Canada

AFL's Werlin
Stepping down
at April meet

Special to the Tribune
EDMONTON — Dave Werlin, pres-

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ident of the Alberta Federation of

__ Labour, will step down at the AFL’s

convention next April. Werlin, 53, has
headed the organization for the past six
years.

Contacted at his home, Werlin told
the Tribune he has “accomplished much
of what I set out do do. I believe one only
Temains effective in such a high-profile
Job for a certain number of years, and I
have reached that point.

“The fed is in good shape now. So I
feel it is time for me to move on to other
activities,”

Werlin has been on a leave of absence
from his union, the Canadian Union of
Public Employees, since his election as
AFL president. He says he will return to
CUPE after the AFL convention.

_ Outlining what he feels he accomp-
lished in the past six years, Werlin
Pointed to the AFL’s difficult situation
when he took office. ““The building trade
had just left the AFL; it was a big loss”,
he said. “There were divergent approaches
to trade unionism by the public and pri-

_Vate sector unions. This led to a split
between them, and in the AFL, on many
Issues. That’s been overcome. I feel that
the trade union movement in Alberta is
how more united than it has ever been.

_ The public sector and private sector
Unions are working together and mobil-
izing in campaigns.”

Since Werlin assumed the presidency,
the AFL has regained the membership it
had before losing the building trades. It
Now totals somewhere around 110,000
Members, well up from the figure of
Under 90,000. when Werlin stepped in.

“The fed is now an active, high-profile
Organization in the province, both in the
labour movement and in general,” he
Said, “It is very much involved in politi-
Cal action of all kinds, and very well
Connected to all the other social action
groups in Alberta. I believe that a great
accomplishment.

_ “‘Tleave knowing the Alberta Federa-
tion of Labour is in good shape, united,
and always prepared to fight the good
fight”, he said.

DAVE WERLIN

Social programs are at risk,
says former health minister

By KERRY McCUAIG
A former Liberal cabinet minister who
ushered through the Canada Health Act
says the quality of medical care could be
seriously undermined if the Canada-US.
trade agreement is implemented.

Monique Begin, federal Minister of
Health and Welfare in the Trudeau cabinet,
told an Ottawa press conference organized
by the Pro-Canada Network that American
companies managing Canadian hospitals
“would carve out their profit margins by
cutting expenditures by at least 10 per
cent — or more.”

Begin’s statements were in response to
earlier charges by Justice Emmett Hall, who
called the claim that free trade would hurt
medicare “a lie.” Hall’s words have been
repeated often during the election campaign
by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and free
trade supporters in attacking the opposition
and promoting the deal.

Hall, a Conservative, headed two Royal
Commissions into health care. The first led
to the enactment of medicare. The second,
in 1983, investigating problems in the sys-
tem, prompted Begin to introduce the Can-
ada Health Act in an attempt to stem the
erosion of medicare. The act pressured the
provinces to eliminate the practice of doc-

tors extra-billing their patients or hospitals
charging fees for their services.

Kathleen Turner, head of the National
Federation of Nurses Unions, said free
trade would see the re-introduction and
escalation of such practices — practices
which, Hall said in his 1983 report, would
result in the “death of medicare.”

“The Free Trade Agreement will lead to
the evolution of a two-tiered system in
health care, one for the rich and one for the.
poor,” Turner told the media.

“The essential principles of Canadian
health care — universality, accessibility,
comprehensiveness, portability and non-
profit public administration — will all be at
risk if U.S. private health care companies
obtain the right to operate in Canada.”

Turner said she personally knows many
Canadian nurses who went to the U.S. to
work, but returned because they found the
American health care system “‘distasteful.”

Begin, who retired from political life in
1984, said U.S. companies would be insensi-
tive to Canada’s “unique political culture,”
in which public opinion and political pres-
sure make politicians and administrators
leery of tampering with services in the
health field.

She came equipped with a 10-page memo

outlining sections of the Accord which
would have an impact on health care deliv-
ery, including a list of 44 health and social
services ranging from hospitals, nursing
homes, homes for mentally and physically
disabled children and adults, public health
clinics, social work and blood banks whose
management could be contracted out to
American firms.

While contracting out management ser-
vices does threaten health care delivery, the
investment sections of the agreement pose
an even greater danger to medicare, warned
an economist and critic of the deal.

Marjorie Cohen said it would not. be

alarmist to predict that free trade would -

allow American investors to actually estab-
lish a parallel, privately-run medical and
social service network in Canada.

U.S. corporations could own hospitals,
clinics, nursing, residential and treatment
centres, ambulance and other services.
Since government privatization drives have
already placed parts of these services within
the private sector, U.S. firms could claim
government funding and or other breaks
under the “national treatment” provision in
the deal.

“This is why privatization is such a cru-
cial issue when considering the impact of
free trade,” Cohen added.

Great Lakes Fishermen’s Union set
to go into Canadian Auto Workers

LEAMINGTON, Ont. — After a suc-
cessful but bitter two-year struggle to gain a
union foothold in the Lake Erie fishing
industry, the Great Lakes Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union is merging with the
Canadian Autoworkers.

The fishing and shore workers in the lake
fishery decided to organize in 1986, and
appealed to the B.C.-based United Fisher-
men and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU)
for assistance. The union assigned Mike
Darnell to Ontario and paid his salary,
while the workers battled to establish and
consolidate their union.

But the UFAWU made it clear from the
outset that the Lake Erie workers would
have full autonomy to decide their eventual
course in the labour movement.

“There are great emotional ties to the
UFAWU,” said Darnell, “both to the
organization and to individuals who have
come here, such as UFAWU president Jack
Nichol and others. Those ties will always be
there. : :

“But the practical consideration was one
of geography, to join with affiliates of the
Ontario Federation of Labour and the CLC
involved here.” ’ al

The CAW last year accepted affiliation
from the Newfoundland Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union, the largest organiza-
tion in the Atlantic provinces. (According
to Contact, the CAW bulletin, the new
CAW affiliate, the Fishermen, Food and
Allied Workers Union, has just won the
right to represent more than 400 workers at
Fishery Product International’s Point aux
Choix plant. FPI is Newfoundland’s largest
fish processing company. As a result,
FFAW now represents more than 7,000
FPI workers in 11 Newfoundland plants
and on more than 50 trawlers.) :

~ The GLFAWU will be the marine div-
ision of CAW Local 444, the ‘massive
Chrysler local in nearby Windsor. It will
retain its own organizational staff, and con-
tinue to organize other workers on the
lakes. The merger will be completed by

January, 1989.

“Clearly the wave of the future for fishing
industry workers is some form of national
organization,” said Darnell. “We all face
the problem of quotas, stock depletion,
environmental degradation and free trade.
We require a Canada-wide approach. on
issues like fishing workers’ unemployment
insurance.”

The GLFAWU, formed in May 1986,
has already recorded victories of Canada-
wide significance. Now representing about
400 workers employed in 12 companies, its
workers were fired en masse when they app-
lied for certification in 1986.

In the hundreds of days of labour board
and court hearings that followed, the union
won the right to certify fishery workers on
10 vessels and three plants. But it took a
year to get the ballots counted.

The workers affected won reinstatement
and back wages of more than $100,000 in
one case.

Union contracts produced 29 per cent
wage increases for shore workers to $8 an
hour from the average of about $5 prior to
the union. Uncontrolled and unpaid over-
time has been ended.

— from The Fisherman

Labour-backed candidates
make gains in Regina vote

’ Special to the Tribune

Municipal elections results in Regina
have Tory federal candidates worried about
their chances in the upcoming federal vote.
Attempts by the Conservative Party and
business forces to win a city council major-
ity and impose a “Proposition 13” style tax
cut were decisively rejected by the electorate
Oct. 26. :

Labour and NDP-backed candidate
Doug Archer took 48 per cent of the vote, a
landslide win in a three-way race. Former
Tory cabinet minister Gordon Dirks had to
settle for 28 per cent. Six often council seats
went to the slate supported by the Regina
Labour Council and the local Coalition for
Social Justice. Only two right-wing candi-
dates made it. _

Persuaded a 10 per cent tax cut put on the
ballot by the local Business Alliance would
benefit large developers and retailers rather
than small home and property owners,
voters defeated the referendum by a 63 per
cent majority. A non-binding vote on the
province’s move to dismantle the ward sys-
tem was even more decisive — 74 per cent

want a return to the wards.

Together with these results, the 57 per
cent turnout marked a stunning defeat for
the Tory machine, with clear implications
for the federal election results in Saskatche-
wan.

The fact that Dirks’ expensive campaign
failed so dismally indicates that Tory candi-
dates in Regina’s three federal ridings are
likely headed for defeat. Poll results show-
ing opposition to the free trade deal are
higher here than: in any other province.
Another sign is that Premier Grant Devine,
who has campaigned loudly for the deal
since its announcement, has virtually disap-
peared from public view.

While labour was less successful in win-
ning council seats in Saskatoon, a referen-
dum declaring the city a nuclear weapons-
free zone won 60 per cent approval. This is
seen as a good result by peace activists, who
were up against uranium industry corpora-
tions who lobbied strongly for a “no” vote.
However, the potential impact of the vote
was weakened by judicial moves to water
down the original referendum wording.

Pacific Tribune, November 21, 1988 « 5

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