+ dis

“| don’t recall ‘management giving you:

‘a baby on Company J

oe.

Equality for women
aim of gov't union

: campaign attacking
discrimination against women will
launched by the 35,000-member

-. Government ; Employees’

Non at its Juné 7-8 convention,

CGEU treasurer Nancy Hamilton
Said this week.

“The aims of the campaign will

to eliminate sexism in the work-
Place and within union ranks,’’ she
Said in a statement. She added that
“Onvention delegates will be asked

endorse a series of proposals
*Pproved at an International

Omen’s Year conference of 75 of

he BCGEU’s. women officers in

ancouver May 31 and June 1:

Hamilton said the proposals
Made by the union’s local women
Officers are intended to eliminate

SCrimination in the provincial
Aue serive at the bargaining

e,

She said, bargaining goals set for

BeceU negotiators for the
°CGEU’s 1975-76 master contract
elude demands for:
& ® A separate sick leave’ clause
Ntitling women to time off with
Pay to care for children during
ness, \

a Payment by the employer of
i ld Care expenses for employees

© are occasionally required to
Tavel in the course of their work.
w'Renegotiation “of
Criminatory or arbitrary job
Walifications which serve to ex-
pace women from promotional
PPortunities. :

® Changes in public service
henge programs, many of them
°W excluding job levels. held
Predominantly by women.
® Changes in new government

Soviet youth

leader visits

; Recreational and cultural ex-
anges between Canadian and
viet youth would be valuable to
peoples, concluded a Soviet
osomol leader following a visit
y ancouver and discussions with
ULCA representatives.
th atoly Paroknin, a secretary of
i Komsomol had spent 10 days
BNE the country with in-
cits’ Yuri Kondratenko in-
2g stops in Montreal, Ottawa,
Ipeg, Regina and Vancouver.

ay
rey returned to the Soviet Union
id ;

ay
mat of the time had been spent
bres YMCA groups who had
op umably arranged the visit.
to roknin pointed out that the
ing was. intended to exchange
ormation about youth

Oho
vu; Sanization in the Canada and the

Pe and to explore possible areas
fie) qd beration particularly in the
of sports, music and art.

hiring policies allowing two women
to hold one job, each working on a
half-time basis.

e Improvement in the master
contract’s maternity leave clause.

e Establishment of government-
sponsored child care facilities for
all working mothers.

She said the new sick leave

“clauses is needed because under

existing provisions some

provincially-employed women: -

with children are using up too
much of their sick leave time to
look after ailing children and find

that they have no sick: leave.

benefits when they are ill them-
selves. :

She said one of the government’s
major executive training
programs is restricted to people
working at the Clerk 4 level.

“Not one in a thousand Clerk 4’s
is a woman, which means that
women are in effect shut out of this
program and the promotional
opportunities it provides,’ she
said.

Hamilton said reforms within the
BCGEU demanded by women
officers at the IWY conference
included payment by the BCGEU
of child care expenses for officers
while on union business.

“One of the reasons women are
reluctant to get
leadership roles in the BCGEU and
other. unions is that most working
women cannot afford to pay for
child care while they attend union
meetings,’’ she said.

The conference also called for
regular conferences and
workshops for BCGEU women
members to encourage them to
take on their share of leadership
roles in the union, she said.

“The BCGEU has recently made
some advances in the area of
equality of women,” she said.
“Three months ago there were less
than 50 women serving as officers
of the union’s 140 locals. We now

have about 100 local women of-

ficers.”’
“But considering. that we have
about 17,000 members, it is clear

that there is much to be ac-

complished.”’

She said the conference last
weekend and others to come will
serve to sharpen the awareness of
the union’s women members about
the extent of sexist discrimination.

“Most women are conditioned
from infancy to accept

discrimination and second-class:

citizenship,” she said.

“These conferences will help to
bring home to women the
realization that they’re living in a
man’s world and that the only way

they’re going to change things is to -

organize and take their share of
power and decision-making in the
home, in their union and in the
workplace.”

involved in.

For the embattled trade union
movement in Quebec the answer to
the Bourassa government’s attack
on labor will be the careful
rebuilding of the common front for
the 1975 contract negotiations in
the public sector.

The program for a new and more
solidly based common front was
outlined to about 300 attentive
listeners last Thursday evening by
the leader of one of the three major
trade union centres in Quebec,
Yvon Charbonneau. -

Charbonneau, the president of
the Quebec Teachers. Corporation
(CEQ), spoke at a public meeting

at John Oliver auditorium, and was |

also scheduled to speak at SFU.
The anti-labor legislation

following the report of: the Cliche

Commission: ‘is’ what - happens

- when unions are isolated from one

another,’’ the CEQ president
stressed, ‘it took. advantage of

_weaknesses .in the solidarity of

Quebec workers.” ° .
The great lesson of the Cliche
affair, he said; is that ‘“‘more than

ever, we: tmitist cast an appeal for’

the unity of Quebec workers. It is
with spirit that we are preparing
for anew common front this year.”’

This time around it will be a

.stronger unity owing to the six

months of preparations that have
already taken place. “We are

cautious to be not too ambitious,”’:.

he explained, “‘but to hit the target
more precisely.” .

The three trade union centres, —
the Quebec Federation of Labor,
the Confederation. on National
Trade Unions and the CEQ, will-sit
around a central bargaining table
for public service negotiations —
but united on ‘‘exclusively
economic grounds.”’ Pointing to in-
flation and economic crisis as the
dominant reality for all workers,
Charbonneau termed it ‘‘the nat-
ural common ground for a common
front that is firmly based.

“But behind the traditional
economic demands,”’ he continued;
“there are deeper social’ and
political issues at stake, especially
in the public sector. It is no use to
keep our membership ignorant of
our social and political demands.”

A second difference in the new

‘must be unity of labor

common front will be the added
unity at the local level. In the.
struggles of. 1972, the- speaker
noted, ‘‘We had to work rapidly
and were forced to neglect regional
fronts. We learned the tremendous
importance of local union
cooperation when the time for
action came.

“For this reason we have in-
sisted -that local unions. get
together and from common
priorities. and methods of
propaganda in their own region. It
is a substantial addition to a well
grounded common front.” __

_ As an immediate step, Char-

bonneau pointed to the CEQ

proposal to the other centres for a
series of up to 100 meetings of local
unions in every major centres in
Quebec. The meetings, proposed
for this summer, are to discuss the
dangers of the anti-labor

‘legislation and thé importance of
unity in the face of the legislation.

and for success in their contract
talks. “There is only one way to
overcome division,”’ he said, ‘‘take

it to the membership.” They do not"

understand rivalries and they will
not put up with them.”

Terming the participation of the
CEQ vice-president on the Cliche
Commission a “‘painful and. dif-
ficult decision’. because of the
CEQ’s principled opposition to

CHILEAN WOMEN
HOLD MEETING

The Chilean women of Van-
couver have invited Canadian
women and representatives of
women’s organizations to a
meeting at the Status of Women’s
offices, 2029 West 4th Ave., Van-
couver, on Thursday, June 19 from
7:30 to 10 p.m.:

Association, Women’s: Com-
mission, purpose of the meeting

will. be to. inform Canadian women .

about conditions in their country,
and to establish closer ties with
women’s groups in the city.

For information phone Maggie
McLeod, 732-3772 from 8:30 a.m. to
4p.m.

* ideology.”

government interference in - the
trade union:.movement, the
teacher’s president called the
Cliche report ‘‘a smokescreen to
implement anti-labor législation in
the government’s mind for two or
three years.”’ He said that the CEQ
agreed to the inclusion of their
vice-president on the commission
only because of the insistence of
the QF Land CNTU that they do so.
“The report could have been much
worse,” he said. —
Bourassa’s legislation did not

reflect. the report of: the com-
mission but seized. on specific

comments of the report to justify
the repressive measures, which

‘according ‘to Charbonnéau, in-

dicate.a new tactic of the Liberals

‘to’ smash .the Quebec’ labor

movement. ‘‘They.have gone
beyond external measures to
smash labor as_in the past,” he

said, ‘to a new step + control of *~.

unions from the inside.’ This, he

explained, is the central strategy ©

behind the legislation. that will
control strike votes, impose
unreasonable administrative
obligations, and other measures up
to and including trusteeship.

“The much publicized ‘Lessons of - -
May 1’’ — the CEQ study guide for -:

classroom instruction.-attacked ‘in

the Quebec legislature as being -

“Marxist” — was.meant only as a:
“modest. contribution,’’ Char-:

bonneau said. But after the ©
publicity in the legislature more ..
than 100;000 of the guides have |

been printed and sold.

Since the adoption at the 1972
CEQ convention of the manifesto —
entitled ‘‘Our schools serve the
ruling class’”’ several committees
have been working on the problem
of the class. content of course

‘material and the school system.as .
_-a@ whole.

Called by the Vancouver Chilean -

: The CEQ, stated Charbonneau,
‘has made a- considerable con-

-tribution. to thedevelopment of

class consciousness in Quebec.: For
teachers it is not good enough to
have social and political in-

Volvement if in every day work life —

they reinforce class distinction and
the. dominant: ‘ruling: - class

mm ® CPRG. 300y QHeHRCCTH cogs,

BHTOK eee2 sata 99.07, 9905

S408 Sunce = cw. ee
CBT 16.49.94 - 14, 53.39 O7.08
TEA $6.50. 98 = 46.97.94 04.46

GHC 16.34.89 ~ 17.86.48 046.43
KAN 46.37.22 =. 17.03.48 06,26
WAM 47.04.02 ~ 17.07.93 04.53

WOK 17.09.92 = 87.18.81 06.08
GUM 17.43.09 ~ 17.20. 17 07.0%

ASO 17-49. 94 > 47.97.02 07-04

i

H
i

The experimental flight of space ships Soyuz and Apollo will take place in
for the joint U.S.-Soviet flight preparations are going ahead b

centres. Photo shows the main hall of the Soviet flight contro! centre.

July, 1975. As the date draws near

y both countries to set up joint flight control |
oe: : —Tass photo

ia : ‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 6, 1975—Page 3

ev