Labour

;

This issue of the Tribune coincides with
the visit to Canada by Nelson Mandela,
part of the African National Congress lead-
er’s 16-country tour. On every stop his
message is the same; put an end to apart-
heid by stepping up the pressure on the de
Klerk regime in South Africa.

Mandela’s release from prison is a tre-
mendous victory for working people. I
can’t recall a labour convention where the

the resolution books.

Long before Mandela became a cause
celebre for the likes of Brian Mulroney and
Joe Clarke the labour movement in con-
vention after convention passed resolu-
tions, sent telegrams, protested the racist
government and lent its material and moral
support to both the African National Con-
gress and the South African Congress of
Trade Unions.

Looking back, it should also be remem-
bered that it was the Communist Party and
the left who, in the early: years, initiated
those campaigns—and continue to be a
part of them. Credit must also go to the
world communist movement, and the soc-
ialist countries—including those same
governments and parties who fell in East-
em Europe last year—for the substantial
material solidarity they rendered.

Knowing the release of Mandela from
prison was only part of their job, delegates
at the recent Montreal convention of the

demand to free the ANC leader wasn’t in”

John MacLennan

Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
pledged to continue their commitment to a
free South Africa.

But once you start talking about fight-
ing racism and apartheid in South Africa
you are compelled to look at racism here
at home.

This point was raise by the Black Cau-
cus of Trade Unionists at the convention
who pointed to the absence of visible min-
ority representation on the executive coun-
cil. The caucus fielded Dory Smith to con-
test the slate for vice-president-at-large. He
gamered 1,192 votes, an indication
labour’s rank-and-file are taking the issue
of a representative leadership seriously.

Smith’s candidacy was a graphic chal-
lenge to the CLC to address racism in it
own ranks while it talks of battling racism
in other parts of the world. Having the
executive council reflect the ratio of visible
minorities that make up Canada’s work-

LABOUR IN ACTION

force will no doubt among the presenta-
tions to the CLC’s task force on structure
which will be holding hearings across the
country.

Battling racism is an indispensable part
of coalition building, as the Metro Toronto
Labour Council demonstrated last week
when it joined the Black community in

condemning the police shooting of a 16-

year-old youth.

Marlon Neal was shot three times—
twice in the back—when he allegedly tried
to evade a radar trap. Cameron Durham, a
10-year veteran of the Metro police force,
has been charged with attempted murder.

This latest shooting is the fourth in-
stance in less than two years in which
Blacks in Toronto have been shot by
police. Considering the Black community
makes up about only six per cent of Metro
Toronto’s population, the statistics point to

Fighting racism and building coalitions

a racist “shoot first” policy in the Toronto
police force.

Prominent Black activist lawyer Char-
les Roach told council delegates that the
Toronto police force has had a emergency
task force (SWAT team) for 20 years and
in all that time has not killed anyone.

What must be ended is the practice of
the police investigating police. This was
reflected in the statement that the labour
council join the Black community in de-
manding the immediate establishment of
an independent civilian agency to inves-
tigate allegation of police misconduct.

An added important point was the
pledge of the labour council to intensify
efforts to reach out to the Black community
and jointly develop a common front to
combat racism in the police force and in

- the community.

The lesson keeps coming home time
after time that no one group or organization
can go it alone. It is not difficult to link up
the increase of racism across Canada with
the economic attack of the Tory big busi-
ness agenda on working people.

What is important to remember is that
we can rejoice in the release of Nelson
Mandela and mark anew level in the strug-
gle to end apartheid. But at the same time
remember that the struggle against racism
in Canada has barely begun.

CUPW convention backs national action program |

TORONTO—After evading pro-Letter
Carriers Union of Canada “power base”
“pickets” on day one of their 17th triennial
convention, Canadian Union of Postal
Workers delegates got down to the task of
addressing pressing problems inside and
outside their organization.

A feisty gathering, not unusual for this
union, also saw delegates defeat reports
from the first vice-president and the sec-
retary treasurer, and then unanimously en-
dorse the action document.

As far as external problems go, Canada
Post Corporation is obviously most prom-
inent. On the inside, continued disunity
within the bargaining unit still undermines
an effective response to the employer.

Delegates were
clearly concerned
that efforts by the for-
mer LCUC leader-
ship to resurrect their
union were, among
other things, going to BR
cripple strike action |= ™
that will likely be nec- | ~

PARROT

The question of many minds was: will
outside workers join the rest when it’s time
to walk out?

Toronto local president Andre Kolompar
tried to answer that one with a sensible ap-
peal.

He said that by not concentrating on the
corporation, the union engages in “too much
navel gazing.” When you do that, “you walk
$DAO09 and crash into the wall.

“Don’t insult them [outside workers] by
attributing the power base line to the letter
carriers all over this country,” he said.

Other speakers echoed the cry that when
the union has to confront the government for
jobs, members will be there.

At the same time, president Jean Claude
Parrot, in his report, bemoaned the lack of

8 + Pacific Tribune, June 25, 1990

RS TSS ES

Canada Post plans a profit rate of 14 to 15 percent on
equity. Currently, the rate is about four percent which
has meant massive cuts. Imagine the cuts needed to

achieve a further ten per cent profit.

— from the National Action Program.

ee NAST EA AT EE OT

membership participation in the union. He
noted the possibility that members feel the
union is incapable of solving day-to-day
problems.

That situation is certainly not special to
CUPW. But it’s not often addressed so
frankly by the leadership in convention. It
suggests that mobilizing inside workers is
not an automatic process either.

If the situation is not “tragic,” it is at least
“worrisome,” said Parrot.

Documents and delegates alike reported
stories of closings Canada-wide, contracting
out, and job reduction. And the long-held
assumption that all the corporation’s prac-
tices fit into its strategic line of making the
business attractive for private sector pur-
chase, underlined discussion.

CUPW cites a new mandate for the post
office to show a profit rate on equity of 14-15
per cent as a guarantee that an all out assault
from the boss is set to follow.

“CPC’s profits are now at about four
percent,” reads the preamble to the action
program. “We have seen the massive cuts to
service implemented to reach that profit
level. Imagine the cuts needed to achieve a
further ten per cent profit.

“The new commercial mandate of Can-
ada Post also requires the post office to pay
an annual dividend to the federal govern-
ment.” In 1989-90, the corporation was ex-
pected to send $40 million in dividends the
way the way of the government.

Government estimates suggest that Ot-
tawa will receive over $320-million in div-
idends from the post office over the course
of the next four years.

Negotiations, notable, with some excep-
tion, for their overall lack of progress, and
the strong possibility that strike action will
be needed to back them up, received much
of the focus.

Over the summer they’ll be a key com-
ponent of a national program of activities,
laid out at the convention.

Support for negotiations will include: a
national day of protest for job security to
take place at all postal installations, div-
isional and national offices; an expansion of
services day, to include demonstrations at
postal stations and letter carrier depots; a
“keep jobs in our community” day, when

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workers will march on privatized postal out-
lets; and a national day of workplace ac-

tivities.

A project to “expose the Tory agenda” is
planned as well. It will see demonstrations |
in front of the constituency offices of Con- |
servatives, and Parliament Hill, a poll of se |
MPs to see where they stand on privatiza- _
tion, “preparation for the next federal elec- |
tion” to replace the present government, and |
a vigorous lobbying effort directed at the

two opposition parties.

The action plan recognizes the impor- —
tance of acquiring allies both in the rest of
the labour movement and beyond. Locals
were told to get the CUPW agenda onto the
agenda of labour councils, so that the latter
intensify their opposition to privatization, |

and prepare to participate with CUPW in |

actions and demonstrations.

Community-based organizations will be —

urged and helped to do the same.

On the clearly positive side, a major

cent accomplishment cited was the mem-
orandum of agreement with the corporation |
to settle the bulk of a massive grievance —
backlog. Union leaders suggested that this

victory should at least help restore so;

membership confidence in the procedure. —

oocceseeee