LABOUR Boeing bows to union strength By KERRY McCUAIG _ TORONTO — ‘This is a major victory for all of you, for the total and for the entire labour Movement,’’ Canadian Auto Workers president Robert White told de Havilland workers, Au- ust 31 as they voted 96 per cent to end their 10-week strike against Boeing. Few would dispute his claim. A year after the aerospace Slant took over the crown corpo- fation, the 4,100 workers in Loc- als 112 and 673 were in a battle to ‘Tetain their union and to keep U.S.-styled working conditions Out of Canada. The company had tabled over 00 contract concession demands aimed at gutting the union and destroying worker job security. It walked away empty handed. “Boeing has this tradition of Once they put their offer on the table they don’t move from its. explains Local 112 president, Jerry Dias. ‘‘It now realizes that although it may have been Successful at getting away with this sort of thing in the U.S., they sure aren’t going te get away with it here.”’ Labour in action “No Reaganism in Canada,” is the message de Havilland workers sent to the Boeing Corporation as they returned to work victorious after a 10-week strike. : Boeing had to break with some of its other traditions at de Havil- land. Gains were made in contract language, dental and medical care and workers on maternity leave will enjoy full protection. And Alberta job action re-unionizes trades By JIM SELBY CALGARY — Job actions by a number of construction work- ers here have spread throughout the southern part of the province. Carpenters and labourers at non-union job sites have walked off the job and set up picket lines to support their demands for wage increases, improved working conditions and job safety. What began as sporadic job actions by a few individuals around minimum wage demands has escalated to the point where over 800 workers have walked off the job on over 20 major job sites including the Olympic Park Village, the Market Mall extension _ and the Eaton’s Centre. The protesting workers have joined the Carpenters Union and the organized struggle for wages has been transformed into a fight for the re-unionization of the Alberta construction industry. The Alberta Federation of Labour is mobilizing its affiliates in Support of the struggle and AFL president Dave Werlin address- _ €darally on Sept. 3 in Calgary and a further mass rally is planned for later in September. According to Werlin, the problem in the building trades lies in Alberta labour legislation. “‘There has always been very close ties between the Conservative Party and Alberta’s six major construction companies.”’ Al Olsen of Stuart Oisen Construction was Don Getty’s cam- paign manager during his successful bid for leadership of the Tory party. : “The Conservatives provided a legal framework for spin-off companies and 25 hour lockouts that the big companies have used to de-unionize the construction industry, slash wages and undermine working conditions,’ Werlin stated. ‘‘Now the construction workers in Alberta are fighting back, the AFL is sending a clear message to the Tory government and its big business friends that no worker, organized or not, is going to confront the labour law or anti-union employers alone.” “Workers across Canada are confronting the corporate agenda in Canada Post, on the railways and throughout the economy. This fact is going to become more clear to politicians and voters,”’ Werlin said. Both railway and postal workers were out in force at the Sept. 3 rally, as were other AFL affiliates.Keynote speakers were postal workers union president Jean-Claude Parrot, John Cartwright, business agent for Carpenters Union Local 271 and Colin Snell, secretary-treasurer of the British Columbia Provincial Council of Carpenters. / while Boeing has been dismantl- ing pension plans elsewhere, de Havilland retirees, past and pres- ent, will see substantially im- proved benefits. It’s also been traditional for Boeing to offer lump sum pay- ments in place of wages in- creases. De Havilland workers turned down the $3,000 lump sum first offered by the company and came away with wage increases in each year of their three-year con- tract, which run above the aver- age contract settlement. In addi- tion they'll get_a.$3,000. signing bonus. The strike was a baptism of fire for the 28-year-old Dias, who had taken over the leadership of the local only a month before the plant was struck. He was also working with a new membership. Thirty per cent of the membership has been with the company for less than two years. Still, he ran a solid strike where only two peo- ple crossed the picket lines. Dias credits two factors, the local’s militant history and the good educational program conducted by the union. Local 112 is no stranger to strikes. In its 48-year history only one contract has been won without a walkout. The union also kept their mem- bers informed through a series of strike classes and weekly bulle- tins. ‘The corporation tried to play TRIBUNE PHOTO — KERRY McCUAIG it smart,’’ says Dias. ““With 30 per ° cent new members it thought it could offer us a lump sum pay- ment and that we wouldn’t really give a damn about job security. Well as a union we fought very hard to educate the membership on the issues and how they would affect them in the future. Also; as the strike goes on, that’s when you have to step up the educa- tional aspect, to keep the mem- bers aware — and as a union we were very successful at doing that.” What happened at de Havilland will undoubtedly send a nfessage to other aerospace workers, says Dias. ‘‘We took on what is proba- bly one of the richest, most powerful conglomerates in the world and J think we did just fine.” Getting back on track in rail The setback for railway workers at the hands of the federal Conservative government was avoidable. More importantly, the situation is reversible. The government stands condemned for its strikebreaking back-to-work legislation containing the threat of stiff fines against unions and workers alike. But Canadian workers have come to understand that the Tories of Brian Mulroney are a government commited to such union busting. Didn’t the Letter Carriers face a similar trap only weeks previous and don’t the inside postal workers come to bat in the next few weeks? Deregulation Everyone’s Concern _ More than a year ago, Document 19 of the last Canadian Labour Congress Convention warned: “Employers both inside and outside the regulated industries can see that deregulation will undermine the bargaining position of all workers. For them, deregulation is part of a broader strat- egy to attack wages and working conditions. We are equally clear in understanding this point; it deepens our resolve to fight the deregulation of specific industries.” As the federal government has graphically demonstrated, the railways are still essential to the country. That means that they are also decisive to any strategy for labour as well. Thus the concern for the fate of unionism on the railways goes well beyond. the rail unions themselves, or their leaders. It is the concern for all of Canadian labour. : : The rail union leadership strategy for dealing with the new level may ced to get i Cc nd had a few surplus crumbs to sweep ledgers to buy labour peace. But the latest strategy of shutting down both national railways without doing the necessary preparatory political homework in- vited the response from a government with union bashing on its agenda. Even the New Democratic Party while ultimately voting against the back-to-work bill welcomed government action to — deal with the strike. The Communist Party in a meeting of its central executive strenuously condemned the government’s ac- tions. : Workers Anger Understandable © The workers are angry. Unfortunately as much of their anger is directed at the unions and their leadership as at the Tories. And it’s understandable. — . Some critics of rail union leaders say that salvation for rail- workers lies inthe formationofan all-Canadian industrial rail union committed to new policies, not only of coordinated economic | struggle, but political action which will link the struggle of rail _ workers to the fight for a proper transportation policy for Canada. This approach is laudable, but should not be substituted for what must be done in today’s concrete circumstances, with to- day’s reality, and today’s assault. The building of an all-Canadian democratic industrial rail union is a process. Today and tomor- row, rail workers will face the wrath of two corporations, which — have a government, an arbitrator, and the rest of the power of the State in their corner. . _In such a climate, both a self-satisfied “‘we’ ve done everything we can in face of the legislation’ approach and long term pro- positions divorced from practical, immediate steps amount to the — “same thing: acceptance of a setback for rail unionism. Save the Railways What is required immediately is a rail conference of unions, convened by the CLC if necessary, involving the activists in all of the rail unions to plan the unions’ counter-attack in face of the legislation and the neo-conservative agenda. _ Suchaconference should plan how to involve the entire labour movement and the public, particularly users of the railways, ina campaign to save the railways, linking up the struggles for the right to strike, job security, safety and working conditions for railway workers, to the fight for a rational transportation policy. This is the way to begin to convert a setback into a victory, and ‘is in keeping with the basic trend if Canadian labour today — fightback! of attack may have been successful in the heyday of business off their corporate profit PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 9, 1987 e 7