By MIKE PHILLIPS

HAMILTON — The union
representing 141 Consolidated
Bathurst Packaging Ltd. work-
ers, set to lose their jobs after the
plant is closed for good, April 26,
pledged last week to fight the lay-
offs all the way.

In an interview March 14,
Jean-Marie Bedard president of
region two, International Wood-
workers of America, (IWA), said
the union is calling on the Ontario
Tory government to launch an in-
quiry commission to summon the
company to public hearings to
justify the closure decision.

Bedard said the government
should intervene in the closure to
save the workers’ jobs.

On March 1, in what Bedard
described as ‘‘an act of serene
cruelty”’ the company informed
the officers of IWA Local 2-69 of
its decision to close the plant.
They told the local leadership

Ontario:

lille LLU WUE TULL ALUTT APH RB

pretty much the same story as
company labor relations manager
R.M. Gruber told Ontario labor
minister Russell Ramsay in a let-
ter also dated March 1.

“Over the past several years
the viability of this operation has
been continuously under review
mainly because of increasing
costs and serious loss situations.
Under present and continuing
difficult conditions we can no
longer continue to operate this
plant’ Gruber wrote the minister.

‘‘We cannot accept this closure
as just another fact of life’, Be-
dard said. ‘‘The fate of 141 work-
ers and their families is at stake.
The reasons given by the com-
pany are totally unsatisfactory
and don’t constitute an ex-
planation at all, even less a justi-
fication for its decision.”’

He said the time has come for
the labor movement to insist em-
ployers like Consolidated

i i Go

Bathurst be made accountable to
their employees and the com-
munity when it comes to plant
closures.

“The government, elected to
act in the interests of the popula-
tion, must step in and compel the
employers to justify their actions
even if such intervention may be
considered unusual under the sys-
tem of so-called free enterprise’,
Bedard said.

He pointed to a situation in -

New Brunswick, which is within
his region’s jurisdiction, where
the Tory provincial government
bought out a plywood mill that
went bankrupt leaving the IWA
workforce jobless.

In Sept. 81, Burchill Plywood
company of Nelson-Mirimachi
laid off the entire 125-person
workforce. Receivers, under
provincial government super-
vision, re-opened the plant and
operated for about 17 weeks, then
closed it again.

a place to stand

IWA demands probe into plant closure”

On Feb. 15 this year the plant
was auctioned off and the
government, which bought it, has
informed the union of its plans to
re-tool the operation and tlie pos-
sibility the plant will be reopened
this July.

Bedard also said the union will
be circulating a petition among
IWA members, and the labor
movement to back its demands
for action from the Tory govern-
ment in Queen’s Park. Ontario
Federation of Labor president
Cliff Pilkey will meet with in-
dustry and trade minister Gordon
Walker and an IWA delegation
later this month. e

The local is also taking the mat-
ter of the closure up with the
Hamilton Labor Council and
hopes to press the mayor Bob
Morrow to exert whatever in-
fluence he can on Consolidated
Bathurst to stop it from hitting the
community with more layoffs.

The workers are equally bitter
over the company’s hypocrisy
last Christmas when they got let-
ters from Consolidated Bathurst

. thanking them for their efforts in

1982. The letters praised the
Hamilton box plant workers be-
cause they had ‘‘performed ex-
ceptionally well in spite of many
adverse conditions in our market
place’ and added that the com-
pany had ‘‘no doubt the ob-
jectives met this year will provide
a strong base for our goals in the
future.”

The company’s decision fol-
lows on the heels of a merger with
MacMillan Bloedel in the cor-
rugated box industry. “You can
really see the true face of these
two multi-nationals — stony and
livid’? Bedard said. ‘“They’re
organizations whose only motiva-
tion is maximum profit.”

Most of the Hamilton workers
have between 24 and 37 years

scribes the situation ‘‘they’re ™

ULE

seniority, and as Bedard de
old to get another job and 10!
quite old enought to get full a
sion. Their welfare benefits W
cease on April 26, and they Wo”
even have any life insurance
Office workers who aref
organized will be entitled to
for early retirement under
company pension plan at age"
Under the union contract the
workers can’t qualify for eatly
retirement till they reach 55.
The office workers are also@
titled to 52 weeks severance
while union members with
more years service will only
ify for a maximum of 26 Weer?
depending on their seniorily:
They’re entitled to 40 ho f
severance pay for every yeaa
service up to a maximum of 1,0"
hours. - :
Workers with less than 10Y
will only get 20 hours sevet@™
pay for each year’s service.
Delegates from the se
solidated Bathurst and MacMit
lan Bloedel plants met in King®
ton March 12 and pledged the!
full support to the  Hamilto!
workers. This was where the P&™
tion was launched. 4
The Hamilton plantis one of
the company operates with ©
IWA workforce. The others aft
located in St. Thomas, E10
coke, Whitby, Montreal-East
St. Laurent, Quebec. ;

es
Have you.
renewed

your sub?

S

Major contribution in CUPE program

We just completed reading ‘‘A Ten Point Recovery
Program’’ subtitled, ‘‘Here’s what has to be done to
lift Canada out of the depression’’. It was prepared by
the Canadian Union of Public Employees research
staff, and published in the union’s journal, Facts.

We would like to congratulate the union on what
must be considered a major contribution to labor’s
search for a concrete program to take Canada out of
the crisis; for new policies and anew economic order.

The 10 points in the program are (1) A program to
stimulate the Canadian economy. (2) Stop cuts in
public spending. (3) Lower interest rates. (4) Imple-
ment exchange controls. (5) Nationalize the banks. (6)
Cut defence spending. (7) Introduce price controls.
(8) Expand public ownership. (9) Extend public ser-
vices. (10) Reform government finances.

In an addendum to the program the union states it is
hoping to help stimulate a wide ranging discussion on
economic policy in the labor movement. It also ex-
presses the hope the debate will go beyond the labor
movement to involve a broad range of other socially
progressive groups and individuals.

Real Debate Beginning

In the concluding paragraphs of the addendum the
union says: “Obviously many Canadians have be-
come aware of the need for an alternative economic
strategy. Yet the real debate over its specifics is only
now beginning. In the foregoing articles we have set
forth our concept of a new economic program for
Canada. Our list is not exhaustive, nor is it intended to
be final. Rather our proposals are presented as the

Labor in action
William Stewart

framework of a strategy that we hope will be further
refined and developed in the coming months.

‘As the economic crisis worsens and the failure of
present policies becomes increasingly apparent, we
feel certain that the debate on an alternative economic
strategy will gain momentum and credibility.”

While many unions have addressed themselves to
the crisis, and solutions to it for the particular industry
involved, such as auto, electrical, fish, public service
unions, etc. this is the first to our knowledge which
has addressed itself to an overall Canadian economic
alternative. Hopefully other unions and organizations
will take up the challenge and pick up on CUPE’s fine
initiative.

The value of the CUPE 10-point program lies not

‘only in the issues it selects; most of these have been

addressed by other unions or organizations in one or
another degree. It also lies in the wealth of supporting
evidence, facts and figures as well as the cogent aug-

‘ mentation assembled by the authors.

We assume that the Program is available at the
CUPE headquarters in Ottawa and hope that those

who have not yet seen it will make arrangements to
get a copy or copies.

Political Strategy Needed

Left unsaid in the document is the need for a politi-
cal strategy for organized labor to accompany its
alternative economic strategy. As the saying goes
“one won’t work without the other.’” We understand
the decision of CUPE to limit itself to the economic
area in. this document and we agree with theif
decision.

However, for the left it is essential to give a political
reading to the matter. Such a program as proposed by
CUPE will not be substantially introduced into Cana-
dian life without a political alternative of the same
breadth that the union seeks for its economic
alternative. -

Such an anti-monopoly, democratic political
alternative must emerge, and is slowly but surely
emerging, as the need for basic economic and social
changes becomes clear. It is essential that labor con-
duct its battle on both the economic and political
fronts and that the widespread unity it seeks on the

economic front be extended to encompass the politi- |

cal front.

The most critical area for action at this time how-
ever is first and foremost the fightback on the
economic front and the development of a broad
economic strategy for labor around which to organize
its own ranks and gather all possible support. The
CUPE 10 point program makes a significant contribu-
tion to this process and deserves the serious con-
sideration its authors request.

_

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MARCH 25, 1983—Page 6