et SNe Labour HEU targeting privatization The 26,000-member Hospital Employees Union has set April 18 as “Stop Privatization Day” to kick off its campaign against privatization of health care in British Columbia. expose the disastrous effects of privatization on health care and to give notice to the Social Credit government that the HEU “intends to fight all attempts to privatize health ser- vices,” said HEU secretary- business manager Jack Gerow. “The HEU intends to do everything we can to stop the sale, improve the service and keep health care affordable for all British Columbians,” he said March 28. The campaign will include media advertising, special infor- mation kits, direct mail and pri- vatization focus days. The union will also be releasing research data that it has gathered on privatization when the cam- paign is launched April 18. Gerow said that the union has uncovered evidence that corporate executives have al- ready met with U.S.-based health care corporations to identify and discuss investment ~ GEROW opportunities in hospitals and other health care facilities in BG. : Premier Bill Vander Zalm has also indicated that the government is considering American-style private hospi- tals which would be built by private developers for the wealthy. Pickets down at research station The B.C. Government Em- ployees Union brought down its picket lines outside the Mes- achie Lake forestry research sta- tion near Duncan March 31 following an agreement with the forests ministry to expedite the dispute over contracting-out through the union’s grievance procedure. Four BCGEU members, who had been long-term seasonal workers at the research station, set up the picket line March 23 when their jobs were contracted- out to a private contractor within days of the expiry of their recall notice. Under the BCGEU contract, seniority rights and The campaign is intended to -_ Labour Notes ‘ae 3 SHIELDS recall expire after nine months if employees are not called back to work. The BCGEU_ emphasized that the four would normally have been called back before the expiry but that practice was suddenly changed this year, pre- sumably as part of the govern- . ment’s privatization drive. BCGEU ppresident John Shields charged that the govern- ment’s treatment of the four women — who have worked at the station for anywhere from 10 to 14 years — "is a blatant attempt to circumvent the contracting-out provisions of our collective agreement.” Under the agreement worked out, the dispute will be expe- dited through the union’s com- plex grievance procedure and will move quickly to arbitration if it cannot be resolved, said union communications officer George Reamsbottom. “Past arbitrations have deter- mined that contracting-out is a violation of our collective agree- ment and our members are entitled to reinstatement or to alternate employment in the government service,” he said. “That’s what we'll be looking for in this case, too.” Postal union decries contracting out move OTTAWA — Canada’s in- side postal workers union has been confronted with yet an- other contracting-out initiative by Canada Post. Denis Gagnon, technical ad- visor to the 23,000-member Canadian Union of Postal Workers, last week reported that the union had been told by the employer in the latest round of contract bargaining of post office plans to tender the jobs of security service workers in Toronto area facilities to the lowest bidder. Vowing to oppose this latest employer gambit, Gagnon dec- © ried the move as “just another example of attempts by Canada Post and the Tories to create more cheap labour for this country. “The 52 security officers, one third of whom are women, now earn an average of $11.50 an hour plus benefits,” he said. “These skilled experienced CUPW members will be replaced by unskilled, poorly trained workers earning the minimum wage and few or no benefits.” Gagnon added that the union was negotiating with Canada Post to protect the security ser- vice workers from lay-off by having them reassigned to other positions should the corpora- tion go ahead with the contract- ing out. But he insisted the union will spare no effort to block the pri- vatization scheme. The first shot in that campaign was a rally at federal Privatization Minister Barbara McDougall’s Toronto Office. The jobs targeted for con- tracting out are at Toronto’s South Central and the Gateway postal facilities and the East let- ter processing plant in Scar- borough. Alberta Fed plans May Day festival EDMONTON — Peace, soc- ial justice and opposition to free trade combine to make up the theme for the 1988 May Day rally and festival slated by the 110,000-member Alberta Fed- eration of Labour for April 30. A circular by May Day Committee chairperson Don Aitken urged widespread partic- * ipation throughout Alberta’s labour movement in the cultu- ral program and political rally taking place at the University of Alberta. Aitken, the AFL’s secretary treasurer, drew attention to the rally, which will bring together to the same platform labour leaders including AFL presi- dent Dave Werlin, Margaret Ethier of the United Nurses of Alberta, Delores Viney of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Pat Wocknitz of the Alberta Union of Public Employ- ees and Father Jim Roberts of the Catholic Archdiocese of - Vancouver. The rally against free trade will focus on Canadian sover- eignty and its connection to peace and social justice. The full festival program will also include a tribute to the Lubicon Lake Indian Band with an address by Chief Ber- nard Ominayak, and displays from the labour, ethnic, peace and religious groups in the pro- vince. An evening concert will feature Spirit of the West and Raices, a Chilean musical group. WERLIN 6 Pacific Tribune, April 6, 1988 Plant shutdowns: mobilizing action — from resolutions — This week’s column is written by John MacLennan, the Communist Party's Ontario labour secretary. A perfect example of a USS. transnational’s total disregard for its workers was given this week by the Goodyear tire company, when it announced it would locate a new plant in Napanee, Ont. To the workers laid off last May from Goodyear’s profitable Lake- shore plant in Toronto, the news felt like salt rubbed into their wounds. The U.S corporation had not only failed to mention its plans to the United Rubber Workers local here, but had actually denied any intention to build a new plant in Ontario. To add insult to injury, all levels of government are pouring money into this new location. The Ontario Liberals have promised $30 mil- lion. The president of URW Local 323 in Toronto has accused the Labour in action U.S. corporation of deliberately hiding its plans from the 1,435 workers who were laid off at the Lakeshore facility. Looking at the whole question, it is clear that both the federal and provincial governments must have known for a long time what Good- year was up to, even before the Lakeshore gates were slammed shut on the workforce there. If so, these levels of government have conspired to help this com- pany run away from the union. This poses a very important ques- tion: how does the organized trade union movement come to grips with the problem of plant closures? One of the components of the plan to fight free trade, adopted by the recent Ontario Federation of Labour convention, calls for work- ers to occupy any plant that has been closed as a result of a free trade deal. One could argue that the Good- year closure took place before the policy was adopted. But what about the Firestone closure in Hamilton, also under the URW leadership? What about Massey Combines in Brantford, whose workers are represented by the Canadian Auto Workers? The autonomy of each affiliate prevents the OFL from simply ordering a local or union to take over any plant. Any occupation, in the final analysis, should flow from the workers in the affected plant taking action. : The union and the particular local involved would also have to . weigh the impact of such a move on the possibility of jeopardizing severance pay and pension rights. The 1986 OFL convention endorsed a resolution calling for Goodyear to be nationalized in order to protect the rubber workers’ jobs. At the time the URW opposed the nationalization de- mand. Several resolutions were also adopted by local unions and for- warded to the Metro Toronto Labour Council, urging the labour movement to push the idea of nationalizing the Goodyear’s Lake- shore plant. The URW affiliates opposed such action from the council, They were concerned about get- ting the best possible settlement for the workers losing their jobs. This is an important problem to deal with. Workers are pragmatic. They’re more inclined to take what they know they can get under the present legislation, even ifit isn’t all that much, than risk not getting anything at all. The lesson to be drawn is that limiting the fight to better sever- ance arrangements only encour- ages the corporation to snub both workers and the community. What is called for is strictly enforced plant closure legislation, up to and including nationalization if necessary. Another important question involves the process of political pressure on the Goodyear corpo- ration, especially forcing the com- _ pany to open its books to justify the closure to the community and the workers. : This can take a number of forms, focussing on the commun- ity and the affected workers, but also drawing in municipal, provin- cial and federal politicians. Better plant closure laws are needed, prohibiting new monies being handed over to any corpora- | tion that has closed plants in Onta- rio. The whole question of succes- sor rights must be enshrined in the legislation for the union hit by the closure. Added to this must be the right of laid-off workers to be the first hired at the new plant location, with the company funding the workers’ relocation expenses. The laid-off Goodyear workers ~ in Toronto are angry and have a good right to be. But translating good resolutions and policies on the books of the trade union movement into action is now forced to the top of the agenda. The situation requires a bold creative approach, mixing the tried and true methods of labour strug- gle with new forms that come to — grips with the crucial issue of plant closures.