“LABOR

Sask Tel workers continue job actions

By KIMBALL CARIOU

REGINA — Nearly a year after
their epic strike began, Lanigan’s
potash miners voted on a
‘tentative settlement Jan. 29,
though details of the proposed
Settlement were not available at
Press time. But Sask Tel’s 4,200
UNionized employees are con-
Unuing job actions on another
front of the labor scene in Sask-
/ atchewan.

Local 922 of the Energy and
| Chemical Workers Union ECWU

accounted for half of the 123,000
“days lost to strikes and lockouts in
katchewan in 1986, the high-
/€st total since 1982. Since March
10 last year, the miners and their
_ Spouses have picketed, organized
and rallied around the province,
demanding better safety pro-
visions and a 5 per cent wage in-
'CTease to win parity with miners
at International Minerals and
-hemicals in Esterhazy. Trump-
_ €d up charges of violating an in-
Junction limiting picketing were
“laid against more than 90 union
_ Members after a rally at the mine
last August.

That injunction bit the dust Jan.
_ 16, restoring the union’s right to
‘Picket effectively, and forcing the
‘Potash Corporation of Sask-
atchewan to bargain more real-
\stically. The Saskatchewan

|

‘injunction 4-3, ruling that it went
‘far beyond”’ what was needed.
he miners had been forbidden to
arry picket signs or to ask any-.
One to respect the picket line, as

well as being limited to five mem-
bers at each of three gates.

A 20 per cent increase in over-
seas sales by Canpotex, the prov-
ince’s offshore potash marketing
agency, and recent big sales to
China and Indonesia may also
have strengthened the miners’
position.

Meanwhile, the Communica-
tions and Electrical Workers of
Canada members employed at a
second major provincial crown
corporation are engaged in only
the second strike action in the util-
ity’s 42-year history. The union,
wary of accelerating tech-
nological change, is looking for
job guarantees in a new contract.
Half or full day walkouts have
been conducted in several cities
since December. Now the union
is raising dues from 1 per cent of
gross pay to 6 per cent to build up
a strike fund. Members are being
canvassed to determine future
tactics.

As union spokesperson Bill
Hyde points out, Sask Tel’s
highly automated equipment
could function for months before
breaking.down, and management
personnel can replace operators
for some time during a strike. The
union’s major leverage is in the
are of phone installation and ser-
vicing. That led CWC members to
begin refusing voluntary overtime
in November, saying that staff
shortages forced them to work a
“fantastic amount’’ of overtime
installing business and residential
phones. Operators and service
personnel carried out a ‘‘Super

Tentative settlement in Lanigan

Service’’ campaign in December,
taking the amount of time neces-
sary to deal properly with callers
and customers. But management
harassment eventually ended the
*‘Super Service’’.

Sask Tel claims that it has
never laid off employees and has
no plans to do so, eliminating the
end for a contract clause. But
Tory credibility on the issue was
undermined with revelations dur-
ing last fall’s provincial election
that the privatization of the
corporation is under con-
sideration.

The fact that BC Tel and Bell
Canada workers have won job
security clauses also weakens
Sask Tel’s case. Here in Regina,
the experience of other unions
gives urgency to the telephone
workers demands.

Regina firefighters, for exam-
ple, had never been hit by layoffs
since the formation of the fire de-
partment over 60 years ago. After
failing to win a job security clause
in their last round of negotiations,
they saw eight members laid off in
1986; not all have been recalled
yet, said firefighters delegates ad-
dressing the issue at the Jan. 17
annual meeting of the Regina
Labor Council.

While a major strike seems un-
likely in the near future, the stage
is set for continuing walkouts at
some point, as the telephone

workers become the latest group ©

to take on a bitterly anti-labor
provincial government in Sask-
atchewan.

mmittess.

Labor Briefs —

Labor demands tougher safety laws

__ TORONTO — Backed by about 100 trade unionists, Ontario
ederation of Labor president Gord Wilson came to Queen’s
Park, Feb. 4, demanding legislation that would increase the
Power of worker safety committees. : See
Flanked by the leaders of the key industrial and public sector
inions in the province, Wilson called for legislation that would
transfer powers currently wielded by government to the worker
Wilson said that instead of promoting greater management-
ort collaboration or increasing the number of inspectors, the
Province’s health and safety legislation should be amended to
_€xpand workers’ rights to exert greater control over job hazards. i
The lobby was a show of strength and a message from the
laboar inGvedent to the Liberal government that ge Soe
the health and safety issue are futile. It was a rejection o

vernment-sponsored whitewash of the labor ministry s healt
and safety bianck which has been the focus of controversy over _
ged wrong-doing and the department’s notorious reluctance

Prosecute workplace polluters. —

The McKenzie-Laskin report — the document in question —
Suggested a split in bho ranks between the eee
pposedly was committed to the government " col !
Onist approach and others with what the corporis: sabe 4
drafted the report called a ‘‘hidden’’ and “‘socialist"” agenda

ging the employers’ monopo

‘Mployees Union, Harry Hynd

nd Terry O'Connor of the

ty prec cect PE.

plits in the labor camp —
to serap the report.

Cc

6bep
ACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 11, 1987

Globe |
workers
get
contract

TORONTO — Unionization
has returned to the Globe and
Mail’s composing room after
more than 20 years. The press-
men’s union, the Graphic Com-
munications International Union,
won more than 80 per cent of the
Globe’s 65 ,compositors after
management tried to squeeze the
workers’ wages.

The workers were angeared by
the Globe’s decision to move up

the time for paying shift differen- -

tials by an hour and.a half, the use
of outside workers at straight time
and over plans to introduce a
lump sum payment in 1987 in-
stead of raising the base rates. It
has already taken this step with
mail room workers, whos repor-
tedly are now starting to talk
about getting unionized.
Since the mid-60s when manage-
ment was able to break a strike
there, the composing room has
been without the benefits of union
representation.
While the Newspaper Guild
represents some of the editorial
and circulation staff, the press
workers are members of the

GCIU.

Labor in action

GEORGE HEWISON

Once again on
workers’ co-ops |

I would like to express appreciation to Stuart Crombie, writing
on behalf of the Our Times Co-op for taking the time to respond to
a recent column of mine on the issue of worker co-ops. The
growing discussion on the political Left on this issue, and the
passion with which Brother Crombie disagrees with the proposi-
tions outlined in the column ‘‘Worker Co-ops-not an industrial
strategy’ indicates that all of us need to go beyond a superficial
approach to this matter.

First let me assure Brother Crombie that the intent of my
remarks were directed against posing worker co-ops as an alter-
native to an industrial strategy for labor rather than,at worker
CO-Ops per se.

He is quite right when he points out that co-ops are a viable
concern in societies where the commanding heights of the econ-
omy are not dominated by transnational capital. Where the TNCs
hold sway, however, co-ops find themselves at the tender mercy
ofa tightly restricted marketplace. Thus ina certain sense worker
co-ops find themselves in a situation not unlike the trade union
movement fighting for their very existence.

Like the trade union movement, the worker co-op, in and of
itself, does not challenge corporate control of the economy. To
do that, labor (including the worker co-ops) must fight to have an
alternate program adopted for full employment and Canadian
independence, and based on undermining and _ replacing
monopoly control of the economy.

The debate in the labor movement about co-ops is not new.
Both the co-ops and the trade unions spring from the same soil —
a reaction to capitalism. For years, the Canadian Labor Con-
gress, and its predecessors had a functional Co-op/Labor Coor-
dinating committee to smooth over differences that inevitably
arose.

Co-ops on Permanent Strike :
In the fishing industry from which I hail, those who originally
chose the path of the worker co-op always considered that they
were on “permanent strike’’ against the corporate sector. And its
true, that-the fishing industry is made to order for a co-op.
However monopoly capital domination of the industry stands in
the way. Many co-ops have sprung up — most short lived.

Those who carried on the principled struggle along-side the
union were the first to go under. Those which survived were
adjuncts to the system of monopoly control. They were com-
pelled by economic necessity to lead the charge against trade
union rights and conditions. Wages and working conditions of all
workers (co-op and union) have thereby suffered.

In the years since worker co-ops and trade unions have been
formed in Canada, monopoly domination has grown throughout
the entire economy. Workers are now confronted with the inter-
nationalization of capital which threatens the sovereignty of our
country.

What we don’t need are illusions that worker co-ops are the
answer to free trade, or to multinational plant shutdowns; or the
panacea for Canada’s 1.2 million (officially) unemployed. What
we don’t need is the tendency to portray the worker co-op as
something it is not. Nor should we suggest that the worker co-op
or the trade union are the same.

Competition vs Defence

The trade union exists in the first place to defend the worker
from the unrestricted prerogatives of capital. Worker co-ops
(such as Our Times ) strive to compete with capital as a means of
survival.

Neither challenges monopoly control of the marketplace in and
of themselves. But the trade union movement is now recognizing
that in order to survive, the trade union movement must funda-
mentally challenge the power of the large corporation, and bring
together all of the democratic forces of society to demand a
fundamental restructuring of society.

In such a democratic restructuring of the economy, worker

co-ops could definitely play a much bigger role as would the trade
unions. :

So again, with thanks to Brother Crombie, my polemic is not
against worker co-ops as it is against illusions and ‘‘alchemy’’.

Finally, I would invite readers to feel free to enter the dis-
cussion on worker co-ops and on the essential point raised in
Brother Crombie’s letter: how to win a true democracy in the
workplace.

a