LABOR

Court backs victim against Consumers

TORONTO — Score one point
for John Persaud in his three year
battle for civil rights at Consu-
mers Distributing Ltd.

In a unanimous decision, Feb.
9, a three-member panel of On-
tario Supreme Court judges up-
held the Ontario Human Rights
Commission’s 1985 decision not
to ratify an agreement Persaud
signed with the company in Jan.
85, which forfeited his grievance

rights over being unjustly fired in
exchange for $50,000.

The short-lived agreement
came after a grueling day of talks
between Persaud and the com-
pany in which Persaud was bad-
gered by lawyers from every
direction into surrendering his ar-
bitration rights in favor of a cash
settlement. But the following day,
having had a chance to reconsid-
er, he changed his mind and

launched the process of asking
the Ontario Human Rights Com-
mission not to ratify it.

The Commission agreed with
Persaud’s request clearing the
way for the resumption of his ar-
bitration case before the Ontario

Labor Relations Board. How-
ever, Consumers management

thwarted this by seeking a judicial

review of the OHRC decision not |

to ratify.

UFW rally to laun

ou |

ch boycott campaign

TORONTO — Nearly 300 trade unionists rallied outside a downtown Dominion store, Feb. 7 to launch the
United Farm Workers boycott of grapes and the A & P-Dominion chain. UFW leader Cesar Chavez,
(above), flanked by auto union president Bob White and Steelworkers Ontario director Leo Gerard was
on hand to release the union’s 14 minute film on devastation being wrought on farmworkers and
consumers because of the growers’ indiscriminate use of deadly pesticides on the vines and grapes.
The film is called the Wrath of Grapes and is available from local UFW offices.

aN

The supreme court’s Feb. 9
decision now clears the way for
Persaud to complete the fight
against his unjust dismissal in
May 1984. At the same tithe it also
will release a flood of OHRC
complaints stemming from per-
vasive racism at Consumers’ Mal-
ton warehouse.

Persaud told the Tribune last
week that he was encouraged by
the court’s decision. ‘‘My case is
open ... if there’s any justice in
the system the company should
shut up and be made to pay up
every dime I’ve had to spend de-
fending myself’, he said.

Persaud added that even crimi-
nals have the right to a prelimi-
nary enquiry before a decision is
taken to go to trial, but no such
right exists to protect victims be-
fore the OHRC. Companies like
Consumers are in effect given a
forum in which to continue abus-
ing their victims through costly
legal shenanigans.

The Conimission now has two
weeks in which to decide whether
to appoint a board of enquiry re-
lating to Persaud’s human rights
complaints. The hearings then
must begin no later than 30 days
following the convening of the
board. If a board is named, Per-
saud’s complaints could be heard
by the middle of March.

He expects those hearings to be
lengthy because of the backlog of
human rights complaints at Con-
sumers.

At the same time, Persaud’s
case before the Ontario Labor

Relations Board was to be heat
Feb. 12 and 13.

Persaud’s unjust dismissal if
1984, was rooted in his activities
as militant chief steward in tht
plant leading the workers’ fight 10
combat rampant racism in tht
work place.

Eventually, the workers su¢
ceeded in getting the human right

to end rank exploitation of illeg#
immigrants.
Consumers’ practice up W
then was to hire illegal immigrant
for a day’s work, then have thei
picked up by immigration offici als
before they could collect the
pay. : s
Persaud, in fact had been take!
from the plant in 1975 by immigt®
tion officials, and interrogate!
until he could prove his land of
immigrant status. He’s now #
Canadian citizen.

training and promotion of visib#
minority workers on their seniol
ity and barring discriminatiol
The workers complain of Const’
mers’ double standard in the wa)
it treats white and visible minoril)
workers.
There have been incidents ?
visible minority workers beiff
beaten up and verbally harasse®
by an openly racist worker wh?
obviously enjoyed company sup
port, since he was never di
ciplined for his behavior. Ti
worker in question was able
arrogantly boast that he could gé
any worker he wanted to, fired:

Labor Briefs

CUPW Cleaners win pact

HALIFAX — Cleaners at the Halifax Metro postal plant have
succeeded in winning their first collective agreement, local of-
ficials of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) recently
announced. The CUPW negotiating committee, representing the
12-member bargaining unit, reached agreement with the employ-
er, Federated Building Maintenance Ltd. of Toronto, and the
tentative pact was overwhelmingly ratified by the membership.
This marks the first time that postal cleaning staff have secured a
first contract without resorting to strike action.

Meanwhile, Halifax postal workers face other forms of har-
assment from their main employer, Canada Post. CUPW local
representative Gordie Ash has reported that management has
allowed an RCMP narcotics agent into the main plant posing as a
casual employee; that employees have been harassed by other
drug agents in the plant’s parking lot; and that management plans
to bring in drug sniffing dogs into the postal facility.

Canada Post ‘‘has reached an all-time low
where you would think we were working in the Kingston Peniten-
tiary’’, Ash responded, adding that postal workers ‘‘deserve to
be treated with dignity”’ in the workplace.

Michelin braces for CAW’s return

GRANTON, N.S. — Leaders of the anti-union forces at the
three Michelin plants in Nova Scotia have announced in the wake
of the narrowly-defeated CAW organizing drive here, that al-
though they are opposed to unions, they are not opposed to
organizing, per se. In fact, they have formed the ‘‘Michelin
Employees Non-Union Group’”’ and plan to register as a non-
profit organization in the province.

After admitting that the group received financial donations
from local business groups to help thwart the 1986 CAW drive,
the anti-union forces plan to be better “‘prepared”’ for the next
union drive. ‘‘We decided ... to get registered as a non-profit
society so that donations made to us would be tax deductible”’
one spokesperson said, adding that the group will collect con-
tributions from local businesses to create a ‘‘financial buffer’’ for
another union opposition campaign.

... to the point

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 18, 1987

NSGEU calls for an end to stalling

Without a contract since Dec. ’85

By MIGUEL FIGUEROA
HALIFAX — More than 500

provincial government workers :

and supporters braved biting cold
conditions as they marched
through downtown Halifax Feb-
ruary 7 to demand an end to gov-
ernment  sstalling and the
achievement of a new contract.
The frustrated workers, mem-
bers of the Nova Scotia Govern-
ment Employees Union
(NSGEU), have been without a
contract since December, 1985.
Under existing provincial labor
laws they are prohibited from tak-

ing strike action in order to win a .

new collective agreement.

The provincial employees are
angry that they are denied the
same collective bargaining rights
enjoyed by government workers
in several other provinces, and
they took that anger and frustra-
tion to the very doorsteps of the
ruling Progressive Conservative
Party annual convention at the
Halifax Sheraton. Booming
chants of: ‘‘We want a contract!”
and, ‘‘the Tories must go!’’;
reverbated through the conven-
tion hall for almost an hour as
hundreds of trade unionists pa-
raded below.

Addressing the demonstration,
NSGEU President Greg Blan-

- chard condemned what he termed

the ‘‘bad faith’ of the provincial
government throughout the
course of negotiations and called

for the Tories’ resounding defeat
in the next election, widely ex-
pected to be held within the year.
When negotiations between the
government and NSGEU broke
down last August, the union ap-
plied for arbitration through the
Civil Service Employees Rela-
tions Board (CSERB). But it was
clear from the outset that Premier
John Buchanan’s government
was not interested in arriving atan
arbitrated settlement, choosing
instead to drag out the process
indefinitely to force the union into
dropping some of its demands.
Management Board chairman
George Moody, under direction
from Cabinet, then instituted a se-
ries of manoeuvres designed to
block the arbitration process.

| mre ea

FIRIBUNE

Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C. V5K 125. Phone 251-1186

“objections put forward by t

en er ee ee pee ee ee Se Se

Postal Code

When the CSERB overruled t!

government and ordered the
bitration boards to convene
hear the dispute, the governmé
retaliated by taking (its o
CSERB and the union to provi
cial Supreme Court in what t
NSGEU has termed ‘‘anot
stalling ploy’’.

President Blanchard told ti
Tribune that the union h
worked out an escalating progr:
of action to pressure the gove
ment for a ‘“‘fair and reasonab!
contract”’, possibly to include
province-wide mobilization for
demonstration in Halifax to ¢
incide with the Feb. 26 opening”
the new session of the Legisl#
ture.

lam enclosing 1 yr. $160 2yrs.$280) 6mo. $100
Introductory offer, 3 mo. $3(_ Foreign 1 yr. $250 Bill me later 0 }

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