“There is will
to fight controls
— if there is
leadership’

For Canadian Union of Postal The postal workers’ leader told a)
Workers president Jean-Claude ; y
Parrot, the four months since he
was elected in an upset vote as a
vice-president-at-large of the
Canadian Labor Congress have
been some of the most difficult
for the trade union movement in
many years.

Since that election, at the May
CLC convention, the federal
government brought down its
restrictive Bill C-124, setting the

his audience that wage controls
“are not only a means to distract
us from the problems of the
economy but also a means to at-
tack the wages and conditions
that working people have won.

“They want us to accept that
lower wages are necessary to at-
tract investment from the foreign
multinationals.

“But what they really want is
greater profits,’’ he said.

TRIBUNE PHOTO

strike.

guidelines and soon afterwards,

premier William Davis introduc-
ed its own wage control program.

And one private sector
employer after another has gone
after its employees for wage con-
cesions — all in the midst of the
worst unemployment since the
depression.

‘“*All across the country,

they strike,’’ Parrot said.
“But they are also worried
if they do not take some action,

given leadership.”

Tribune conducted with Parrot as

Forum Thursday.

six and five percent wage controls
and suspending the right of
$00,000 public sector workers to

In this province, premier Ben-
nett tightened up his own wage
controls to match the federal

the Tory government of Ontario

workers are worried — they are
worried for their jobs, worried
~ about unemployment and wor-
ried about the consequences if

what the government may do
next. And I believe that workers

are prepared to fight rather than
accept wage controls — if they are

The comments were part of a
wide-ranging interview that the

well as an address made to some
250 people at Vancouver at a rally
sponsored by the Trade Union

The bid for profits is also the
reason that corporations have
been “‘so quick to embrace the six
and five guidelines,’’ he noted,
terming the wage control pro-
gram ‘‘part of a global strategy of
the foreign multinational cor-
porations.

‘*All across the western world,
workers are being told to accept
lower wages in order to be com-
petitive.”’

Parrot pointed to a growing
strength of employers made
possible by mounting unemploy-
ment and an increased tempo of
mergers between companies
resulting in a concentration of
corporate power.

Our economy is controlled, he
emphasized “‘by multinationals
in whose boardrooms all the deci-
sions are made as to where invest-
ment will be made, where jobs
will be created, what jobs will be
made redundant.

But while employers are
preparing for the 21st century, he
warned, too often the trade union
movement is fighting the battles
of the 19th.

“We are still a loose collection
(in the CLC) of autonomous
unions instead of a powerful,
united movement,’’ he said.
“And many unions are still trying

JEAN-CLAUDE PARROT .

to win the battle against their own
employers one by one.”’

But that is changing as the
government-employer assault on
wages gathers in intensity.

A new coalition of public sec-
tor unions, the ‘‘Anti 124 Com-
mittee’’ has now taken shape and
Parrot was to attend a meeting of
the committee this week.

He noted that the committee
should have been ‘‘visible and ac-
tive’? three months ago but
pointed to some of the difficulties
it faced.

The coalition includes
representatives of some 30 unions
with a total membership of
500,000 employed by 31 different
crown corporations and govern-
ment departments, he noted.

Among the leadership — as on
the CLC executive council —
there are unionists ‘‘who don’t
want to fight and claim their
membership is not prepared to
fight,’’ he said. ‘‘And there are
also those who say their member-
ship is not ready to fight but they
are trying to change that.”

Although Parrot and others
who are in that latter category are
still a minority, the days are long
past that the CUPW president
and other postal worker leaders

. fight against wage controls needs mobilization, leadership.

are considered a ‘‘radical fringe,”’
as was the case at the time of the
1978 CUPW strike.

The contracts that the union
has fought for and won stand out
among those in the public sector.
And the militancy of the union,
and that of Parrot himself has
struck a responsive chord among
unionists alarmed*at the current
offensive.

‘*There are those who thought
I would be isolated on the CLC
executive,’’ he said. ‘‘But it has
not been the case. There are
always some on my side in the
meetings.”’

And the CLC itself is harden-
ing its stance in the face of
government wage controls.

“We can’t say that there could
be a general strike tomorrow —
the public sector unions are not
ready for that,’’ said Parrot.

“But there is much we can do
now,’’ he emphasized, citing
demonstrations, rallies, job ac-
tions and other forms of protest.

“Nothing will succeed unless
we get into the streets with our
message. The failure to fight to-

‘day will only be an invitation to

government to introduce even
more regressive legislation
tomorrow.’’

‘strong labor movement — a

But Parrot warned that the
fight would require mobilization
of unionists ‘fon an un-
precedented scale, with leader-
ship as never before.

“Tt will require a program that
combines political action with in-
dustrial action.”’

He also challenged leaders |
“not to shy away from the fight,”’
or to step back, claiming their
members are reluctant.

‘“‘Those who are not prepared
to mobilize their membership
should tighten their belts, take
their 6 and 5 and step aside,’’ he
said. ‘‘Because I believe workers |
are prepared to fight rather than |
accept wage controls.

‘‘We do not have to accept that
we can only change them at the ||
bargaining table or at the ballot -
box.””

And the trade union move- —
ment has a responsibility to lead
the fight on behalf of all working
people, the elderly and others,
Parrot emphasized.

“Tn the process, even if we do.
not succeed in defeating Bill
C-124 we will have to built a

movement we can all be proud —
ok

BCGEU pact is ‘worse than what we refused’

Continued from page 1
asked to defeat essentially the same
offer in August?”

The reference to August is to the
overwhelming vote of 93.4 percent
recorded by union members in re-
jecting the government offer of 6.5
percent and five percent over two

years.

The leaflet contrasted the
bargaining demands — which call-
ed for a $1 an hour increase plus
five percent catch-up in addition to
COLA adjustments six months
and one year into the contract —
with the provisions in the tentative
package.

In addition to an average in-
crease of only six percent and the
possibility of a zero percent in-
crease in April, 1983, the package
contains “‘two ‘Billy Bonds’ of in-
determinate value not added to
your salary and not redeemable un-
til 1984,”’ the leaflet argued.

“This means no catch-up and
keep-up, a further erosion of
wages,’’ it said, adding that the
proposed pact only brings the
lowest paid employee up to $1224
per month, considerably short of

the bargaining goal of $1,386.

The BCGEU Members for a
‘*No”’ Vote were also critical of the
leadership for its bargaining
strategy.

“Our union leadership made a
decision in February to go it alone,
to bargain as if there were no con-
trols. Our union leadership refused
to align itself with other public sec-
tor unions and did not attempt to
educate the membership about this
issue.

“Our union leadership did not
defend our interests and allowed
our union to be used by the Social
Credit government to make its
restraint program credible,”’ the
leaflet said.

It was similarly critical of Fryer
because he ‘‘increasingly
negotiated through the press
without reference to the member-
ship.

The leaflet called on members to
vote ‘no .. . as the first step
towards a decent contract. . . (to)
register our disapproval of the
strategy of bargaining to this point,

and to return to the bargaining
table.’”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— OCTOBER 8, 1982—Page 12

It also called for the union ‘‘to
re-establish ourselves with other
public sector unions and the B.C.
Fed.”’

Although voting on the propos-
ed agreement has still to begin, the

provisions have been for some time.

a source of major controversy in
the trade union movement,

although much of it has been off
“the record. At issue is the wage in-
crease which is near Bennett’s wage
control figure and the implicit ac-
ceptance by the BCGEU leadership
of the Socreds’ restraint program.

In a recent union newsbulletin
bargaining committee co-chairmen
John Fryer and Norman Richards
insisted that the ‘‘economic
package”’ will give members a total
9.8 percent increase with the value
of the housing bonds set at one-half
percent each and allowing for a
projected increase of two percent in
April, 1983).

But other analysts have pegged

the figure at about seven percent - |

while the ‘‘vote no”’ committee has
argued that it is really only an
average of about six percent.

The controversy also involved
the leadership of the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor last week when presi-
dent Jim Kinnaird issued a press
release disavowing earlier com-
ments made to Columbian reporter
Terry Glavin. His press statement
said that it was his belief ‘‘that the
BCGEU got the best possible set-
tlement available at this time.’’ The
officers also endorsed the settle-
ment.

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Glavin had quoted Kinn

along with other trade union

leaders as stating that the a.
ment was no victory against w:
controls and ‘‘didn’t break
new ground,”’

Kinnaird argued that his com’
ments ‘‘were not connected to
BCGEU settlement.’? Howeve

Glavin said that he taped the inte
view and is having a not
transcript prepared.

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