LABOR: CP urges tough bargaining at Stelco HAMILTON — Workers at the Steel Company of Canada (Stelco) have to let the company know they mean business in the forthcoming negotiations for a new . contract, the Communist Party’s Hamilton Steel Club declared in a recent leaflet distributed among Stelco workers. : “The success of our upcoming negotiations with Stelco depends on all of us to back our demands’’, the Steel Club said in its first leaflet to the Stelco workers, which also noted that without determined membership backing the Steelworkers Local 1005 negotiating com- mittee can’t get the workers the improvements which are needed. The communists at Stelco pointed out how the corpo- ration paid out some $157-million in dividends to its shareholders in 1979, and that despite a drop in 1980 profits, due to the massive investment in the ultra- modern facility at Nanticoke, the company’s profits *‘will still be very large and any attempts at ‘pleading poverty’ as the company tried to do in 1978 must be rejected out of hand.”’ : The leaflet pointed out how Stelco workers’ and all workers’ ‘“‘buying power is decreasing because of infla- ‘tion and the devalued dollar’, (which has benefited Stelco and not the workers), and that this fact ‘‘is addi- tional reason to demand more wages.” Among the demands the Steel Club proposed should be fought for in this forthcoming round of contract talks are a substantial wage hike to catch up with rising prices and an improved cost of living adjustment (COLA) clause to allow workers’ wages to keep up with inflation. The shorter work week with no loss of pay, earlier and better pensions, including increasing the pensions of current retirees, and better protection against layoffs and job elimination were all included in the club’s sugges- tions for contract improvement. The leaflet also calfed for better health and safety provisions in the new pact which would go beyond what the law currently provides for, as well as language in the new pact stopping all forms of discrimination and an end to contracting out of union work. With the auto industry on the skids, the decline in ISS 2-8{-Ne | | 4 \ | consumer goods production due to higher interest rates: | and a drop in housing starts, the leaflet noted that the current boom in the steel industry can’t go on forevel. ‘‘We must act now toimprove our conditions and protec! ourselves’, the Steel Club urged. | The leaflet also pointed to the possibility of job 105$ ! because of the more modern and efficient facilities NOW on stream at Stelco’s new Nanticoke works. It has thé capacity to out-produce the current Hilton Works facil- ity with a fraction of the workforce, and a dip in the ste@ industry could leave many steelworkers out in the cole” along with the million or so Canadian workers presently unemployed. j The Steel Club also hammered working conditions hiring policies particularly directed against women. _many parts of Stelco and the company’s discriminatory As it currently stands, Ontario’s health and safety legislation, the Club charged ‘‘is not good enough and steps must be taken to improve conditions in the worst areas(of its plants) where Stelco has refused to act.” ~ Blasting Stelco’s discriminatory hiring practice’ against women, which were aggressively challenged by4 determined fight by Local 1005 and women workers 13 forcing Stelco to begin hiring women, the leaflet exposed | the company’s practice of isolating minority group’ within the plants. The communists also accused Stelc0_ of exploiting non-unionized ‘‘outside’’ labor and stres sed the necessity for protection in the forthcoming - agreement against discrimination and non-union col tracting out. a J-M got license to kill TORONTO — Doreen White, widow of a Johns Manville Co. worker killed by working with asbestoS told Ontario’s Royal Commission probing the safety of asbestos, Feb. 17, that Ontario’s Tory government gavé companies like Johns-Manville in the asbestos industry? | license to kill. ‘‘I’m damned angry that somebody can d0 this to another human being’’, she told the provincial inquiry. ‘‘The Ontario health department gave Johns Manville a legal license to murder and they did it they (the government) didn’t stop them,”’ she charged. Fred White contracted terminal cancer after 29 year’ working for J-M, making asbestos-cement pipe. Earlie! ‘m the inquiry, Bob Stewart, secretary-treasurer of thé Chemical Workers Union reported that 39 workers at thé J-M plant had died of asbestos-related diseases. ‘No reprisals against hospital workers Following the Ontario hospital workers’ strike, labor scribes have been speculating whether the strike was a defeat, a victory or a partial defeat, or partial vic- tory. In fact that question is not yet fully resolved. ._ It will be time to make a final judgement when the arbitration award comes down and the re- prisals against the militants have been settled. These two questions are indivisibly linked. The report from the arbitration board will, in large measure, be determined by the ability of the union to unite its ranks, and to- gether with the entire labor movement, force the hospital boards to drop all their vicious and unwarranted charges against rank and file strike leaders. Hospitals are funded by the. public and the bulk of their money comes out of the pockets of work- ing people. It is totally unaccept- able that Tory-thinking, and ‘Tory-appointed hospital boards shoudl use their positions to undertake such high-handed and drastic actions against workers whose only crime was to act to protect their already meagre liv- ing standards. This is the same PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 27, 1981—Page 8 Ontario Hospital Association which is striving to-bust the Un- ited Auto Workers’ Blue Cross local. Compare this treatment with the unpunished actions of the big multi-national oil companies who are conducting a strike against the Canadian Government’s energy policies, shutting down oil wells and transferring monies made in Canada to the U.S. and other countries. Here workers are treated to a classic example of capitalist justice. a * aK The great courage displayed by Ontario hospital workers in defy- ing the undemocratic law which forbids them the right to strike in Ontario, now needs to be matched by a solidarity move- ment by all labor which can sec- ure the jobs of all the strikers and win the best possible settlement from the arbitration board. The main responsibility for this “movement must rest with the leadership of the union in Ontario. Criticism is never hard to find, and sometimes even cheap. For this reason anyone should be careful before second guessing . the leadership of a strike move- ment, particularly one so critical as the recent hospital strike. However, one cannot avoid holding up for question the role of leadership of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Ontario up to and during the re- cent strike. They were not heard from. They did not appear at meetings LABOR IN ACTION or demonstrations, nor did they organize them. The strike, itself was poorly organized and co- ordinated. There was little or no communication, picket lines were sparse and not mobilized in most areas; and information on the lines was through rumor and: counter rumor, more often than not inspired by hospital manage- ment. Even now in the wake of the strike, little has been heard from the top leadership in Ontario about plans to ensure the defeat of the OHA reprisals. = President. Grace Hartma speaks of making the question a political issue in the Ontario elec- tion campaign. This is quite useful but surely the first question is the protection of the jobs of the mili- tant workers. So far, we have heard little or nothing from the New Demo- cratic Party on this. We heard. even less from them during the strike. Ontario leader Michael Cassidy, when pressed in Ottawa for public support of their strike by CUPE members, said he could be of more use in the legislature than-by making such statements. A clear indication that the NDP considered the strike a liability to their fortunes in the Ontario elec- tion. What kind of action is this from a political leader who ex- pects trade unionists to support his party in the current, election campaign? * * * It is probably not the responsi- bility of this column to speculate on the reasons for the failure of the Ontario CUPE leadership to have been up front in the crucial strike of their hospital members. ' Certainly if one compares it to the support given by Sean O’Flynn to the strike, and the stance he took when his own On- tario Public Service Employees Union members in Ontario jails conducted an illegal strike, one has at least a sharp contrast i approach. Compared to the leadership being given to the strike struggles — now under way in British Colum bia, one also sees a difference be tween the approach, not only of | individual unions but between thé B.C. Federation of Labor, and the Ontario Federation of Labof. This is something we need 10 © come back to at another time. There can be no excuses how. ever for any failure on the part of the leadership of the union, 39 well as the OFL, and, if called 00) the Canadian Labor Congress, 0 throw its entire weight behind thé demand: No reprisals, drop all charges against hospital workers: — In the longer term, labor must intensify its battle for the right t? strike for all workers. If these things are done the strike of the hospital workers will go down as a victory. If they aré not, the responsibility will rest with the CUPE leadetship and the leadership of the trade unio? movement as a whole, not the hospital workers, who did what they had to do for labor’s rights and to protect their living stat dards and the living standards of all working people. ee al tae ye ee ja emis