: “TORONTO — Leaders of both the International Peroerephical Union and the Graphic Commu- Nications International Union were upbeat last Week in their response to the tentative merger that has been reached between the two organizations. “Tm really happy about it. I think it’s a great day t printers and a great opportunity for all of us in the industry to come together in one big printing i a development which has been long over- , ITU vice-president William Boarman said oe week, GCIU Canadian vice-president Len Paquette ‘Said he was ‘‘more than enthusiastic’’ about the ‘Merger. ‘‘It’s a milestone in the history of graphic @ts production or the mechanical trades. ‘It’s the final unit of all the unions that have rmed the mechanical trades in the industry for the past 100 years”’, Paquette said. ‘It’s good for us, and it’s good for the ITU. It ill remove old jurisdictional disputes and at the bargaining table it will let us speak to the employers h One unified voice and make us more esive.”’ Almost two weeks after the Jan. 8 announce- Ment of the plan to unite both organizations into One body that should number close to 290,000 ‘Printing trades workers, the leaders were preparing €xecutive consideration and approval of the Move. _In Colorado Springs, ITU headquarters, the five ‘Member International Executive Board was work- ing On a document for presentation to its members, and taking care of the complicated paperwork that 80€s with such a move. At press time the IEB had Rot yet approved the merger document but pending t decision, a union spokesperson said, efforts Were being made to get an approved document in es mail to ITU members by Jan. 18. ‘With the possibility that this. could take a bit ‘Onger, the entire process from the ITU's part Could take about two months before it is ‘Completed. ( At GCIU headquarters in Washington, the pre- Se! ft TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS The ITU-Gc1U merger will finally bring together all of [ eenenicsl trades in the printing industry into ha big union. With the hoped-for inclusion of the Spaper Guild, all of the unions in the Graphic ‘industry will be under one roof. ‘Day-long picket at Dalhousie dents too . want a contract now’’, more than bei 500 university students. de- pursued by the faculty association monstrated at the Nova Scotia include cost of living increases, Legislature to pin the blame for wages, input over the imple- the contract dispute on the mentation of budget cuts, and -government’s underfunding of unioncontrolofthe pension fund. Tentative merger viewed as ‘milestone’ for graphic arts parations are under way for the regular meeting of ths union’s General Executive Board, made up of the 18 GCIU officers, and 24 general board mem- bers elected at large from among the union’s re- gional and local officers and members. It is expected that from the conclusion of the GCIU’s week-long executive meeting in February to finalization of the process, assuming the execu- tive approves of the tentative agreement to merge with the ITU, the whole process could take any- where from 45 days to about three months. While it isn’t known how the union will prepare the membership for the merger referendum, which both the GCIU and the ITU are constitutionally committed to, the GCIU, with a long history of mergers under its belt, has usually organized re- gional conferences where officers and local repre- sentatives discuss the merger proposal and then take a information and the proposal to local unio At the locals the process is repeated with all of the rank and file members taking part in the eee sions leading to the referendum. - The news of the impending ITU-GCIU een has sparked lively interest throughout the printing trades and the graphic arts industry in Canada as well as the U.S. Many Canadian ITU members had been appre- hensive about a looming takeover of the ITU that was being engineered by the Teamsters union with the open collusion of former ITU officers and staff. ITU members in Toronto and Montreal success- fully rejected two Teamster raids on separate units in each city. The resistance to the planned Teams- ter takeover was based in large measure on mem- bership distaste for the right-wing and corrupt international leadership of the IBT. The Teamsters were the only U.S. union to back Ronald Reagan during the last presidential elections. ; Of greater ‘importance and relevance to Cana- dians, but also a critical issue in the U.S., was the fact of the Teamsters’ exclusion from the Canadian Labor Congress and the AFL-CIO. Absorption of the ITU into the Teamsters would have isolated ITU members from the mainstream of the trade union movement. This was unaccept- able, particularly in Canada where grass-roots union. members are demanding all-in unity and mobilization of the entire labor movement in the face of an unprecedented assault by employers and governments on jobs, wages, working conditions and social services. Equally important was the fact that the Teamsters have no major presence in the Canadian printing industry, and the Canadian ITU members, who’ ve been fighting a long time for a merger of the printing trades into one powerful union, were more inclined to seek unity with the GCIU. This will be the fourth merger for the GCIU, a union which has led the way in unifying the printing trades industry through a series of mergers begin- ning with the lithographers, photoengravers, ‘bookbinders, pressmen and finally, if it succeeds, with the typographical workers. With the Newspaper Guild’s frustrated attempt to unite with the ITU two years ago, and the recent statement made by the Guild’s international presi- dent Charles Perlik to the last GCIU convention indicating his union’s strong interest in uniting with the GCIU once the dust settles around the current merger with the ITU, the prospects for the com- plete unity of the entire printing and graphic com- munications industry into one union look | promising. : TIM HALIFAX —.Some 728 pro- post secondary education. fessors, instructors and librarians The at Dalhousie University braved Association organized the walk- icy winds and lots of snow Jan. 15 out after four days of information in a day-long picket to highlight picketing on campus to draw ~demands for a new contract. - t he i While they were on the picket with the administration for a new line wearing buttons which read contract. Talks have been drag- ‘‘We care for tomorrow’s stu- ging on for the past 10 months . Dalhousie faculty without any progress. . Dalhousie Faculty attention to their escalating fight The outstanding issues being Labor Briefs Aircraft workers on strike AJAX — Wages and a company-paid dental plan are the out- standing contract issues that have put the members of [AM Local 905 on strike for the first time in 20 years. News that pickets were being set up outside Dowty Equipment of Canada by the International Association of Machinists was released Jan. 14 shortly after contract talks between the union and the company collapsed. Dowty makes the landing gear for the deHavilland Dash 8 and the Canadair Challenger. The 140 members of Local 905 went out to protest Dowty management’s two-year wage offer of 5 and 7 per cent on the basis of a sliding scale increase. Benefit improvements are the other key strike issue with the workers demanding a dental plan which salaried employees have enjoyed from the company for the. past Six years. Curb part-time work, CUPE urges OTTAWA — Arecent study by the 300,000-member Canadian Union of Public Employees shows an alarming increase in the use of part-time work as a weapon for employers to attack the trade union movement and erode full-time jobs. Today every fifth member of CUPE, the country’s largest union, is a part-time worker. This reflects the rapid growth of part-time workers in the economy from 3.8 per cent of the work force in 1953 to 14.9 per cent in 1983, the union points out. Now numbering 1.7 million, part-time workers are the fastest growing segment of the Canadian work force, CUPE says, adding that between 1975 and 1983 part-time work accounted for nearly half of the growth of the workforce. Getting substantially lower wages and fewer benefits than full- time workers, part timers, CUPE charges, are being used by employers to attack wages and benefits in general. CUPE is calling on its locals to fight this dangerous trend through collective bargaining goals that include: equal pay and proportional benefits for part timers compared to full-time work- ers; overtime pay for work performed beyond normal hours; regular hours with work scheduled ahead of time; and the cal- culation of all seniority by calendar years so part-time workers get the same job protection, vacations and other seniority-related benefits as full-time workers. QFL rejects new bargaining law MONTREAL — Legislature hearings to study the Parti québecois’ proposed law that would end province-wide bargain- ing in the Quebec public sector will be boycotted by the 300,000-member QFL. - Quebec Federation of Labor président Louis Laberge said Jan. 9 that Quebec’s largest labor central will not play the govern- ment’s ‘‘little game’’ in seeking to wipe out a public sector collective bargaining process that took 20 years to build up. The government recently opened hearings in the National Assembly to study, the projected new law that will also put the power to negotiate non-monetary issues in the hands of local school boards and hospital administrations. The new law would let the essential services board order an end to so-called illegal strikes and use other pressure tactics by giving it the same powers currently held by the Quebec superior court. Stelco betrays Christmas promise RED LAKE, Ont. — So much for Stelco’s promises. Workers at the Griffith Iron Ore Mine here are angry at the steel com- pany’s latest announcement Jan. 10, of plans to end the jobs of about 20 per cent of the 280 member work force here by the end of March. Under pressure from the Ontario government and the United Steelworkers, Stelco management had told this northern com- munity last Christmas Eve it would postpone its intention to close the mine from April this year to April 1986. Stelco management has denied the latest announcement viol- ated the extension agreement it negotiated with Queen’s Park. - Company officials also say that more layoffs are planned prior to the 1986 closure. Stelco originally laid out its plans for a gradual closure of the Red Lake mine last November, but appeared to relent at Christmas after Queen’s Park agreed to concessions in the company’s favor. Stelco plans to sacrifice the Griffith workforce and the commu- nity at Red Lake in order to boost profits and up grade parts of its Hilton works in Hamilton. Chemical workers strike Goodyear VALLEYFIELD — Local 143 of the Energy and Chemical. Workers Union went on strike Jan. 15 at Goodyear Canada’s big tire factory here to protest company efforts to undermine work- ing conditions. The 1,200 workers recently voted 96 per cent to strike after rejecting a Goodyear contract proposal that would move the plant from its current five-day work week to a seven-day con- tinuous operation. The ECW says in addition to keeping the - five-day work week, the company should put together special teams for weekend work. Wages are also an issue, with the company only offering slight increases in the COLA and nothing else. sini PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 23, 1985 e 7