100,000 WORKERS AFFECTED Canada’s railway unions in contract ne MONTREAL — Canada’s railway industry is gearing up for another round of contract negoti- ations. More than 120 officers from 17 railway unions, members of the General Conference of the As- sociated Railway Unions (ARU), met here Sept. 8 to begin drawing up contract proposals they will present to 13 companies next month on behalf of approximately 100,000 members. The joint proposals, which will not be finalized until Sept. 21 aim to revise a series of existing two- year agreements scheduled to ex- pire Dec. 31. They cover a wide range of items including wages, pensions and job security, and were introduced by the union leaders who gathered them from their members across the coun- try. The proposals were received by a 24-member ARU negotiating committee, headed by Ray Peer, newly elected ARU chairman in April. The negotiating committee will meet this week and consoli- date the proposals into a single list of demands to be put before the General Conference for its ap- proval Sept. 21. Peer, a general chairman of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, replacing R.C. Smith who res- igned from the committee in July 1976, said the final list of contract proposals would be made public after their approval Sept. 21. Federal Jurisdiction Railway negotiations come under federal jurisdiction and are governed by the provisions of the Canada Labor Code, which al- lows for negotiations to begin 90 days before the Dec. 31 expiry date of agreements. Therefore the ARU will send the approved list of demands Oct. 1, to Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, and f 11 smaller railways to serve as a basis for the largest single round of .collective bargaining in Canada. : The ARU is an umbrella or- ganization formed for negotiating purposes consisting of 17 unions which fall into three groupings: 56,000-member non-operating, (non-ops), 21,00-member shop crafts, and 21,500-member run- ning trades. The largest group in the ARU is the non-ops including clerical and technical staff, wharf and ferry service workers, telecommunica- tions and maintenance of way employees, signal maintainers, dispatchers, agents, and others. The non-op unions are: Brotherhood of Railway and Air- line Clerks (BRAC), Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Trans- port, and General Workers (CBRT), Brotherhood of Mainte- nance of Way Employees (BMWE), United Telegraph Workers (UTW), Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen (BRS), Cana- dian Merchant Service Guild (CMS), and Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (SCP). Shopcrafts The shopcrafts are coordinated by Division No. 4 Railway Employees’ Department, AFL- CIO and include: the Brother- hood of Railway Carmen (BRC); International Association of gotiations Machinists (IAM); International Brotherhood of Boilermakers; In- ternational Brotherhood of Elec- trical Workers (IBEW), Interna- tional Molders and Allied Work- ers’ Union (IMAW), United As- sociation of Journeymen and Ap- prentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry (UA), Sheet Metal Workers’ International As- sociation, (SMW), and the. Inter- national Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers (IBFO). The United Transportation Union (UTU), and the Brother- hood of Locomotive Engineers - (BLE), comprise the running trades group and include en- gineers, firemen, conductors, and trainmen. Canadian National and Cana- dian Pacific are the two main rail- ways in the contract talks. How- ~ ever the terms of agreement are. applied to 11 other companies which are either owned in whole or in part by the two major lines or which have agreements to follow the national negotiations. The short lines include: Domin- ion Atlantic; Northern Alberta; Ontario Northland Railway (ONR); Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo (TH and B); Esquimalt and Nanaimo; Toronto Termi- nals; Grand River; Lake Erie and Northern; and Shawinigan Falls Terminal. The last contract won the rail- way workers a two-year pact with 11% and 8.27% wage increases, and improvements on the job sec- urity agreement and providing qualified employees 80% of their regular wages during layoffs. With all negotiated increases now in effect, the estimated hourly earnings for the non-op component of the ARU is $6.48; $7.11 for shop crafts; and $8.93 for the running trades. Edmonton Voters Association unveils new civic program By K. CARIOU EDMONTON — The Edmon- ton Voters Association (EVA), unveiled ‘‘New Horizons’, the civic election program it will take to the people Oct. 19 contesting the city’s four wards and all open- ings on both school boards. Candidates will be announced soon. EVA’s program calls far “‘end- ing the domination of Edmonton by large businesses and developer interests’, and outlines policies ‘to develop our city according to the human needs of citizens and not for the private gain of vested business interests.” Closely connected with the Edmonton and District Labor Council as well as other progres- sive forces in the city, EVA’s’ program pledges to ‘‘support the labor movement . . . (and) defend the interests of the working people including the self- employed and small business.”’ Alderman David Leadbeater will be supported by EVA. ‘The program deals with a wide range of issues and contains a special section for School Board candidates. Some of its demands and pledges include: e expansion of public housing units to at least 1,000 new units per year, with more and larger low rise senior citizen suites, aid for the development of co-op housing, public ownership of large developer holdings in the city, and launching a strong fight against land speculation and real estate profiteering. e shifting the tax burden from residential property to big busi- ness commercial property, calling for provincial-municipal revenue sharing and transferring regres- sive property taxes to income taxes and corporate royalties. e oppose Alberta’s. Tory government plan to phase out rent controls and demand stronger controls and a tenant’s bill of nghts. : e demand the extension of rapid transit with improved bus services and no fare increase. EVA opposes the MacKinnon Ravine Freeway and calls for the development of an outer ring road and expansion of the Disabled Adult Transportation Service. e demand universal, - quality child care facilities, with special attention to shift workers’ needs, improved, municipally-owned ambulance service, development of an inner-city medical clinic and PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 23, 1977—Page 8 > anew hostel for transient men and women. ; : e end Northwestern Utilities’ monopoly, and make natural gas a civic utility, reduce quantity dis- counts to large industrial and commercial customers of Edmon- ton Power; oppose Alberta’s gas pricing policies which are the main cause of increased- heating bills. e improved relations with city employees, a strong Civic Fair Wage Clause, affirmative action in hiring and promotion of women ‘and minority groups and opposi- tion to ‘‘contracting out’ of municipal services. e formulation of a new made- in-Canada constitution which specifically recognizes the role of cities. ; Other items dealt with in the program include emphasis on the need for greater community con- trol of planning, ending ‘‘block- busting,’’ restricting high-rise and shopping centre development, and. the preservation of existing neighborhoods and buildings. It also outlines EVA policy on culture, parks, the environment, libraries, municipal reform, Canadian independence, con- sumer protection and the Con- vention Centre. CREATE JOBS MORRIS TELLS FEDS OTTAWA — CLC president Joe Morris, Sept. 13 said.the fed- eral government must start to stimulate the economy and ‘‘act to create permanent employment which will pull us out of our ever faster slide into a full-blown depre- ssion of the same scale as the 1930's. Morris outlined a four point program including tax cuts, in- crease in the old age pension, a low cost housing program and a federal-provincial unemployment conference, to create jobs. MUZZLE McKEOUGH OPSEU TELLS DAVIS "TORONTO — The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, in a letter Sept. 13 to premier Wil- liam Davis called on him to put a -muzzle on Ontario treasurer Darcy McKeough’s mouth for his comments to a meeting of munic- ipal tax collectors last week, that public sector negotiators should accept the AIB_ so-called ‘guidelines’? as the absolute maximum possible increase. With contracts expiring for the entire union in Dec., and for one third of the union’s 50,000 mem- bers at the end of Sept., OPSEU president Charles Darrow told Davis his members were “‘grow- ing impatient with the restrictions of the controls program’’, and that McEough’s ‘‘irrational statements’’ could only ‘‘inflame an already strained relationship between employer and employee.”’ FALCONBRIDGE SHUTS DOWN SUDBURY — Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd., threw 4,000 workers onto the streets Sept. 12, to be jobless until Oct. 10 and to face a four day remembrance day jobless weekend, and more layoffs -over Christmas and New Years. Local 598, Mine-Mill president Jack Gignac in the current issue of Mine Mill News called on the fed- eral government to set up ‘‘public or crown corporations responsible for properly developing the entire Canadian mineral resource indus- try in exploration, mining, re- fining, manufacturing and market- ing.”’ PSAC LEADER | PROTESTS WAGE CUT OTTAWA — “‘A gross injus- tice’’, and evidence public service workers face tougher bargaining sessions and more restrictive con- trols as the wage controls prog- ram enters its third year Oct. 14, was the way Andy Stewart presi- dent of the Public Service Al- liance of Canada, termed the AIB- roll back of an arbitration award to 1500 federal government firefighters. is Under federal legislation the firefighters put their unresolved contract issues before an arbit- rator, who granted them an 8% wage increase. The AIB rolled it. back to 6%. ‘‘That means the firefighters won’t even be able to keep up with the current cost of living increases’’, Stewart said. _ campaign would depend on thé -cils and provincial labor fedet# - Bank Workers section of the S& 3,300 STRIKE AT MASSEY BRANTFORD — About 3,300 of the 5,300 Massey-Fergusol workers represented by the United Auto Workers, struck the com: pany Sept. 14 as the union was negotiating a tentative wage 22 — reement. The UAW representing the workers in Massey’s Toronto Brantford plants had been in # legal strike position since noo? Sept. 14. Ratification meeting’ were scheduled for Sept. 17-18. — CLC LAUNCHES JOBS CAMPAIGN TORONTO — The CLC launched its full employment campaign Sept. 8, at a strategy meeting here with Ontario Feder ation of Labor officials. CLC _ secretary-treasuref Donald Montgomery said thé mobilization by local labor cout tions, of trade unionists and othe! concerned groups. CIVIC WORKERS VOTE TO STRIKE MONTREAL — The city’s 8,000 blue collar workers, mem bers of the Canadian Union of Pub lic Employees, gave their executivé a mandate Sept. 10 to call a strike when necessary to back dem: ) for a 14.4% wage increase. The workers have been workins to rule, and demonstrating to their demands in the face of th? city’s refusal to move from its offer of 8.5%. They’ve been in? legal strike position since June 2” BANK UNION AGREE ON | DEMANDS VANCOUVER — The United vice Office and Retail Worke® Union of Canada decided in co® vention Sept. 10-11, to seek af increase in basic wage rates fro the present base of $600 a mo? to $1,140 or $7.50 an hour, whet contract talks begin with B.C banks. Also proposed by the dele gates, to be ratified by uni0? members in a referendum, four week vacations in the firs! year, a standard five-day, seve® hours a day work week with vol untary overtime at double pay! and an end to employee * paycheques deductions fo fraudulent transactions or tellet’ shortages. 70 DUMPED AT HARDING’S | GUELPH — About 70 worke® at Harding Carpets Ltd., here, 18 get shoved out the door Nov- 6 when the company closes down! yarn spinning plant. Having squeezed enough prof :: out of the workers and the ° facilities in Guelph, the compat! said it “could not continue to sorb the high cost of the ope tion.”’