Lid Loui | LILI LL | LI Th oe LABOUR ~ CUPW facing 80 concession d Canada Post “hasn’t learned its lesson” from the letter carriers’ 20- day strike, the head of Vancouver’s inside postal workers union asserts. Marion Pollack, president of the Vancouver Local of the 22,000- member Canadian Union of Postal Workers, said the union faces a list of 80 concessions demands from the Crown corporation in upcom- ing negotiations. CUPW members, without a contract since June 30, 1986, face demands for layoffs, contracting out and a host of other measures “which are an insult to postal workers and which shows con- tempt for the public,” Pollack said in an interview. The concessions Canada Post wants of its inside workers attack in job security and weaken senior- ity, Pollack said. The Crown corporation seeks the unlimited use of casual empl- oyees, the nght to contract-out work, and layoff nghts. It wants expanded disciplinary powers and to “make the grievance procedure even more useless than it is now,” Pollack said. CUPW is heading to the table with a list that includes increased MARION POLLACK .. job security — with no layoffs or contracting-out — expanded and improved customer services, re- duced work time, further restric- tions on the use of temporary employees, adequate staffing, the right to honour picket lines and a pension plan for part-time empl- oyees. , Meanwhile, the Crown corpora- tion is stepping up actions against employees who publicly oppose the strategy of jobs and service cuts, Pollack noted. CUPW Vancouver chief ste- mands . job security, seniority attacked. ward Kathy Roczkowskyj was suspended July 3 for wearing a button protesting postal cutbacks. Pollack said 25 employees were suspended in Edmonton recently for similar reasons, and -discipli- nary measures were imposed on Sudbury, Ont. employees. Last month Vancouver Local vice-president Paul Lavallee re- ceived a letter on his file from his supervisor citing Lavallee’s activi- ties in the community group, Bur- naby Coalition for Postal Justice. CUPW is grieving the actions. de Hav workers stand firm over rollbacks Organizing the lakes LEAMINGTON — The fight to organize great lakes fisheries workers reached a historic milestone, June 26 with the signing of their first union contract. “It’s a historic agreement,” said Mike Darnell, executive secretary of the Great Lakes Fisheries and Allied Workers Union, ‘“‘because it’s the first fisheries contract in Canada that recognizes seniority.” Provisions of the pact in- clude guaranteeing 50 per cent of the crew catch to the work- ers; recognition of the union shop: a guaranteed minimum crew complement; guaranteed time for rest and lunch breaks; introduction of a grievance procedure; and the acceptance by the owner of a boat delegate who represents the crew’on the vessel and in the matter of poundage and weights of the catch to calculate payment. Though the contract covers nine workers on one vessel, Darnell called the union’s achievement ‘‘fairly substan- tial’’ for a first effort and a good basis for the other 12 agree- ments under negotiation. These include nine other vessels and three processing operations, he said. Three of the vessels, he added, are close to settlement. -contract offer, MISSISSAUGA — The near- unanimous rejection by some 3,000 de Havilland workers. of Boeing Aircraft’s union-gutting June 26, un- doubtedly was heard inside the paneled boardrooms of the American transnational’s Seattle headquarters. Details of Boeing’s “‘final”’ offer to Canadian Auto Workers locais 112 and 673 were greeted with shouts of “‘bullshit’’ and “‘no way’ as-they were presented by local*union officials. The cavernous International Centre was packed with the members of de Havilland’s pro- duction and salaried units as local 112 president Jerry Dias methodically laid bare the cor- poration’s frontal attack on job security and union rights. Dias itemized the whole litany of corporate demands to impose a concessions-riddled agreement patterned on conditions already in place ‘in Boeing’s American operation. © These include: weakening the grievance procedure and union representation in the plant; expanding management rights and hobbling the seniority system by putting layoffs on a depart- mental rather than plant-wide ba- sis, and seeking the right to return’ foremen and supervision to the bargaining unit with full seniority rights. Boeing also wants to change the shift system, ending the cur- rent weekly rotation and replac- ing the four 10 hour shifts with 8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 8, 1987 five, eight hour days. Manage- ment. wants to bring in compul- sory overtime, and the right to unilaterally schedule shifts and hours of work. unit, said the company’s pro- posals would penalize workers being promoted by eroding their bumping rights in the event of layoffs, and reward demoted supervision. ‘“‘They’re offering supervision something they want to take away from you,” she said. Consequently, Boeing’sent in its top labour relations guns from Seattle to conduct the de Havilland talks. Underlying the Boeing position is the corporation’s aim of pro- ducing aircraft cheaper than the international competition. Re- cently Colin Fisher, a corporation spokesperson, in a press inter- view defined job security as something which “‘is gained when a plane competes in the market- place.” In exchange for a $3,000 lump sum payment and a modest wage increase in the second and third years of the pact, Boeing is hop- ing the workers will trade away contract protection and relative job security won over years of tough bargaining and nine strike struggles. The 98 per cent rejection of the company’s contract proposal by both units should dash those hopes. De Havilland worker Ernie Fitzpatrick summed up the strikers’ attitude to the Boeing strategy when he declared: “They can’t just push around wherever they want.” Labour in action Canadian Auto Workers President, Bob White, emphasized - that this is the ““hook’’ needed to win the strongest and : concessionary A GEORGE HEWISON of union busting The current strike of DeHavilland workers at Downsvi Ontario is about union busting. —_— - In a message to the members, prior to eae a ake security’? and concessions as the key issues in the dispute these days of mass unemployment and insecurity, it may well united resistance of the workers to the Boeing/De Havill assault. | It is also related to fhe union’s eect strategy of provic basic contract wording on job security “‘while the sun shines, anticipation of a severe economic downturn a year or so he But the strike is even more fundamental to the Canadian union movement than the matter of jobs and Job security important as these issues are. Even witha strong, effective union there can be no lasting security in an economic system dictated by the marketplace corporate greed. With a strong effective union, individual _ ployees have a fighting chance against unemployment. With a union presence, workers have a modicum of prot ti _ against employer prejudice, or being sacrificed on the: al profit. Without a union, the workers stand alone Boe the stre -and fury of international capital. Union security cannot be s¢ rated from job security: The stronger the union, the: stronger protection. Locals 112, and 673 of the Canadian Autoworkers are ame the strongest union locals in Canada. An American pattern: : This has the new masters of de Havilland in Seattle piqu The Boeing Company has been busy trying to convert its government gift (de lg into a model of its Ameri operations. : “Ina list of corporate otaectives éntitied “Taking de Havil Into the 1990s,”’ released earlier this moh alc com y | phasizes its four main concerns - “1. Maximize QUALITY; — 2. Minimize COST; Penk 3. Meet SCHEDULE; — oe _ 4. Enhance the TECHNICAL INTEGRITY ¥ of our produ The. company stated that it ‘*must meet and beat th n.’’ This is the dine which every employer uses = And for the company this is true. _ They have tabled See to dheoiplie Saplovees wi _ just cause; and would place the: burden of proof on the emplo to prove innocence before filing a grievance. Skill and ability v replace seniority in assigning work. These proposals, i in d¢ _ themselves, are enough to cripple a union. Supervisory personnel could return to. the bargaining u u any time. This BICpoyal: as well, eke ne the question of eaevante procedure and union repre sentation are all scion undermined in the company proposal. There are many 0 emands all spec rned by the lure of a tl