HI LS LULL Ee eee || 0) | 11 ese LABOR 4 By MIKE PHILLIPS MISSISSAUGA — If you're getting your lawns and gardens into shape for the summer, make sure you shun Riviera, Mastercraft and Ever- lux garden hoses. They’re produced by scabs at strike- bound Superplastics Ltd. Since last Sept. 4, some 75 Punjabi-speaking new Cana- dians have been on the picket line fighting for a first contract between the company and Communications and Elec- trical Workers local 535. The right to work in a heal- thy environment, free of racial discrimination and with decent wages and the benefits of a union contract sum up the strike’s issues, CWC president Jarnail Singh told the Tribune. “The company won't set- tle’’, he said. “‘It doesn’t want to pay us for overtime work and wants to be able to lay .people off at will without a About 20 per cent of the workers are women and they’ve suffered inferior wages because of their sex as well as their national origin. Pirtpal Gill, one of the workers who first organized the plant for CWC, charged that workers had to handle poly vinyl chlor- ide in the production process but that warning stickers iden- tifying vinyl chloride as cancer suspect agent’? were removed from the drums being brought into the plant. “They used people like slaves’’, Gill said, adding that a certain foreman had the habit of regularly referring to people as “‘pakis’’. Wage Discrimination Gill also noted the wage dis- crimination that was rampant in the factory. Ironically, he had been a foreman prior to the organizing drive. But he was demoted for his efforts to bring in the union. He compared Jarnail Singh’s $8 an hour wage rate as a main- Ey x seniority system or recall | rights.”’ superplastics boycott urged for justice TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS and decent conditions. tenance worker to the $13 an hour wage paid to his work- mate who performed the same ~ v7 6 \y: ‘ CFL hears free trade mouthpiece OTTAWA — The 245 delegates to the Canadian Federation of Labor convention, otherwise known as the Contractors Fed- eration of Labor, are said to have applauded the Tory govern- ment’s free trade mouthpiece Simon Reisman when he told them “workers have the most to gain from a new (trading) agreement (with the U.S.).”’ Resiman attacked Canadians who are worried about the de- struction of jobs, Canadian autonomy and economic indepen- dence as a result of a continental market with the U.S. Dismissing critics who warn that free trade will undermine our social services and national autonomy Reisman however failed to answer the points made by the critics of free trade. With CFL president Jim McCambly taking part as the only labor leader in the country on the Tory government's free trade advisory committees, Reisman was in good company to sell the big business plan to betray the interests and jobs of Canadian workers. : : Everyone in the mainstream of the Canadian trade union movement has shunned the government committees, but McCambly, who has been in the forefront of the employer- inspired movement to brainwash building trades workers into accepting concessions tried to defend the CFL’s participation in selling out Canada’s interests to the U.S. In contrast to the recent CLC convention which took a strong stand against free trade and criticized the Tory government for its big-business agenda, the CFL convention boasted the presence of federal cabinet ministers and reportedly even screened a video message from the man who shut down Shefferville, Que., Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. NAPE to resume strike in September ST. JOHN’S — ‘This fight is a long way from being over,” Fraser March said last week as he announced the Newfoundland Association of Public Employees will resume its strike against the provincial government, Sept. 2. He said 5,500 transportation and public works workers interrupted a 35 day strike, April 6 in the false hope the government was serious about a settlement, may be joined in the fall by another 5,500 NAPE members including hospital workers whose contracts expire then. March said the union was putting off strike action till Sep- tember because action during the summer months would not be productive as the government shuts down tor vactions. ine outstanding issues remain wages, the status of temporary employees and the suspensions handed out to 2,000 NAPE mem- bers who defied rotten legislation to strike in March and April While the strike forced the government to amend the law stripping public sector workers of the right to strike, the govern- ment has refused to meet the union’s other key demand of parity between the transportation and public works employees and the rest of the provincial public service. | Labor Briefs 6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 21, 1986 tasks. ‘IT made $8 an hour when I was foreman while the other foremen were making $13 an hour’’, Gill said. The pay rates were based pure and simply on the employer’s discretion. Another example of racist and sexist attitudes in man- ‘ agement is that the night shift is reserved exclusively for Sikhs. Gill recalled how a group of women, unhappy with per- manent night work asked to be shifted to daytime hours but were turned down by the com- pany. CWC representative Jim Donoforio said the last meeting between the union and the company took place April 7. The company is continuing to hold to its original demand for a 44 hour work week before having to pay overtime rates. “Plus, they want super seniority for the scabs’’, he said, referring to the employ- ers demand that the strike breakers be given first priority in hiring when the strike is — Area: Scabs have to face their own consciences twice a day as the determined strikers hold the line for dig” Most of the workers earned about $5 an hour. Before they decided to unionize; the strik- ers recalled, it wasn’t unusual to work 60 hours a stretch at straight time. Picketers Bushwhacked The strikers have kept the picket lines running on a 24- hour basis. The police and management harassment that marked the strike at the begin- ning has dropped off some- what, though the scabs are a surly lot. Picketers Gurbachan Chumber and Santokh Singh © Kang were bushwhacked by a scab in the afternoon of May 2. Kang was busy with a minor repair on his car, parked near the rear entrance to the plant. “At first he was just talking normally then for no reason he hit Santokh’’, Chumber said describing the assault on his friend by the strike breaker. With the bruise still visible dur- ing the interview, Kang said he lost consciousness for three or four minutes as a result of the blow. Chumber was also hit as he tried to defend his friend fro™ the scab’s attacks. Despite the brutality, t picketers’ morale is high 2% remains strong due to the 5° darity local 535 members ase getting from the trade und! movement, their union af wide assortment of ©O munity, women’s and immh grant groups, who've orga ized a committee to mobili” support for the strikers. ‘ More than 100 people joined the CWC picket line May 71 support action organized by the union, the South Asia? Women’s Group, Working with , Women and the Internation | Women’s Day Committee: © addition, the CWC. hopes ! generate support for the st ers through the Superplast!@ boycott. Metro Toronto’s Sikh com munity is also rallying beh? the strikers with financial 4 moral support and a dem issued to Ontario Labor M! ter William Wrye to interve™ in the dispute to bring abou! settlement of the nine mo* strike. _ Credit union strike ends — - SAULT STE MARIE — Strik- ing members of United Steel- workers local 7129 have issued an appeal for support in their battle against concessions. The 36 members of local 7129 have been on strike for the past four months against ASCU Community Credit Union. The strikers want a fair wage increase that will keep pace with the cost of living. Management of the credit union, who commissioned a “hired gun” to run its negotia- tions with local 7129 is only offer- ing a 30 cent increase that amounts to 2.2-2.7 per cent. In a May 5 appeal to local unionists, the Steelworkers asked for picket line support to show the credit union management that the 36 strikers don’t stand alone. Management’s ‘‘hired gun’’ ate a a told the union in December that ASCU’s Board of Directors wanted to impose a wage freeze in 1986 and would only agree to a minimum increase in 1987. At press time it was reported that the workers at the Algoma Steel Community Credit Union narrowly voted to accept a new pact providing a 45 cents an hour increase in the first year, 15 cents an hour in the second and $200 cash bonuses in each year of the agreement. The workers agreed to the proposal by a one vote margin. The strikers see part of the problem in these bitter negotia- tions as the top-heavy manage- ment of the credit union. The’ ratio of managers to workers from’ port mothers while a numbe} yt 1982 to 1986 jumped from S!* 39 employees, to nine for 3 et ployees, with the view that managers are needed. ; The base rate fora recep is $9.42 an hour with an in¢ to $10.46 an hour in six nich The top job class rate is $12: hour. ; The strikers point OU! oy some of the workers are sole® | others have husbands who a 4 of work, in a community aly burdened with a high le unemployment. i They’ve called on the movement in the region a0 where to support their picket and their strike by calling Of ing to the members of the © union’s board of directors them to settle, with fair waa” the members of local 7129- vel ©