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: WEWANT > “yoga.
| 7 OBS NOW —oUK Suane
Newfoundland’s college staff |=': °*

, : 4 BILLION
: BENEFITS! — ottars pap

Chall 8% wage ceiling | _ ,

[ . being replaced by high-paid scabs from the De-

| °

By KATHRYN GRACE

ST. JOHN’S — By Feb. 14, the Newfoundland
Association of Public Employees, (NAPE), had
N On strike for 14 days. The 82 members of this
are employed as support staff at the College of
Trades and Technology in this city.

~ The Government of Newfoundland has adopted
4 Policy of allowing only 8% per year pay increases

er its employees and.appears to be using Local ~

05 as a test case. The government is refusing to
Negotiate, refusing to allow the union a conciliation
. hearing, and refusing to allow mediation.
And the government is hiring some very expensive

_ Scabs from among the management personnel of

the Newfoundland Department of Education.

The union wants a 12-14% increase per year,
14% for those paid the least. And the least is very
little indeed. Some of the strikers are actually get-
ting more pay on strike ($125 per week and $7 for

tach dependent) than they are able to earn on the

Job ($125 per week). Some of the government
€mployees are paid so little that they can qualify for
overnment social assistance while working.

_ Another important issue for NAPE is the new
€mployee sick leave form, which must be filled out
When the employee has been off sick for three
Consecutive days or six days in a year. The form

S$ two pages. The second page must be filled out
bya physician (paid for by the employee as medi-
Care doesn’t cover this). The main problem is at the
bottom of the second page. Here the employee
Must sign the following:

“T hereby authotize the release to my employer.

of any information requested in respect of this

Claim

NAPE regards this as a blatant invasion of priva-
cy. :

NAPE has been able to negotiate contracts for
locals not directly employed by. the provincial

_80Vvernment. They have negotiated pay increases:

Tanging from 12-15% per year for the cleaners at the
Gander Hospital, the cleaners at Grenfell College
in Corner Brook, and others,

However, other negotiating units are subject to
government’s 8% policy. The 78 employees at
the Workman’s Compensation Board in St. John’s,
Local 7102, are on strike at present. They are also

partment of Education. The teachers and nurses’

contract negotiations are presently before the con- ~

ciliation board. Both the Newfoundland Teachers
Association and the Nurses Association will refuse
8%, according to the president of NAPE. So the
strikes may spread.

NAPE is now organizing a campaign to get pub-
lic support in order to persuade the government to
negotiate with NAPE and get the strikes settled: A
petition is being circulated which has been getting a
lot of support.

Also, the strikers have received considerable
support from other locals in NAPE and from other
unions. The instructors at the College of Trades
and Technology walked out in support of the strik-
ers but were ordered back to work the same day.

Their NAPE local is still giving financial support.
Other NAPE locals have volunteered generous
financial support as well. The affiliates of the New-

- foundland Federation of Labor and the teachers

and nurses have given support.

The government is paying $29 an hour to the
scabs at the College of Trades and Technology and
$25 an hour to the scabs at the Workman’s Com-
pensation Board. The union thinks that there are
about 20 scabs at the College and 10 at the Work-
man’s Compensation Board.

If their estimate is right, then the scabs are cost-
ing the taxpayers of Newfoundland $830 an hour,
or $6,640 a day. The government may have spent
more than $464,000 already on scabs at the College
alone.

Perhaps Premier Peckford believes that ‘‘you
have to spend in order to save’’. But at this rate,
there won’t be much left to save! It’s also interest-
ing to note that education in Newfoundland is being
hit by cutbacks, but the management personnel at
the Department of Education are getting a big
bonus in scab pay (as we}l as their regular pay). The
NAPE strikers know that their strike has bought
new cars and snowmobiles for some people.

Now the strikers are settling in for a long fight.
After having been out so long, they don’t want to
settle for less than they’re entitled to. Their strike
pay is secure, their support from other unions is
strong, support from the public is growing, and
their morale is high. *

Aircraft workers wait for Davis to show up at candidates’ meeting.

No answers from Davis

BRAMPTON — Rather than face the angry workers from
McDonnell-Douglas who want some answers about what the To-
ries are going to do to stop the hemorrhage of jobs from the
Malton plant, Ontario premier Bill Davis skipped an all-candidates
meeting in his own riding March 5.

Davis didn’t even have the courtesy to send a replacement to
take part in the meeting sponsored by organizations in the com-
munity interested in a scheme for funding independent schools.

While many came to hear the parties’ positions on education,
the meeting also heard voters ask the four provincial hopefuls,
including Brampton Communist Party candidate Jim Bridgewood
(left) about all of the other key issues in the current Ontario elec-
tion race. ;

George Drennan of the International Association of Machinists
asked Davis’ empty chair and the other candidates, whether, if
their parties formed the government they would buy products for
government use from firms such as SKF which is closing down
because the owners can gouge out higher profits elsewhere.
Other voters asked about aid to injured workers and many rose to
esi disappointment and anger over Davis’ refusal to par-
ticipate.

TRIBUNE PHOTOS — MIKE PHILLIPS _

ey

He didn’t show.

_ Stay united in CLC, end U.S. control

from

and

Since its inception in 1921 the

mmunist Party of Canada has
fought ceaselessly for a united,
SOvereign, Canadian trade union
MOvement. At no time in that en-
tire period has it allowed the two
Clements of this policy to become
Separated

We have fought against those
Who would have split the unity of
the workers in their pursuit of
Independence or autonomy for

Canadian workers. At the same

time however we have equally.
Opposed those who proposed to
abandon the fight for autonomy
and independence in the name of
Unity,
We have seen both sides of this
Process as an indispensable part
Of the struggle for an effective:
Class-based independent Cana-
dian trade union movement,
Which could protect the interests
Of the workers today and at the
Same time move to embrace thei
future, socialism.
In their wisdom Canadian
workers have followed this path
With the result that the majority of

_ Workers in Canada are now in

Unions which are either distinctly
Canadian, or have a large mea-

sure of Canadian autonomy.

As the Communist Party noted
in a statement issued earlier this
year on the wage movement for
1981, this is a process which will
be strengthened in the period
ahead as a key component of the
larger battle of Canadian people
for Canadian control and owner-
ship of our economy.

In the bitter and brutal struggle
taking place between imperialist
powers for markets and economic
control and domination, no work-

ing class can find itself in the posi-

tion where its trade unions are
under foreign domination. Cana-
dian workers are now learning

‘this lesson in the auto industry

and its related industries such as
rubber, etc. They will all too soon
face the same problems in steel. It
is in this frame that one can view
the threatened split of the building
trades unions from the Canadian
Labor Congress.

The BT unions in Canada are
the last major hold-out against
any measure of autonomy to their
membership in Canada. This has
been a source of constant friction
and struggle over the past two de-

cades. Administrations, imposed
from U.S. headquarters, whole-
sale expulsions and suspensions,
removals of entire elected leader-
ships have punctuated the BTs
during this period. —

Labor in
Action

In Quebec the membership of
the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers succeeded in
breaking away and setting up a
separate union ,which was af-
filiated to the Quebec Federation
of Labor. This set in motion a
chain of events which led last
week to the end of the Wash-
ington-controlled building trades
department in Quebec, and the
establishment of a Quebec build-
ing trades department which will
represent all building trades
workers in Quebec in their future
relations with employers.

The answer of the building

trades leadership to the demands
of Canadian construction work-
ers for autonomy has been to try
and compel the Canadian Labor
Congress to arrest the process of
autonomy and democracy inhe-
rent in the CLC set-up, and turn
the Canadian trade union centres,
at all levels, into undemocratic
top leadership-controlled, and by
implication, class collaborationist
bodies. The last three conven-
tions of the CLC have been dom-
inated by successive efforts of the
BT leadership to transform. the
CLC into the same kind of
undemocratic structure as obtains
in the AFL-CIO. | :

Having failed in these efforts
they are now determined to pull
their membership out of the CLC
and set up a rival Canadian centre
based on those same undem-
ocratic principles.

The actions of the BT leader-
ship threaten great peril for the
Canadian trade union movement.
They could split the ranks of
construction workers for some
time to come and open the doors
for. a period of wholesale raiding
in the movement, which would be
disastrous at this time of attack

monopolies
goverment.

At the same time construction
workers are not likely to, nor
should they, abandon or let up in
their quest for full autonomy.

This struggle wil challenge the

ingenuity and. segacity of BT
workers in Canada, two qualities
they have demonstrated in the
past.
The challenge will be to keep
their ranks united in the face of
the provocation of their leader-
ship and march forward toward
full autonomy for their unions.

This will require as well the
ability to reject hot-headed urging
by ultra left elements for kamikazi
type actions which would lead to
splits and isolation of the left and
more conscious elements of the
unions. It will require firm united
actions on an across union and
across industry basis to defeat the
splitting line of the BT leadership
to remain in the CLC and once
and for all establish full autonomy
for their unions.

The watch-word of the workers
must be: Stay in the CLC, keep
ourranks united, end Washington
control.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 20, 1981—Page 7