In 1977, there were 974,000 paid
workers in British Columbia. Of
these, 439,730 belonged to trade
unions. This breaks down to a
union membership representing
45.1 percent of the total paid
workers, up slightly from 1976, but
still below the high point of 1958
when 55.4 percent of the work force
was organized. In terms of ab-
solute numbers however, unions in
B.C. have almost twice as many
members as in 1958. What is in-
dicated is that the growth of union
membership is laGging behind the
growth of the work force. This
‘suggests that more attention

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

should be given to organizing the
unorganized.

The B.C. labor department
report for 1977 shows that union
membership is most heavily
concentrated in the trade and
service industries, with 42.9 per-.
cent of the total membership. This
sector includes trade, education,
and services by the three levels of
government.

Manufacturing accounts for 27.2
of the union membership, with the
wood and paper products in the
lead with 64,072 members,
repersenting 14.6 percent of the
total union membership.

A strong block is represented by
construction, with 52,895 members,
representing 14.6 percent of the
union membership.

Mining, transportation, com-
munications and other utilities
account for 17.8 percent of the total
union membership, with tran-
sportation as the largest com-
ponent with 11.3 percent of the total
membership.

Thus if we add the totals for
manufacturing, construction,
mining, communications and
utilities, we arrive at a total of 57
percent of the total work force.
This figure represents the union
membership in those industries
most directly connected withthe
production process, the process

from which all profits originate. '

A study of the table showing the
22 largest unions in B.C._ (5,000

members or more) reveals some
interesting facts.

Number one is the International
Woodworkers of America with
47,474 members. Following them
as second, third and fourth are the
B.C. Government Employees
Union (31,294 members), B.C.
Teachers Federation (28,818
members), and the Canadian
Union of Public Employees (24,204
members. In sixth place is the
Hospital Employees Union (18,147
members). In eithth and ninth
place are the Registered Nurses
(13,000 members) and the Public
Service Alliance of Canada (12,293
members). The Office and
Technical Employees Union is in
number 18 spot with 8,025 mem-
bers, with its largest group em-
ployed by B.C. Hydro.

It is also significant that the
Teachers, Hospital Employees and

Reistered Nurses are not affiliated.

with any trade union centre, along
with the Teamsters (20,382
members).

Looking back 30 years to 1947.

brings out some interesting facts:

e The B.C. Government Em-
ployees Union had no bargaining
rights then and preferred to be
known as an association.

e The Canadian Union of Public
Employees, now Canada’s largest
union, did not exist. It was founded
in 1963. Most municipal employees
in B.C. belonged to unions in 1947,
but they were mainly organized in
local unions directly chartered by
the old Trades and Labor Congress
of Canada. Today, they are in
CUPE.

e The Hospital Employees Union
was only beginning its period of
major expansion that would
eventually result in that union
becoming the largest B.C. union in
the hospital field.

e The Public Service Alliance of
Canada (federal government
employees), which is today the

third largest union in Canada, ,

didn’t exist in those days and the
separate unions and associations Of
federal employees had no
bargaining rights.

e@ The Pulp, Paper and Wood-
workers of Canada, now listed as
number 20 (6,574 members) did not
exist. It later emerged as a split
from an international union.
Today, the former international
union, now the Canadian Paper-
workers Union, is the larger of the

small group thirty years ago.

two, in 17th place (8,661 members).

Out of a total work force of
976,000, 615,000 are men and 361,000
are women. fifty percent of the

men in the work force belong to.

unions, as compared to 35.1 per-
cent of the women, reflecting the
fact that a higher percentage of
women are employed. n
unorganized trade and service
occupations.

A study of the 20 unions with a
female membership of more than
one thousand shows that the
overwhelming majority are in the
trades and service categories, such
as education, hospitals, govern-
ment employment and retail trade.
This sector has shown the largest
growth in union membership in the

‘past 30 years, although the growth

in retail trade has been largely
restricted to the large super-
market food chains.

_ Eight of these 20 unions are not
affiliated with a central labor body
and two of the largest (Teachers
and Nurses) consider themselves
professional associations rather
than trade unions. ‘

Of the total union membership in
B.C., 71.5 percent are affiliated
with the Canadian Labor Congress,
Canada’s major central labor

VLC criticizes CLC’s Montgomery
for views on environment, jobs

The Vancouver and District
Labor Council last Tuesday added
its voice to other in the labor,

movement critical of Canadian -

Labor Congress __ secretary-
treasurer Donald Montgomery for
counterposing jobs and en-
vironmental protection at a recent

CLC sponsored conference.

VLC delegates lave over-
whelming approval to an executive
resolution in response from a letter
from the Marine and Boiler-
makers’ Union to “disassociate
ourselves from the remarks of
Montgomery and reiterate our,

stand for the protection of the

environment.”

Instead of choosing betweén jobs
and environmental protection, the
resolution added, “‘The CLC should
channel its energies to the demand
for one million new jobs through a
program by which Canada
processes its own natural
resources.”

Montgomery’s
provoked critical

statements
responses

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 10, 1978—Page 12

throughout the labor movement. In
British Columbia, B.C. Federation
of Labor secretary-treasurer Len
Guy and United Fishermen and
Allied Workers’ Union president
Jack Nichol publicly condemned
Montgomery’s stand.

In Ontario, the United Electrical -

Workers Union’s publication UE
News also criticized Montgomery
for his placing of the question,
which “leaves the trade union
movement exposed to employer
intimidation and the threat of that
cleaning up the environment from
industrial pollution would mean a
substantial loss of jobs.”

The environmental clean up
versus jobs controversy has
thrown up scores of.situations, in
both Canada and the U.S., where
employers have greatly
exaggerated the possible loss of
j and the amount of money
involved if strict anti-pollution
measures were put in place, the
UE contended.

R. C. Paehike, an associate

professor of political studies at
Trent University, also spoke at the
CLC conference, and told delegates
that in the overwhelming majority
of instances plant closing need not
take place because of en-
vironmental clean up demands.

Instead, he said, environmental
demands ‘have resulted in the
creation of jobs. ‘‘What is good for
the environment is generally also
good for the workers and em-
ployment.”

“This obviously is not true in
every instance, but in net terms
sound environmental planning will
tend to reduce unemployment.”

There may be occasions, UE
added, when the well being of
workers will have to take
precedence over projects that offer
potential employment, if the risk to
health is too great. Nuclear
powered hydro-electric plants are
an example of high risk jobs at
present levels of technology, it
said

“Jobs yes, but certainly not at
the risk of life and limb.”

HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES IN 1976 STRIKE : :

Raper 4

body. Independent unions and
associations account for 24.8
percent of the total membership.
The Confederation of Canadian
Unions (which includes the Pulp,
Paper and Woodworkers of
Canada, the Canadian Association
of Smelter and Allied Workers and
the Canadian Association of In-
dustrial, Mechanical and Allied
Workers) has only 15,954 mem-
bers, representing 3.6 percent of
the total membership.

It is significant to note that while
the CLC has 314,407 members in
B.C., 121,539 of these belong to
purely Canadian unions, as op-
posed to the B.C. membership total
of 15,954 in the CCU, which was
built largely as a result of
breakaways from international
unions in order to set up purely
Canadian unions. :

The overall statistical picture
shows that out of a total B.C.
population of 2,492,000 (including
children, student, retired people
and the disabled) there were
974,000 paid workers in 1977. If you
add to this figure the more than
100,000 who were unemployed or
underemployed and the wives of
working people employed as
homemakers, it is obvious that the
overwhelming majority of adults
are working people. This should
debunk the theory that the working
class no longer exists, that it has
become middle class and has been
absorbed into the system as a
willing partner.

The strikes in B.C. during the
past ten years refute all claims
that the working class and its
organizations are playing a lesser
role in guiding and bringing
together all the various currents of
the anti-monopoly struggle. Those
who participated in these struggles
included more representatives of
various social strata than ever
before. We have seen strikes by
large groups of white collar

. now the largest union in the hospital field, it was only a

va pasiete®
eee

workers, employees in educatiol;
civil servants, provincial ane
federal employees, hospital em
ployees, postal workers, airline
pilots and technical employees.

While industrial workers most
energetically demand highel
wages and better working com
ditions, the white collar workers:
technicians and professionals wh?
have been drawn into collective
bargaining, while pressing fof
purely economic demands, tend 10
seek more opportunities fo!
professional advancement any |
promotion and tend to be closer to.
management in their outlook.

All this points to the need of some }
studies in depth of the changiné
composition of the working class
in Canada as a whole and in B.C:

For example, the drawing
together of new segments of hire
labor around the industrial nucleu>
gives rise to new problems, ##
terms of ideology and objectives:
The new contingents of the working
class, for example, have 4
relatively high level of educatio®
and culture and display a keel
interest in, and the ability @
comprehend, involved soci0”
economic and political ideas. OF
the other hand, they tend to bé
more inclined to accept the
traditional values of the system We
live under. This creates a mae
base for cautious reformis®
among these segments. Howevely
the inexorable levelling of
character and conditions of labot
living standards and style of life:
creates a real basis fo
establishing a community %
ideological and political attitudes:
The coincidence of social interes!
and joint struggle can lead only
a better understanding, in the lone
run, a
This coming together of attitudes
is a fascinating subject and of vital
concern to the labor movement. 7
hope to come back to that subject
in another article. q

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