ae tt AR Inglis layoffs pie Queen’s Park protest By MIKE PHILLIPS TORONTO — “Pull in your belt, pull in your belt — that’s what the bosses keep telling us. Well they’ ve not only got us doing that, in fact they’ve taken our pants right off’, the angry leader of John Inglis workers told the Tribune as Steelworkers picketed outside the Ontario legislature, Nov. 2. Some 50 militant Steelworkers union members marched outside the Legislature carrying signs protesting the indefinite layoffs of 105 members of United , Steelworkers Local 2900 at John Inglis Ltd., as well as the five-week layoff of another 500 workers. The layoffs leave about 150 workers remaining in the factory which manufactures household appliances. “‘T can see the anguish on the faces of our mem- bers in the plant,’ Local 2900 president Paul Ryan said, as he described the devastating effect soaring interest rates and inflation are having on the living standards of his members. Ryan:said, ‘‘their hearts are being pulled out”’ as they try to cope with criminally high mortgage _ interest rates, skyrocketting rents, and soaring food, clothing and other living costs. Adding insult to injury is Inglis’ recent layoff announcement. The five-week layoffs will cover a period extending: from Nov. 2 to Nov. 22. The Inglis workers’ president. summed up the. bitter mood of the workers demonstrating on the steps of Queen’s Park: ‘‘Premier Davis is in Ottawa today supposedly talking about a constitution and a bill of rights, but they’re taking away our main and most. important right as working people — the right to a job.”” The anger was also reflected in the placards carried by the workers: “Ifyou think the system is vr? working ask someone who isn’t — me! Ryan didn’t mince words about what he believed to be the root of the current economic crisis, which expressed itself in the tragedy of the Inglis layoffs. “It’s this capitalist system, it’s in such rough shape that it’s putting a good country in bankruptcy.” The union hasn’t been given any indication by John Inglis Ltd., of steady work after the five-week. shut down, the eventual re-hiring of the 105 in- definitely laid off or even that the five-week layoff won't be extended further. Ryan’s confidence in _ the Inglis management’s grip on the situaiton is not Hitting out at some of the Ontario Tory govern- ment’s recent expensive acquisitions, like the $10-million jet for the premier and his high-rolling cabinet, Ryan said ‘‘it’s about time we had some socialism in this country for the working man and not just for the capitalists.’’ Bev Brown, a steward with six years seniority in the plant and a sole support parent of a 16-year old, urged the protesters to do everything in their power to ensure that as many Inglis workers as possible . and Steelworkers as a whole from Metro Toronto, _and erosion of their living standards through high interest rates and inflation.’’ _ workers, Brown didn’t feel very optimistic about - the economy must be doing to the people in smnaller 3 ‘with no income and a struggle to make ends meét unionists protested outside the Ontario Legislature last week agai LABOR _ get out to Ottawa Nov. 21 to join the Canadian Labor Congress-sponsored rally against interest rates. She shared the platformh with Ryan and NDP-MPP Ross McLellan who promised to get his caucus to press the government to act in stopping the destruction of Ontario’s economy. Later in an interview, Brown, who is also a member of the Steelworkers’ Toronto Areu Coun- cil Women’s Action Committee stressed the iit- . portance of a massive turnout to the CLC interest rate protest. . “I’m here today fighting for me’’, she said refer- ring to the Queen's Park protest, ‘‘but we still have to continue fighting for the rest of the Canadiaris who don’t have the security of a job and régular income or are losing that security through layoffs Looking at the sorry state of the ecoriomy, which is ultimately what the company used to rationalize its move to unemploy some 600 of its — the future and focussed on this insecutity among . her fellow workers. ‘We may get back on Nov..22, | work two or three weeks and get laid off again — who knows? The future is so uncertain.” Of this uncertainty, Brown noted: ‘“‘it starts to eat away at you .. : When a plant the size of Inglis with a fair record for stability and not that many layoffs is affected then you begin to wonder what Componies: who are being shut down, maybe for | For Paul Ryan, what’s happening at Inglis right # z| now is the worst layoff he’s seen in the plant in the 4 Z| 29 years he has worked there. Bev Brown, one of = z| the 500 tossed out on the street for a month, now has to sharpen her wits for a month-long ordeal More than 50 members of Steelworkers’ Local 2900, and fellow “a af until she can return to her job. * massive layoffs at Inglis Ltd. Union rejects MTD’s threats Special to the Tribune KITCHENER .— The strike by members of United Auto Workers. Local 1524 against MTD Products Ltd., is now in its second month with little sign of relief on the horizon. Local 1524 negotiators met with: the company and a _ provincial government mediator Oct. 30 but union representatives emerged from . the meeting in an angry mood. The MTD representative from the com- pany’s Cleveland headquarters had used the mediation meeting as an ex- cuse to threaten the workers. with everything from running the plant with scabs, to closing the place down. Bargaining committee members told union members after the media- tion meeting that Local 1524 is will- ing to negotiate but will not be threatened in that way by the com- pany. The main issues in the dispute are monetary. There are signs that the company is willing to make conces- sions on certain conttact language changes but they refuse to budge when it comes to negotiating a de- cent. wage increase for the workers. The union bargaining committee is especially angry because MTD TORONTO — Bob White, Canadian leader of the United Auto Workers, cal- led on the Ontario government, Oct. 30. to conduct an independent inquiry into continuing massive layoffs at McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in Malton. - White and representatives of UAW - Local 1967 met with Tory premier Wil- liam Davis, for more than an hour, asking him to support the union’s demand that the federal government launch an im- partial inquiry into the contract which gave $4-billion of Canadian taxpayers’ money to the U.S. multi-national to build the F-18 jet fighter plane,.and resulted in 2,700.lost jobs following the award. The inquiry would also examine the com- pany’s future health and plans. White indicated’ to reporters outside the premier’s Queen’s Park office that the union’s request for an inquiry was to get to the root of how the federal government could award such a contract without securing any real job guarantees for Canadian workers. The workforce at McDonnell Douglas has dropped from 5,500 around the time the contract was awarded, to a current level of about 2,500 following a series of massive layofis. Federal Industry Minis- ter Herb Gray has told the UAW that in his opinion ani inquiry into the disastrous defence contract award wouldn’ t end the layoffs. White's resporise is that in the first placé it isn’t good enough for a gbverti- ment to dish out some $5-billion (includ- ing interest) of the people’s money to a U.S. multi-national without solid job guarantéés for Cariadians, and secondly ~ that the union is insisting on 4h inquiry, whether commissioned by the federal overnment, thé ptovincial government _ orjointly by both jurisdictions. He addéd that if Ottawa refuses, Queen’s Park should take up tHe initiative. The UAW presidént said the aircraft firti had given thé UAW no indication of any further layoffs at the Malton plarit, but he noted that they hadn’t indicated moré layoffs prior to the recént orie which brought the total of unemployéd bragged to them at the mediatio! meeting that the company had jus bought a plant in Memphis Tennes see. Whenthey were asked how they could afford to do this, while the) claim to be too poor to make a decefl contract offer, their man from Cleve" land said that they had not paid fo! the plant, that it had been bough : with money supplied through -. ' ‘government grant. 2 The workers realize that it’s t company that’s keeping them oul and they’re determined that vi longer they’re out, the more— it*| going to cost the company to. them back in. ee. arog es atechseee seagate iS SE RL. oo SR RT en ae te aircraft workers from the plant to 2, 700: White said that one of the points | the union told Davis they want the inquiry : examine as a long range option is ES feasibility of placing the aircraft co™ pany under public ownership. The ad eral government set the precedent by - ing over Dehavilland Aircraft in Malt0 and Canadair in Montreal and tu them into crown corporations. J The 2,500 jobs which McDonsé! Douglas Corporate Management p roo ised in Feb. 1979 in return for Lot 1967’s support in lobbying Ottawa 0 award the F-18 contract, turned out to® ( nothing but a con job. ‘After the smoke had cleared, the at tract was awarded and the hemorrhage? jobs from the Malton plant began cause the offset production of evil aircraft parts ‘promised to the C plant wasn’t forthcoming. With i slump in the aircraft industry and arof, ping demand for civilian craft, the on promised jobs not only didn’t mate ize, but 2,700 layoffs resulted. _— - | PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 13, 1981—Page 8 nL al Nea a yrs aad latins afudis to igevseninarevniebveaT ivi ttn AVP De RN MICAS Orig vf ee Fine ual gga ANANoprOLARDT URGES