LABOR The Gainers strike in Edmonton was a “watershed struggle” for the trade union movement that demonstrated that workers were “prepared to stand up and take on concessions demands — and it compelled the Conservative government in Alberta to undertake an unprecedented review of the province’s regressive labor legislation, the leader of the Alberta Federation of Labor said last week. AFL president Dave Werlin told dele- gates to the annual convention of the Uni- ted Fishermen and Allied Workers Union in Vancouver that the six-month strike by the United Food and Commercial Workers galvanized trade union solidarity across the country and “awakened the labor movement in Alberta ... which will never be the same again.” Werlin noted that the settlement was not what it should have been but cauti- oned unionists not to dwell on that point. “The fact that the workers went back with their union intact still strong, still united and far more experienced is going to make a big difference in that province from now on,” he emphasized. “It was an incredible victory for the trade union movement and labor solidar- the general public from coast to coast. “And the lesson is — if we unite and i ity across the country. It united unions and Gainers strike ‘awakened labor' — Werlin| legislation review. mobilize, there is no struggle we can’t win,” he declared to applause. Werlin contrasted the historic strike with the previous round of negotiations two years earlier when Gainers owner Peter Pocklington was successful in impos- ing wage cuts on the plant workers. Although union members had also voted to strike at that time, “when they came out with their picket signs at the end of the midnight shift, there were 1,000 scabs out in the parking lot waiting to take DAVE WERLIN .. .Alberta Federation of Labor president says solidarity forced their jobs,” he said. “They weren’t ready for that.” But by 1986, when plant workers, who had increased productivity by 400 per cent, were faced with $5 an hour wage cuts and an employer who publicly stated his intention to smash the union, UFCW members were prepared to take a stand, Werlin said. “And it became a very political strike,” he emphasized, “because workers weren’t - return to their jobs after a labor dispute, — * and because of that the legislation itself — just fighting concessions — they were fighting for their jobs.” Under Alberta labor law, striking workers are not guaranteed the right to became an issue. “What people learned is — that they didn’t have many rights under ~ labor law,” he said. 4 As a result of the campaign that was © mounted by the AFL — whichincludeda | rally of 30,000 at the provincial legislature ~ — the question of changing the law has | become a province-wide issue, he noted. “You can go almost anywhere in the © province and wherever you strike up a | conversation, that issue comes up,” he ~ said. “The labor movement has taken it ~ from the Gainers strike to a massive public — struggle to change the law. : ““We’ve forced the government to set up ~ a commission to examine changes. And — they will either amend the legislation so that there won’t be another Gainers strike © where thousands of people are arrested... | or they will pay the political price,” he © dclared. : The AFL leader also warned unionists that the attack mounted by Pocklington “is an example of what capital is doing all | across this country, backed by Tory ]| governments.” | CN job cuts spark rail workers’ walkout - A move by Canadian National Railways to cut 73 jobs in B.C. — part of the Crown corporation’s adjustments to government deregulation — sparked a walkout at Sur- rey’s Thornton yard last week. “We were protesting deregulation and the resulting contract concessions the Tory government is demanding through CN. We know it’s just a front for the government,” said Gary Robinson, president of Local 226 of the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers (CBRT). Between 100 and 140 workers — compri- sing an outgoing shift and a replacement shift that stayed out for 45 minutes of its . scheduled work time — took part in the walkout Feb. 6, Robinson said. The publicly-owned rail company, which plans to eliminate 14,000 jobs across Can- ada by 1990, abolished 28 job positions at the Thornton yard effective this Thursday. Another 45 positions are to be axed by April 2, mainly in Kamloops, Prince George and Vancouver. Key among those positions are five jobs involving documentation of hazardous sub- stances shipments — including the job Robinson himself currently performs — at the Thornton and North Vancouver yards. The cuts mean 73 senior employees have the right to bump those with lesser seniority, with a resulting 73 layoffs. But some senior employees will find it extremely difficult to relocate, said Robinson. “There are four positions in Boston Bar being cut. The people working there have been with CN since °47, ’57 and ’66. They have houses there and they’ll find it difficult, if not impossible, to relocate to some unknown location,” he said. Because the rail unions bargain nationally, seniority applies right across the country. Ottawa’s transportation deregulation, by which Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s government has gutted regulations and fees governing the transshipment of goods to, from and within the country, will allow for goods moving between various centres in Canada to be shipped through the already deregulated United States. “In essence, they’ve changed Canada’s transportation system from an east-west orientation to a continental, north-south one,” said Robinson. The changes mean layoffs in the trans- portation industry, and demands for con- cessions to keep Canadian companies “competitive.” In the current round of talks with 52,000 employees in unions belonging to the Asso- ciation of Railway Unions, Canada’s rail- way companies — including CN and Cana- dian Pacific — are demanding sweeping concessions. -According to Robinson, the companies are demanding that all new workers hired after Jan. 1, 1987 be paid 50 per less than the . fate currently paid new employees. “And it doesn’t matter if you’ve quit and are coming back,” said Robinson. . Two other demands relate directly to deregulation. One calls for the right by the company to abolish jobs without notice — the current requirement is 120 days — in the event of work stoppages, strikes or “dis- ruptions in the marketplace” outside the company’s control. The other would allow the companies to eliminate “‘any portion, or all” of the collec- tive agreement provisions arising from competition from other carriers, including those based in the U.S. Another demand calls for a five per cent rollback in all wages and benefits, a “50-50” cost sharing agreement on some benefit premiums currently paid 100 per cent by the ’ companies, and the elimination of company- paid medical insurance premiums. Union negotiators were instructed by their mem- bership “not to negotiate on any of those demands,” Robinson said. “The company negotiators obviously had similar orders. The result was that they only met a few days in October for a few sessions, and talks broke off on Jan. 14.” The dispute is currently in conciliation. Following the conclusion of that, the unions will be in a legal strike position, said Robin- son. 12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 11, 1987 B.C.’s hated Compensation Stabilization Program (CSP) has come under fire from a combination of public sector unions and a public sector employer at provincial hear- ings in labor legislation this month. - In the most concerted attack to date on the Social Credit government’s wage res- traint program, the CSP has been called unfair, discriminatory and “the greatest sin- gle intrusion into the collective bargaining process and the most destabilizing influence on labor relations in B.C.” The latter comment comes from the B.C. Government Employees Union, which with the Hospital Employees Union, the B.C. Teachers Federation and the B.C. School Trustees Association called for the abolition of the five-year old legislation. Introduced in 1982 as the first volley of so-called restraint legislation brought in by former Socred premier Bill Bennett, the CSP has overturned arbitrated settlements and held most wage hikes within the bounds of one or two per cent annually. The result is that ‘the wages of govern- ment employees have fallen 15 per cent behind inflation since the CSP was intro- duced,” BCGEU president John Shields charged last week. Unions have also pledged to fight the program through job action. is 40 Oe Oe 8 O78 O28. 0 06) 81a 6 e Oso 0 Dn OE a PS RE a a oe > Qa. o © B Public sector unions, trustees reject CSP Ce 9: 0: OS 9 Cae S06: & 0 6 0.10 4 0. 6 3 BCTF president Elsie McMurphy warn the hearings, presided over by Labor Minis: ter Lyall Hanson, that teachers may wo to rule this spring if the Compensation Sta bilization Program is not abolished, a other changes governing teacher bargaining: are not implemented. The teachers’ demands took on added — force when Eric Buckley, president of th B.C. School Trustees Association, echoed the demands that teachers be included i the Labor Code and given full collectiv bargaining rights — including the right to bargain over benefits and workin; conditions — and called for the elimina- — tion of the CSP. . 4 “Teachers are clearly pushing toward expanded scope of bargaining and if th can’t get it, they are prepared to work rule,” the BCSTA president said. In the HEU submission, union secreta: business manager Jack Gerow called f legislation to prohibit the use of str breakers, “whether they are paid or unpaid volunteers.” Gerow hit the CSP for hindering the pr cess of redressing pay inequities, inclu those traditionally suffered by womets which he noted constitute 85 per cent of hy HEU’s 26,000 members. WFIRIBONE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. 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