermined the government
and played a part in bringing about
their defeat in December of 1975.”

Stoney went on to say: ‘‘Any
declarations of support for the
NDP, even after the election was
called, appear to have been made
with tongue in cheek.’ What
Stoney said, in effect, back in
November 1976, was that the NDP
government should have received
unqualified support. According to
him, there should have been no
public criticism of the government,
even though it went along with the
Trudeau wage control program,
disregarded the opinions of the
Federation on labor legislation and
enacted sweeping back-to-work

legislation to settle labor disputes-

in 1975.

Fish treaty suspended

Continued from pg. 1

issue, Canada and the U.S. signed
an interim agreement earlier this
year, allowing each country to fish
in each other’s waters. The interim
agreement, however, was
challenged in U.S. courts and the
U.S. government pressed Canada
for added concessions that would
grant a bigger advantage to the
U.S. fishing industry over
Canada’s.

With Canada’s suspension of the
interim agreement, U.S. fishing
vessels are barred from Canadian
waters.

The issue of maritime boun-
daries came to a head with the
declaration by both countries of a
200-mile limit and the subsequent
need to extend boundary lines to
the limit. But in successive ne-
gotiations over several years for
reciprocal fishing rights, Canada
has retreated consistently to the
point where the U.S. presently
enjoys a two-to-one ration over

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 9, 1978—Page 12

after U.S. violations

Canada in the amount of salmon
intercepted by each country.

Continuing its weak approach,
the federal government has
released little supporting argu-
ments to back up Canada’s
position. The U.S. government has
released strings of statistics —
widely reported in the Canadian
media — presenting the view that
Canada takes far more U.S. fish

-resources than the U.S. does in

Canada. The U.S. figures are not

-accurate however, as they include

the Canadian waters that the U.S.
has laid a claim to. In actual fact
the U.S. has a wide and growing
margin over Canada in the
reciprocal interception of fishery
resources. ;

In its statement June 5, the Com-
munist Party charged that “giving
into U.S. pressure has been char-
acteristic of government policy
and is not the way to protect the
interests of Canada and of
Canadian fishermen.” :

In the article, Stoney accused the
Federation officers of using ‘‘the
full-time hired staff’ of their office
to campaign actively to elect the
Guy-Johnston group. However, an-
other article in the same issue had
this to say about the campaign of
Art Kube, who unsuccessfully
opposed Len Guy for the position of
secretary-treasurer: “It was most
disturbing to see the IWA regional
staff, whose wages are paid out by
the IWA members and _ the
Canadian Labor Congress staff,
whose wages are paid by all af-
filiates through per capita,
working full-time for re-election of
Art Kube during the convention.” -

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

Obviously, there were paid staff
members on both sides of this
policy dispute, so the Federation
officers could not be faulted on that
score. :

Then, there was what struck me
as the key section. of Stoney’s
comment: “It was reported during
the convention that the present
Federation officers were a’ more
militant group. In. fact the
Federation’s militancy is deter-
mined by its affiliates. If the IWA
and other affilates to the
Federation decide on a more
militant approach, then that is
what it will be. If they decide ona
more moderate approach, then
that is also what it will be.”

While this was very democratic
on the face of it (the majority will
decide) it was a clear signal that
the IWA leadership wanted less
militancy and more ‘‘moderation.”’

I sat through the 1977 convention
of the Federation as an observer. It
was not an election year and the
top officers seemed to be working
hard to unite the delegates around
basic trade union issues. However,
it was noticeable that even though
the executive position paper
repudiating the tripartism of the
Canadian labor Congress was
endorsed, there was_ substantial
opposition from the IWA and the
B.C. Government . Employees
Union, the key unions opposed to
the Guy-Johnston leadership.

I’ was reminded of the position
taken by most IWA delegates at the
1977 Federation convention by a
statement issued by C. C. Knudsen,
president of MacMillan Bloedel, on
February 17 of this year, in con-
nection with the agreement -not to
close down its Vancouver Plywood
Division (Vanply).. A few
quotations will illustrate the point:

e “The economic issues which
led to our original annoucement to
phase out Vanply have~ not
changed. However, the-assurances
of cooperation to achieve increased
productivity which have been
given by the IWA, together with

their commitment. to. eooperaté
with MB in. future ~-manpowé!
changes, have resulted in the
company giving the attached
agreements its full support.” —

Among the commitments made
by the IWA leadership was thé
following: :

“Both employees. and’: thé
company must work together
improve our competitive positiol
in world markets. and: 10
minimize the impact on individual
employees that might be:caused by
changing technology, changilié
markets and -changes in raW
material supply.”

This approach. to the problem
‘was more clearly ‘spelled out by
Canadian Labor Congres’
president Dennis McDermott. The
Vancouver Sun.of May 29 quote
him as saying that. a Congres®
resolution calling for a 32-hout,
four-day week was “impractical.

“There isn’t any point in the
British doing it unless the Germans
follow suit; there isn’t any point
the Canadians doing it unless thé
Americans follow suit; there ist!
any point in any of us doing
unless the Japanese follow suit.

If that approach had been take?
to the fight for the eight-hour day;
we would still be working ten an
12 hours a day. What McDermo™
proposes is the MB — IWA. for
mula: Work. harder to maké
Canada more competitive and,
accordingly, wait for a shortet
work week until the capitalists ©
all the major trading countries ar
prepared to grant it voluntarily
and simultaneously. That woul
mean waiting forever and a day:

It is significant that Len Guy;
who resigned as_ secretary’
treasurer of the Federation ef
fective June 1, issued, a strong
statement before -he left, com
demning McDermott’s position. It
is equally significant that Gerry
Stoney, a top leader of the IWA and
new president of the provincia
NDP, has, to the best of my
knowledge, remained silent.

Which was Stoney. will go 4
president of the NDP remains to be
seen. At this moment, the obvious
fact is that the right wing of the
party was in complete control of
the convention and Stoney need
their support to be elected. This
same right wing wants to subot
dinate the trade union moveme
to the party’s electoral machin
and to silence any criticism from
organized labor, however justifi
that criticism may be. ot

We can expect a provincial
election in the next year. The tradé
union movement can help assure
the defeat of the Socreds by
fighting harder. around the vital
needs of working people and by
working to unite all labor, left and
democratic forces for a broad,
anti-monopoly program. Howevet:
the question remains: Can Stoney
be won for sucha policy?

Back the paper that

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