Campai

The policy debate which erupted
at the November convention of the
B.C. Federation of Labor continues
as was evidenced by recent issues
of two newspapers published by
locals of the International
Woodworkers of America.

Both the Barker, published by
Locai 1-217 in Vancouver and the
Chipper, published by the New
Westminster Local 1-357, featured
articles on the issue.

Syd Thompson of Vancouver
used the Barker. to fire the
following broadside:

“After a week’s debate it is
doubtful if the ordinary _ union
member is really any wiser about
the differences within the labor
movement. Politicians have a
habit of obscuring the real issues
and those in the labor movement
are frequently no exception.”

This is Thompson’s way of
saying that if a union member
supports the New Democratic
Party under any and all cir-
cumstances, he is a good union
man. But if he publicly criticizes
that party when it acts against the
interest of organized labor, he is an
alien politician. Some people call
this demagogy.

Thompson went on to list three
cardinal sins of the Federation
leaders, to support the claim that
the IWA leadership is almost
“unanimously opposed to the way
the Federation is run under Len
Guy and George Johnson.”’

1. The role of the Federation
officers in the 1975 dispute in the
forest industry. Judging by the
record, the worst that can be said
is that the Federation tried to
achieve unity between the three
unions involved, after being invited
to do so-by the IWA.

2. The public criticism by the
Federation of the former NDP
government in Victoria. It should
be noted that Thompson does not
deal with the substance of any
specific criticism.

3. The Federation has failed to
give leadership on ‘‘the real issues
of the day”, like housing costs,
interest rates, food costs, ex-
cessive taxation for working people
and unemployment. While there is
room for improvement, it can also
be said that the [WA, as the largest
affiliate, could be helpful in
promoting that type of political
action by adopting a positive at-

LAWSUIT

Cont'd. from pg. 1

“More than anything,” Burton
said, ‘they're tired of it all.”

Burton also noted that Alcan is
using every instrument available
including the Labor Relations
Board and the courts to harass the
union.

That continuous harassment, he
said, tends to take away our energy
away from things that we should be
doing.” CASAW has been involved
in its own independent study of the
effects of flourides (a byproduct of
aluminum smelting) which has
already brought some _ em-
barrassment to Alcan. :

More important at the moment,
Burton added, are upcoming
negotiations. ‘“‘The company’s
intense campaign against us is
confusing and demoralizing to our
members,” he said.

Unionists in Kitimat are par-
ticularly bitter about one part of
Alcan’s damage suit which claims
some $546,000 for ‘incremental
wage costs.”

The reference is presumably to
the substantial wages of $350-$380
per day paid to scabs who worked
in the plant during the strike last
June.

Regular wages in the smelter
average out to about $60 per day.

titude to the Federation, and by
force of example.

Thompson summed up his
position in what reads like a
declaration of continued hostility
toward the Federation leadership:
“The real split that now exists will
not go away until some changes in
the leadership are made.”’

An editorial of the Barker added

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

more fuel to the blaze. It charged
that the Federation is split-down
the middle, with the former af-
filiates of the Canadian Congress of
Labor on one side (IWA side) and
the former affiliates of the old
Trades and Labor Congress on the
opposite side. This line is not
original, suggesting as it does that
the merger of 1956 — which formed
the CLC — is in danger. However,
the editor seens to be unaware of
the fact that the B.C. Government
Employees Union and_ the
Canadian Union of Public Em-
ployees, two major supporters of
the TWA at the Federation Con-
vention, originally belonged to the
Trades and Labor Congress.

The editorial also rehashed the
old argument that ‘“‘Len Guy is
abrasive and in the main
thoroughly disliked by
businessmen and politicians.’’ If
labor leaders like Syd Thompson
and Jack Munro of the IWA are
more acceptable to businessmen
and politicians, it is not because
they are more genial than Len
Guy!

An article in the Chipper by
Gerry Stoney, president of the New
Westminster local, advanced a
similar line. However, another
piece written by editor Henry
Mahil took an opposing viewpoint
and gives critical support to the
officers of the Federation.Ac-
cording to Mahil, the major
capitalist newspapers and two
journals repersenting the em-
ployers in the forest industry were
campaigning to unseat Len Guy.

‘It was an important convention
as the future of the Federation was
at stake’, he said. ‘‘It was up to the
delegates to decide the future of

-the Federation. A change in

leadership would have meant a
shift to the right.

“It was most disturbing to see
the IWA regional staff, whose
wages are paid by the IWA
membership, and the Canadian

‘Labor Congress staff whose wages

are paid by all affiliates through
per capita, working full time for
the election of Art Kube during the
convention.”” Word out of New

Westminster has it that local
president Gerry Stoney was so
disturbed by. this article that he
suspended Mahil as editor and put

out the next issue himself. The
suspension was discussed at a
special meeting of the Stoney
caucus which voted to reinstate
Mahi] as editor. Obviously, the
split shown by the New West-
minster IWA delegation at the
Federation convention in voting on
the executive council report still
persists.

The debate on where the labor
movement is going is not confined
to B.C. Itis a reflection of the deep-
going crisis of capitalism in
Canada.and the search for new
policies. Some labor leaders turn to
the left in their search while
others, no matter how
demagogically they explain their
viewpoints, veer to the right.

The sharpness of the debate was
reflected in a discussion paper
presented to the executive com-
mittee of the Canadian Labor
Congress on December 7, in which
there is reference to the rejection
of the CLC concept of tripartism by
the NDP:

“There must surely be some
obligation on the NDP to come up
with some alternative to protect
the workers other than to call for
labor’s re-endorsment of the NDP.
This has not been successful in the
past and there is no good reason
that this, in itself, is likely to

succeed in the future. If this is -

indeed so, then it begs the question
of what the labor movement does
in the meantime other that sit back
and take its lumps.”

But there is a working class
party, the Communist Party of
Canada, which calls for positive
action.

The policy statement adopted at
its October convention, while
critical of the CLC concept of
tripartism, advances
structive program:

“Collective bargaining itself
cannot solve the problems facing

the working class. The battle to

enlarge collective bargaining must
go side by side with the fight for
democratic nationalization and

a CONS:

gn against B.C. Fed contin

democratic planning, and for the
election of a democratic, anti-
monopoly coalition government to
implement such a program and to
open the door to a fundamental
reorganization of society.

“The NDP must be won for
policies of public ownership of
those branches of industry which
play a decisive role in the

1e

development of the economy. The —

NDP and the trade uni

movement must be made.to face —

up to the reality that com

prehensive economic planning can

only be effective if it is based
public ownership of the means
production, on democratic contro!
by the working people and stric
centralization of the economy.” —

CLC sees new fight -
on controls in ‘77 —

Joe Morris, president of the
Canadian Labor’ Congress,
-predictedin a New Year’s message
to the working people of Canada,
that labor faces a year of in-
tensified struggle against wage
controls in 1977.

Referring to 1976 as ‘‘a year of
mounting unhappiness
frustrations for Canadians,’’
Morris warned that in 1977
Canadians will still be facing ‘‘two
crippling problems: an_ inflation
that threatens to intensify in spite
of the AIB; anda frightening level
of unemployment caused in part by
this same AJB.”

JOE MORRIS

Coal giveaway looms

Cont'd. from pg. 1

sell the deal to the public on the
pretext that it would bring hun-
dreds of millions in foreign in-
vestment to B.C. and provide jobs.
But it once again begs the main
question: that the use of these
resources to build a smelting and
manufacturing industry in B.C.
would provide many more jobs of a
permanent nature for present and
future generations. Under present
plans the coal will be exported and
used up, and in the end B.C. will be
left with large holes in the ground
and vast devastated areas.

The time to act to halt this latest
giveaway is now. Control of the
coal resources should be taken out
of the hands of the private cor-

Banquet 6:30 p.m.

ANNUAL BURNS NIGHT

BANQUET and DANCE
Saturday, January 29

Fishermen’s Hall
138 E. Cordova St.

Dance 9:00 p.m.

Admission $5. 00

For tickets phone: 937-3565 or 936-4467

porations and placed under public
ownership. Ottawa and Victoria
should cooperate to carry through
plans to use the coal and other rich
mineral. resources to build an
extensive smelting and metal
manufacturing industry on the
Pacific Coast under public control.

and- governments not to renew thel

: ‘the
will

Morris said he believes
provincial governments

reassess their position with regard .

to the federal controls program.

Though not mentioned in the é|
New Year’s address, the CLC has”
already taken steps to begin
putting pressure on the provincia, ry

agreements with Ottawa on th
controls program. ei

To date, the Manitoba, Alberta 4
and Prince Edward Island
Federations of Labor have all.
made submissions to thei
respective provincial cabinet

agreement with
government on the AJB.

In November, 1976, the CLC
circulated a letter to the provincial
labor federations, labor councils;
and staff reps of the congress:
calling on the provincial and loca}
labor bodies ‘to continue the-
campaign against controls b
carrying the fight into th
provinces and municipalities.”

The CLC letter points out that é
Canada-wide campaign by thi
federations and labor council

“can force the Trudeau govern
ment to scrap Bill C-73 early in the

new year.” , =

“Today the Canadian labor

stronger than ever,” MorriS-
concluded in his message. ‘We are”
fully ware of the trust and faith”
that Canadian workers have in the
CLC. This trust will not be
betrayed. We will continue our
fight for a better society that will”
benefit not only the powerful few
but all those, organized of
unorganized, whose rights and
welfare. have been ignored or
trampled upon.”

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Pacific
Tribune

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LABOR
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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 7, 1977—Page 12

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