LABOR

_ TORONTO — The 28th Ontario Fed-
eration of Labor convention has given
the leaders of the 800,000-member pro-
vincial labor central a clear mandate to
go into battle against big business and the
governments it controls.

By the time the convention adjourned,
Noy. 22, the OFL had committed itself
to: s

ean economic fightback program
based on building broad coalitions to
implement the nine-point CLC Action
Program, organizing a giant March for
Jobs sometime this spring, and focussing
on mobilizing and educating union mem-
bers and the public of the importance of
battling for the shorter work week, in-
cluding discussions of co-ordinated bar-
gaining strategies to achieve it;

e withdrawal from the Ontario
government-sponsored Quality of Work-
ing Life Centre;

e establishing an OFL peace and
disarmament committee and encourag-
ing labor councils and affiliates to follow
suit;

e setting up a task force to study
alternative health and safety structures
to what currently exists, giving workers
the legal right to equal participation and
representation on all occupational health
and safety matters, and continuation of
independent labor health and safety pro-
grams funded by government;

e a tax reform program based on a
truly progressive taxation system based

on income;

e a lobbying campaign mobilizing the

_ local labor councils to press municipal,

federal and provincial politicians to solve
the environmental crisis of acid rain;

e atough six-point legislative program
on plant closures putting the onus on
employers to justify such moves before a
public tribunal, compensate workers and
communities for the adverse effects of
closure decisions, and empowering
government to nationalize economically
viable operations slated for closure;

e urge the Ontario Attorney General
not to appeal the recent acquittal of Dr.
Henry Morgentaler and others, demand
immediate removal of abortion from the

_~ criminal code, urge public funding for

free-standing abortion clinics, and the

_ establishment of mobile family planning

clinics in every provincially-run public
health clinic.

Action Caucus

The delegates also endorsed resolu-
tions: backing the British miners ‘strike
and collected about $25,000 on behalf of
the National Union of Mineworkers; in
support of the Nicaraguan government;
against the recent public sector cutbacks
announced by federal Finance Minister
Michael Wilson; restoration of bargain-
ing rights of community college teachers;
and a resolution calling on the federation
to encourage the development, with the
full support of the CLC for ‘‘Operation
Solidarity’’-type coalitions throughout

Canada, ‘‘to promote a nation-wide ~

campaign to combat unemployment,
public sector cutbacks, attacks on collec-

_tive bargaining, contracting out of jobs,

and other repressive government
actions ...”’

The convention reflected the growing
influence and effectiveness of the Action
Caucus. A great many of the 167 resolu-
tions discussed by the 1,700 delegates
embodied the fightback positions of the
Action Program that burst on the scene
at the 1982 CLC convention and had
such a strong impact on the nine-point

CLC economic action program adopted

in Montreal last spring.

In fact, as delegates noted, it was the
leadership’s inclusion of seven action
resolutions, each reflecting a different
aspect of the Ontario Action Caucus

~ OFL given mandate
to fight corporations

program, that probably saved the OFL’s
economic statement from being de-
feated.

Swirling Controversy

Controversy swirled around a number
of issues. The discussion over the deci-
sion to pull the leaders of the federation
out of the provincially-sponsored Qual-
ity of Working Life Centre was deepened
by press reports which suggested that the
main labor leaders in Ontario would
essentially ignore the convention’s will.

OFL president Cliff Pilkey, on the last
day of the convention delivered a blister-
ing attack on the Toronto Star for
suggesting the OFL was ignoring the de-
cision and pledged to carry the conven-
tion’s mandate out.

Opposition to labor’s participation in
QWL was strong because many dele-
gates had first hand experience with the
corrosive influence of these programs on
local unions. However another resolu-
tion calling on the federation to urge the
Canadian Labor Congress to drop out of
the tri-partite Canadian Labor Market
and Productivity Centre, a body that is
about as remote as you can get from the
daily concerns of rank and file workers,
was defeated.

While both structures represent the
kind of class partnership philosophy the
convention wanted to reject, few dele-
gates really know what the federal
productivity centre is all about or that it,
in effect, has co-opted top labor leaders
into setting out monopoly’s agenda for
the coming period on an industry by in-
dustry basis.

Political Action once again generated a
sharp, interesting and some said valuable
debate. Unlike previous conventions,
the leadership didn’t bring in its tradi-
tional re-affirmation of the OFL’s loyalty
to the New Democratic Party.

Instead the committee took a United
Electrical workers resolution urging the
federation to make a broad coalition of
labor, students, women’s, native
peoples, farmers, unemployed, religious
and peace organizations and political
parties ‘‘the primary focus of the OFL
political action program. :

Essentially the resolutions committee
amended the UE proposal turning it in-
side out so that any coalition the OFL
would develop .would require particip-
ants to support the NDP program as a
precondition. Supporters of the original
resolution tried to point out that for the
OFL to focus on coalition building didn’t
interfere with the fed’s traditional
relationship to the NDP.

Delegates argued that making support
of the NDP a precondition for taking part
in the coalition almost guaranteed the

- failure of the project before it got started,

and that rather than amending the UE
resolution the committee should have
brought out a separate resolution sup-
porting the NDP.

Ironworkers delegate Mike Doesberg
said that setting such a precondition on
the coalition would be ‘‘unreasonable
and divisive.”

‘Surely to goodness any group deci-
sions within a coalition are not deter-
mined by the imposition of one of the
group’s political program holus bolus,”
Doesberg said.

‘‘They should be decided by actively
working toward consensus, finding a
mutually-acceptable position that will
allow the greatest potential for overall
unity of the coalition.”

The elections of a new leadership we-
ren’t controversial. The main change in
the lineup of officers was secretary trea-
surer Terry Meagher’s replacement by
former Toronto Labor Council president
Wally Majesky.

ae "he

A technician checks air samples in Leningrad pollution control lab.

Environment top priori
for USSR industry, unions

By GENNADY KOVALEZ

The laws on conservation of air,
water, land, forest, wildlife, and wild
plants and on environmental abuse
passed in recent years have produced
tangible results.

In 70 per cent of Soviet industrial cen-
tres, atmospheric emissions have fallen.
The air pollution level in the USSR,
according to the estimates of the Rome
Club, are 60 and 67 per cent lower than
in Western Europe and the U.S. respec-
tively.

Rivers and lakes are less polluted due
to the non-waste production technology
introduced everywhere. Land damaged
by mining and mineral processing is
being rehabilitated. Rare species of fauna
and flora are protected in preserves
whose total area is about the size of Bri-
tain.

Environmental control is the preroga-
tive of the state, but the public plays a
major role in amending conservation
bills (traditionally submitted for nation-
wide debate) and helping enforce them.
The Russian Federation (one of the 15
union republics) Conservation Society
alone has a membership of 37 million.

The Soviet trade unions, with their 135
million members, draft bills, including
those on conservation. Moreover, under
their rules, they are duty-bound to pro-
tect the environment. They examine,
along with state inspection bodies, plans
for industrial installations and ban those
found environmentally unsound or not
in full compliance with accident preven-
tion rules.

Without trade union approval, no
newly built installation can be put into
service. A technical inspector must be in
the government acceptance commission.
No exceptions are made for this.

When trouble occurs in purifiers, the
trade union compels the management to
correct them. If graver malfunctions are
found, they close the enterprise. All this
is done without adversely affecting wages
because earnings include down time.

The Soviet Union was the first indus-
trialized nation to introduce maximum
permissible concentration (MCP) of pol-
lutants for all environments. Many of
these, as the International Labor Organ-
ization has recorded, are far more rigid
than those in the West. The trade unions,
along with state inspection bodies, con-

‘trol their enforcement and often make

them even more rigid.
The USSR Chemical Industry Minis-

~

try planned to extend its production
capacities in the town of Sterlitamak in
the Bashkir Republic. The projects were
examined and rejected by the Republic
Government Conservation Commission
with technical inspectors from the repub-
lic’s Council of Trade Unions participat-
ing. The reason was not atmospheric
emissions, since their concentrations
were quite permissible, but that the town
already had many chemical factories.

Trade union opinion is always taken
into account by the local authorities in
removing industries from residential
areas. This is not a minor issue. Some 300
enterprises have been moved beyond
Moscow’s boundaries. For Leningrad
the figure is 50. A similar process is
underway in large cities of Siberia.

Environmental protection is included
in the collective agreements (which are
binding on all) annually made by the
trade union committee on behalf of the
labor force with the management. The
officials who fail to implement the pro-
tection articles are brought to task by the
trade unions.

Conservation is also incorporated by
the locals in the economic and social
development plans they draw up with th
management for their enterprises. This
sometimes produces heated debates, as, ;
for instance, at the Tyrnyauz tungsten
and molybdenum integrated works in
the Caucasus. The issue at stake was
whether to introduce non-waste tech-
nology. Evaluation engineers were against
it and argued that its payback period
would be 800 years.

The trade union committee, back
by qualified ecologists and planning
bodies, got the upper hand. They proved
that the inputs would be repaid in four
years, if the environmental damage was

‘taken into account that could be caused
by the present production process and
subsequent rehabilitation outlays.

The All-Union Central Trade Union
Council and Central Committee of
Departmental Trade Unions believes
that their contribution to conservation
could be even greater. One idea being
discussed is setting up under all trade
union committees, from central to local,
special environmental control commis-
sions invested with great powers and
enlisting more intensely the support in
the field of research institutions and mass
organizations.

Gennady Kovalez is a correspondent
with the Novosti Press Agency.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 5, 1984 e 5