Split imminent as U

_A split is imminent in the Cana-
dian trade union movment.
The Washington-controlled
roadmen who dominate the
Canadian building trade unions
have maintained a hard-nosed
position in discussions with the
Canadian Labor Congress leader-
ship and unless there is some rad-
ical change in the intransigent
positions of the BT leadership
within the next week or two, a
split and a second Canadian
trade union centre appears
likely. eae
In the discussion with the CLC
leadership the BT roadmen, who
have been withholding per capita
tax for almost a year, have de-
manded the dissolution. of the
Quebec chartered Building
Trades Council, the expulsion of
the electrical workers (who bolted
from the IBEW) from the Quebéc
_ Federation of Labor, and a new
voting structure for CLC conven-

tions which would strengthen the
~ hands of the BT unions.

It is reported that the CLC
leadership agreed to try to win
“gome concessions from the

Quebec Federation of Labor on

_ the question of autonomy. Given

By PAUL PUGH

THUNDER BAY — In five simul-
taneous raids the Ontario Provincial
Police descended on the leadership of
the Lumber and Sawmill Workers
Union in north-western Ontario Jan. 7
arresting three of the local’s top officers

and six union members.
~ Local 2693 vice-president T. Miron
had just received phone calls from
Kenora and Dryden concerning the ar-
rests there when the police moved in to

_ \ detain him along with local president T.
“\Mior and business agent John
{| Lorenowich. The union currently is in

negotiations with Domtar Paper.

Police report the men have been
charged with conspiracy to commit
mischief and damage to property. The
charge, initiated by the Kenora office of
the OPP, arose out of the Boise Cas-
cade strike. It is over one year old.
Police also report other arrests are im-
minent.

Lawyer for the LSWU Ray Edward
told the Tribune he found the police
procedures unusual. “Arrest warrants
are usually issued only when there is

reasonable grounds of danger to society
or an unlikelihood of the accused show-
ing up for trial. This is not the case
here’’, he said.

Mior, Miron and Lorenowich had
these same charges dropped against the
for lack of evidence just last year.

The union’s two-year battle with
Boise Cascade was suspended .last
November, when the union removed its
picket lines. The strike had been mar-
red by police violence on the lines,
injunctions, court ordered seizure of
union members’ bank accounts,
harassment and innumerable arrests.
Estimates indicate that millions of tax-
payers’ dollars were spent on the police
in order to break the strike which began
in the summer of 1978. :

Others charged include union mem- —

bers Raymond Hanninen, Doug San-
ders and Alfonse Roussin of Atikokan,
Wilfred McIntyre of Kenora, Demdio
Deppiero of Fort Francis and William
Penny of Stratton.

All the men were released on their
own recognizance. A trial date has been
set for Jan. 25. .

.S. building trades balk

N

e Quebec labor

backs wood
industry strike

MONTREAL — Workers throughout Quebec
responded. massively to the Christmas appeal
launched by the Confederation of National Trade

Unions, (CNTU-CSN) on behalf of 2,500 striking

woodworkers.
- The CSN’s target of 2,500 Christmas food bas-
kets, one for every family on strike against a

_ number of giant paper-making corporations, was _
surpassed by 400 as 2,900.such baskets were col-

lected before the Christmas deadline.

The 2,500 woodworkers, members of the CSN’s
pulp, paper and forestry workers’ federation, have
been on strike in some 250 locations spread
throughout northern Quebec, and the North Shore
of the St. Lawrence River, since last July.

Pitted against the workers are such corporate
giants as Canadian International Paper, (CIP), the
Quebec North Shore Paper Company at Baie
Comeau, and the Donahue Company of Girardville
at Lac St. Jean.

Working conditions, in the notoriously danger-
ous and accident-striken industry are at the root of
the workers’ fight. The union is struggling to end
the hated piece-rate system where woodworkers
are paid according to the amount of wood they cut,
with the rates set by the companies.

- The fight of the Ontario workers at Boise Cas-
cade over the past two years was essentially the
same, except that the Lumber and Sawmill Work-
ers Union had succeeded in ridding the industry of
the piece-rate system only to have the company
re-introduce it in another form 30 years later. Boise

- Cascade workers are regrouping to win back the

rights the company bludgeoned out of them after a
two-year fight.

In Quebec the piece-rate system has been in
place since the early colonial days. The wood-
working industry is one of Quebec’s oldest.

The bad state of working conditions in the indus-
try is revealed by the accident statistics. Between
1974 and 78 some 65 workers were killed on the
job. During the same four-year period 21,374 lost-
time accidents were recorded, not including acci-
dents: which weren’t reported by the companies

All indications point to a long and tough strike
ahead for the 2,500 woodworkers this winter. Sup-
port, both moral and financial can be sent to the
strikers by contacting:

The Confederation of National Trade Unions,
1001 rue Saint-Denis,

MONTREAL, Quebec

H2X 3J1

A

the situation in Quebec however
there is little likelihood of any re-
treat of the QFL on control over
the building trades construction
unions. This is understandable
both from the viewpoint of the na-
tional rights of the workers of

Quebec, but also even more »

understandable in light of the

widespread corruption which.

existed in the old Washington-
controlled Quebec building trades
set up. —

‘Dispassionately viewed it
compels one to ask what advan-
tages the Building Trades Unions
see in pulling out of the CLC.
First, it is quite clear that their
fortunes in Quebec will not be im-
proved by such a move. Neither
will their position in the rest of the
‘country.

Jurisdictional problems, which
exist between building-trades
unions and industrial unions over
in-plant construction, have been
ruled on in favor of the construc-
tion unions by the CLC. If how-
ever they choose.to pull out of the
CLC itis safe to assume that these
jobs will be declared fair game for
industrial unions which could cost

the BT unions thousands of
Canadian jobs.

The CLC has announced that it
will consider taking directly into
its ranks BT unions who are dis-
satisfied with the high handed
anti-Canadian autonomy at-
titudes of the BT Washington-.
controlled set-up. WKatever the
BT unions may think about their
chances in this fratricidal battle, it
most surely will not add to their

numbers or security of their

membership.

LABOR
SCENE

4 William Stewart

In the end one can only find two
possible reasons for the actions of
the BT leadership.

The first is their appraisal that
the growing demand for Canadian
autonomy by their own member-
ship, joined together with the fast
developing appreciation of all
Canadian unionists of the need for
a fully sovereign and independent

Canadian trade union movement,
is becoming irrepressible.

They may consider their
chances to avoid such a develop-
ment would be strengthened if
they were off on their own.

The second consideration is
political. In the present all sided
crisis embracing the world im-
perialist system, the AFL-CIO is
once again. linking up behind its
government in both its foreign
and domestic policies, albeit
sometimes with tounge in cheek.

-The CLC in Canada, with all its

weaknesses and hesitations is op-
posing both the foreign policy and
domestic policies of the Canadian
and U.S. governments and seek-
ing alternative policies.

In the post-war cold-war period
the U.S. State Department and
the CIA, were able to use their
influence in the Canadian trade
union movement to push Cana-
dian unions into support for the
cold war. This was done quite
openly and brutally. Up until this
time they have not been able to
repeat this and there is no indica-
tion that they will in the future.

It is more than just possible that
they see the splitting of the Cana-

dian trade union movement and
the establishment of another
centre dominated by the most
reactionary Washington Building
Trades Centre, as an avenue for
exporting their policies into the
Canadian labor movement.
Moreover there are many forces
in Canadian monopoly and
government circles who would
likewise welcome such a split and
development in the labor
movement.

From the point of view of the

-working people such a develop-

ment is most unfortunate at a time
when the maximum unity is
needed to face the monopoly of-

fensive against workers’. wages —

and living standards.

In the few short weeks remain-
ing, the leadership of the BT
unions and the CLC need to be
told in the strongest way possible,
no splits — no deals on Canadian
autonomy. ;

If the trade union movement is
let down on either of these fronts
it has proven it has the stamina
and ability to take matters into its
own hands and deal with those
who have failed them at this criti-
cal juncture.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 16, 1981—Page 5

es