Canadian, U.S. workers to go out if AIB orders roll-back

Strike go-ahead given by aut

The big four automobile com-
panies have barely a week to
come to terms with Canada’s
56,000 autoworkers, or face an
industry-wide shutdown by the
United Autoworkers unparalleled
‘In recent years. UAW contracts
at Ford, General Motors,

Chrysler and American Motors
all expire Sept. 14 both in Canada
and the United States. In the
event of a strike the Canadian and
U.S. sections of the UAW will go
out together and remain on strike
until a settlement is achieved for
both countries’ workers.

The key issue will be
Canadian-U.S. parity in wages
and conditions, won by the UAW
in 1967 and maintained since then
as a principle in negotiations.
With the settlement surely to ex-
Ceed the guidelines of the AIB and
the possibility of a roll-back order
for Canadian autoworkers, the
Parity won has been thrown into
Jeopardy.

UAW International President

Leonard Woodcock met with the’

union’s Canadian leaders at the
National UAW-Ford Conference
in Toronto and said: ‘‘No collec-
tive agreement will be signed with
Ford in 1976 unless it provides for
an equalized economic package in

A protracted economic crisis is
today aggravating and exposing
the contradictions of the capitalist
system, intensifying social up-
heaval and, indeed, calling into
question the system itself.

Here in Canada, the past year
has witnessed significant de-

_ Velopments that have brought the
working class into mass political
action. The “trade union move-
ment has become the hub of a
Steadily escalating fightback
against policies of the capitalist

“monopolies and their federal and
provincial governments, policies
which seek to saddle wage and
salary earners with the cost of
Capitalist crisis.

The ‘‘freeze wages — boost
profits’’ policy introduced by
Prime-Minister Trudeau last Oc-
tober and fraudulently called an
“‘Anti-Inflation Program’’ has
roused the anger of Canadian
workers. The real purpose of this
program was to smash the wage
movement to counter high prices

-and profit-induced inflation, to
roll back wage settlements being
won by Canadian working people
through their trade union organi-
zations, and to emasculate and
destroy meaningful collective
bargaining.

Broad Base

The October 14 ‘‘Day of Pro-
test’! called by the CLC on the
anniversary of the introduction of
wage controls is meeting with
growing support, not only by af-
filiates of the CLC but by large
groups outside of organized Iabor.
The protest will include work
stoppages, parades, meetings and
information picketing; the CLC is
inviting other victims of the fed-
eral economic policies to join in
— including poor people, unem-
ployed workers, old age pension-

Canada. They have to be aware
that an essential element of parity
is the continuation of parity.”’
Woodcock told delegates to the
conference that UAW negotiators
had made their position clear to
the companies in negotiations and
had attempted to secure an ag-
reement that they would support
parity in -discussions with the

AIB. The companies gave no re- |

sponse.

Not Negotiating with AIB
Canadian area president of the
UAW, Dennis McDermott,

wamed Ford — picked by the .

UAWas the ‘‘target’’ company to

set the standard for the other -

companies — not to ‘‘try and hide
behind the protection of the AIB
in collective bargaining.’’ “‘We

,are not negotiating with the

AIB,”’ added UAW Ford Council

chairman Pat Clancy. ““We made —

it clear to them that we are not
negotiating with the Trudeau

government but with the Ford — .

Motor Company.”

With auto company negotiators

stalling on basic issues, a strike
looms large. Canadian auto
workers are now poised for
strike action with a resounding
95.1% strike vote Aug. 30 from

Autoworkers at Chrysler’s Windsor plant.

the nearly 14,000 Ford workers at
five plants. They were followed

Wide support shown

for Oct. 14 protest

ers, post-secondary students and
unorganized workers.

Indicative of the broad-based
opposition to the federal program
of robbing wage and salary earn-
ers while subsidizing capitalist
monopolies, is the support for the
CLC’s action program by the On-
tario Police Association, the On-
tario Secondary School Teachers
Federation and the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union.
Charles Darrow, president of the
OPSEU, has expressed his view

.that in all likelihood 99% of his

union’s membership would stay
off the job October 14. Also, he
has said that if members of his
union were persecuted and he
was convicted for his part in the
action, he would be prepared to
go to jail rather than pay a fine. “‘I
don’t believe we’re doing any-
thing that shouldn’t be done,”
Darrow is reported saying.
Misinformation and Abuse
The mass media, speaking and
reporting as usual on behalf of the
big corporate interests, has un-
leashed a barrage of misinforma-
tion and editorial abuse against
the trade union movement. The
object, of course, is to blunt the
commitment of solidarity by
working people and to foster
doubt about organized labor’s
preparedness to make sacrifices
to support its principles. All this,
plus the anti-labor. campaigning
by Labor Minister John Munro
and his friends in the big business
world, has so far proved to be, if
anything, counter-productive. “An
indication of this fact is to be seen
in the following statement by
Alan Murray, president of the On-

tario Secondary School Teachers ©
_ Federation:

‘On Thursday, | orsber 14, the
Canadian Labor Congress has

called for a national day of protest
to make the federal government
aware that many citizens —
literally millions — object vigor-
ously to the unfair effects of the
government’s _anti-inflation
measures.

“Earlier this week I felephoned

‘both Joe Morris, CLC president,

and David Archer, Ontario
Federation of Labor president, to
inform them of our Federation
support. It is our hope that the
day will not only be successful but

_will leave no doubt in any mind

that the controls have caused
deep concern. The 1976 Annual
Assembly of OSSTF left no doubt
where we stood with this motion:

‘* ‘Be is resolved that OSSTF
strongly express its opposition to
Bill C-73 by working actively to
repeal this repressive and inade-
quate legislation.’

“In its participation in the day.
of national protest OSSTF must
choose the most effective ways
and means to achieve that goal.
The. following is a summary of
how that can be done at the pro-
vincial, the district/division; and
the branch level. Which tech-
niques are used at the local level
are up to the local leadership —
always keeping in mind that there
must ke no doubt that 34,000
secondary school teachers sup-
port the goals of the day of pro-
test.’ Statement issued August
22, 1976.

There follows-a summary of

tri-level OSSTF action program ©
in support of October 14 Day of

Protest. And, finally:

“Oct. 14 is neither the be-
ginning nor the end of the OSSTF
objection and concern. It is the
continuation of an action
program.”’

the next day by a 95.5% strike
vote from the 28,000 General
Motors. workers in Ontario and
Quebec. Earlier, Chrysler work-
ers in Ajax had voted 92.7% to
strike.

The key negotiations are with
the “‘target’’ company, Ford.
They, along with General
Motors, negotiate separate ag-
reements for Canadian and U.S.
workers, while Chrysler has one
agreement for both sides of the

border. Fhe UAW has presented ~

to Ford an identical set of de-
mands in both Canada and the
U.S. which calls for an increase in
wages, a shorter work week — a
30-hour week was the goal set by
the UAW bargaining conference

oworkers

— and voluntary overtime after
the regular work week.
Ford Aggressive

The toughest point to win will
undoubtedly be the shorter work
week. The union has presented a
proposal which calls for a desig-
nated number of paid holidays at
regular intervals. The proposal
would shorten the work week for
workers, add jobs and provide job
security without requiring the ad-
dition of plant equipment.

Ford can well afford the de-
mands after netting a c6ol $77-
million in the first six months of
1976 and with August new car
sales up 48% from the same
period last year. Ford is doing so
well that,1977 models are already
rolling off the production lines.

With lots of money in the bank
and a head start on next year’s
production Ford is particularly
aggressive at the bargaining table
and is demanding the withdrawal
of conditions long since won by
autoworkers. They want the un-
limited right to demand overtime,
to cut starting rates from $5-an-
hour to half that, to make arbitra-
tion necessary before strike ac-
tion would be allowed anda host
of other measures that would cut
deep into the hard won working
conditions of autoworkers.

In spite of the reactionary
stance of the companies, the
UAW is expected to win an im-
proved agreement. However any
real improvement in the ‘work
week will more than likely shove
the first year of the three year ag-
reement beyond AIB guidelines.
If the AIB attempts to interfere
with the collective bargaining
process the result will be a strike
of 56,000 Canadian and some
390,000 American autoworkers.
Both Ford and the AIB should be

_well aware of the consequences of

any action to remove parity from
the collective agreements.

Helping women to
play role in unions

TORONTO — Though still in
its formative stages, Organized
Working Women (Toronto Area),
is attracting support from union
locals in this area.

Founded at a convention held
here last March, the OWW con-
stitution states as its purpose: “‘to
unite women in the organized
labor movement, as women and
as unionists, to work within our
unions to pursue a policy of posi-
tive aggressive action in solidarity

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 10, 1976—Page5 __

with our brothers to improve our
conditions and to strengthen our
individual unions.”

After their first membership
meeting in June, OWW members
have worked over the summer on
10 committees set up to carry
forward the organization’s
policies. The committees fall into
two categories — research and
action — and include newsletter,
publicity, education, membership
and wage control (amended to
Oct. 14) committees and those
which deal with the problems of
women workers.

OWW President Evelyn
Armstrong considers the organi-
zation’s work mainly agitational,
giving information to women for
them to use inside their unions
and helping women understand
how they are exploited at the
workplace. —

She said her organization is
reaching union locals in and
around Toronto and has received
steady support from the Toronto
Labor Council.

She urged all women trade
unionists interested in Organized
Working Women to attend its
next meeting, on Mon., Sept. 27,
8 p.m., at 33 Cecil St. Toronto; or
to write to her for information at
411 Clendenan St., Toronto.

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