Se “REAL WORLD’ NEEDS | So
Labor pressures for daycare

TORONTO — ‘There really aren’t any good theo-
Tetical reasons for not having good daycare in this prov-
Ice, and in fact there are a lot of very good reasons for

ving it’’.

Pat Shultz, a daycare activist told delegates to the
Intario Federation of Labor’s conference on daycare
titled, ‘‘Sharing the Caring’, Oct. 17 that. it is

enormously important for the trade union movement to
back the fight for quality daycare” because it is in the
Mterests of their members to do so.

Shulz welcomed the OFL’s initiative in sponsoring the
Conference as ‘‘the first step for both of us (the daycare
and labor movements) in an alliance that I hope con-
tnues until we achieve what we’re after.”

OFL president Cliff Pilkey opened the Oct. 17-18 con-
ference, stressing that ‘‘in the real world, there has been
amarked shift in the female work force away from single
to married women. In the real world half the mothers of
children aged three to five are working. In the real world
Nearly one in ten families is headed by a female single
Parent. In the real world, economic necessity over-
Shadows personal fulfillment as the principle reason for
Women entering the work force.”

Conference workshops explored all aspects of day-
Care from exploding the myths about its possible nega-
tive effects on children to a wide-ranging discussion on
overnment funding and delivery of daycare, union and

-€mployer involvement in daycare through the collective
ining process, and the relationship of the family in
Managing the delivery of daycare. ene
__ The conference also examined ‘‘Sharing the Caring’,
Which is the name of a policy paper by the federation’s
15-member women’s committee prepared for discussion
at this month’s annual federation convention.

‘Now is the time to develop a national, universal,
Comprehensive system of care for children 0-12”, the
Paper argues, and it calls for ‘‘a variety of integrated care
Options ... free of charge to all families wishing to use

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the services.”’

The federation discussion paper stresses, that
“daycare, like public education, can only become a sta-
ble and high quality service if it is funded through public
monies.” :

The OFL’s daycare plans include the demand for the
development of satellite child care centres in the com-
munities surrounding present facilities, and the use of
empty class rooms resulting from declining enrolment in
the public school system. Through a tri-level govern-
ment body would be set up to examine and share the

_ responsibility for providing the service, the OFL stres-

ses parents and workers and their communities should
have control over decision-making regarding program-
ing and hours. The OFL also demands that daycare
should no longer be meted out like welfare, as it is
currently under the Ministry of Community and Social
Services.

On the trade union side, workplace daycare, the
paper says, should be considered as a negotiating de-
mand, ‘‘as a tactic or strategy toward our ultimate goal
— a universal, free, publicly-funded care system.”

Later, in a press conference, Pilkey stressed that
significant progress can be made at the bargaining table
on the issue by forcing the employers to recognize the
need for daycare and to provide funds to the unions
which should have equal control with management and
parents in running workplace centres.

But Pilkey emphasized, the fight at the bargaining

table was only one front in the battle for quality daycare, -

and that the overall political struggle to force govern-
ments to respond to the public demand should be carried
on at the same time as workers fight for individual
concessions.

The OFL paper also raises the demand that daycare
workers begin to be recognized economically for the
quality and value of their work by raising their salaries
and benefits in line with workers in education, nursing
and social work.

IKE PHILLIPS

TRIBUNE PHOTO —

We want daycare now!

TORONTO — The recent victory in forcing the Tories to
increase funds for Metro’s daycare budget shows the
government is open to mass public pressure and that day-
care workers, children and parents aren’t willing to be
bought off by crumbs from the government anymore, speak-
ers declared at the Oct. 24 Action Daycare rally.

By MIKE PHILLIPS ~

KINGSTON — Ontario construction workers told
their top union officers last weekend they want the
divisive battle between their organizations and the
Canadian Labor Congress resolved with the whole
labor movement firmly united.

They underlined that message by choosing Barry
Fraser, an outspoken champion of Canadian au-
tonomy and building trades — CLC unity for presi-
dent of the 100,000-member provincial building trades
council. Fraser beat the establishment candidate Joe
Kennedy of the Operating Engineers by 162 to 90 for
the spot vacated by outgoing president Ken Martin
who stepped down after 16 years in the job. :

Overwhelmingly, delegates to the annual Ontario
Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council
convention, Oct. 25-26, defeated a proposal by the
Canadian building trades international union
establishment to create a structure competitive to the
CLC if the building trades are expelled from the con-
gress for non-payment of dues.

Instead, the delegates supported a resolution by the
Toronto —Central Ontario council urging the CLC
and building trades leaderships to “‘get back to the
table (of common sense and reason)’’ to hammer outa
solution to their differences ‘‘in the interests of all
Canadian workers and the trade union movement in

' Canada.”’ :

The council executive, while failing to tack its dual
structure proposal to the Toronto council's resolu-
tion, succeeded in convincing the delegates to accept
a provision giving the establishment the authority to

_ “take whatever action may be necessary”’ to enforce
their bargaining position in the talks with the CLC.

Ken Rose, international vice-president of the
Intemational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
(IBEW), the leading spokesman for the establishment
position, unsuccessfully argued that the threat of a
dual labor centre was needed to give the building
trades leaders greater power to negotiate’ with the
congress. | za

Rose announced that CLC president Dennis
McDermott had contacted him and that a meeting was
being arranged to take place within a couple of weeks
between the congress executive and the Canadian
executive board of the building trades.

The building trades and the CLC are currently in a
state of cold war because of the unilateral decision by
the building trades leadership to stop per capita dues
payments to the congress. Rose and the establishment
cite three reasons for taking this action and for the
resignation of both Rose and Sheet Metal Workers’

Talk to CLC
trades tell —
Rose and Co.

vice-president Ray Gall from the CLC executive
council last spring.

They are the CLC’s refusal to discipline the Quebec
Federation of Labor for directly affiliating some 12,000
former Quebec IBEW members who split with the
international over a pension dispute; dissatisfaction

with the selection method for CLC convention dele-.

gates, and the voting procedure at conventions which
they claim denies the building trades an effective
voice in the house of labor; and failure of the CLC to
end the invasion of building trades jurisdiction by
industrial unions.

But the delegates refused to accept the break-up of
the CLC. Ironworkers’ delegate Joe Grabek said the
establishment proposal for a dual labor centre was
like ‘‘sticking a gun to the heads of the CLC and
saying: ‘Negotiate with us or we'll shoot you’.”’

Noting that the proposal contradicted the unity mo-
tive of the Toronto council’s resolution, Grabek
warned, ‘‘unless we stay in the CLC to solve our
problem the alternative is war, and the losers in that
case will be the workers.”’

Sean O’Ryan, Local 46, plumbers union urged the

- delegates to consider the realities of the choice Rose
and the establishment were placing before them.
“You're not giving Ken Rose more clout in nego-
tiations with ‘the congress’, he said. ‘‘You’re not
voting for a stronger bargaining position, you’ re vot-
ing for a separate structure.”’

He called it ‘‘a sham to come here and try to hood-
wink the people by calling for a break-up from the
GEC 4 s

Carpenters’ delegate Phil Robichaud warned that
setting up a separate union structure and chauvinist
attacks against QFL president Louis Laberge for be-
ing, as Rose and others charged, ‘‘a goddam
separatist’ amounted to ‘throwing gasoline on the

fire.”’

Robichaud revealed to the delegates the legal and .

trade union situation in Quebec in which the QFL
finds itself. Under the law the labor central which

‘trades establishment would never let any of its af-

-you’ll get nowhere’’, Cartwright said. *‘We’d better
_ learn that when dealing with the government we have

succeeds in affiliating the biggest group of construc-

tion workers during the open period before contracts: "|4:
expire, becomes the sole negotiator for all building «/f'
tradesmen in the negotiations. Faced with this, Robi-
chaud pointed out to the delegates, most of whom
admitted they were unaware of these facts, the QFL
was hard-pressed to turn 12,000 workers away from
the federation. ‘‘If they don’t go to the QFL they will
go to the CNTU (Confederation of National Trade
Unions), Robichaud noted.

“If you think we’re fighting each other now’’, he
said about the divisive dispute, ‘‘wait until we sep-
arate from the CLC. Then we’ll be fighting a lot of
little bush wars all over the country and our members
will be the losers.”’

Alan MaclIsaac said what was on many delegates’
minds when he noted that the Canadian building

filiates withhold their dues to the internationals. Like
many other speakers he charged ‘‘the die is cast’’ and
that the internationals have already decided to pull the
building trades out of the congress.

MaclIsaac wamed ‘‘we may be walking into a fight
we won’t be able to back out of. It’s no use pretending
we can survive outside the labor movement. The
industrial unions today have established very strong
positions in communities throughout the country. We
need each other.”’ :

The strong pro-unity mood was evident from the
first hours of the convention when the convention
forced the leadership to accept a resolution they had
refused to concur with, calling on the Ontario council
to encourage building trades locals to affiliate with
local labor council.

The convention also took a bold step in forcing the
executive to accept another resolution it had tried to
shoot down, calling for the council to launch a militant
campaign to repeal bills 22 and 204, Ontario’s regres-
sive province-wide bargaining law.

The resolution called for a massive demonstration
at the provincial legislature, and simultaneous local
protests where travelling to Toronto isn’t practical,
demanding repeal of the bargaining law.

Speaking against the establishment’s proposal to
shoot down the resolution, Carpenters’ delegate John
Cartwright said the legislation had demoralized build-
ing trades workers throughout the province by taking
away their input into the negotiations process.

‘“We know if you go to the government cap in hand

to organize our strength to get where we want.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 7, 1980—Page 5