ee Ee | Wages, working conditions —the gut issues for UAW-GM strikers ~ By WILLIAM STEWART The modern General Motors collosus has turned the sharp edge of its greed on to its 400,000 employees in the U.S. and Can- ada. Having sweated $4,350 profit out of each of its 794,000 work- ers around the world last year and pushed its net worth up to the astronomical figure of $8.8 billion, General Motors chooses to celebrate its.affluence by turn- ing on the people who made it all possible. Meanwhile, the 63 top officers of GM, who made the policy which forced the United Auto- mobile workers to the picket line, will be kept busy counting up the $17,615,762 they received in salaries and bonuses last year, and advising the Nixon and Trudeau governments on how to beat inflation by keeping wages down. In Canada, 25,000 workers in Oshawa, St. Catharines, St. Therese (Quebec), Windsor and Toronto are either manning the picket lines or attending educa- tional classes organized by the union, as the strike goes into its fourth week. The union’s negotiating committee is locked in almost steady bargaining with Canadian officials around all but the major monetary demands which are the subject of off- again-on-again bargaining in De- troit. At the same time UAW Locals at Ford Plants in Canada are in day-to-day negotiations with management on local issues. Chrysler, which has an interna- tional agreement covering the workers in both the U.S. and Canada, is carrying on jqint bar- gaining in the U.S. UAW-Chrys- ler officers in Canada make it quite clear at the same time that substantial local issues are in- volved in Canadian plants which must be settled before any agree- ment binding Canadian workers will be reached. - Gut issues in the strike are wages and working conditions and it is difficult to place either one before the other in the eyes of the workers. The workers are demanding a “substantial wage _ increase” which in terms spelled out by the international GM bargaining committee on the eve of the strike is 61 cents an hour for the first year of the agreement. Qualifying this increase is the fact that in U.S. terms, because of a ceiling put on the cost of living bonus in the 1967 contract, there was a total increase in the cost of living in the U.S. which equalled 31 cents an hour more than the ceiling allowed for. The UAW has insisted that this 31 cents was coming to them and was not to be consider- ed part of the wage increase. If this figure were used, the actual . amount of the wage increase would be 30 cents from which 4 cents would need to be further deducted and applied to equali- zation of wage rates. In Canada, where the increase in COL over and above the ceil- ’ ing was only 11 cents the in- ie. ad cheer se mone 2 ee rye crease would amount to 50 cents, for the first year. Consideration of increases for the second and third years of a possible three-year agreement were left on the shelf by the union until after the company has committed itself to taking the ceiling (cap) off the cost of et of tLE ON JOB PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1970—PAGE 6 - PORUMTY living clause, and has given its response to the demand for a pension scheme which would provide for automatic retirement after 30 years of service at $500 a month (30 and out). Deeply embedded in Canadian demands are such major plant conditions as voluntary over- time. Presently Canadian auto plants work almost twice the overtime worked in industry as a whole ih the country. Six-day work weeks are common in many of the plants for extended periods, and workers who refuse to work are fired. In spite of provincial legislation in Ontario providing a maximum work week of 48 hours, auto compan- ies are able to get permit after permit to work 56 hours :and workers are stuck with either working or getting out. Other major areas of concern have to do with intolerable speed-up, in-plant transfers, Sup- plementary Unemployment In- surance funding, health and wel- fare provisions, dental care provisions, extended holiday benefits, increased shop steward ratio, right to strike during the life of the-agreement on matters not covered by the contract, and in-plant equality for women. On the eve of the strike, Leon- ard Woodcock, newly-elected union president who previously headed the GM chain, responded to the deep-seated resentment amongst workers about in-plant conditions by announcing that no national agreements will be reached in GM or any of the big three until the 157 GM local un- ion agreements had been settled. This relieves.a concern here in Canada that a settlement of the major issues would be reached at the international level leaving the local grievances hanging by themselves. This is the first time both Canadian and U.S. contract ter- minal dates have _ coincided, bringing both increased oppoytu- nities for international solidarity by U.S. and Canadian workers and at the same time some prob- lems of ensuring the Canadian identity in negotiations which spring from different conditions, different emphasis, different in- plant conditions and different national settings. Up to now there seems gener- al satisfaction with the way in which the union has been able to straddle these two matters, but Canadian workers have been making it quite clear that the final say on agreement rests with the membership here and that there is no room for give on some of the major plant condi- tions and the need for a hefty wage increase. Looking at the auto compan- ies’ profit figures after taxes for 1969,- (which were: G.M. $1,711 UAW head Leonard Wood? million; Ford, $547 millio™ Chrysler $89 million), Canadia? and U.S. auto workers are N? very impressed with the arg’ ments of Trudeau and Nixon tha they should tighten their belts # the “national interest” and t@ whatever the company wants 1 hand out. It’s a safe bet thal whether you're driving a 197 Chev, Plymouth or Ford, thé auto workers will have a litte more of the action than they ha before. Not enough, mind you but when will they have enous this side of socialism? U.S. GM strike front solid for local demands By WILLIAM ALLAN DETROIT — The United Auto Workers Union chalked up a gain in negotiations for 90,000 members employed in Ag-Imple- ment industry when the Cater- pillar company agreed to return to a quarterly cost of living ad- justment with no cap on cost of living raises. The action delayed a strike at the Caterpillar Tractor Plant in Peoria, Il]. Some 30,000 work for Caterpillar, Another 50,000 UAW-Ag-Implement workers at Deere Corp. and International Harvester along with Caterpillar will work on a day to day basis. Caterpillar was the union’s strike target. In conversation with report- ers, UAW president Leonard Woodcock here said he hoped the agreement on no caps on the cost of living raises at Cater- pillar would be* agreed to by ‘General Motors, where a strike of 347,000. workers has been going on since Sept. 15 in 154 units in the U.S. and Canada. GM refuses to lift the cap on cost of living raises, ‘and wants to include 26¢ on accumulative COL raises in money raise offer to UAW, which the union rejected. GM’s refusal to lift the cap on COL is because they don’t want to increase the base rates of GM workers as that means higher Sick and Accident money would have to be paid by them. In Detroit agreement was reached between the UAW and its first year. the Detroit Division of GM5 Diesel-Allison division, one ® the plants allowed to work, mak ing supplies for non-GM _ shop® like Ford, Chrysler, America® Motors. The agreement was 0 local shop demands. This is thé 12th plant of GM to come to 4? agreement with as Woodcoc says, 144 more to go. Woodcock reiterated to 1 porters that there can be N12 settlement of the strike in Gen& ral Motors until these 32,000 local demands are settled in thé remaining 144 units in U.S. an Canada. In Ford’s there ar about 10,000 and _ Chrysleh 9,000. . Asked about how long. the union’s $140 million strike fund would last, Woodcock repeate what has been already announ- ced—about 4-5 weeks, and that the $25,000,000 negotiated with the Teamsters, $10,000,000 with Steelworkers and several million from others. is to underwrite the $140 million, because some of it is wrapped up in mortgages. Woodcock told reporters thé UAW would seek aid from all unions. Asked if this meant the AFL-CIO, he replied, “Yes,” Asked, “does this mean you . are preparing to go back into the AFL-CIO?”. Reply, ‘“‘no, we would have t0 discuss that with the Teamsters, Chemical Workers, Distributivé Workers, and it would have to be put to a vote at our own con- vention.” ;