By WILLIAM STEWART

ic relations or mass ac-
The Ontario trade union
nt is seriously divided
h approach to adopt in
against the Rand Report
r Legislation.
Ontario Federation
bor has opted for a
00 public relations cam-
hile the Ontario Building
Convention charted a
of mass action up to
uding work stoppages.
er the leadership of the
building trades have
n to ignore the decisions of
ntion and the welling
the member unions of the
trades as well as other
produced in Toronto the
Committee Against the
nentation of the Rand Re-
which centres its approach
the Building Trades
ion.

lamilton the local Building
Council adopted an eight
program to fight the Rand
dations, including
onstrations in Hamil-
ing up to a mass lobby
monstratjon in Queen’s
They asked the Hamilton
District Labor Council for
ort of their program and
' a knock-’em-down and
m-out debate the council
the two points in the
calling for mass action.
a hollow victory for the
‘ing of the HLC as the big
0 Local supported the build-

ing trades and the guess is that
the demonstration will go ahead
with the support of the rank and
file of the entire labor movement
in the city while the top Steel
leadership and the right wing
NDP leadership in the labor
council looks on.

On the same night the Metro
Toronto Labor Council turned
down a request from the Allied
Committee to join with them in
mass action against the Rand
Report. The MTLC resolution
expressed sympathy.for the aims
of the Allied Committee but
claimed its constitution prohibit-
ed it from giving formal approv-
al to such ad-hoc committees. It
suggested that if locals wanted
action on the Rand Report they
should submit resolutions to the
council.

More speakers in the debate
spoke against the resolution than
in favor and although the vote
carried handily most of the dele-
gates did not even bother to
vote.

The Allied Committee held
another meeting Sunday after-
noon which had less than half
the attendance of the first one
a month ago. Cliff Pilkey, NDP
MLA for Oshawa spoke to the
150 unionists telling them not to
get trapped into “cherry pick-
ing” about the Rand Report. He
said he has heard labor leaders
talk about the good and the bad
features of the report. His ex-
perience, he said, led him to the
conclusion that you will either

TARIO CONSTRUCTION

Total

g, but nothing can
total shut down of the
construction industry
ring according to official
inside the construction

le industry has handed down
juide lines for contract de-
\ excluding wages, and
| guide lines, put them on a
im course with the 150,000
ction workers across the

call for the universaliza-
the 40 hour week which
nly hits at those unions
shorter hours demand in
‘Current bargaining pack-
t more important it aims
@ the shorter work week
ose unions which have
won it.
included in the guide
is a flat refusal to consider
Ontributions to Supplemen-
Unemployment Insurance
which most construc-
orkers have high on their
Baining list this year.
Oliday and vacation pay is
fed to 8 percent which
» making allowance for 9
ory holidays, that the vaca-
ay is for two weeks and
iy, far below the standards
t industrial contracts.
ther “guide line” proposes
way with travel zones.
avel zone system provides
remium pay for workers
are asked to travel dis-
Outside their immediate
rea to work.
ee breaks are to come un-
view as are foreman work-
tions and weekly pay can
eque rather than cash as
t present, if the em-
ve their way.

strike

Wages are under review but
at this time the employers are
taking the stand that they do not
want to discuss wages until
these matters are out of the way.

The membership is angry.
They are well aware that the
construction association, rather
than entering bargaining in good
faith, has declared open war on
the unions, It has flatly and pub-
licly stated that agreements with
all trades must be signed by
April 30 or it will lock out all
workers on May 1. Meantime
reports are that it has lined up
the banks to carry the small con-
tractors during the period of the
lockout or strike without putting
pressure on them. In previous
strikes small contractors have
often signed with the unions as
economic pressure by the banks
have threatened them with bank-
ruptcy. ~

It is also reported that they
have cut some kind of a deal
with big companies that they
will not permit work to be done
in their plants by firms which
break ranks with the association
and sign with the unions outside
the terms of the association.

Couriers are busily scurrying
back and forth between cities co-
ordinating the activities of the
association and laying the foun-
dations of their battle strategy.

According to reports from
building trades unions the Ontar-
io Building Trades Council is not
performing a similar role for the
construction unions, In spite of
an agreement two conventions
ago to co-ordinate provincial
bargaining strategy, the industry
is seriously framented as it goes
into negotiations this year fac-
ing a united front of the employ-

get all the report or nothing and
that any wobbling on the all out
fight against the total reaction-
ary character of it would be no
service to labor.

Pilkey said labor should go
over onto the offensive for ade-
quate labor legislation. Dealing
with management rights he ask-
ed what good an adequate wage,
or good fringe benefits are to a
worker when he loses his job.
How can we tolerate a situation
like Kelvinator in London where
management just ups and shuts
down a plant throwing some 800
workers onto the street without
any say in the matter whatso-
ever?

The meeting adopted a pro-
gram urging local unions to send
resolutions into the Metro Labor
Council. It decided to continue
to seek co-operation and endor-
sation from Metro Labor Coun-
cil; to contact other organiza-
tions such as the Hamilton Build-
ing trades to offer support and
solidarity; lobby every MLA in
the Metro area.

What appears to be the bone
of contention between the two
trends in the unions saw its open
expression in the Ontario Feder-
ation of Labor Convention where
the delegates were pressing
hard for a militant campaign
against the Rand Report, while
the speech to that same conven-
tion by Bill Dodge, CLC Vice
President advised labor to “ac-
centuate the positive” in their
appeal for public support.

ooms

ers. The Plumbers Union is going
it alone and rumors are that the
Windsor Local of the Ironwork-
ers has worked out some kind of
a deal which it intends to recom-
mend to its membership with no
consultation with other’ unions.

Faced with company shot gun
tactics, lack of co-ordination by
the Provincial Council and the
threat of the Rand Report hang-
ing over their heads, members
are angry at their employers, the
top leadérship of the provincial
Building Trades Council, and the
Provincial Government.

Given these circumstances
those close to the scene see no
possibility of averting a major
battle between the unions and
the construction industry this
spring and a protracted shut
down of the entire industry.
They warn that the provincial
government may well use this
shut down as an excuse to im-
plement the Rand Report and
are calling for mass action now
which will make it clear to the
Ontario government that its
passage will not be tolerated by
organized labor.

If the Provincial Government
were. indeed concerned about
averting a shut down of the
construction industry, they say,
it would step into the situation
now and tell the construction
association to bargain in“ good
faith with the unions, not by
ultimatums, threats and subter-
fuge.

If there is a strike or lock-out
in the industry these sources
say, then both the employers
who provoked it, and the govern-
ment who Sat back and allowed
them to, are to blame.

~ Mass action demanded to defeat Rand

This imagery was further ex-
tended in the jamy delegation
by the CLC to the Trudeau Cab-
inet last month. The reaction in
the ranks is anger. Building
trades workers are face to face
with a total shutdown of their
industry this spring and masses
of unionists in other industries
are either already in or entering
critical negotiations for wages
and other contract revisions.
They see the Rand recommenda-
tions as the iron fist waiting to
knock them out in the decisive

stages of bargaining and they
cannot understand the pussy-
footing of labor leaders.

What is alarming the top
leadership is that for the first

time for many years, in spite of |

their foot dragging, the mem-
bership is finding ways to spark
the fight in a united way. The
heat is being felt and if the
tempo is sustained some leaders,
particularly in ‘the building
trades, are |either going to have
to get with it or get out of the
way. :

in brief...

Opposed to joining OAS

An indication by External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp that
Canada is contemplating joining the Organization of American
States, was sharply criticized today by C. S. Jackson, national
president of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers

Union (UE).

Jackson wired Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, charging this “is
a further step in an attempt to condition the Canadian public to
accept a seat in the OAS, despite the clear and incontrovertible
evidence that the OAS is an instrument for U.S. domination of the

Americas.”

“Your government,” he said, “owes the Canadian people, policies
designed to restore, not further weaken, our sovereignty, particu-

larly vis-a-vis the U.S.A.”

Hydro settles

The Ontario Government stuck its six percent wage formula
down the throats of 9,500 Ontario Hydro workers but had to re-
treat to the tune of adding a three percent cost of living bonus,
leaving the cost of living escalator clause in the agreement and
eliminating the wage differentials, across the province.

Hydro workers who had been on strike for five weeks, consider
the agreement to completely justify their strike.

RR

Teamsters election

Ray Taggart was re-elected President of the Joint Council of
Teamsters for Ontario last week when delegates gathered to elect.
their Executive Board at Teamsters Headquarters in Toronto.

Taggart will head up the new Executive which consists of Jack
Hurd, George Harrison, Al LeFort, Garfield Beaudry, Charles Thi-
bault and Patrick Murray. The term of office is three years.

French Communist Party growth

Since the beginning of 1969, 15,000 persons have joined the
French Communist Party, according to I'Humanite, organ of the
French Communist Party. Many of the new members are workers
in France’s large industrial centres. There are also many students
and women, The average age of the new party members is 25.

Hosiery workers hosed

The Textile Workers Union of America has struck the Rexdale
plant-of Hanes of Canada Ltd., a manufacturer of ladies nylon
hosiery employing 175 workers, most of them women.

The union was certified in July 1968 and negotiated for ‘seven
months for a first agreement before the March 3 strike.

The company made no wage offer during this entire period and
refused any form of union security, even dues checkoff. The work-
ers have not had any increase in wages for the past five years.

George Watson, Canadian Director of the TWUA has charged
that this is one more example of U.S. based companies exporting

their anti-labor bias into Canada.

Brother diplomat

Canadian diplomats at 80 Canadian missions abroad were accord-
ed union status and are to be represented by the Professional Asso-
ciation of Foreign Service Officers. They are now voting on their

first union contract.

Whether or not the right to strike is included in their terms was
not spelt out nor was in indicated whether or not membership
would be open to all those “diplomats” in the Canadian trade union
movement who also consider themselves as professionals.

UE hits budget

The United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers has accused
the Ontario government of “ruling on behalf of the wealthy, at the
expense of the average worker, pensioner, and the unemployed.”

In a statement on the Ontario Budget, under the Signature of
C. S. Jackson, UE President, the union notes that the deficit in
Ontario is $60 million less than last year and that there was_no

need for any tax increase.

In spite of this the budget heaps $75 million more taxes on the
consumer and only $63 million on corporation while admitting that
these same corporations will pass this on to the public in higher

taxes.

The union observes that not a single word on medicare was con-

tained in the budget speech but what was promised is further ‘in-_
creases in the provincial sales tax in the next Couple of years. _
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 14, 1969—Page 5