LABOUR

Labour unites to face Devine attack

Free Trade and labour’s fight for sur-
Vival were the Saskatchewan Federation
of Labour’s focus at its 32nd convention,
Oct. 21-23 in Saskatoon. Faced with an
unprecedented attack from the right, the

460 delegates came together in the most
united SFL meeing in recent years.

“This province belongs to the people,
Not the corporate elite or dictatorial poli-
ticians,’’ declared president Nadine
Hunt in her opening address. Point by
Point she warned of the dangers working
people face from the neo-conservative
agenda: annexation with the U.S. under
free trade; a Tory government deter-

Mined to make labour and the poor pay
for its financial crisis; massive jobless-
hess which will worsen after the stock
Market crash; and the deregula-
tion/privatization policies of the far right,
SO eagerly embraced by the Devine
government. *‘A plan and a program to
combat the forces at work to destroy

-us’’, and ‘‘as much solidarity as possible
With the other organizations in the Sas-
Katchewan Coalition for Social Justice’
are needed,. Hunt stressed.

Delegates unanimously agreed, calling
for active support for the Coalition. The
SCSJ was officially born Oct. 17, out of
the member groups of the ‘‘Interim Plan-
ning Group”’ responsible for the massive
June 20 rally against the Tories. Building
the SCSJ was only part of a solid 9-point
action program adopted by the delegates.
Other points include internal education,
‘bbying, public actions, media ads, and
boycotts. Work stoppages and a petition
to recall the Devine government are to be
Major long-term weapons in the battle to
Save Saskatchewan.

Speakers and delegates hammered
home the crucial struggle against free
trade, and adopted the pro-Canada.Net-
Work’s ‘*Statement on Free Trade”’ with
its call for an election. A special commit-
tee of the Federation and its major af-
filiates is to carry out the fightback pro-
gram, which includes free trade among
the issues it will address.

Labour briefs

From Regina

Kimball Cariou

Bills 46 and 47 were singled out by
many delegates as a sign of what’s ahead
for labour in Saskatchewan. This legisla-
tion ignores Section 37 of the Trade
Union Act, stripping workers at the
technical institutes and community col-
leges of their union membership and
rights during the Tory-imposed
amalgamation of these schools. The Sas-
katchewan Government Employees
Union (SGEU) is fighting this “‘decerti-
fication through legislation’ and the de-
struction of employee contract pro-
visions, and has begun signing up its
members again. As more government

services and crown corporations are

privatized, the Tories will no doubt take
the same route if possible.
Delegates got a chance to grill the
minister responsible for labour, Grant
Schmidt, following his ten-minute
speech favoring free trade at the conven-
tion. In reply to a series of pointed ques-
tions, Schmidt claimed ignorance of his
government’s intentions on various as-
pects of privatization and Trade Union
Act changes. Schmidt said the Tories are
acting against the labour movement and
other sections of society “‘in the interests
of the whole province’, a stance some
delegates compared to the views of Hi-
tler in Nazi Germany. Living up to his
reputation,..the .minister.dropped..one
‘Schmidticism’’; replying to a question
on pay equity, he said it “‘can’t be limited
to men and women’’, but must also in-
clude ‘‘cross-genders’’. This stunner left
his questioner pointing out that he should
stop evading the SFL Women’s Commit-

tee request for a meeting on the issue.
Other guest speakers had more to say.
Saskatchewan NFU co-ordinator Gil

Pederson zeroed in on his organization’s ~

major concern, free trade, and called for
closer cooperation of farmers and
labour. In a departure from the usual
politician’s call for votes, outgoing NDP
leader Allan Blakeney said ‘‘the fight
needs extraordinary measures’ if the
labour movement is to survive; he ad-
vocated stronger campaigns to educate
trade unionists about free trade, deregu-
lation, and privatization, combined with
a major drive to organize the unor-
ganized in order to “strengthen the
house of labour.’’ In contrast, his suc-
cessor, Roy Romanow, stressed the
election of an NDP government, without
advancing proposals for labour in the
three years before the next provincial
election.

Alberta Federation of Labour presi-
dent Dave Werlin was one guest speaker
to put forward a working-class alterna-
tive to the Tory line of ‘‘free trade or
protectionism’ ’, based on the building up

-of secondary industry, a massive housing

program, replacement of decaying urban
infrastructure, and diversified trade.
International solidarity was ‘another
major theme of the convention. Speakers
from. the. United Farm Workers Grape
Boycott Campaign, the Group of Rela-
tives of Detained-Disappeared of Chile,
and the El Salvador Human Rights
Commission all won standing ovations
and sizeable donations from delegates. A
resolution in support of the Tools for

:

Peace campaign was passed, and dele-
gates were informed of a similar cam-
paign for Mozambique, initiated by the
Grain Services Union.

Other resolutions called for anti-scab
legislation, support for aboringial rights,
criticism of the anti-labour actions of
CSIS, and support for postal workers.
Another positive development was the
announcement of the SFL’s anti-racism
campaign, including a conference early
next year. Solid support was given for
two long running strikes — the marathon
29-month strike by Retail-Wholesale
union members at the Pineland Co-op,
which has led to the boycott of Co-op
products in the province, and a seven-
month strike by seven employees of the
Swift Current Legion.

Only one issue, led to a division on the
convention floor. A move to raise SFL
dues by 10 cents to 55 cents per month
was opposed by the SGEU and RWDSU
caucuses, but won the necessary two-
thirds support. Some delegates argued
that the SFL executive has not shown
the leadership to justify the increase, the
first in four years. But even within the -
SGEU caucus, many argued that the in-
crease was needed to finance a major
struggle, and issue did not lead to angry
debate as in past years.

Some delegates expressed disap-
pointment that important questions such
as peace and disarmament, and the
Meech Lake accord, were not discussed,
an indication that the Left remains small
and poorly organized in the SFL. On the
other hand, unions and leaders often
considered *‘right-wing”’ here in the past
were all on board for the sharpening
struggle against the Tories. The fact that
this was not an election year, and that
Hunt is widely expected to step down
next fall, also removed one potential
source of division.

United around a strong program of ac-
tion, the 66,000 member SFL is poised to
play a major part in a stronger people’s
fightback in the year ahead.

FRG rejects
ILO findings

The Federal Republic of
Germany has rejected the
recommendation of an Inter-
national Labour Organization
commission to rescind the
McCarthyite law Berufsverbote
and has stepped up persecu-
tion under the act.

In September trade union
activist Herbert Bastian was
sentenced by a Federal Court
to a life long suspension from
his job as a post office em-
ployee. Bastian becomes the
first elected deputy in the FRG
to be convicted. He is a mem-
ber of the Marburg municipal
council, representing the Ger-
man Communist Party. Sev-
eral more Berufsverbote trials
are scheduled in the coming
months.

Enacted in 1972, the law
bans employment in any
government job for people
holding political views which

Security of the constitution’’.
The World Federation of
Trade Unions who filed the
complaint with the ILO, cited
Over 10,000 cases of civil ser-
Vice workers who have been
fired, denied work or discip-

are deemed a ‘‘threat to the .

Two victims of Berufsverbote: Jan Kochanowski a teacher and
economist Michael Jung. The placard states that they have been

offically labeled as “enemies of the FRG constitution”.

lined because of their political

views. . :

Berufsverbote takes in a wide
range of employees including
bath attendants, doctors,
judges, teachers, gardeners,

~ post office and railway work-

ers. Victims have included
trade unionists, Communists,
Green Party members (both
legal parties” in Germany),
peace activists and civil

- libertarians.

Trade union leaders have
been charged for producing
leaflets or holding demonstra-
tions in support of members
fired under the act. Charges re-
sult in the victim being black-
listed from other employment.

The commission’s findings,
released in May this year, hold
the FRG in violation with ILO
Convention 111, which bans
discrimination based on race,

beliefs.

The WFTU says it will, in
cooperation with the German
labour movement, examine
other means of fighting the law.

Post office
using scabs

The Toronto local of the
Canadian Union of Postal
Workers has discovered that
Canada Post is operating a
satellite office at 80 Signet
Drive, using scab labour from
the union’s recent strike.

“The operation of satellite

- scab offices is a massive con-

travention of our collective ag-
reement and will inevitably
cost the corporation a great
deal of money,’’ said Andre
Kolompar, first vice-president
of the Toronto local. ‘It also
puts a lie to the corporations
ongoing denial of the existence
of massive mail backlogs due

to the CUPW strike.”’

The union leader charged
that “‘the hiring of scabs as
regular or casual workers is an
immoral and unethical attempt
by the corporation to provoke
CUPW members.

Ghuuttaleadndlled abd ak ee ORNS eT ee ae

_ sex, religion or political —

“‘Clearly the corporation has
absolutely no interest in
improving labour relations in
the post office or showing any
respect for the workers who
have devoted years upon years
of service,’’ said Kolompar.

Kolompar said the post
office is using satellite opera-
tions to deal with the back log
of mail. ‘‘We have been
contracted by call casual
workers, who refused to work
as scabs during our strike, ad-
vising us that Canada Post is
by-passing casual workers
with at least one year’s experi-
ence in the post office and hir-
ing people who worked as
scabs for three or four days as
full time and part time regular

- employees.”

CAW ad
gets action

Over 1,500 people to date
have responded to the Cana-
dian Auto Workers ad which
appeared in major newspapers

across the country Oct. 21.

The union says the responses
have overwhelmingly sup-
ported the union’s call for a
general election on free trade.

etna

' PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 11, 1987 e 5