WS
YWL_ ZS Z

‘Don’t

buy Robin Hood’

UASE-7F

aim of national boycott

The Confederation of National
Trade Unions, backed by the
Canadian Labor Congress and the
Quebec Teachers’ Federation, has
launched a country-wide boycott of
Robin Hood products in response to
the shooting of eight strikers by
security guards last month.

The CNTU officially launched
the boycott last Thursday following
the latest breakdown in_ talks
between the multinational food
corporation and the 115 flour mill
workers who have been on strike
since February.

But calls for a boycott of Robin
Hood products had been voiced by
trade unionists all across the
country following the incident last
month when private security
guards working for Robin Hood
Multifoods Ltd. fired on the
strikers, wounding eight people.

The Canadian Labor Congress
called the shootings ‘‘an example
of what governments term “peace
and security’ gone wild.” —

CLC president Joe Morris said in
astatement following the attack by
the guards: “This incident has
provided blatant evidence that the
cards are heavily stacked against
the workers in ‘any industrial
dispute. What is needed is an
immediate revamping of labor
legislation right across the country
to make certain that there will
never again be an opportunity for
this typeof para-military attack on
innocent citizens.”

Morris called on the federal
governments and_ provincial
governments to enact legislation to
prohibit the use of security guards
by employers aS a means of
defeating a union in contract
disputes and stressed particularly
the need for immediate action to

National unions
now in majority

Canadian-based unions are, for
the first time, in the majority, the
result of the growth of government
employees’ unions and greater
autonomy. won by Canadian
members of international unions.

U.S.-based unions now represent
49.6 percent of all workers in
Canada. That figure is down from
51.4 percent a year ago and 70
percent 11 years ago.

JOE MORRIS. .
Robin Hood

. shootings at
Mills a

para-military attack on innocent

citizens.”

forbid the carrying of arms by

security forces in any situation.
“And there is one further factor

that must be taken into con-
sideration,’ the CLC president
said. “This -entire dispute was
precipitated by the Anti-Inflation
Board and the wage control
legislation that set it up. Had
negotiations been allowed to
proceed unimpeded by legislation
directed against working people,
the strike would never have oc-
curred in the first place and eight
people would not be in hospital
suffering from gunshot wounds.”

Sparked by an AIB rollback of
negotiated wage increases last
February, the Robin Hood dispute
has become particularly bitter
since, involving court injunctions
and a massive $1.8 million lawsuit
launched by the company against
the CNTU.

Norbert Rodrigue, president of
the CNTU, said that the boycott of
the company may also spread
outside of Canada, involving
subsidiaries of the parent com-
pany, International Multifoods
Ltd. of Minneapolis, Minnesota,
elsewhere in the world.

Rodrigue said that he- had
already discussed the matter with
officials of the World Con-
federation of Labor.

Robin Hood markets a. number of
products in this province including
varieties of flour as well as related
products including wheat germ
(often sold in jars) and various
cereals.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 26, 1977—Page 8

Clash on policy, leadership —
seen at B.C. Fed convention

The 1977 convention of the B.C.
Federation of Labor opening in
Penticton on October 31, will bring
more attacks on the Johnson-Guy
leadership, according to all in-
dications. The right wing will again
raise the cry that the Federation
playeda major role in the defeat of
the Barrett government by
criticizing that government when it
acted against the interest of the
labor movement.

It seems that almost two years
after that election, right wing
supporters of Barrett in the trade
unions still refuse to make an
honest and balanced assessment of
what took place. They will not
admit that after endorsing Tru-
deau’s wage controls and or-
dering the woodworkers and
pulpworkers to cease or desist
from striking, the NDP govenment
foolishly decided to go to the people
for anew mandate. This move, for
which Barrett bears the main
responsibility, was part of a steady
shift to the right. It demonstrated
that Barrett was completely out of
touch with poliitical reality, failing
to grasp the extent of the shift of
Liberals and Conservatives to the
Socreds. :

Neither, it seems, did Barrett
understand the extent to which
corporate interests were prepared
to pour money into the campaign to
elect the Scoreds. If he had un-
derstood these facts and drawn the
proper conclusions, he and _ his
colleagues would have moved
closer to the trade union movement
and the working people. They had
almost two years in which to
mobilize the labor, left and
democratic forces around
progressive anti-monopoly policies
before calling an election. Any
experienced trade union leader
who continues to howl that the
Federation defeated the NDP
government is, in my opinion,
something of a fool or a rogue.

The 1977 provincial convention of
the NDP produced very little in the
way of policy. The leadership was
successful in preventing discussion
on major policy questions, par-
ticularly on controversial issues.
They wanted a freehand to develop
policy after the convention with a
view to winning the next election
on the basis of a further shift to the
right. It was made clear that trade
union leaders who speak up
publicly when the party acts
against the interest of the working
class are not welcome in the
leadership of the NDP. There is no
doubt that the spokesmen for this
trend inside the trade unions will
continue their efforts to subor-
dinate completely the Federation
to the electoral machinery of the
NDP.

Give money, join the party,
provide election workers and use
the union apparatus to support the
party. . . all this will be advocated.
However, the idea that labor
should play an independent
political role by raising issues of
vital coneern to the
movement, and by supporting the
NDP whenit deserves support and
sharply criticizing it when it
deserves criticism will be opposed,
despite its legitimacy.

High on the agenda at the con--

vention will be the question of wage
controls. The Liberal government
in Ottawa and the corporate in-
terests refused to go along with the
concept of tripartism (class;
collaboration) as advanced by the
leadership of the Canadian Labor
Congress; and the CLC refused to
go along with counter-propositions
that would involve the labor
movement in enforcing controls
upon itself on a ‘‘voluntary”’ basis.
Obviously, what is needed at this

ei

labor:

time is a mobilization of the
membership of the unions for
another massive demonstration on
the second anniversary of the
imposition of wage controls, on
October 14. Such a demonstration,
involving wide numbers of labor,
democratic and left-wing people
from coast to coast, with demands
to remove controls, restore free
collective bargaining and create

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

fullemployment, would be a major
blow against wage controls, It
would also faciliate the process of
defeating representatives of the
capitalist political parties in the
next federal and provincial elec-
tions: Whether the trade union
movement will or will not mount
such an offensive is an open
question at’ the moment. But
whatever. the course taken by the
CLC leadership, wage controls will
be a major topic of debate in
Penticton.

With September 30 the deadline
for resolutions, local unions and
labor councils are already in the
process of drafting and discussing

’ their proposals. Judging by reports

we have received, a number of
affiliates will send resolutions on

such key questions as_ the
following :

e An end to wage controls. No
tripartism.

e A democratic solution to the

french Canada.
e No pipelines now. The
protection of Canadiat

national question in Canada, pased
on recognition of Canada as a two
nation state, the need for a new
pact of confederation and the unily
of the working class of English and

sovereignty. Public ownership al
control of energy and development
on the basis of Canada’s long-ter™
needs. Settlement of Native lat
claims and participation of Nativé
peoplein development of the north:
No export of gas or oil at the &
pense of Canadian interests ane
sovereignty. _

© Jobs for the unemployed. 4
massive government program of
building homes for low incomé
groups.

© Peace and disarmament.

© Opposition to anti-labol
legislation by the Socred gover
ment. .

© Opposition to anti-social
legislation of the Socred gover”
ment, such as funding of separalé
and independent _ schools;
elimination of resource boards al!
phasing out of rent controls.

e Full Canadian autonomy [0
all Canadian sections of i*
ternational unions. 4

© Solidarity with people of South
Africa, Rhodesia and Chile; a just
settlement in the Middle East.

Instead of fighting over who wa
responsible for the defeat of thé
NDP in 1975, the Penticton co
vention opening on October ?
could better serve the members
of the Federation if it adopted *
program around which all labol
democratic and left forces co
unite in preparation for the defeat

of the Socreds in the next electio® |
—

Powers of Rentalsman

increased in

Cont’ d. from pg. 1

precedented ‘‘discretionary
powers’’.

In the case of evictions, tenants
appear to be given a break by a
new regulation forcing landlords to
use special forms which have an
appeal form attached. In fact,
though, eviction powers of lan-
dlords are widely enhanced by the
new legislation.

A particularly harsh measure
directed against people on fixed
income is the new eviction
procedure that will allow landlords
to issue 15 day eviction notices on
the first day after rent is due.

Even in the case of an illegal
eviction, the new Act would grant
the power to the Rentalsman to
uphold an illegal eviction, if in his
discretion ‘‘relationships’’ warrant
it.

With the new powers granted to
the Rentalsman, tenants’ rights to
appeal have been curtailed. The
legal rights of ‘“Mandamus”’ and
“Certiori” that allow citizens to
take recourse to the courts to force
the Rentalsman to exercise his
powers have been removed.

-Rentalsman, are now subject al

new Act —

Internal rights of appeal ha f
also been axed. Decisions ?
Rentals Officers, previous!
subject to appeal by the depl

appeal only in the courts, as are
decisions of the Rentalsm@?
himself. !
At the same time, the new AC
grants Rentalsman Clarke @
tatorial powers over Rentals of
ficers. Clarke has been engaged :
a running dispute with his &®
ployees, insisting on
unrestricted right to hire and fil?
Rentals Officers. The Brit
Columbia Government Employ f
Union has stood by the Rental
Officers, however, and has uphel
the security of employme?, '
guaranteed by the BCGEU*
master contract with the gov’
ment. The terms of the new
adds a new twist to the dispute bY
granting Clarke the power is
“revoke the authority of a Renta
Officer’, rendering the worké
unable to carry out normal dutie®
Clarke’s new authority is seen 4
indicative of an even more Tigi)
pro-landlord approach from th
Rentalsman’s office.