LABOR Air strike widens Striking Air Canada air line attendants were hit by injunctions last week following actions protesting a company advertise- ment in the Globe and Mail and an escala- tion of picketing at the Vancouver Inter-" national Airport. On Sept. 17 several members of the Canadian Air Line Flight Attendants Association (CALFAA) occupied custo- mer seats in Air Canada’s downtown Vancouver ticket office in protest of the ad, in which the federal Crown corpora- . tion claimed the proposed contract CAL- FAA rejected was better than that accepted by members on rival air lines. CALFAA national president Larry LeBlanc, present for the action, said Air Canada’s’ ad was misleading on several fronts, most notably in comparing wage increases for Canadian Pacific Airline employees. The air line attendants left after eight hours when requested by Air Canada offi- cials. Air Canada attendants have been on strike since Aug. 19. Since then the air line, the latest of several aviation companies to be struck this year, has continued to fly planes with managerial and junior staff criticized as being ill-trained for the job. In what might be a prelude to further escalated job action, a combined picket of Teamsters, locked out recently by Consol- idated Aviation for refusing a 15-per cent pay cut, and CALFAA member escalated picketing-Sept. 19. The line. was respected by members of the Machinists Union at CP Air until. an injunction ordered the machinists to report for work. Canadian Tire targeted The Retail Clerks Union announced last week that it will be stepping up its boycott of Canadian Tire across B.C. as workers at the retail giant’s Prince George store approached their second year on the picket line. Retail Clerks representative Bert Rou- geau told the Vancouver and District Labor Council Sept. 17 that the union would be targetting stores in those areas where trade union and community sup- port is the greatest to intensify the two- year-old boycott of the stores, “We have to put on a major campaign in this province,” Rougeau said, noting that the strike “won’t be won in Prince George alone — it will be won across 2c Some 50 Canadian~ Tire workers, members of Local 1518 of the Retail Clerks, went on strike Dec. 5, 1983 to back demands for union recognition and a first contract. The company, which did $23 million in sales in the first 10 months of operation at the Prince George outlet, had earlier dis- missed 80 per cent of the staff and replaced them with people earning $4 an hour, prompting the union drive, Rougeau said. But shortly after the strike began, Can- adian Tire obtained a Supreme Court injunction to restrict picketing and has kept the store open with strikebreakers despite a B.C. Federation of Labor hot declaration. . Rougeau urged unionists and others to assist the Clerks in mounting an effective boycott, particularly in distributing mate- rial at target stores. ““We want the message to get out,” he said, Canadian Tire.” Evert Hoogers, chair of the council’s strike support committee, promised that the boycott campaign would be at the “top of the committee’s agenda” and told dele- gates: ““We saw what we did in the Eaton’s boycott — we've got to do it again. “What happens in Prince George will have a tremendous impact on what happens in organizing the retail industry across Canada,” he said. An Ontario-based chain, which also owns Whites Stores in Texas, Canadian Tire did $2.1 billion in gross sales across Canada last year. It operates*some 370 stores across the country, including 20 in the Lower Mainland alone. “to stay away from. DAN KEETON TRIBUNE PHOTOS SEAN GRIFFIN TRIBUNE PHOTO | | g Labor Notes : Top: CALFAA representative Larry LeBlanc with striking Air Canada attend- ants during occupation of Air Canada offices Sept. 17. Below, Teamsters and CALFAA pickets outside Air Canada offices listen as radio reports action by GP Air machinists in honoring picket line. — Grape boycott launched as growers cancel contracts Twenty years after the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee launched the historic Delano grape strike and boycott- that ultimately won union nights for Cali- fornia farm workers, the United Farm Workers is again calling on consumers across North America to stop buying Cali- fornia table grapes. And this year, perhaps even more so than in 1965, it is not only the rights of farm workers that is at issue — but also the health of farmworkers and consumers, because of the unregulated use of pesticides. — United Farmworkers president Cesar _ Chavez brought the boycott campaign to a press conference in Vancouver Sept. 23 _ Where he urged Canadians to reaffirm the support for the UFW that had helped the ‘union win its earlier campaigns. With him to back the boycott were B.C.. Federation of Labor president Art Kube, Canadian _ Labor Congress organization director Len Ruel, Catholic church activist Father Jim Roberts and Canadian Farmworkers Union secretary Sarwan Boal who also had a mes- sage. for B.C. consumers. “Canadian and American farmworkers join today in declaring war on mass pesti- cide poisoning of farmworkers and consu- mers,” Boal told the press conference in announcing support for the UFW cam- “From the grape fields of California to the apple orchards of Kelowna, farm- workers risk their lives by working with 12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 25, 1985 workers; toxic pesticides,” he told reporters. “Cali- fornia farmworkers are demanding that the five most dangerous pesticides be banned. B.C. farmworkers ask that the government deliver on its broken promise to implement safety regulations for farmworkers.” In Calfornia, the unregulated use of pesticides — evidenced this summer by the California watermelons that appeared in this province tainted with illegal pesti- cides — is only one example of the viola- tion of labor laws that is being allowed under the pro-grower regime of California governor George Deukmejian. Elected in 1982 with $1 million in cam- paign gifts from the big fruit and vegetable growers, he has virtually shelved any enforcement of the 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act introduced by former gover- nor Jerry Brown after a decade-long strug- gle by California farmworkers. And the Agricultural Labor Relations Board has been emasculated by cuts in funding and purges of any staff members which are not pro-grower, Chavez charged. As a result, growers have unilaterally refused to renew collective agreements with the UFW and grower interference with “union representation elections is rife. The UFW is focusing on three demands in the continent-wide boycott: © Fair and free union representation © Good faith bargaining by growers where the UFW elected to represent farm- is @ A voluntary grower .ban on five pesticides — captan, dinoseb, methyl bromide, parathion and phosdrin. “We’re asking Canadians to join with us to force California growers to ban five of the most dangerous and toxic chemicals being used in the grape fields,” Chavez said. All are known or suspected carcinogens (cancer- causing) and some have been linked to birth defects and other problems. Significantly, all five are in wide use in this province — without any regulation. Captan, a fungicide, is used by Okanagan apple orchards particularly, and has not been restricted by Agriculture Canada des- pite a recommendation from the govern- ment’s own health protection branch that it be banned. Phosdrin, an insecticide, was the chemi- cal implicated in the pesticide poisoning of Fraser Valley farmworker Jarnail Deol “By boycotting California grapes and DB) lobbying the provincial government, com sumers can protect their own health as as that of farmworkers,” Boal told the pres conference. He urged British Columbié to stop buying grapes and also to dema? that the Socred government implement ? farm safety regulations. The U.S. boycott, launched last sum! has already had a substantial impa Chavez noted that prices have been cut half in an attempt to move grapes and t amount of fruit put in cold storage is up per cent over last year. All California grapes are on the boy¢ list since the only grower which has signed UFW agreement has already completed ! 1985 harvest. — lam enclosing 1 yr.$140) 2yrs. $250) 6mo. $80) Foreign 1 yr. $20 oO Bill me later = Donation$........ a i I I OS ae eee Oe : WO a5... ine en eas Pocctcctc recess yee f seg Postal Code 1 i “TRIBUNE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V5K 125. Phone 251-1186 . Cee 0 oF 9 oor e gow tee 0 14 ihe ghee oe fe Bob ee oS op 8 000 eo ow tee eehiie © NR one's 0 OS ee \ READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOR.