aarp ey a Mt EE

Building trades workers across
Ontario are in grave danger of
losing contract provisions gain-
ed over many years of struggle
if a new master agreement be-
tween Ontario Hydro and offic-
ers of international building
trades unions is ratified and ac-
cepted.

The 10-year sweetheart con-
tract worked out between 15
Building Trades _ International
Unions in Washington, D.C. and
the Electrical Power Systems
Construction Association, of
which Ontario Hydro has 51%
control, will be applicable to
Ontario Hydro construction pro-
jects throughout all areas of the
province.

The Canadian Tribune was the
first paper to carry the news of
this development in its issue of
March 28. On April 13 the Ha-
milton Spectator reported that a
group of Hamilton business ag-
ents, representing some 7,000
city building tradesmen, have
accused their internationals of
working out a sweetheart deal
with Ontario Hydro and trying
to force it on the local unions.
These business agents described
the program as a conspiracy to
rob the locals of their collective
bargaining rights.

In Two Parts

The contract has a legal term
of two years, but provisions are
made for its extension up to 10
years. It is divided into two sec-
tions. The first, which is already
negotiated, is a master agree-
ment covering all the trades.
Secondly, there are trade appen-
dices, covering such things as
wages, fringe benefits, shift pre-
miums, overtime, travel allow-
ances and seniority, which os-
tensibly are to be negotiated by
committees of local union busi-
ness agents.

BY BRUCE MAGNUSON

conspira

Weekes “ydro sweetheart deal

cy for sell-out

The master agreement has
been worked out between the in-
ternationals and the Ontario
Hydro in meetings behind closed
doors for two years and is pre-
sented as a fait accompli which
the business agents are power-
less to change in any way. As
one Hamilton business agent
said: “although it conflicts with
many important areas of our
local agreement, we aren’t even
allowed to discuss it.”

Cut and Dried

The local business agents
claim they were brought into
the picture only eight weeks ago
and found the ground rules -for
their participation already work-
ed out, cut and dried. Any com-
plaints about the master agree-
ment are to be processed through
the international union of each
trade with whom the complaints
originate. If it concurs with the
local business agent’s views who
register the complaint — which
would be a miracle of all so-
called miracles — it could make
representations to an advisory
council of all internationals con-
cerned.

But as one business agent has
explained: “I know of no local
that has succeeded in. getting
anything changed in a master
agreement this way. My interna-
tional told me to go to hell when
I contacted it with a complaint.”

The Hamilton business agents
described the trade appendices
as a ploy to induce them to
agree to the first two-year term
of the new bargaining program.
Once the local unions accept

such an agreement they will

have recognized the Council of
International Representatives of
the building trade concerned
and the Electrical Power Sys-
tems Construction Association
as their legal bargaining agents

BUILDING THE COMMUNIST PARTY

Communist Party
membership grows
in British Columbia

By NIGEL MORGAN

A seven percent increase in Communist Party member-
ship in British Columbia was reported at the recent CPC
Provincial Convention, as at the end of 1972.

In addition, in the first three months of 1973, the Party
recruited 25 new members in the province; a new club was
established in Richmond; the Young Communist League
recruited seven members; and 45 new subscribers were
gained for the Pacific Tribune.

For the press, the most significant gain is the 2,100
extra bundle copies being sold on campuses, and at trade
union, labor councils and mass meetings.

Of the new CP members, two-thirds are from industry
and, of these, more than half are from the B.C. concentra-
tion point — the lumber industry. Another good sign is
that the average age has been lowered by eight years.

There are many indications today of the possibilities of
building the Communist Party and its press. Never has the
interest in the Party’s program and policies been higher.
And with the exposure and consequent decline in the
influence of ultra-left, Maoist and Trotskyite groups, the
search for Marxist-Leninist answers and what the Com-
munist Party really stands for, has expanded considerably.

The pledge to the Central Committee to increase Party
membership in B.C. by 10% and to boost Tribune circula-
tion by 15% is within reach.

The newly-elected Provincial Committee is challenging
other provinces across the country to be first in reaching
their pledge, which the Convention indicated can be ex-
ceeded. The idea of a “campaign” is just beginning to
take hold, and when it does, results will be obtained and
sights will have to be raised.

and will have surrendered their
bargaining rights to these par-
ties as acting on behalf of all
members. Neither the interna-
tionals nor the EPSCA would
need to come back to the locals
for any subsequent agreements.
Already Interfering

It is also widely believed that
the trade appendices will be
dropped for the second two-year
term of the program. “Wages,
shift premiums, overtime, every-
thing, will be brought into the
master agreement,” says one
local business agent.

The internationals are already
interfering in local bargaining
on the specific trade appendices.
International representatives
handpick the ‘business agents
who are supposed to represent
local unions, because they fol-
low the international officer’s
line of reasoning.

Any ratification vote will no
doubt be confined to members
currently working on Hydro
jebs. Yet this contract’ affects
every union member, since any
ene of them may end up work-
ing at Hydro on any of its pro-
jects.

Many provisions won by local”

unions over the years are ex-
cluded from this new bargaining
program. Sheet Metal Workers,
for example, stand to loose some
30% of their work through pre-
fabrication of ducts. Hamilton
tradesmen working at Nanticoke
could end up in camps instead
of getting paid for commuting
between the job sites and their
homes every day-
Challenge Made

Opposition to this sell-out
contract has to be organized
and mounted in each union on a
province-wide scale to be effec-
tive. Any trade not participat-
ing is sure to be victimized. Dis-
sident trades will be excluded
altogether and stand to have
their work cannibalized by those
trades that go along with the
sell-out.

And while the provisions of
this scandalous sweetheart dea
will apply to some 15,000 and up
to 20,000 Hydro construction
tradesmen by 1980, it will not
for long operate as an island in
the sea of construction activity
before its provisions will be ex-
tended everywhere.

Consequently, this has to be
seen as a battle involving all

--construction workers in Ontario,
and beyond. The challenge has
been made. It mOW remains for
the building trades workers to
get organized for a proper ef-

— fort to meet this serious chal-
lenge. Failure to unite to meet
this ~ threat could be costly in
terms of jobs, income, condi-
tions of work and, above all, in
loss of democratic rights to de-
termine how the affairs of Cana-
dian construction workers are
to be run, and by whom?

Must quash

Hydro deal
HAMILTON — The Hamil-
ton Building Trades Council
at its annual meeting last
week adopted 4 resolution
urging the provincial Build-
ing Trades Council to call an
all-Ontario conference to deal
with attempts by the Elect-
rical Power Systems Const-
ruction Association (EPSCA)
in connivance With several
leaders of building trades
international Unions, to im-
pose on workers in the indus-

try, a 10-year contract.

‘: PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY APRIL 20;,1973;-5PAGE*10.

world’s largest.

Northern development in the Soviet Union is boom}
Ecological factors and consideration of Native peoples:
are always taken into account before work proceeds.
engineers are laying a six-meter (20 feet) section of th
Balyk-Almetievsk oil pipeline on the bottom of the
River. This is to be part of the trans-Siberian pipelj

;
ning.
Tights.
ey
e Ust:
Belaya -

ne, the

Native rights first—
oil agreements follow

By CHARLES LUTZ

: EDMONTON—Should a _pipe-
line snake up the Mackenzie to

let oil and. gas flow South?.
Would a railway foot the bill

better in terms of two-way traf-
fic and jobs created? The ques-
tion cannot be answered before
the government finally settles
Native rights, and not before
extensive consultations with the
Native peoples and ecological
studies are carried out, said Wal-
ly Firth at a recent panel dis-
cussion.

The panel, organized jointly
by the.Committee for an Inde-
pendent Canada and the National
and Provincial Parks Associa-
tion, featured as guest speakers
Wally Firth, New Democratic
Party Member of Parliament for
the North West Territories, and
Andrew Thompson, from the
UBC faculty of law.

Before the recent rash of oil
and mineral discoveries in the
North, requests for provincial
status to Ottawa were answered
by “You would be a burden on
the rest of Canada: you have
too few. resources.

“Now their stand seems to be
‘you have too much and there
are too few of you’,” said Firth.

The present colonial-type mode
of government should be replac-
ed by. a responsible-type gov-
ernment which would be better
able to deal with the drastic
problems facing the Native po-
pulations.

“Housing is a particularly urg-
ent problem: cases abound of
two or three families sharing
two-bedroom homes. Homes
themselves cost three times as
much as in Alberta. The cost of
land — even though we have
million of acres — is the prin-
cipal factor: a Yellowknife lot
goes for $3,000,” said the Native
MP.

Native rights must be settled
as a first step towards alleviat-
ing some of the poverty present
everywhere in the North. “There
are treaties not lived up to,
treaties not understood, and

——— °% >

treaties simply absep.
Firth. | .

“Settlements woz .
where give an idea Sout sl
‘the things we want; Qy =
is the cash grants, Jan ;
and 2% royalty on jj
ka government has
turn over to the Natj
he said.

A 2% royalty On
would permit setting up
Development Corporatio. Nt
could, for example, fire WI
petrochemical indust,, 22 ¢
Great Slave Lake USing dl
the oil from the Deltg~ SMe

“We could have a
situation which woulg combs
Northern peoples ven wee
than they are now, y, poor!
before all the oil is e must
at the possibility of, Sone, lod
ple, using northern are exall"
treat and manufactur, VoTsy ©
from our iron ore de, Product

j ”
Have the NWT Naw .
sidered legal action ,°VES 0%
the government to © comp
Native rights? Tecognil’
“We would like to =
honorable settlement © @
Wally Firth to tha¢
from the audience. “\, ques
avoid taking our 2OVe, Want
court, it would look bament oa
eyes of the world. ad in t
“Citizens’ groups Can
to move government = do al
minority government, ©speciall)
sized Firth, who Wder; emp)
peatedly the need fo, med F
mass action. - Organiz*
Mass action was aj, °
to by Andrew Thor, © Fefert®
he recalled how Tue 4
citizens had success fy) OV! 4
ed oil development ange blocky
in the Cape Bathurst ~ Tesealt
Most of Thompsor “Tea.
tion was devoted tg —,COontrib®
some of the loop-hoj, escribilt
oil and mining firm > used Sy
free-hand quest for yj in the
His recommendat; hes.
settle Native land Tighe ‘
duce new legisJation \"ts, int
ally “ensure a more pe! pen
of the Northern lands

‘Ves there’)