LABOR UAW discusses autonomy for Canadians By MIKE PHILLIPS TORONTO — Autoworkers came to their Canadian Council meet- ing, Dec. 1-2, ready to open a debate on Canadian autonomy that could have a profound impact on this country’s entire trade union movement. United Auto Workers Canadian director Bob White promised to have ‘‘some interesting things to say”’ about the_structure of the future relationship between the Canadian and U.S. sections of the union as the UAW’s leading body in Canada was preparing to meet. Throughout the recent contract talks with General Motors and Ford, the independent bargaining stance which has evolved in the Canadian section’s refusal to accept the international’s policy of concessions bargaining had fueled continuous speculation on the state of relations between the Canadian and U.S. leaderships. While Canadian UAW members have achieved a measure of relative autonomy within the international structure, the sentiment for real Canadian autonomy based on equality with the U.S. autoworkers within a framework of fraternal relations, has always run close to the surface in the Canadian locals. The international’s denial of strike benefits to the MacDonnel Doug- las strikers in the early 70s thus forcing an end to that battle, despite the will of Canadian aircraft workers to carry on, was a major development in the realization by Cariadians that structural changes in the relation- ship with Detroit were needed that would give Canadians greater control over their own affairs. The tensions within the union internationally were papered over with a certain measure of defacto autonomy, but when it came right downto constitutional power the U.S. headquarters always felt it could call the shots. The no-concessions strike at Chrysler in 1982 and the current 13- week General Motors strike to establish an independent Canadian contract pattern in the industry showed that the constitutional struc- ture was a weapon the international could scarcely afford to use, while it set limits to how far Canadians could go in completing their own agenda. While overwhelmingly endorsing the Canadian GM settlement _ recommended to them by White and the Canadian GM council, many GM workers felt more could have been achieved. had it not been for interference in the process by international president Owen Bieber. It became obvious throughout the talks, with references by White to ‘‘strained’’ and sharp telephone conversations with Bieber that the international was leaning on the Canadian bargaining committee to accept the same kind of concessions contract negotiated in the U.S. It is now known in the plants that the international executive board Voted unanimously to cut off strike benefits to the Canadians in an attempt to force them to accept the U.S. GM pattern. Such developments have fed the Canadian workers’ demands for more autonomy. Now, two UAW locals, the Scarborough GM van plant, Local 303, and Local 707 Ford Oakville recently passed resolu- tions voicing these*demands. The Local 303 resolution passed unanimously at the local’s Nov. 25 membership meeting. It noted the ‘“‘different views’? the U.S. and Canadian leaders held on which path their respective unions should take. ‘‘The only way that we as Canadian UAW members can have true solidarity with our brothers and sisters south of the border is through the complete equality of the two unions in both countries’, the resolu- tion declared. Local 303 called on the Canadian UAW to ‘‘declare its right to complete control over all strike funds and other monies generated (in Canada) throughout the years ...’’; that this control over dues and strike funds be free of any outside interference; that a Canadian UAW constitution be drafted establishing the Canadians’ rights to set their own policy; and that ‘‘ties of equality and mutual solidarity”’ be main- tained between Canadian and U.S. autoworkers with the development of common structures and organizational ties where common interests dictate. : White has publicly denied any intention of breaking away from the international, but he has emphasized the need for structural reforms in the relationship. As the resolutions from Local 303 and other locals show, Canadian autoworkers want to run their own affairs in Canada and they want the constitutional clout that lets them.do it. The process they initiate Dec. 1 should not only bring them closer to that goal, but it could also help point the way forward to Canadian workers in other internationals who share those same goals. William Stewart is on assignment 6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 5, 1984 Md —q SAS) iN a --IT MEANS MORE OF THE LIFE / ‘ : ees Ved tik tt 4 Srsligatal Kn Gmcee © Sis tla ecw me. sD abs PFS LOI IVES My, ST. JOHN’S — Backed by massive solidarity by the Communications Workers of Canada, and a provincial Coalition for Equality, 835 Newfound- land Telephone workers are picketing their way through their sixth month on strike. | Local 410, CWC walked off the job at the Bell Canada subsidiary July 5. The strike involves workers in three different groups, the clerical staff which was organized for the first time in January, operators and the craft and plant workers who had left the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, in August of ’83 to join the CWC. Job security, protection from the adverse affects of technological change and standardized benefits for all three groups are some of the key issues in the dispute. Newfoundland Tel’s three year wage offer of 12 per cent over the term of the agreement is also _ a problem union officials say. Accepting it would keep Newfoundland tele- phone workers further behind their fellow workers in the industry throughout Canada, CWC members say. The top plant wage in Newfoundland by the end of 1984, the union notes, would be $513 a week. In the second year this would increase to $525. Bell Canada workers in Quebec and Ontario currently earn $660 a week. Operators there presently earn well over $100 a week above the $301 (84), and $310 (85) a week management wants the Newfoundland workers to accept. Freeze Inequalities Management’s line at the bargaining table is to freeze current inequalities in benefits that arose from the fact the clerks weren’t organized and to try and force concessions from the other groups, particularly in the contract’s job security pro- visions. Newfoundland Tel refuses to give the clerks the same benefits it already provides to plant workers and operators, no provisions for protection against tech change, won’t post job openings in other departments, provide a second 15 minute break during the day or grant them the Rand Formula. In the other groups, the company has made no firm offer in approving vacations, and wants to change the agreement to give itself the unilateral right to layoff and recall workers without refering to seniority. The company also wants to cut down the paid noon meal time by demanding the workers eat in their trucks, and has fallen far short of union demands for better Northern Allowances, New Years’ Eve bonuses, and compensation for week- end work. : Like the phone industry in general, Newfound- land Tel isn’t suffering. The company’s officers gave themselves a 23.5 per cent salary hike in 1983 and another 5 per cent increase in 1984: Company RRA PORN Nfld. telephone workers | enter sixth month on line - imposed on public sector workers for 1983 and °84, industrial workers to counter attack on the wages — "massive financial aid from’ the rest of the CWC profits increased 15 per cent in 1983 over the pre- | vious year. = Zero and Zero And, like the bosses throughout Canada, the company is relying on the province’s Tory — government to buttress their cheap offer. They're pointing to premier Brian Peckford’s infamou zero and zero wage option the government has” as an-excuse not to bring Newfoundland telephone workers into line with workers in the rest of th country. CWC workers and officials know that breaking ~ the company’s concessions-based bargaining strategy could strike a death blow to Peckford’ two-year public sector wage freeze by encouraging ~ government workers to go for a catch up increase — in next years’ talks as well as spurring the other front. It’s a perception that is shared by many other Newfoundland workers and their allies. The strik- ers have won the support of the recently-formed — Coalition for Equality, an Operation Solidarity-— type coalition uniting labor groups, teachers, the churches, and women’s organizations. In addition, the strikers have been receiving across the country. That assistance is greatly needed where strike pay amounts to $70 a week, _ and there aren’t any jobs available to them to ‘moonlight’ and augment. what they get for per- forming their strike duties. Massive Solidarity Bell locals throughout the country are agreein to a per capita levy of $3 per member per month fo the duration of the strike. Many locals have already raised money for strike and are now putting that fund raising o permanent footing. One Toronto local, for exam ple, was raising $1,000 a month and now has als agreed to raise the per capita donation as well Union officials hope such inner union generosil will help strikers to meet mortgage payments an other bills that run up throughout such a struggl Bell Canada, which is currently in talks with the CWC for a new contract for workers in eastern Canada, hasn’t been putting any pressure on i Newfoundland subsidiary to settle. The union has put shorter work time with framework of improved job security as the ke topic in the current round of talks with Bell. For it part the company seems to be trying to exhaust th union with the Newfoundland fight in order to try making headway with its concessions-lade bargaining program in Eastern Canada. : The CWC doesn’t intend to let that happen.