LABOR

The decision by the officers of Region 1
of the International Woodworkers to
withhold nearly all its per capita dues from
the B.C. Federation of Labor will almost
certainly deepen the isolation of the IWA
and the leadership under Jack Munro
from the trade union movement.

The union last week carried out the
threat voiced earlier by Munro and
announced that only some S0 people from
each of its 13 locals in B.C. would be
affiliated to the federation. The move will
effectively reduce the [WA’s per capita
contribution from the $183,500 in 1983-84
to just $500.

The IWA had already pulled all its
members off the federation’s executive
council, Three were nominated at the con-
vention last December but all declined on
the decision of the caucus.

The union will presumably maintain
its representation on local labor councils
which like the federation, are chartered by
the Canadian Labor Congress where
Munro sits as a vice-president at large.

At a news conference Jan. 29, Munro
confirmed that the decision, threatened at
‘the time of the convention, was prompted
by his defeat as first vice-president, a posi-

tion traditionally held by the TWA.

“We are entitled to that spot,” he said. .

“Now that agreement has been destroyed
by the federation and we can’t pretend it
hasn’t happened.”

Munro was also critical of the federa-
tion on other points, terming the labor’s
central’s longstanding picketing policy
“ridiculous” and questioning the weight
exerted by some smaller unions.

Art Gruntman, who defeated Munro in
the federation election last fall, called the
IWA decision “unfortunate”, a sentiment
echoed by many in the trade union move-
ment.

The widespread feeling is that the action
will isolate the IWA even more from the
trade union movement. The policies of the
union under Munro’s leadership have
been increasingly distant from those of the
federation over the last year and the with-
drawal of funds will likely alienate many
more unionists. .

Munro’s defeat at the convention was a
result of several factors, involving continu-
ing bitterness over his public statements
during the secondary picketing by pulp
workers, his refusal to set an example
among private sector unions by putting
the IWA fully behind the public sector
strike in 1983, and his role i in the Kelowna
accord.

Even the IWA council’s decision to

Dues cutoff will deepen |WA’s isolation

break ranks with the pulp unions in joint
bargaining and sign a trend-setting three-
year agreement with a first-year wage
freeze was criticized by many unionists.

That decision in turn reflected the posi-
tion of the regional leadership which has
been to accept that the crisis in the forest
industry is the result of a world-wide reces-
sion and that little can be done about it. At
its last convention, the leadership explicity
rejected a militant response to the crisis,
arguing that the industry “‘is at the mercy
of international markets.”

Analysis

Munro himself has been increasingly
identified with a tripartite approach over
the last year.

At the Jan. 29 press conference, the
IWA president also used the occasion to
repudiate the Native Indian groups who
have opposed logging on Meares Island.
He backed MacMillan Bloedel’s bid to log
the island, telling reporters, “the island
should be logged.”

Munro’s stand on Meare’s logging gives
significant support to MacMillan Bloedel

at a time when there is widespread public
opposition to logging the island.
Although the federation will be affected
by the withholding of per capita — offset
by the recent affiliation of the 25,000

‘ member Hospital Employees Union — the
“bigger problem will be the division created

by the IWA’s action and the weakening of
the IWA membership’s position.

The IWA will be going into bargaining
without any real hope for a turnaround in
the forest industry and IWA members
have already expressed concern that the
employers will seek to impose terms sim-
ilar to those in the U.S. where the WA has
signed a 5-year contract.

A recent letter sent out by the TWA
Committee for Progressive Leadership
— which ran Willie Fleming and Joe
Lychak for the regional leadership last
fall — warned that the employers were

“on the offensive using depressed condi-
tions.”

Although it was sent out before Mun-
ro’s press conference announcement, it
warned: “Let’s face the facts — we cannot
afford to go it alone.

“More than ever we need to strengthen
the labor movement, not to pull out of the
B.C. Federation of Labor as some of our

‘leaders propose.”

Hewison takes union

By SEAN GRIFFIN
At age 40, United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union secretary-treasurer George
Hewison isn’t exactly in the category of
veteran in the labor movement in B.C.
Yet when he steps down from his

UFAWU post. at the union’s convention.

this week to take a position as industrial
secretary of the Communist Party in
Toronto, he will already have 20 years
under his belt as full-time representative of
the union.

The central executive committee of the
Communist Party announced last week that
Hewison has been named to the post, to
take over from Bill Stewart who will be
taking up an assignment as the Canadian

_ party’s representative on the editorial board
of World Marxist Review.

Taking that step across the Rockies is a
momentous one but George says in an
interview that working full-time for the CP
has always been one of his goals.

“It’s an opportunity to work directly in
political activity — something you don’t
get a lot of time to do as a trade unionist.

“I think I can make a contribution
although I’ve got a lot to learn. I’ve always
been rooted in B.C.,” he says.

In fact, those roots are deep, both in the
fishing industry and the Communist
movement. The son of Campbell River
fisherman Jack Hewison, George recalls
going out with his father at the age of eight.
He began fishing for a living at 17 and
joined the UFA WU that season.

Later that year — in 1961 — when he

began studying at the University of B.C., he .

joined the Communist Party, following a
family tradition set by his parents.

He continued fishing during the salmon
season while attending UBC but in 1965, he
cut his university career short to take an
appointment with the UFA WU as northern
organizer, based in Prince Rupert. Even
before the - appointment he was a member of
the union’s general executive board.

“It (the appointment) was to be for a year
and then I was to go back and finish univer-
sity,” George recalls now. “But I got more
education in that year than I had got in the
previous 16.”

He stayed, moving to Vancouver as the
local’s union organizer in 1972, to business
agent a year later and finally to secretary-
treasurer in 1977.

As a Communist in the UFAWU,
George has also been part of a long tradi-

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 6, 1985

tion. From virtually the beginnings of the
industry in this province, socialists and
Communists have been an integral part of
fishermen’s union organization. The names
of such people as Frank Rogers and George
Miller and more recently, Bill Rigby and
Homer Stevens occupy a major place in the
union’s history.

“The fishermen’s union isn’t just a
union — it’s really a anti-monopoly coali-
tion made up of wage workers and fisher-
men who own their own boats,” George
points out. “And the union’s strength.
depends on maintaining the unity of that
coalition.”

Maintaining that unity depends in turn
on developing a program that takes into
account the interests of all sections of the
work force in the industry, he emphasizes.

“There are few other industries that have
to formulate policies on international trea-
ties, on the environment, on catch division
and aboriginal rights, all apart from collec-
tive bargaining.”

And it has been the left in general and the
Communist Party in particular that has
played a decisive role in developing that
comprehensive program and has provided
militant leadership, he says.

The UFA WU is also unique in that it has
to sign up its fishermen members every sin-
gle year —a process that has helped to
reaffirm the union’s rank-and-file character
and the bond that exists between the
members and their elected leaders.

The strength of that bond was demon-
strated particularly through the Cold War
years when, despite his widely-publicized
Communist Party membership and ‘the
attacks on the union from the federal Com-
bines branch, the employers and even the
raiding Seamen’s International Union,
Homer Stevens was never challeneged in a
union election.

“If there’s ever anything that the mem-
bership’s concerned about, you'll soon
know — there’s no way that you can be out
of touch,” George says, adding that the
union’s officers have always had the “full
backing of the membership” for the work

they often undertake in the broader labor ”

movement.

For George, that work has assumed a
higher profile in the last couple of years,
most notably as chairman of the organiza-
tion committee — and its offshoot the
unemployment committee — of the Van-
couver and District Labor Council. It was

experience to cP post

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

1983: Hewison (inset).

from that position that he was catapulted to
the chairman of the Lower Mainland
Budget Coalition and the chairman of the
huge rally of 35,000 people in July, 1983
which kicked off the historic Solidarity
campaign.

“The Solidarity movement provided a lot
of lessons — for one, it demonstrated that

the anti-monopoly coalition- that we’ve _

talked about wasn’t just a pipe dream, that
it could become reality,” he says.

“Tt also showed me that there are a lot of
groups who are active in the community
who are distrustful of labor and distrustful
of the Communist Party but once we start
working, there’s a trust and a co-operation
that develops.

“There have been a lot of bridges built

and everybody has gained a lot of expe-
rience,” he affirms.

George acknowledges that the situation
elsewhere in Canada is considerably differ-
ent but adds that the experience of the last
two years particularly “has made me better
equipped to deal with the issues.”

He emphasizes that there is a mix of
younger and older leaders with whom he’ll
be working on the party’s executive com-
mittee which will assist in broadening his
experience.

And although he’s rooted in B.C., he has
wide contacts among trade unionists across

Lower Mainland Budget Coalition rally of
35,000 against Social Credit budget July 23,

the country, many of whom supported his ; 5

bids for election to the Canadian Labor
Congress executive. Many know his reson-
ant bass voice as much from the concert

stage — he toured several provinces in —

1983 singing labor material and publicizing

arecord that he put out recently — asfrom |.

the microphone at labor conventions.

From the members of the UFAWU, he |
says he’s had “nothing but best wishes.

They recognize the need to consolidate the

left and I think they realize that something
more than working in the union has tobe

done.”
More than anything, he looks forward to
the opportunity to work full time for the

CP. He’s been a member of the B.C. pro-

vincial executive and the central committee

. for several years but adds: “I’ve always.con-
sidered it a particular honor to work on

full-time assignment.”

And there are growing opportunities for
the Communist Party, George emphasizes.

“T think the Communist Party is going to
start coming into its own,” he says. “The
times are increasingly favorable for a left
alternative in the working class, especially
since the right wing policies are proving
their inability to solve the economic crisis.

“The Communist party has a clear
program — and there’s a job to be done
getting it across to the working class.”

oar