Wages are key demand Rail bargaining begins TORONTO—Negotiations _be- tween the unions and manage- ment on the two national rail- - ways began in earnest last week, Sept. 30. After some pre- liminary sparring by the com- panies, the management nego- tiators decided on serious bar- gaining with the joint union bar- gaining committee. Unlike the bargaining rounds in the last set of negotiations where there were four different bargaining units on the part of the unions, this time much of the union’s bargaining strength comes from a joint bargaining committee of the United Trans- portation Union, the Brother- hood of Locomotive Engineers and the Non-ops. Only the shop- crafts are bargaining separately. The 1975 negotiations are the first since 1941 that those three units have entered into joint bargaining. Wages are Main Demand All the strength that goes into joint bargaining is going to be needed if the unions are to win their demands. With the increas- ing inflation, the main demands of the unions in the joint bar- gaining consists of new meas- ures for an increase in wages. Instead of looking into the standard COLA, the unions are asking for a retroactive increase of 43¢ from July 1974 until the end of December. This proposed increase is to cover the wages lost under the Hall agreement. For 1975 the unions are ask- ing for an increase of 5.18% to cover increased productivity and another 44¢ an hour to win parity with other workers in the ' durable goods industry. The unions are also asking for another 5.5% increase as’ of January -1, 1975 to cover the cost of future inflationary in- creases. This 5.5% is to be used until it runs out due to inflation and the the contract will be re- opened to cover further in- creases in the cost of living. One Year Contract Sources also close to the bar- gaining told the Tribune that the companies are agreeing to a one year contract and while the unions are by no means dis- pleased with a shorter contract, no one on the union’s side seems to understand the companies’ 4 ready agreement to the idea. proposed in railway negotiations. One theory current is that the companies are expecting a de- crease in the inflationary rate in 1976 and they don’t want to have to pay on the basis of a contract geared for January 1, 1975. Officials of the railway unions have reported a decrease in the activity of the locals while the bargaining is going on, but noted that all that could change if the negotiators bring in a pro- posed settlement that the work- ers would not accept. LABOR SCENE Unions must fight new BY BRUCE MAGNUSON “It may not be the most cheering prospect, but the only honest thing that can be said upon this Labor Day is that all labor can look forward to is-a fight.” This is the 1974 Labor Day message conveyed by U.S. labor leader Harry Bridges. The Longshorement’s Union on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. reports in the September 13/74 issue of its paper The Dispatcher that a new law now before the U.S. House and Senate consti- tutes nothing less than a blue- print for fascism in the U.S. The bill confers extraordinary pow- ers on:the President and seek to sweep away constitutional guar- antees of individual rights. This bill, if and when enacted, would give the President powers to “regulate all traffic (even on. local streets), control ports and - shipping, freeze bank accounts, close stock exchanges, control farm and food production and freeze workers on their jobs.” Associated with the struggle on the economic front is the need to defend and extend demo- cracy, aS opposed to the efforts of monopoly, its governments and state apparatus to restrict it. Not Popular Alarmed by the anger and rising militancy of working peo- ple, as expressed in a rapidly growing strike movement, the ruling class in Canada, too, are seeking ways to subvert demo- cracy and to institute various forms of coersion. The bosses will never give up their aim of restricting. workers’ right to strike. But since the great ma- jority of people are working people suffering from inflation- ary erosion of living standards any and all restrictions of work- ’ ers’ rights are of course unpo- pular. The real public — not the ~ mythical public written about by ~ the monopoly-controlled press and mass media — does not favor a ban on strikes which it considers a fundamental demo- cratic right. reactionary measures To overcome obstacles to im- plementation of unpopular poli- cies and laws, the ruling class always seeks to manoeuvre be- tween using the velvet glove or the mailed fist. As a matter of fact this manoevuring has be- come so bad that there is a danger the bourgeoisie will dis- credit its own judicial processes, thus undermining confidence in the judiciary and the whole sys- tem of bourgeois justice. This was undoubtedly why Chief Justice Jules Deschesne of the Quebec Superior: Court fiatly refused to process con- tempt-of-court charges against Montreal Transit workers en- gaged in a_ so-called illegal strike. This was a message to employers and their politicians to look for better solutions to the problems arising from the ir- reconcilable conflict between capital and labor. * * The trade union movement must take seriously the warn- ings from various sources that some new gimmicks may be in the wind to put new restrictions on labor’s right to strike and picket. : Assistant deputy minister of the federal Labor Department, William Kelly, recently told a workshop session at the annual meeting of the Canadian Chamb- er of Commerce in Toronto that the final decision on negotiated settlement should be taken out of the hands of union members in the interest of labor peace. Mr. Kelly would have union leaders and negotiating commit- tees do the final- negotiating be- hind the ‘backs of the union members they represent. “That way the situation would lend it- self to last minute trade-offs on the basis of compromise at the expense of workers’ living stand- ards in the interests of private profit for the corporations and monopolies. Here is how Kelly tells it: “The philosophy of the Cana- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1 1, 1974—Page 8 - spokesmen to dian worker in the organized sector today, which he convenes to his union leader, is ‘make me whole on last year’s inflation — no matter how high it may be — and get me something extra to boot — and devil take the hindmost. “With union negotiating com- mittees approaching the bargain- ing table with this type of mandate, is it any wonder that the industrial relations system is under a strain.” : Phoney Arguments : Depriving the union members of ratification votes on contracts - would — contrary to Mr. Kelly’s views — abrogate the demo- cratic processes, and govern- ments that cannot govern any other way are not democratic governments acting in the in- terests of the people. The struggle against such a policy has to be carried on in such a way as to protect both the economic igterests of the working people and democratic rights, which must be extended, as against the desire of monopo- ly capital and its political restrict such democratic rights to its chosen few. : The phoney argument advanc- ed by the kept monopoly press, should not be allowed to con- fuse the principles involved in a democratic issue of this mani- tude. 2 Organized labor, the CLC, provincial federations, local labor councils and_ individual local unions; yes, _ individual members as well; should lose no time in voicing their opposi- tion to any proposals which ‘go in the direction of depriving workers of their right to resist monopoly attempts to pass the cost of their profit-induced infla- tion on to the workers. And, absolutely no tinkering with labor’s right to strike, and to a final say on terms of collective agreements. CNTU MOBILIZATION POSTPONED FOR MONTH MONTREAL—A.: massive mo- bilization of labor force threat- ened by the Confederation of National Tratle Unions in sup- port of its demands for wages adjusted to the cost of living in- dex has been postponed until - late next month. In August, the 210,000 mem- ber labor organization threaten- ed to start a general slowdown by the beginning of October to support its fight against infla- tion. However, a source. within the CNTU, said that the province- wide campaign among the 1,000 affiliated unions has not been moving as fast as expected and a program of “direct confronta- tion” has been set back eight to 10 weeks. MINERS REJECT WAGE OFFER . LYNN LAKE, Man, — An in- terim wage offer increases: rang- ing from 43 cents to $1.10 an hour was turned down last week at a membership meeting of the United Steelworkers, Local 5757, representing more than 800 hourly paid employees at the Sheritt Gordon Mines Ltd, Lynn Lake and Fox Lake operations. The company and union have been discussing for the past month the need for a cost-of- living increase. The company made the offer to the union last week. Members of Steelworkers, Local 8144, representing about 400 Sherritt Gordon employees at the. Ruttan mine near Leaf Rapids, Man., turned down a similar offer earlier last week. In total, 72% of those present at both local union meetings voted against the offer. MARINE OFFICERS RETURN TO WORK MONTREAL—Marine officers, on strike since Aug. 7, ratified a new contract and returned to work last week aboard vessels plying the St. Lawrence-Seaway and Great Lakes, a union spokesmen said. Altert Robillard, secretary- treasurer of the Canadian Mari- time Union whose 400 workers are in charge of enginee room cepting wage and maintenance aboard a lake carriers, said union bers voted 96% in. ; increases by the Canadian Lake Cz Association. —_—_—— FIAT TO LAY-OFF CE 1/3 OF WORK FOR ROME — Fiat, Italy’s s, private employer, put one of its 200,000 workers OP 2 hour week as the co ; nomic plight worsene@. — Fiat said 65,000 worl would begin the short by week this week, but Pd the reduction in hours wae . go beyond Jan. 1, and ae fected workers would get ae from a state fund to help out, The normal work We" — 40 hours. 30,000 WORKERS STRIKE IN SPAIN ail MADRID — Labor Mad strikes for more pay hav an more than 30,000 work over Spain, labor The FASA-Renaul second largest aut ae Spain, has closed its 4 set : tories in Valladolid am fn involving about 20,000 3 Vizcaya, in the Basque © has an estimated 8,007 © — workers idle. ati Workers idled in GH Spain’s largest industria’ numbered aro 5 In some places th began more than a wee —— N POLICE FIRE O KERS. NEW DELHI persons were killed a jured in India’s Bihar week when police open crowds taking pa Inog day general strike. Gis person died and four of injured when police 3 it crowd which attacked - iat nigant police station, ie a town of Ekma, one Pe ce when border security va fired on a crowd of 5, i had held up a number ® ¢, The strike follows 2 month campaign to Pre 5 solution of the Bina at sembly and to prote tion! creasing prices, COrruP™ unemployment.