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Dalhousie U contracts out work of CUPE strikers

Union busting angers Nova Scotia labor

Special to the Tribune’

HALIFAX — Dalhousie Uni-
versity’s recent move to bust the
union representing its 217 clean-
ing staff has brought it into bitter
conflict with the entire Nova
Scotia labor movement.

The workers, members of
Canadian Union of Public

_Employees, (CUPE), Local 1392,

on strike since Nov. 5, were told
by management in their eighth

- week on the cold and snowy

Picketline, that the university had
contracted out the cleaning staff's

work to a private company, Mod-

ern Building Cleaners. The work-
ers face being cleaned out of their
wage demands, pension rights,
vacations and even their union, if

. the university succeeds.

That?s why CUPE and the
Nova Scotia Federation of Labor

_ have taken on: up Dalhousie’s

1 challenge. An appeal has gone out
| to locals throughout the province

_ to come out and beef up the

, CUPE picket line.

Nova Scotia Federation of

It is indeed most regrettable to

see the Canadian Labor Congress

being used as an instrument for

“transmission of the reactionary

5 Policies of the relatively isolated
AFL-CIO in the international
krena, and to peddle cold war

“propaganda for United States

é

W\ mperialism. (See *Czechos-

ovakia still occupied 1968-1978”’,

December 8, 1978 issue, page 6,
LC bulletin ‘Canadian Labor

omment’’). -
The International Affairs De-

Ni>artment of the CLC should go

4,itate power into its own hands:

0

gpack a bit further to February
\948, when the working class of

i zechoslovakia prevented politi-

al chaos, provoked by bourgeois
inisters, by taking political and

ather than permitting the return
af capitalist exploitation by
s oreign monopolies. Thus con-
umating its liberation from the

azi occupiers with the help of

; he armed forces of the USSR,

a

Ping of a society of peace and.

d laying the basis for. the build-

“\ocialism, free from capitalist

\xploitation. And who could fail
learn from experiences of

4 World War II and the key role

"played by the Soviet Union and
ts heroic people, saving the world

From fascist barbarism at colossal

‘ost in human life, Suffering and
aterial losses?

, Just suppose that Winston

hurchill would have had his way

hen — as we now know from

‘ecent revelations — he called for

nuclear war against our

Wtaunchest wartime ally the

1NJSSR at the time of the Berlin
Mockade, and while the U.S.
Ought it had a monopoly on the
\tomic bomb. This hawkish stand
vas also supported by Canada’s
Vm. L. MacKenzie King at that
me. :
The imperialist attempt to sub-
‘ert and destroy the socialist
Ommunity and working class
\olitical power has never stop-

Labor president Gerald Yetman
called the university’s use of con-
tracting out a strike breaking tac-
tic — ‘‘a new one on me.”’

“T’ve never heard of anyone
switching employers on a group
of striking workers. If they suc-
ceed, the precedent would be hor-
rible’’, he said.

‘*The university's management
has overstepped themselves this
time’, Yetman said. ‘‘They’ve
gone too far. The labor movement
isn’t going to let them get away
with it; not without a fight.”’

Collision Course

Urging total mobilization by
local. trade unionists to back the
Dalhousie strikers, Yetman de-
clared,:“‘it was the university who
set the collision course. I hope
they’re prepared to run into the
strength we’ve got on our side.”’

Local 1392 CUPE president
Florence Logan noted Modern
Cleaners’ terrible reputation, and
the way “‘they drive people like
horses.”’

She said, ‘‘this is one we’ ve got

ped. Indeed, after even the most
cursory examination of Europe’s
troubled and contradictory post-
war political developments, one
can with every justification ask:
‘‘What would have happened to
Europe if not for the Warsaw
Treaty. Organization? What
would have happened to Europe
if NATO had been able to do what
it chose?”’

These questions are not dif-
ficult to answer, bearing i in mind
that NATO — set up in 1949 at the
height of the cold war with its in-
flamatory “‘rollback of Commun-
ism’’ doctrine — has failed to ig-
nite a conflict in Europe, and the
world, simply because it was
faced since 1955 with the impres-
sive and ever ready defence sys-
tem of the Warsaw Treaty
Organization whose paramount
goal is to secure peace and stabil-
ity in Europe.

That principle, set out as the
aim in 1955, remains the supreme
goal for the Soviet Union and all
the nations of the socialist com-
munity, and in this they have the
backing of all the peace-loving
people of the capitalist countries
of the whole world as well.

The simple fact is that the
enemies of socialism and peace,
in both Europe and the world at
large, are unable to swallow the
bone still sticking in their throats
ever since the Soviet Union and
its allies taught them a stern les-
son in Czechoslovakia in August
of 1968. That lesson was the col-
lapse of long and carefully laid
‘plans for subversion of working
class political power just at the
precise moment when “‘victory”’
seemed to be within grasp for the
imperialist plotters.

This, then, is the real reason
why the events of ten years ago
are still. rehashed by bankrupt
‘*Prague spring”’ politicians work-

_ing for the multi-national corpora-

tions and imperialism, more
specifically the American-CIA. It

CLC peddling U.S.
cold war policies

to fight ... employers across the
country can see their opening
with this one. We’ ve all got to get
together and stop them.”’

The local’s troubles with
Dalhousie began from the day the
workers got organized. Their first
strike vote in 1975 forced the uni-
versity ‘to. retreat from its
tight-fisted resistance to a decent
wage increase. This victory by
the workers still only boosted
wages to the range of $2.30 to
$4.35 an hour, and many were still
living below the poverty line.

Adding insult to injury, the
wage-cutting Anti-Inflation Board
ordered the Dalhousie workers to
pay back 10% of the increase fol-
lowing the wage hike. The AIB

decision came in October 1976,

one month after the 1975 contract
had expired.

The workers repaid the univer-
sity hundreds of dollars.

Union-Busting Plan

Wage controls, just as they
shackled workers across the
country left the Dalhousie work-

is precisely this subversive prop-
aganda against peace and social-
ism that stands in the way of sec-
urity for peace and progress in
Europe, holds up the conclusion
of a SALT II agreement between
the United States and the Soviet
Union, jeopardizes the policy of
détente and peaceful co-existence
and, raises the spectre of a new
cold war as a prelude to a nuclear

confrontation that could put an‘

end to all life on this earth.

Such. a- policy may mean
enormous profits for the multi-
national arms merchants, but
produces only more inflation and
more unemployment for the
working class and all working
people. .

What, in the name of all that is
decent and moral in this world,
would an organization like the
Caiiadian Labor Congress have to
gain by supporting such a cold
war campaign? Surely this bears
no resemblance whatever to
policies adopted in CLC Conven-
tions, policies which Congress
‘officers are pledged to uphold.

WinNeK KEEP AL

ers with 8-9% increases. This
wasn’t even enough to make up
the money they had to give back
to the university in the AIB
rollback:

Dalhousie University vice-
president Lou Vagianos, de-
scribed by the workers as an
‘all-American ‘efficiency’’ ex-
pert’’, set the stage for the univer-
sity’s plan to weaken the union.
Twenty-five per cent of the clean-
ing staff was fired, fewer people
were expected to do the same

‘amount of work and new super-

visors were hired to oversee the
WOK. 3-2

In the 1977 negotiations, man-
agement tried to knock off long
standing sick benefits and tried to

change contract language to ‘"°

undermine job security. Another
strong strike vote forced the uni-
‘versity to back down for a second
time and managemenitt’s obvious
plan to phase the union out. was
set back. ©

By the 1978 negotiations, it was
clear Dalhousie was determined.
to wipe out the union at any cost.
They slapped the workers in the
face with a token 33 cents an hour
wage increase offer. CUPE coun-
tered with the same 85 cents an
hour wage hike the Operating En-
gineers at the university had
negotiated with management.

Even this increase would still
leave many workers below the
poverty line and isn’t even as high
as what Halifax School Board
caretakers earn.

Disciplined, Cheerful Pickets

With a 79% strike vote behind

‘them, Local 1392 CUPE went on

strike Nov. 5. Dalhousie coun-
tered by immediately cancelling
sick leave payments to CUPE
members, off sick, or on disability
leave when the strike began.
Management refused to change
its offer throughout the talks, cir-
culated rumors on the picket lines

‘about ‘‘new money’’ packages

supposedly turned down by the
negotiating committee, and lied to

‘every form of mass media in sight,

including the campus newspaper.
Verbal abuse of the negotiating

committee at the bargaining table

was ‘‘the worse I’ve ever heard’’,
said CUPE representative Al
Cunningham. Scab clean-up
squads were organized by
Dalhousie to half-clean essential
buildings, while police escorted
garbage trucks through the picket.
lines.

However, with the full backing
of thedabor movement, and sec-

NSLF president Yetman
“If they succeed, the precedent
would be horrible.”

ure in the knowledge that they’re
right and that their unity will help
them win, the CUPE strikers are
maintaining a disciplined and
cheerful picketline.

Much surgery
unnecessary
studies find

Blue Cross, a medical insur-
ance company, discovered in a
recent survey that many common
surgical procedures, including
hysterectomies, tonsillectomies
and orthopedic procedures were .
deemed unnecessary by a second.
consultant in many cases.

The survey stated that the
majority of patients never seek a
second opinion when surgery is
advised but of those who did 27%
were told that surgery was un-
necessary.

A similar study conducted by
Midicaid in Boston, found that a
second opinion resulted in the
cancellation of 12% of scheduled
operations.

Tonsillectomies and hysterec-
tomies were cited as the surgical
procedures in question, as well as
numerous othef procedures usu-
ally performed on women and

» children.

When the finding of the Boston
study were cited to Ontario
Health Minister Dennis Timbral
on a radio talk show last. week, he
seemed unaware of the Blue

Cross survey.
A combination of medical opin-
ion and patient consent

adequately guards Ontario resi-
dents from unnecessary surgery,
he stated.

UNDER ANY >
oF ‘ms!

1k, ARE YOU nr 4 Soe ee
AVEKSE TO A My FRIEND
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( SAY TO
You, SIR,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 19, 1979—Page 5