oe elke S&S wm => --~-— owns 4 ST bs Ore Alberta fed invites people to unite and ‘join the war on 44 EDMONTON — The Alberta Federation of bor (AFL) has come out swinging in its fight *gainst the Tory provincial government's anti- Union legislation Bill 44. off May 14 the AFL held an emergency meeting ts affiliates, non-affiliated organizations and the Sneral public to conduct “real public hearings’’ on 44, the Tories’ brutal assault on collective bar- » S4ining rights in the public sector and to map out a Toad, peoples’ coalition to fight the obnoxious Proposed law. le meeting has been billed the ‘‘real’’ public labo Bs into Bill 44 because of the wide range of T, political, and other organizations throughout erta excluded from the government's hearings. epee the federation issued it’s ‘‘Urgent Call to Tit On’’, under AFL president Dave Werlin’s sig- _ lure, May 3, AFL affiliates have been contacted, ; federation leaders have conducted press confer- we €s and three-quarter page advertisements call- 48 the public to take part in labor’s hearings have thr N placed in most of the largest newspapers fOughout the province. Werte aim in holding this meeting is two-fold”’, Q erlin told the Tribune May 12. ‘‘First we want to cl the injustice and the insult expressed in the a vernment’s so-called public hearings, by provid- Bh a forum for all those who wish to be heard on Views aud who were denied a chance to air their ws before the legislative committee last April. fo ondly we want to get agreement in principal T resolutions demanding the withdrawal of Bill Just law is enacted, the federation will unite all the ©Mocratic forces in Alberta to support any union Tganization in the province, union leader or union member that is persecuted or prosecuted under the *gislation’’, Werlin said. € federation is planning a massive publicity ont Paign to galvanize opposition to the bill, not Y Within labor’s ranks but deep into the general “ommunity as well. la © May 14 meeting will also be called upon to t Unch a ‘‘war chest’’ to defend unions under at- a by the government through the reactionary bo ‘We're preparing for the formation of a broad Pular coalition ‘to join in war on 44’ as our slogan » and pledging that if this undemocratic and un- — says’’, Werlin stated. “We intend to unite affiliates, non-affiliated unions, public interest groups, the churches, the unemployed, civil liberties organiza- tions and all the democratic forces in Alberta who share our concer for these issues.” The list of organizations who’ ve indicated to the federation their intention to present briefs on the AFL’s public hearings into the bill shows the undemocratic nature of the Tory government of Premier Peter Lougheed. Each of the following organizations was denied an opportunity to present its brief to the legislature standing committee studying Bill 44. : So far the list includes: the Alberta section of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union; the Alberta Labor Law Committee of the Canadian Bar Association; the Edmonton and District Labor Council; the Alberta Committee of the Communist Party; the Edmonton Committee of Unemployed; the Alberta Human Rights and Civil Liberties Association; the Social Justice Commission of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Edmonton, the McMurray Independent Oil Workers Union; the Edmonton Voters’ Association; and the Alberta Liberal Association. DAVE WERLIN | Teachers score partial victory — * around the demands for job creation through slashing the $7-bil- Victo Strai in contract after Tory lockout eS CATHERINE GRACE fous JOHN’S — The New- nro Teachers Association end; ) returned to work May 3 Ng a three-week lockout by with svincial Tory government, . 4 Contract teachers say is a Ty despite the three-week Pay loss, erect Brian Peckford’s ice’ ment locked the prov- they 7,600 teachers out after Tule ; announced a work-to- Vative. Tesponse to the Conser- car. 8°vernment’s refusal to On meani tract talks ingful con’ The nearl y-bankrupt New- foundiand CU CMmeA netted Ost $19-million by locking the Were rs out. While the teachers forced to accept wage re- Rts they did force the its Oment into concessions of wn chains won from the Tories in- .© Stopping the government’s has Teduce pay for substitute line’ yee a third to ‘‘bring it in Provinces, substitute pay in other NTA pointed out that the ma had been agreed on during _ Sotiations in October 1982, and that the government was contract stripping. The union also argued that av- erage pay for substitutes is $3,000 a year’ and to cut it by one-third would reduce it to $2,000. _A second concession they won from the government was equal representation for teachers on a group that will study issues including the length of the teach- ing day, class sizes and others. The government had been op- posed to granting equal represen- tation to the teachers. The NTA succeeded in retain- ing a whole range of other items the’ government was trying to carve out of the contract. Teacher Solidarity e biggest victory for the cee eet Newfoundland and Labrador was the strong soli- darity the NTA built up during the struggle. The government may have expected that it could split the teachers and weaken the bar- gaining unit, but the opposite happened. Even teachers who were staunch Tories have taken to wearing buttons or T-shirts bearing the slogan: “We will remember.” Peckford has publicly re- marked that the teachers will have forgotten the dispute by the next provincial election. The Labrador West teachers, who have a separate contract and so weren't locked out, voted to contribute $100 each for the sup- port of the locked out teachers. Also, some teachers who taught in specialized institutions and were not locked out, contributed heavily. The government was unable to drum up much ps resentment against the teachers. The parent- teacher associations refused to take sides in the dispute, only urg- ing both sides to negotiate and get the schools re-opened. The students, who when inter- viewed on television seemed sympathetic to the strike, but are facing examinations this spring, said the government’s lock-out made them anxious to return to classes. As the government unlocked -the school doors to let teachers back in, May 3, teachers went back to their jobs — but they won't forget. » i KR WM CS 5 ‘‘T have been seeking work since May 1982... in the last eleven months I have contended with closed doors, government bureaucracy, measly UI benefits and the spectre of destitution. The last year has been one of continuous and mounting frustration.” * * * Chris Frazer of Edmonton hates the cynicism and hypocrisy of the recent federal Liberal government budget. “‘It’s a banker’s budget, a budget for business. Lalonde has made business the ‘engine of the economy’ consigning the unemployed to the role of fuel, grease and exhaust’, Frazer recently wrote the Tribune. It is the hopelessness fed by federal and provincial budgets, like Lalonde’s and more recently those of the Ontario Tory and Parti Quebecois governments that prompted the Young Commu- nist League to launch its campaign for Jobs for Youth. _ The YCL’s Job Action Committees (JACs) have taken to the streets in cities across Canada with posters and more than 30,000 leaflets urging young men and women, whose unemployment rate is double the total Canadian jobless rate, to ‘‘get angry’’ and make themselves heard. Chris Frazer and thousands of unemployed workers like him from Vancouver to St. John’s see through the phoniness of federal programs like NEED, (New Employment and Expansion Development) and their provincial clones. ‘“With any luck, we might get enough work to re-qualify for UI benefits — at a much reduced level of payment’’, says Frazer. * * * JAC chairperson Margaret Hall condemns other more sinister plans Ottawa has for unemployed youth. The plan to recruit them into the armed forces, part time, has the YCL, other democrats and organized labor concemed. ‘‘The danger is, if the govern- ment pushes through with its recruitment of the young un- employed into the armed forces, youth could find themselves organized to provide scab labor, break demonstrations — in short be turned against the labor and democratic movements’, she says. The Jobs for Youth campaign is out to rally young people: lion war budget, an end to education cutbacks and tuition fee increases, and for comprehensive job training and youth ap- prenticeship programs. ed They also want to see anend to UIC cutbacks, and extension of benefits for the full term of unemployment. Hall says the Toronto JAC is planning to highlight the youth unemployment crisis with a counter demonstration to the annual Canada Day extravaganza organized by the Tory Ontario government to celebrate July 1. It is the only day the Tories show any generosity towards the people with nickel hot dogs. ‘Last year people acutally showed up with shopping bags so they could stock up on the food’’, Hall recalled, citing it as an example of how deep the crisis is getting. The next day the JACs will be launching what. Hall says are ‘“‘massive job searches’’. These will involve groups of young unemployed going job hunting together so they can collectively keep up with the job search requirements, demanded. by Manpower Canada to keep getting UI benefits. * * * Hall says the country can’t afford to have its young people graduate from school into unemployment. The money Ottawa plans to use to suck youth into the army. should be applied to apprenticeship training plans that will equip young people to participate in the burgeoning high-tech industries which are com- ing into being. With the billions doled out to corporations by senior govern- ments jobless workers see themselves, and workers still lucky enough to have jobs, paying the heavy bill for the capitalist system’s crisis. ‘Maybe I’m just too disillusioned’, says Chris Frazer. ‘‘May- be I really shouldn’t mind subsidizing give-away after give-away. After all, somebody’s got to save money — if not the un- employed, why not monopoly? It must be pretty damned tough slugging your way through an economic crisis on only $150,000 a year or more.” The consequences of not organizing jobless youth could be tragic. ‘‘It’s up to us to show young people how important it is to get organized and fight back’’, Hall says. ‘“We have to help them see they can demand a better life, that there are solutions to unemployment such as cutting the arms budget, pressing the government .to provide jobs and job training. “If we don’t do ourjob, instead of being won to labor’s side as a valuable ally, unemployed youth could find themselves drifting into dead ends — terrorism, anarchism, even fascism.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 20, 1983—Page 7 . ——— science Te