LABOR

Quebec shipyard workers
strike for 35-hour week

TRACEY, Que. — ‘‘We’re not going back in
until we get the 35-hour work week. Our struggle is
a struggle for jobs’’, strike leader Francois
Lamoureux told the Trib’s sister paper in Quebec,
Combat.

Lamoureux is the president of the local Confed-
eration of National Trade Unions affiliate rep-
resenting the 1,000 shipyard workers who’ ve been
on strike here since Aug. 6 against Marine Indus-
tries Ltd.

“The company and the provincial government
must adjust to the 1980s’’, Lamoureux said about
the shipbuilding enterprise that is 65 per cent con-
trolled by the Quebec government through its pub-
lic corporation “‘la Société generale de
financement’’, (SGF). Tracey-Sorel is located
about 80 km. east of Montreal.

The remaining interest is owned by a private
French company.

The union is convinced that the company’s ar-
rogant attitude toward the workers is based on the
clear political objective of rolling back gains the
workers have made over the years, in the same
spirit as the general attack on public sector work-
ers’ rights and conditions.

The strikers point out that Marine Industries has
lost some $33-million since the strike began but it
would have only cost the company about $11-mil-

‘lion to meet the workers’ demands.

Refusing to Move

They recall how in 1978, the union’s battle to
save the plant from being shut down brought the
government in to save the troubled enterprise. But
today, with some $300-million in orders on hand,
the government refuses to force management to
negotiate satisfactorily with the strikers.

' “Tn fact,’’ Lamoureux points out, ‘‘the PQ
government listens to the private bosses and wants
Marine to recover on the workers’ backs.”’

Marine refuses to move in spite of conciliation
efforts, the support for the union by local mayors in
the region, and union compromises including the
dropping of about 60 demands.

Marine Industries has told the union it wants the
workers to make around 150 concessions in the
new pact. Among these are that: workers become
totally mobile, that is accept any job in the enter-

- prise regardless of their skills and for indefinite

periods of time; contracting out be extended; and
that overtime become compulsory.

‘*They’re trying to drive us back into the 30s’’,
Lamoureux said adding that the company seeks
to keep the youngest, qualified workers and fire the
older people. The union predicts the company’s
demands, if accepted by the workers, would cut
about 210 from the current work force.

Duplessis is Gone |

Lamoureux’s response to company threats it
will close the plant down if the workers don’t take
the concessions was to let management know that
“the time of fear is finished, the Duplessis era is
over.”

The union remains convinced that Marine Indus-
tries can give better working conditions and still
meet the competition. It is clear, according to the
strike leader, that the company and the govern-
ment are out to destroy their progressive local
union. Taking the longer view, Lamoureux sug-
gests: “‘ Anyway, in 1986 our union will still be here
while the PQ government will probably have been

_long gone.”’

Support for the strikers has been helpful. The
Quebec Teachers Central, (CEQ), praised the
Marine Industries strikers for ‘‘fighting like
pioneers for the reduction of work time, an objec-
tive gaining ever greater support by the trade union
movement as a social answer to the overturning of
the labor force by the economic crisis and tech-
nological change.

“For this’’, the CEQ declared, “‘the strikers at
Marine Industries deserve the concrete support of
the entire trade union movement.”

Other tributes and support for their fight to shor-
ten the work week came from across Canada, in-
cluding the Canadian Postal Workers and their
leader Jean-Claude Parrot who are also battling for
anew contract with shorter work time as their goal,
and from unions in the U.S. and the Federal Re-
public of Germany where gains in shortening the
work week were made this year by steel and print
workers,

“The workers, who average around 42 years in
age, went on strike with an overwhelming 86 per
cent margin in favor. ‘‘The strikers’ morale is
excellent, because they’re convinced their struggle
is right,’’ Lamoureux ‘Said.

Bi

New strike at York U.

TORONTO — Last week, York University clerical and technical
workers emerged victorious after a seven day strike shortly before
1,500 part time faculty and teaching assistants set up picket lines in
their fight for a new agreement with substantial wage hikes.

Spokespeople for the first group claimed ‘“‘incredible break-
throughs’’ in job security and a 5.9 per cent wage hike or $1,060 annual
increase per person, whichever is greatest. The gain means that lower
paid workers would receive as much as 6.7 per cent.

The York University Staff Association, representing the striking
workers credited the solid union support on campus plus support from
transit drivers and mail carriers off campus who refused to cross the
YUSA picket lines, with speeding up the union’s victory.

YUSA settled on Oct. 17, one day before the Canadian Union of
Educational Workers, representing part time faculty and teaching as-
sistants set up picket lines to back demands for money, job security,
seniority rights and access to full time jobs.

CUEW is asking for raises of $700 annually per person, which it
points out comes to about half a million dollars in the total university
budget of several millions. The University administration is said to be
offering about half of what the CUEW is demanding.

Many of the part-time faculty are in effect carrying full teaching loads
when several part time appointments are combined, but in total their
wages fall far short of what full time faculty earn.

The York University disputes take place, meanwhile, in the back-
ground of a province-wide strike by 7,600 teachers, librarians and
counsellors at 22 Ontario community colleges. The faculty, rep-
resented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, (OPSEU),
struck on Oct. 17 to win better working conditions, specifically lan-
guage in the agreement that would allow faculty more time outside
classes for lesson preparation, marking papers and to counsel students.

OPSEU president Sean O’ Flynn says that the basic issue the college
administrations refuse to negotiate through the Ontario Council of
Regents is the continuing quality of education.

ave you fired your boss recently?

It is the style in the capitalist world to refer to trade

Relations between the director and the TUC became

~

unions in these countries as “‘free trade unions’’. This

habit is also practiced by some trade union leaders. The.
implication is that trade unions in socialist countries are.

not free. It is precisely behind this lie that the Canadian
Labor Congress continues to resist decisions of its own
conventions to normalize relations between Canadian
trade unions and their counterparts in most socialist
countries, particularly the Soviet Union. With this in
mind we give over our column this week to a story of
how a Moscow union dealt with unfair labor practices in
its work place. We will leave it up to our readers to make
whatever comparisons they may feel reasonable. The
report, written by Hiya Gitlitz, is headed: Director vs
trade union.
oe eka aie

When Genrikh Nikolayev, the director of the Moscow
writing accessories plant, ordered that a commission be
set up to. check up on how the trade union committee
(TUC) distributes vouchers to sanatoriums and holi-
day-homes, the staff were outraged. The majority (the
plant employs 1,800 people) were against.

It was noted that the director had issued his order the
day after Tatyana Stolyarova, chairman of the TUC, had
gone on vacation.

‘*He wants to settle accounts with the TUC,”’ was the
concensus of opinion.

When a decision is taken ‘‘jointly with the TUC”’ the
committee’s opinion is legally binding on management.

‘‘With TUC consent”’ means that that the TUC sanc-
tions management activies.

The overwhelming majority of local TUC branches
and enterprise directors work together. What, then,
happened at the Moscow writing accessories plant?

Genrikh Nikolayev, who was appointed director sev-
eral years ago, was known as an energetic and knowl-

egable worker. But as time passed, people noticed that
the director wasn’t interested in the plant’s re-
construction, paid little attention to improving labor
conditions and labor safety rules. He rarely visited the
workshops and avoided personal meetings with the staff.

Tatyana Stolyarova was elected TUC chairman four
years ago. She used to be an economist, a design engineer,
and laboratory chief. All told, she has worked 14 years at
the plant. It was assumed that she had a good knowledge
both of the work force and the production cycle. How-
ever, on taking over as chairman, Stolyarova started to
build up her relations with the director as a subordinate
rather than as an equal partner. Therefore, when some-
body lodged a complaint about Nikolayev’s manage-
ment methods, she would say: .

‘‘Nothing is done in a hurry. Let’s be patient.”

Capitalizing on the TUC’s passive attitude, in 1982
management failed to fulfil 14 provisions in the collective
agreement. In accordance with our legislation, failure to
fulfil these provisions is fraught with consequences. The
TUC at the plant took the matter up with its superior
organ requesting it to bring influence to bear on the
director. The city sectional TUC insisted that the minis-
try, to which the plant belonged, should take measures.
As a result, Nikolayev received a reprimand from the
ministry.

strained. Nikolayev ignored TUC decisions. He failed to
report on his work at the plant’s general meetings. And
he refused to fulfil the recommendations of a TUC tech-
nical inspector.

The director was reprimanded a second time and, in
revenge, issued the order that TUC activities should be
checked up on. Trade union activists applied to the
Moscow city trade union committee of workers in the
engineering and instrument-building industry.

Vladimir Bogomolov, 53, its chairman, who, before he
was elected to this post, used to be a painter, foreman
and shop superintendent, said that this was the first time
that he had come across such a blatant infringement of
trade union rights. He arranged a meeting with Niko-
layev and reminded him that the organization of working
people’s rest and medical treatment was the concern of
the trade unions, but that if he thought that the vouchers
were being distributed incorrectly, then he could apply
to the auditing commission or to a superior trade union
organ.

“This is your right as a trade union member,”
Bogomolov said.

Though Nikolayev agreed with Bogomolov’s com-
ment, he did-not dissolve the ad hoc commission which
continued to operate. Then the trade union city com-
mittee summoned Genrikh Nikolayev for the second
time.

The members of the committee’s presidium — five
women and six men — arrived at a unanimous decision:
‘‘To relieve Nikolayev of his post, because of his viola-
tions of the Labor Code, namely: non-fulfillment of the
collective agreement, bureaucracy and ignoring the
LUC oe

A different director now works at the Moscow writing
accessories plant.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 24, 1984 e 7