Yes,

So WE ADDED A JOB-

EN RIGHHENT PROGRAM
co- DETEVUMINED BY A
ThieAnTiTe FINAL OFFER
SELECTION PROFIT
SHARING CLAUSE

fa
AG THEY neef

_ By DAVE WALLIS
EDMONTON — A nurse held

2 Sign up outside the Alberta
Legislature, May 10 reading:
The only good Tory is a depo-
i Sitory.”’ .
_ Alberta’s 7,000 striking nurses,
 Wstified in their condemnation,
irre ordered back to work March
; | for the third time in five years
by the Tory government admin-
: rho of provincial premier
| ‘ter Lougheed. This ended their
is week province-wide strike
 Jorbetter wages and scheduling of
+ days off.
& At a press conference, March
*, United Nurses of Alberta,
(UNA) members said that they
- asked the United Nations
| Suman Rights Commission to in-
 Yestigate - Alberta’s oppressive
~ ‘@dor laws.
dees president Margaret
a said that the back to work:
‘ f Rislation will mark a ‘‘black day
)tor health care and human rights
0 Alberta’,
|The Alberta government’s
Health Services Continuation
Ct” is without a doubt an
"Oprecedented, vicious piece of
ion.

Saks Communist Party
1% t Bill Tuomi in a statement
|. plowing the passage of the reac-
| (nary act said, ‘‘Lougheed is
3 Pe a page out of U.S. presi-
: ae Ronald Reagan’s book be-
; tion that simple-minded solu-
1 Ns can solve complex problems
y forcing through Bill 11.

Bill 11 is indeed a body blow
4 ;Sainst Alberta’s nurses. “‘If a
. Pereaining agent is found guilty of
ne under this act or is
in contempt of court in re-
*Pect to matters arising out of this
3 pis the Attorney General, may
_ 2Ve notice to the Labor Relations
Board setting out that the bargain-
Ng agents were found guilty of
f Vening this act or were
in contempt of court, as the
pe may be, and upon receipt ofa
Eee , the board may revoke the
| *ttification,’? so reads the
Stike-breaking law passed by the
Mo-big-business Tories.

; aa addition to threats of

; cance, Bill 11 threatens

of $10,000 for each day the

stays out and $1,000 for

pehnurse. But, the law goes way

4 vond normal labor legislation

4 With implications for the whole
"ade union movement.

The bill decrees that “‘no of-
\ st, representative, agent or ad-
who is found guilty of an
; qeease under this act or was
ind in contempt shall be
yed by, or at, or as an of-
“tr, representative, agent or ad-

visor of a trade union until the
expiration of this act.”

Under the 1980 Alberta Labor
Relations Acta strike is defined as
“one — a cessation of work, two
—a refusal to work, or three —a
refusal to continue work, by two
or more employees acting in
combination or in concert or in
accordance with a common
understanding for the purpose of
compelling an employer or an
employer’s organization to agree
to terms or conditions of
employment or to aid other
employees to compel their em-
ployer or an employers’ organ-
ization to accept terms or condi-
tions of employment.”

Under such legislation it will be

‘no difficult task for the Alberta

Hospital Association, whose goal
has been the decertification of the
UNA to provoke a strike or some
other act for the basis of decerti-
fication.

The Alberta government is in
fact legislating a blacklist. Tuomi
stated, ‘“‘a government blacklist is
unheard of and unleashes the pos-
sibility of greater interference in
who, and when, the trade union
movement can hire and elect its
officers’.

The Alberta College of Physi-
cians, in a letter to premier
Lougheed, urged him to intervene
in the dispute between the AHA
and the UNA. It said, ‘‘the pre-
sent level of medical services in
Alberta is no longer acceptable’’.

Lougheed was indeed quick to
respond to this “‘threat to our
medical services’’ yet he still re-
fuses to ban extra billing by doc-
tors and provide adequate fund-
ing for health care.

The Alberta Federation of
Labor (AFL), reacted angrily to

the attack on the nurses and the

labor movement as a whole. AFL
secretary treasurer Dave East-
mead said that ‘‘some aspects of
the Bill are not only intended
against the nurses union, but are
meant to be a message to trade
unions as a whole... (it’s) a
threat to all hospital workers to
toe the line (in current contract
talks) or ‘you're out of busi-

» 99

ness’.

Eastmead said the bill is a
further erosion of whatever rights
to free collective bargaining, the
nae movement in Alberta has
eft. ‘Lougheed and (Labor Min-
ister Les) Young are trying for
some award for the worst kind of
labor legislation in the country”’,
he said.

“Pve never seen anything like
it, [think they have Attila the Hun
writing legislation for them.”

UAS 5-77

Delegates back Block women and rights for elderly

By ED McDONALD
_ TORONTO — Scandalous neglect of the aged,
sex discrimination against women workers at
Block Drug Ltd., and all-out preparations for the
council’s April 6 protest against soaring interest
rates and the sick economy filled Metro Labor
Council’s March 4 agenda.

The overwhelming support delegates gave to the
three executive statements dealing with these to-
pics, and the militant tone of the debate around
these issues reflected the degree to which a grow-
ing number of workers are beginning to question
the system of state-monopoly capitalism.

Delegates voted to set aside $2,500 for the coun-
cil’s April 6 Rally and Forum. The protest, to be
organized in co-operation with the Ontario Federa-
tion of Labor will see the council hire a full time
organizer to mobilize the affiliates and distribute
information to the labor movement .

Council treasurer, Bill Baker, speaking to the
executive statement, stressed the importance of
making the rally a success and pointed out that the
struggle between labor and the government has
reached the stage where, ‘‘the Canadian Labor
Congress is challenging the government — that the
government is not listening to what the people are
talking about. Something in our society is wrong
when we are not building homes, while at the same
time workers are losing their homes.”

The council also vented its indignation over the
blatant discrimination by U.S.-owned Block Drug
Ltd., against 23 female workers. The women, but
not the men are required by the company to punch
a time clock going to and coming from the wash-
room. The women and their union, Local 35
Energy and Chemical Workers (ECW), have been
able to put enough pressure on the company to
withdraw 16 warnings it issued to them for “‘exces-
sive washroom time’’.

But, Block Drug refuses to eliminate the time
card system:

Jane MacKenzie, one of the Block Drug work-
ers, told council delegates of the written warnings
and thé threats of three-day suspensions and ulti-
mate dismissal. She said the women are given a
maximum of 10 minutes a day to use the wash-
room, which means that someone wanting to use
the facilities frequently during the day, have to run
200 feet each way, wash chemicals off their hands,
use the facilities, and rush back to their job —all in
three minutes.

MacKenzie also reported on an action planned
by the U.S.-based National Organization of
Women (NOW), which co-incidentally has its
headquarters on the same street in Jersey City,
New Jersey as Block Drug Ltd. Now is trying to
organize a demo outside the company’s head-
quarters in solidarity with the Canadian women
and their fight.

_ Janice McClelland, a newly-elected member of
the council executive and a delegate from the
Communications Workers of Canada compared
the company’s behavior at Block with that of
-Canada Packers, last year, when it compelled its
workers to go to the can under a time study. That
action by Canada Packers provoked an angry
round of protests from the labor movement in
Metro.

The council also overwhelmingly endorsed an
executive statement attacking the social service
cuts and their effect on the quality of care to senior
citizens in homes for the aged. The statement
pointed out that by the year 2,000 there will be
some 139,000 Metro citizens over the age of 75.

With a total of 7 such homes and a capacity to
accomodate only 2,700 residents, the provincial
and federal government cutbacks are depriving re-
tired workers in Metro of the care they need and
deserve. a

| Council readies for protest

The executive warned in its statement that ““un-
less Metro and the province put money and energy
into ways or providing good care for today’s resi-
dents, tomorrow will bring a crisis of mammoth
proportions.”’

Bill Reno, research director for the United Food
and Commercial Workers Union, expressed
shame and anger at the plight of Metro’s elderly
and said that such conditions reflected a system
devoid of human concern.

Irene Kuusela, Local 79 Canadian Union of Pub-
lic Employees, (CUPE), said the cutbacks had a
doubled edged effect not only on the residents of
the homes for the aged, but on the workers in those
homes as well. This aspect was pointed out in a
study on Metro’s homes for the Aged prepared by
Local 79 recently.

Kuusela said the cutbacks in some cases mean
that workers don’t have enough time to encourage
the residents to be independence, and that staff
shortages mean that some residents who need as-
sistance can’t be helped properly. More and more
residents are lonely and depressed because the
workers in the homes can’t take the time to talk or
listen to them, she said.

She also pointed out that the government poli-
cies of social services and other cutbacks are tied
into a strategy privatization of social services and
to making profits at the expense of the workers
who give their lives, both productively and
creatively for the well-being of the residents, as
well as at the expense of the elderly themselves,
whose care is deteriorating.

Kuusela also noted that it costs $82 a day per
resident to keep such a home in operation. When
you take into account that the vast majority of
retired citizens receive inadequate pensions, the
growing destitution of the elderly and retired
workers becomes worse and worse, she said.

COMMITTEE FOR THE
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR
THE ACISI OF
PRESENTS

SPEAKERS PERFORMERS

Ray < Biack Theatre Canada
Peace Council, 1981 wcfissociation for

Professor of seilce: 2 ; -
. York University Chilean Music

__ SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 1982
Trinity United Church, 427 Bloor St. West
5 p.m. ... Food, Dispiays . . . Daycare available

(CIDER 1s @ cosiition of organizatons which « currently CIDER. is presently composed of CRE. COSA RACAR CAN.
‘the fret Canadian .
ot tre UN Carlo Levi, PACAR, ACG, ACSA JDA. TAP, CGFA OGOC.

Labor in action

William Stewart

Returns next week
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 19, 1982— Page 5