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By MIKE PHILLIPS
TORONTO — The attention of
Working people from every

_ Comer of the country was focus-
. ed last week on 3,700 striking

ada Packers workers who are
angrily resisting the corporations’
industry-wide drive to slash their
ving standards.
They’re trying-to roll condi-
ons back 20 years’, a veteran
a Packers worker told the
Tribune, July 30 as she and 2,100

a Other strikers picketed CP’s

hip Toronto plant on the first

: eo the strike.

free can’t see us accepting a
ze in our wages for two years

| Particularly since the company
be nade almost $26-million in profits

ast year”’, she said.
By a 60 per cent margin, CP

_ Workers in 10 cities throughout

~ Country, July 26 rejected a

| theymmended tentative contract
| tt Would have frozen wages for

WO years, meant that new hires
ve to begin working at $3
a hour below the current starting

ate, and included other conces-

_ ‘Ons in contract language relating

9 Certain Statutory holidays and
Yoff notice.

_ Union

5 atification meetings were
ay affairs as rank and file
€mbers expressed disappoint-

a Sal and anger with the United

od and Commercial Workers

national leadership: for
Ommending the contract: That

"Mood carried over to the picket

€s, particularly after press re-
Ports July 30, quoting chief
negotiator Vern Der-

: a Taugh’ s Opinion that his members
| . Made a terrible mistake”’ by tak-

_ *8 Strike action.

“‘How is it a mistake to fight to
hang on to the gains we’ve made
over the years?’’, one Toronto
striker asked. “*I thought the labor
movement in this country was
fighting against concessions.”’

Closing Ranks
By mid-week, however, the

leadership acknowledged its
members’ fighting spirit and

moved quickly to close its ranks .

and swing into action against the
company. Derraugh issued a
statement accepting the union’s
decision to strike, and pledged to
continue giving his full support to
the membership.

For its part the company
wasted little time in testing the

_ strikers’ determination. From day

one, in Toronto, the company
moved meat and other products
through the picket lines using
huge transport trucks,

The picketers did their best to
maintain their picket lines, but
Canada Packers relied on the will-
ing support of the Metro Police to
move the material. UFCW local
411 chief trustee Jim Burrell noted
that, despite his statements to
police July 30, that all the strikers
intended was to picket peacefully.
He was told by the cops that they
would use force if necessary to
clear a path for a transport trying
to cross the line.

In the end the cops physically
‘moved strikers out of the truck’s
way and let the meat-laden trans-
port through. Nevertheless strik-
ers throughout the week made it
as hard as they could for every
vehicle that passed through their
lines hauling Canada Packers
products out of the plants.

Canada Packers’ wage fl
freeze fought by UFCW

Back on the line, the strikers
cited the company’s huge 1984
profits and its callous disregard
for the workers who created-those
profits as an important part of the
reason they’re fighting the indus-
try’s drive for concessions and to
cut their wages by freezing them
for two years. a

They Won’t Freeze Prices

“If they would have offered us
any wage improvement in the
contract most of us would have
accepted ‘it’’, another striker
chipped in, calling the CP pro-
posal ‘‘an insult.”

‘‘Why should we agree to stand
still when the company keeps on
making a good profit’’, he added.
“You can be sure there isn’t going

_to be a two-year freeze on prices.

What are we supposed to do
about our mortgages, rent, gro-

_ ceries, living costs and all of that

in the meantime?”

Combined with about 1,100
Burns Meats Ltd., strikers out at
three cross-Canada locations, the
Canada Packers strike sees a
quarter of the industry’s work-
force laying down their tools and
stopping about one third of the
country’s meat production.

Burns workers, members of the
UFCW, have been on strike for
seven weeks essentially fighting
the same drive by the meat pack-

ers to drive down wages. Bus-

loads of UFCW members and
supporters from Lethbridge, Cal-
gary and the Burns plant in Kitch-

ener converged on the company’s -

Winnipeg plant last week to sup-
port strikers there who’ve
pledged to block the company’s
vicious plan to re-open the plant

TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS

Metro cops were quick to show whose side they’re on , July 30 when
despite union assurances they intended to picket peacefully, the police
threatened to use force to clear a path through the line for a transport

loaded down with CP products.-

with scabs recruited from among
the unemployed.

Federal meat inspectors, mem-
bers of the Public Service Al-
liance of Canada are refusing to
cross the UFCW’s Winnipeg pic-
ket lines in a gesuture of solidarity
with the strikers. ° ;

Who’s Advantage

Despite sales in 1983 of some
$3.2-billion and a profit of $24.6
million, not to mention its first
quarter profit this year of $25.3-
million, Canada Packers is lead-
ing the packing industry’s chorus
demanding lower Canadian
wages to match those in the U.S.
which the companies say are
about three to five dollars an hour
lower.

Since 1980, they say Canadian
wages have increased from an av-
erage $332 a week to about $425
today, compared to a rise from
$320 to $361 for American work-
ers during the same period.

However some workers point .

_ out that taking into account the

greater exchange rate on the U.S.

-dollar compared to ours, the dif-

ferential in terms of relative buy-
ing power of the wages in both
countries isn’t as great as the
wage figures show on the surface.

Currently the U.S. dollar is
about 24 cents higher in value
than ours. This would mean,
these workers say, that the $425
(Canadian) would be worth about

-$323 (U.S.). They ask, who’s got

the advantage?

|Where’s labor in this election?

It is gratifying indeed to see women’s organizations,

| Peace movements, environmentalists and churches in —

_€ election campaign demanding the candidates and
Political parties put their positions on the line. But
Where, pray tell, is the trade union movement?

_ At the recent Canadian Labor Congress Convention

ts own program in the public area. :
In fact, however, the sum total of the CLC election
Sampaign has been, and is scheduled to be, knocking on

| NDE for the New Democratic Party in selected (by the

) constituencies across Canada.

the political party of its choice; this was reaffirmed at the
€nt convention, and one cannot argue against their

| “forts to strengthen the NDP’s chance in the election.

_ The CLC has, however, a more primary and a larger

esponsibility to its members, and indeed to all Cana-

bee dians, both in the election and between elections. This

itSPonsibility is to fight to win the Canadian people for
MG S Own policies, just as the churches, women’s groups,

‘nvironmentalists and peace movements are doing. To

e || _e extent the policies of any political party are seen to

any sPond more readily to the aims and objectives of

Such groups will help to defeat the old line parties and
lect Candidates with a genuine alternative program. —
ui, {uS is not an academic question but really has to do
With the substance of the election campaign. Up.to the
_ ,. -S€nt the real issues are not being debated in the elec-

tion Campaign. The issues of the economy and peace.

the delegates voted 5 cents per member per month for a .
| Political action fund, to enable the GLC to campaign for

It is true of course that the CLC supports the NDP as’

._¥ Or all these organizations, the campaigning of all:

“She of the other issues engaging the candidates’ atten-

Labor in action

William Stewart

tion, including the issue of women’s equality can be

solved without a solution to these two crucial issues.

They are however being buried. And quite frankly, if the
NDP isn’t exactly shovelling dirt on the grave, it is not
doing much to prevent the burial.

The recent CLC convention, and those preceding it,
spoke of the need for fundamental changes in economic
direction to pull Canada out of the present crisis. Mr.
Broadbent, so far in the campaign is pretending that
Canada can tax its way to prosperity. The CLC has
called for nationalization of the banks and_ financial
institutions; Mr. Broadbent is. silent on this issue. The
CLC called for substantial government intervention in
the economy, including public ownership and control
wherever necessary to provide Canada with an alter-
native economic strategy. Mr. Broadbent is so far speak-
ing about programs to help develop the entrepreneurial
spirit of young Canadians. He mentions it is true, the

-need to end Canada’s status as ‘‘hewers of wood and

drawers of water.’’ He promises to reverse the situation
where companies ‘“‘get the payoff and workers the lay-
offs.” But he has so far not put forward any programs to
halt the U.S. ownership and control of our economy or

the control by giant multi-national corporations as a

media blackout against the party, and in spite of its

whole of Canada, without which nothing will change,
except for the worse. ;

The CLC’s program on the other hand, while not going
far enough in presenting a full alternative to multi-
national economic and political control, goes a long way
toward an alternative strategy which could put most of
Canada’s jobless back to work. 3

On the peace question as well, the CLC was straight-
forward about the fight for peace. It placed it as the
number one question facing Canada.-It talled for Canada
to dump the Cruise, become a nuclear weapons free zone -
and lead a fight for balanced nuclear and general dis-
armaments. So far we have heard little other than plati-
tudes to address this issue.

Only the Communist Party of Canada is addressing
these issues in a firm and principled fashion, and while
the party and left can be proud of the role it is playing in
the election, it is clear that with the studied press and ._

herculean efforts under the circumstances, it cannot by
itself turn the election campaign into a genuine forum for
discussion of the issues of peace and jobs. The CLC
could do this, and in so doing also force the NDP to stop
simply occupying the centre ground abandoned by the
Liberals in the selection of John Turner, and address the
real issues facing Canada. :

There is time left for the CLC to play a major and —
decisive role in this election campaign. It can help to
make the labor movement the driving force of the elec-
tions, ensure the denial of a majority to either of the old
line parties and elect a progressive group to parliament
including Communists which could use its influence to
win labor’s program for Canada.

mn

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, AUGUST 8, 1984 e 5