Labor Briefs Garment workers strike sweatshop TORONTO — Sweatshop conditions and a killing piece- rate wage system are being fought on the picket line by 60 members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. The ILGWU, which represents the workers mostly immi- grant women, has been fighting for a contract since the union’s certification last November, with Sportswear City Ltd., a company which makes Jordache brand women’s sportswear. The owner, Ernie Waxman refuses to negotiate a standard wage rate, and access by the workers to in-plant union rep- - resentation. The ILGWU wants to get rid of the piece-rate system where Waxman pays the $3.85 minimum plus an incentive system that barely pays out $5 an hour at its maximum. The union is demanding rates ranging from $4.25 to $5.65 an hour. ILGWU representative Ross Sutherland appealed to the recent Metro Labor Council meeting to be prepared for a call by the union to the council’s 180,000 affiliates to boycott Jordache products. He added, that the striking workers and their union are determined to put Waxman out of ‘business rather than let him get away with operating a sweatshop. CUPW determined to refuse concessions OTTAWA — Canada’s 23,000 inside postal workers remain determined to fight for a 32-hour work week, better wages, improved job security and better working conditions in the face of Canada Posts July 3 demand for sweeping concessions. The Crown Corporation wants to take away CUPW’s COLA while at the same time demanding the union surrender its $800 a year per member bilingual bonuses. Other take- aways demanded by Canada Post include extending the qualifying period for maternity leave to one year from the current six months, and the qualifying period for paid leave for marriage from six months to two years. CUPW is determined to enjoy the benefits of technological . advance in the post office with a shorter work week, which it also sees as a key element in job creation. Wages are the other key bargaining target because postal workers were bound by the federal 6 per cent and 5 per cent public sector wage controls, and the time has come to catch up. Papermakers reject cheap contract CORNWALL — Some 1,750 members of the Canadian Paperworkers Union at Domtar Fine Papers Ltd., here, To- ronto and in St. Catharines voted 70 per cent, July 17, to reject the company’s latest contract offer. The CPU has been without a contract with Domtar since April 30, three years after the last agreement that resulted from a bitter seven-month strike. The union is applying for mediation services in early Au- gust. The Domtar offer the workers in the three centres turned down proposed another three year pact with wage increases of 2.5 per cent in the first year, and 4 and S per cent in the second and third, respectively. : Retail union defends Simpsons workers TORONTO — The union, aiming to organize every major Canadian department store, came out last week advising as many of the 1,631 recently laid-off Simpsons Ltd. workers it had on its membership rolls, to seek legal advice about the severance pay they’re being given by Simpsons. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union an- nounced July 18 it was sending letters to all of the laid-off Simpsons workers it can contact advising them that the sever- ance package they’re being given, may in some cases be less than what they’re legally entitled to. RWDSU organizer John Clark also criticized Ontario Labor Minister Russell Ramsay for praising the package as ‘‘one of the best’’ he’d seen. The Simpsons package provides for 16 weeks lay-off notice, one week’s pay per year of service and an early retirement option | off and imported food supplies | ing, ‘‘we are as far apart as we Meat packers set to strike TORONTO — Despite last year’s massive pro- fits, Canada Packers is tipping over the edge to- ward a country-wide strike by 4,000 United Food and Commercial Workers members unless it with- draws what union officials call ‘‘a new laundry list of concessions’’. Rejecting the corporation’s new demands which brought contract talks to a halt, July 18, UFCW Canadian director Frank Benn said ‘‘there is never any reason for concessions at any time in this industry.” == _The union has set July 26 as the strike deadline which will bring pickets to CP installations in 10 cities throughout Canada. Should they strike, the Canada Packers workers will be joining locked-out meatpackers at Burns Ltd., in Lethbridge, Alberta, Calgary, Winnipeg and Kitchener, and shutting down the bulk of the country’s meat packing industry. The UFCW at Canada Packers has been without an agreement since May 31, and the pile of conces- sions demanded by the corporation, July 9, in- cluded: slashing the base rate for new hires by $5 an hour; cancelling time and a half pay for weekend work; wiping out long term disability benefits; and making workers with less than five years service pay their own health care premiums. Meanwhile, an agreement that was rammed down the throats of UFCW members at Gainers Inc. of Edmonton, with the company’s threat to Canada-wide vs concessions fire all its current workers and hire scabs, seems 10 be falling apart. Workers voted July 13 to take 4 $5 an hour pay cut for new hires and a two year wage freeze for the rest by a vote of 454 to 337. However, two items involving a dental plan and pensions were left out of the agreement the Ed- monton workers voted on and it is expected the vote will have to be rescheduled. : ae Canada Packers had a good year in 1983, hauling in $24.6-million in profits by March 31. On to sales of about $3.2-billion last year, the current profit tally up to March 31, 1984, was an even more stunning $25.3-million. The packing house divisio? brought in about three-quarters of CP’s sales am slightly half of its profits. The drive for concessions in the industty throughout Canada is an extension of the foot monopolies’ success in the U.S. where workers wages have been slashed by $5 an -hour. UFCW leadership, which urged the Gainers work ers not to take the concessions point out that t Z concessions drive in the U.S. has severely dam aged the union movement in the industry. Throughout the talks, the Canadian leaders of the union have remained firm in their opposition to concessions, and in the wake of the collapse © negotiations predict the country-wide battle wit the meat packing corporations will certainly pf duce a strike unless the bosses drop theif unacceptable demands. nee Miners, dockers intensify Special to the Tribune LONDON — As the British miners strike enters its 20th week, massive popular solidarity with strikers is making the pressure on Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government to drop its plan to kill the jobs of 20,000 miners unbear- able. ; = With the strike launched by some 35,000 British dock workers July 10, the Thatcher government is being pressed harder than ever as import and export trade to the island nation is completely sealed begin to run low. Negotiations with the dockers, members of the mighty Transport and General Workers Union were on the verge of collapse for a sec- ond time, July 18, as dockers leader John Connally emerged from the faltering meets observ- were on Tuesday of last week.”’ The dockers strike was sparked by the use of scabs to load iron ore into trucks bound for steel mills being picketed by the miners. Seamen and railway workers have organized sympathy actions in support of the miners. The total impact of this labor solidarity has been the shutting down of all but a few minor ports, the stranding of three-quarters of the country’s import-export trade, and the shutting down of 75 per cent of Britain’s coal mines. pressure Thatcher go vt A 5,000-strong march makes its way through Sheffield during york shire’s action day to back the miners. ia swiss CONWOOD Ee RADES COUNCIL CAYS. Trt. WANERS # * | : for older workers. 3 Ramsay was already in hot water over a statement right after the lay-offs were announced that he wasn’t particularly bothered by them because the bulk were women earning a second family income. Later in the week he was forced to apologize for his statement. The retail union says that after consulting its own legal advisors, a close and detailed examination of each worker’s particular circumstance, taking into account such factors as the degree of responsibility held by the employee, age, length of service, experience, other job prospects, and industry conditions, some may be able to show they are entitled to a better severance deal and perhaps even prove wrongful dis- missal. The dockers have been boy- cotting all freight shipments ‘} bound for the continent or coming in from Europe but have allowed passenger cars carrying tourists to pass. Independent truckers in Europe and British truckers com- ing back have blockaded ferry terminals in Europe leaving the tourists stranded. Judging from recent police at- tacks on picket lines outside three coal mines in which at least one 4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 25, 1984 miner was injured, the Thatcher — government appears to be clinging to its hard-headed policy of trying to break the miners’ just fight with the brute force of the British state apparatus. The Thatcher government is under increasing pressure from the right to bring in the army and try to crush the dockers strike, while at the same time labor grows more united at the sight of victory within its grasp, and cri- tics of the Thatcher policy to rav- age the trade union movement are increasingly heard within Tor ranks. It is becoming obvious every day to the people of Britain, 1” cluding elements within th@ government itself, that Thatch r’s hope of starving the minef back to work is failing miserably in the face of magnificent sol darity workers the length and breadth of the country are pou!” ing into National Union of Min@ workers strike headquarters.