in brief . . . Boycott grapes march Care ronto’s Board of Control has designated Nov. 23 as Boycott a Ornia Grapes Day after hearing a delegation from the Labor ah of Metropolitan Toronto and Marshall Ganz of the United Workers Organizing Committee from California. be a €ligious and labor leaders have announced that there will i Silent march on that day to support the boycott campaign. It be from St. Luke’s United Church at Sherbourne and Carlton '0 St. Michael’s Cathedral at Bond and Shuter starting at 2 p.m. Postal Workers’ merger connadian Postal Workers are waiting for a report from a merger Ittee of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Letter tts Union of Canada. eae recent letter appealing for support for the merger, from ba Perreault, President of the Montreal Local of the Postal €ts Union said: . tra, 2 Postal workers, what are we waiting for to strengthen our Union movement? Why remain divided in two Unions face to With ONLY ONE employer, the instant that we have numerous ; lems to solve? Our employer is losing no time announcing ges which might affect us soon: dollat | face ts ei: ») two study groups are revising the structures and the operation it the £) comi aoe 2 (by ming modernization of the equipment. ple} e) arrival of new techniques (automation?). i747 on the possibility of turning’the Postal Department Nh) striking event has oc- man of the Peterborough Unit, make Pp y Kote at z os | : ae ate curred in Peterborough with the graduate of Ryerson’s journalism two-week-old battle of the To- course, said that the Guild took MEMe Strength now lies only in Unity among our ranks. THE ment MBERS HAVE NOT ONLY THE RIGHT BUT ABOVE ALL THE ronto Newspaper Guild (Peter- the case to negotiations and the : jai | Me TO EXPRESS THEIR OPINION ON THE PROBLEM of a borough branch) for better wag- Department of Labor, without : a Ter between the Union of Letter Carriers and the CUPW. es and hours, following the sale any Nemes on manage- ‘ -DAY of the Peterborough Examiner ment’s part, before going out. snot F lf the referendum Nanatorens: eae the founding Conven- to the Thomson empire. There He aie polntada't that the rea- n could be held in Spring 1969. It is a powerful group, strong are twenty-two people working son the paper has continued to ily a rom the support of more than 25,000 members, a new “UNION OF as editors and reporters, twenty ies out wae : staff, is that jict #8 OSTAL WORKERS” which could face the government for our of whom are out. However, not there is a local election occur- start ext contract alone, Last Saturday, picketers _ ring. The paper can use election : came from the United Electrical materials without changes for erie Workers, the Steelworkers, the local news. But next week, they a ni Machinists, the Newspaper will become a wire copy paper. ! that e ° Guild (Toronto), and Trent Uni- Support from organized labor uf: Steel co-ordination versity. A major advertiser " Peterborouehis good, and be i i i ith Brown Motors, has cancel-_ strikers antici sa cae to house’ pees sa £u SONS ais ua se fed all Examiner advertising. — this support, the strike will be eo meend: Sault.Ste. Mang evade ee y A 30 year old reporter, Guild won. Most of the pickets were " ¢im® | jrdinatea bargaining strategy in their contract negatiations with member, says the reasons for the from local unions, who recog- - phat steel in Ontario next year. fe Drevin three locals of the United Steelworkers have gone it alone in nize the importance of labor strike involve the decision of ; unity in the struggle against the Thomson to re-classify all cate- 6 “wh? |b) of the Postal Department. ‘ Suppression of mail delivery and closing of postal stations on y Saturdays starting February 1969. paper, and it’s only possible with a decently paid staff,” said one. Other support came from Guild members from Toronto, who felt that if this strike was broken, all further organization- al attempts in the newspaper field would be more difficult. There is a proposal from the To- ronto Guild to picket Thomson’s headquarters in Toronto. At one point, the ITU mem- bers tried to go through the line at the back of the plant. The ITU and Pressmen are bound by a. tight contract. to..continue. working, and can only refuse if the strength of the Guild picket is enough to keep them out. In this case, it was enough to re- pulse a not very enthusiastic ap- proach on the part of the ITU members. After seconds of “con- e lous negotiations and the co-ordinated approach is seen as an indication of the seriousness the Steel union leadership attaches to Confrontation with the big steel corporations in 1969. Cluq ner, e fo automobile mileage. thr New leader — N.S. NDP thet new leader of the New Democratic Party in Nova Scotia Inks his party can form the official opposition by 1970. ton ren Akerman, who defeated Professor Keith Johnson, per- bee choice of the former leader, projected that the NDP had to th Ome more than a debating society and needed a full-time leader ad a good chance of being elected to the House of Assembly. e [ e e United bargaining in rail € Association of Non-Operating Railway Unions, which in- €s the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Transport and General oer, has opened bargaining for a new agreement effective 1969, Wi € unions’ demands are for a seven percent pay hoist plus snty cents per hour effective December 31, 1968. A six percent ana 28 plus twenty cents per hour effective December 31, 1970 19g9 amount equivalent to 10 cents per hour effective Janes to be applied to a wage adjustment and inequity fund to be Ministered by the union. SO in the unions’ demands are a premium of 15 cents per hour ations, 2 additional statutory holidays, improvements in medical ro Msurance coverage and provisions for increased job security; €ction against technological change, expenses away from home Shi © Association represents member unions with a total member- P of 75,000. This is the first year that the C.B.R.T. and G.W. has °Wn in its hat with the Association in joint bargaining. Ont toes ® Taise the fund. Confrontation wire largest Convention in the history of the United Rubber fr "kers Union decided to set up a $15 million war chest to con- the major rubber companies in 1970-71. ° © delegates agreed to a $5 a month strike fund for 18 months gories of work, meaning, in ef- fect; pay cuts. The proposed contract would give senior re- porters a drop from $120 weekly to. $117 weekly, as of next Janu- ary. Reporters have also had to work overtime, at no extra pay. Last, Thomson refused to agree to a non-transferral clause, thus leaving open the possibility that editors and reporters might be requested to move to another Thomson newspaper. A conveni- ent way too of getting rid of union men. Mike Hume, 25 year old chair- Bridge By WILLIAM ALLAN High up on the Ambassador Bridge, that spans the river be- tween Detroit and Windsor, the Teamster Local 299 pickets brave the flattening gusts of cross. The high wind sends the sparks flying out of the barrels where the fire burns fiercely to ward. off the 30 degrees cold. Chief of the Teamster pickets is Rev. Joel Cummings, the shop steward of the 32 Team- sters who struck the American side of the international bridge a week ago. Teamster-bridge workers rejected a new com- pany proposal last Friday, 18-10 and negotiations will continue, as will the picketing, hundreds of feet above the Detroit River. Thomson monopoly. John Pierce, history student of Trent University, leader of the Trent Student Movement, ar- rested last week during a scuf- fle on the line, has organized meetings at Trent, at which Guildsmen explained the impor- tance of winning the strike. As a result, there were about 25 students on the line last Satur- day. When asked why they came out, on a cold six-o’clock-in-the- morning picket line, their reac- tion was surprise at any sur- prise. “We need an informative frontation,” one said: “Well, let’s take a walk.” Morale is high, unity is solid. One reporter on strike, 24 year old Frank Calleja, former editor of a student newspaper, said: “We aren’t going to be pushed around by Thomson.” Another, 24 year old Suzanne Bourret, working for the paper a month when the strike broke, comment- ed: “People are usually against unions until they get involved. But we know we have to take a stand against Thomson.” workers strike Rev. Cummings asked three weeks ago for the strike vote and his fellow Teamsters gave it to him, 31-1. When you talk to him up on the Ambassador Bridge, he'll all work i and 6 a.m.; double time : tell you he isn’t sure about how inste, or performed between six p.m. os EE raded wind sweeping up fiektivennes” cee iaen, teh yedt when Vac ad of the present time and one half for all overtime; upg they check the trucks coming to jp. ne Bee es be aa the Pentecostal Church. “Anyway I’ve left the minis- try,” he said. “I got tired of turning the other cheek, it didn’t work. And it sure doesn’t work in organ- ized labor,” he said. A truck loaded with steel, driven by the owner came up the ramp, would stop and rolled across the bridge. - Cummings shrugged, “he is a company man, a so-called independent.” But union Teamsters truckers aren’t crossing the picket line. If they can’t get through the Windsor Tunnel because their rigs are too high, then they drive 40 additional miles to cross the Bluewater Bridge at Port Huron. Involved are toll takers, scale men, maintenance workers, traffic guides, all on strike, members of Local 299, Teamsters Union. Cummings said the demand is wage parity with the tunnel workers: He said his toll collec- tors on the bridge get $2.87 an hour; at the tunnel, the toll col- lectors get $3.69. Similar wage differential exists in half a dozen more categories. He watched one of his fellow pick- eteers turn back a truck and said, ‘“‘we’re doing a job on the trucks, and it takes six cars to make up for the toll lost on a truck. I hope we settle soon, but we have a lot of firewood, for. the picket fires.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE NOVEMBER 22, 1968-Poge 5 i t ; : f | q a 4 :