PARROT KEYNOTE SPEAKER

CUPW leader urges
fightback vs 6&5

By FRANK GOLDSPINK

WINNIPEG — Monopolies
and multi-national corporations
will be the main beneficiaries of
the federal government’s ‘‘6 and
5°” wage control program, Cana-
dian Union of Postal Workers
president Jean-Claude Parrot said
Oct. 4.

Parrot, who is also a vice-
president of the Canadian Labor
Congress, said in his keynote
speech to the Manitoba Socialist
Coalition forum on labor and the
current economic crisis, that the
federal government’s wage con-
trol campaign is aimed at increas-
ing corporate profits and will do
nothing to ease inflation. Trade
unionists and other progressive
allies should mobilize their forces
at every level to fight Ottawa's

- controls, he said. :

The CUPW president predicted
that unemployment in Canada
could top the two million mark
this winter unless an effective
fightback is mounted, because the
corporations are seizing on the
federal government’s plan to de-
mand all sorts of concessions: in
wage and benefit rollbacks in the
private sector. :

Parrot said the restraint pro-

multi-nationals, in collusion with
government, to make workers
around the world pay the price for
the current economic crisis.

His speech was enthusiastic-
ally received by the audience of
about 300 people, including active
trade unionists, representatives
of the Manitoba Federation of
Labor, Socialist Coalition mem-
bers and men and women from
many other sections of Win-
nipeg’s progressive community.

The coalition is a broad rep-
resentation of left wing individu-
als and organizations that .was
formed last winter and has spon-

sored a series of public forums .-

since last spring.

Following Parrot’s talk, par-
ticipants met in a series of work-
shops to discuss: an alternate
economic policy; wage controls
and concessions; shutdowns and
layoffs; organizing the un-
employed; the impact of the crisis

on women; cutbacks in the public

sector; racism, repression and the

crisis; and youth and student

unemployment. :
Among the action resolutions

approved at a final plenary ses-

sion was a call for an alternative
economic summit early in 1983 to
counter the tripartite summit

being planned by the province’s

‘New Democratic Party govern-

ment. The NDP government is
planning a meeting between itself,
the MFL and the Chamber of
Commerce to discuss ways of
overcoming the economic crisis.

The coalition’s resolution on an

alternative economic. policy.
proposed the introduction in

Manitoba of the shorter work
week with no loss in pay and new
rules allowing substantial worker
and community input to prevent
or soften the impact of proposed
layoffs or plant shutdowns.

Os, Bik
| |

e Labor Briefs)

ONTARIO CUPE MAPS

FIGHT AGAINST CONTROLS a
TORONTO — The presidents and leading officers of |
every CUPE local in Ontario met Oct. 2 to endorse the |
‘union’s anti*controls campaign aimed at defeating the
public sector wage controls brought down Sept. 21 by |
the Ontario government. An educational campaign, it is
aimed at mobilizing the entire union against the effects of
the controls and for a public campaign that Ontario |
CUPE president Lucie Nicholson said would run the |

‘gamut from demonstrations to lobbies of MPPs. Some

participants, like Justin Legault a hospital strike leader in |
Sudbury, welcomed the program but said it could go || -
further in responding more quickly to the fightback. |
Legault called for a ‘‘Day of Action’’ to protest the
controls that could include noon-time picketing of the
workplace and other forms of protest. He stressed the |
important role of the OFL in mobilizing and co-ordinat-_
ing the fightback and he urged CUPE to press for the
unity of all public sector unions in Concert with other |

- affected groups such as teachers and-nurses throughout |

the province to act as one against the Tory government ||
and defeat the reactionary law.

SASK.FEDBACKS = 3 —>

STEELWORKERS’ FIGHT FOR JOBS —
, REGINA — The 65,000-memmber Saskatchewan |
Federation of Labor announced Sept. 30:it will help the
United Steelworkers and the International Steel Com-
pany’s. (IPSCP) ‘‘Good Water Committee’’ in theif
campaign for good water for the citizens of Moose Jaw ||
and Regina. The union and the company are pressing the
Tory provincial government to stop stalling and invest in
the building of a pipeline to Lake Diefenbaker so that the
people of Regina and Moose Jaw can have drinkable and
clean water. The present water supply deteriorates in
quality during the summer months due to an algae

gram is part of an effort by the

Labor united,

determined to

fight controls, Pilkey says

By MIKE PHILLIPS
TORONTO — Ontario’s top trade union leaders
emerged from a summit meeting, Oct. 2, determined to
mobilize their members in a united fightback against the
Tory government's wage control law. Not only was the
solidanty of public and private sector workers expressed
in the meeting, but the leaders committed the trade union
movement to drafting an economic recovery program to
be presented to Ontario premier William Davis that
would provide a working-class alternative to the disas-
trous pro-big-business policies of the Tory government.
__ Some 50 leading officers of unions affiliated-to the
Ontario Federation of Labor responded to the OFL
_ Executive's call for a meeting to discuss labor's res-
_ ponse to the wage control law Davis’ Tory government
brought down Sept. 21.
_ That law as immediately challenged on the steps of the
Ontario legislature by thousands of public sector work-
ers. The leader of the 63,000-member Ontario Public
Service Employees Union, (OPSEU), Sean O'Flynn,
has committed his union to an all-out fight against the
wage control law that is aimed at public sector workers.
His opposition to the controls has seen O’ Flynn and
__ other OPSEU members expelled from the legislative
_ chambers for wearing T-shirts in the public gallery that
spelled out *‘No controls.’* Later in the week a memo-
randum to OPSEU staff members urged the members to
“cause as much trouble as we can in the next few weeks
to embarrass the Tories at every possible oppor-
tunity ..."" The memo urged the staff to encourage
members to aggressively fight the unjust law through
such means as sit-ins, study sessions and one-day
strikes.
The Tory government wage control law puts a 5% limit
On wage increases negotiated over the next year. It at-
tacks the living standards and strips away the collective
bargaining rights of more than 500,000 public sector
_ workers including provincial government. employees,
teachers, municipal workers, school board, court, hospi-
tal and health care institution employees as well as some
social service agency workers.
The program runs from Oct. 1, 1982 to Sept. 30 next
year.
According to OFL president Cliff Pilkey, the atmos-
. phere in the Oct. 2 meeting was very enthusiastic for a

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 15, 1982—Page 4

fightback against the controls and the government’s
anti-labor economic, policies.

‘‘The mood was just great’’, Pilkey told the Tribune.
“There was total commitment on the part of both the
private sector and the public sector unions for a
fightback and, significantly, there was a strong commit-
ment from the private sector unions to back the public
sector workers in their fight against controls.”

Participants in the meeting also stressed the need for
organized labor to link up with and support.other mem-
bers of the community feeling the effects of the crisis
such as teachers, health care workers, nurses, students.
and senior citizens.

The meeting decided to set up a committee of indus-
trial and public sector union representatives to draft an
outline for an alternative economic program to the Tory
government’s restraint policies.

Labor’s plan is to present this alternative program to
Davis as soon as possible. Backed by 35 trade union

leaders, Oct. 5., who came to the legislature to watch in

silent protest as the government and opposition debated
the wage control law, Pilkey indicated that no final date
on such a meeting had been selected.

Another meeting of the top leadership is proposed in
the near future, to put the finishing touches on a
fightback program that sources say will be the centre-
ig of the next OFL convention slated to begin Nov.

e

The aim of the OFL fightback campaign will be to
counter the powerful media and public relations cam-
paign being conducted by governments and the big busi-
hess press to win popular acceptance for measures that
slash the general living standard and strip workers of
their bargaining and strike rights.

The labor movement's mass educational campaign
will be integrated with demonstrations, lobbies and other
forms of mass political protest as part of the fightback.
Significantly less and less is being heard of bilateral
“‘co-operation’’ between government and labor in such
Programs as so-called ‘‘Quality of Working Life’’
schemes, while the frustration and anger of labor from
‘top to bottom is adding impetus to arguments that such
forms of co-operation with governments out to. weaken
and destroy the labor movement are futile.

build-up which a retired civic official responsible for the

city’s water purification system has publicly admitted is ,

a public health threat. The SFL has called on the provin-
cial and federal governments to act on the matter in order
to help revive the ailing steel industry in the province,
create jobs and protect the public health of Regina's and
Moose Jaw’s citizens.

100,000-STRONG UNION

TO RESULT FROM MERGER.

- SASKATOON — Delegates to the July convention of

. the Energy and Chemical Workers Union agreed to the
principle of a merger with the Canadian Paperworkers
Union, (CPU), which if effected would create an indus-
trial union with some 100,000 members. CPU members”
will examine the proposal at their constitutional conven-
tion in December and by April, if CPU agrees. the found-
ing of what tentatively is being called the Resources and
Energy Workers’ Union could be held. If established,
the new union would be one of the largest in the re-

sources sector and be better equipped to take on the |
multi-national corporations which dominate that indus- |

trial sector.

COMMON FRONT FIGHTING

QUE. GOV’T. CUTBACKS
QUEBEC: — Yvon Charbonneau, president of the
80,000-member Quebec Teachers Central (CEQ), ac-
cused the Parti Quebecois government, Oct. 5, of
manipulating figures to justify its plans to impose wage
freezes and wage cuts on public sector unions. The CEQ.
leader, along with the leaders of the Confederation of
National Trade Unions, (CNTU-CSN) and the Quebec

Federation of Labor have been touring the province in 2 |

- joint campaign to scuttle the government’s plans to cut
public sector wages by nearly 19% between January and
March, then to freeze them altogether for the rest of
1983. The government is arguing that public sector
wages are 12-13% higher than those in the private sector, -
while the spokesmen for the Common Front, which will
be negotiating for 200,000 of Quebec’s 330,000 public

sector workers, point out that many jobs have no equiva: |

lent in the private sector, and that the government study
vastly underestimates private sector income.

‘The government, which used to boast ofits ‘‘favorable
bias’’ toward labor is offering the Common Front unions
a minimum wage hike of 5% in 1984 and 3.2% in 1985. It

is also proposing takeaways in contract language project- |
ing job security, lengthening the probationary period [0 |

two years (from the current six months to one year),

the removal of the workers’ right to refuse to move more |

than 50 kilometres to a new job.
—"—