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TRUCK TRANER™

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Unionists (I to *) Maurice warcoox:

& BOILERMAKE
IND. UNION

Neil Olafson, Fred Robinson and Rick Rdawne man picket lines out-
side Pacific Truck and Trailer in North Vancouver where members of the Marineworkers and Boiler-
makers were locked out Aug. 18 after lengthy contract talks broke down over wages. The union is ask-
ing for a $1.50 an hour general increase on rates that range from $4.96 hourly for office workers to $9.25
for a journeyman fitter. Pacific Truck is a ee of the huge multinational International Harvester.

* TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

Scab Delta paper
printing in U.S.

The Vancouver-New Westmin-
ster Newspaper Guild charged
Wednesday that Ernest Bexley,
owner of the strikebound Delta
Optimist, has been getting the scab
version of his newspaper printed in
the United States.

The Guild tracked Bexley to the -

offices of the Linden Tribune, 15
miles south of Aldergrove, where

the scab paper has apparently been-

printed since the Guild won a
Labor Relations Board ‘decision
allowing. the union to picket a
Canadian printer, Web Press,

which published Bexley’s paper in.

the early weeks of the strike.
“It’s pretty disgusting he (Bex-
ley) is printing a so-called com-

munity paper in Washington,”
Guild administrator Patricia Lane
declared Wednesday, adding that ~
advertisers and people who want to ~
buy the Optimist should be aware
that their money is going to support

a printer in the U.S.

The Guild has been on strike for
seven weeks to back demands of
Optimist employees.

Bexley, who was found guilty of
three separate. violations of the

B.C. Labor Code for unfair labor
practices in a landmark ruling by E

the LRB a month prior to the
strike, has since forced the Guild
back to the LRB with complaints —
of his failure to bargain in g

faith.

CP wood program a basis

In my last article I ‘dealt with the

layoffs in the lumber industry and

how the leaders of the International
Woodworkers of America are (or
are not) giving leadership to save
the jobs of their members. In the
course of that article I made refer-
ence to the program of the mem-

- bers of the Communist Party of

Canada employed in the industry,

as endorsed by the B.C. provincial -

executive of the party. Because of
the importance of the forest in-
dustry to the economy of B.C., I
would like to elaborate on that pro-
gram.

The basic premise of the Com-
munist program is this: ‘“What is
needed is a program to ensure that
workers in the industry have a
greater say in the changes that are
coming insofar.as capital invest-
ment, jobs and working conditions
are concerned. Labor must also
concern itself with the fight for a
new forest policy which will make
maximum use of our forest re-
source for present and future gen-
erations through a sound conserva-
tion policy and large scale develop-
ment of processing and manufact-
uring of wood products.”

While it would be wrong to say
that the IWA leadership has com-

‘pletely avoided these issues, it

would also be incorrect to say they
have developed a fully-rounded out
program and mobilized the mem-
bership to fight for such a pro-
gram.

Jack Munro, regional president
and chief spokesman for the WA
in western Canada, is pinning his
hopes on a big improvement in the
U.S. housing market. However, if
the government in Washington
continues to escalate the arms race,
and if inflation and unemployment
in the U.S. continue at current or
higher levels, it is doubtful if the in-
crease in’ housing starts will equal
Munro’s expectations. Unless the

- U.S. federal government shifts

from a policy of accelerating the ar-
maments race to a policy of peace,
detente and disarmament, the
number of homes built in the U.S.
will be far short of overall require-
ments, because the war machine
will swallow billions of dollars that
could otherwise be used for hous-
ing and other socially productive
Ecce: I find it difficult to envis-
age a massive housing program
under either a Carter or a Reagan
administration.
This should help to explain what
the Communists meant when they
wrote in their program that the un-

~ jons in the forest industry ‘‘should

play a leading role in the fight for

progressive policies within the la-
bor movement and in many com-
munities where their members
live.”’ While it would be wrong to
go along with the current trend in
the B.C. economy which ties our
prosperity to the export of energy
and resources (including lumber),
to the detriment of expanding pro-

cessing and manufacturing indust-

ries in Canada, we must neverthe-
less accept, as a fact of life, that for-
eign lumber markets will be im-
portant for some time to come.

This being the case, it should.be ob--

vious that the IWA in Canada
should take a strong position in fa-

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

vor of peace, detente and disarm-
ament through agreement: between
the major powers. It should also be
pressing the Canadian government
to use its influence in that direction.
‘As for the efforts of Gerry
Stoney, president of New West-

‘minster Local 1-357 of the IWA, to

assist in opening up markets for

€anadian lumber in western: Eu- ©

rope, much of thesame can be said.
That area of the world is also.

wracked by rising unemployment,

inflation, increased expenditures
for armaments and cutbacks in
housing construction and services
for people. By all accounts from
the qualified observers, western
Europe is not the ultimate solution
to the marketing problems of the
B.C. forest industry.

It is ironical that The Chipper,
published by the New Westminster
IWA local, recently cited ‘the cut-

back in timber exports from the _

Soviet Union to western Europe
(because of Soviet internal needs)
as creating new opportunities for
the export of B.C. lumber.

The economy of the Soviet
Union, which has the world’s larg-
est timber resources, is such that
priority is given to planned eco-

nomic development to raise the’

overall capacity of industry and the
living standards of its people. For
example, there is no country that
can match the Soviet Union in
terms of expenditures on housing
for its people.

If the lumber, pulp and paper in-
dustry of the Soviet Union was
dominated by foreign and do-

mestic multinational corpo groups is the powerful Employers’

(vitichis the casei ei

a =PACIRG. TRIBUNE—AUGUST 29, 1980—Page 8

adaasa ae the main concern of
the owners would be to maximize
their profits, irrespective of the

_ overall good of the workers they

employed: and the country as a.
whole. The only planning they
would be interested in would be
planning to make more profits,
whether it was in their own coun-
try, or in another country. The very
fact that there is centralized eco-
nomic planning in the Soviet Union
guarantees stable and rising in-
ternal markets for the industry.
Soviet exports within the socialist
community of nations and to west-

’ ern Europe take place within that
“context, as part of the overall eco-

nomic plan.
While Canada has less than one-
tenth of the population of the Sov-

* jet Union and therefore a smaller

potential. market internally, the
fact remains that if the federal and
provincial governments of our
country developed and put into
practice a policy of expanding pro-
cessing and manufacturing in-
dustries, and embarked on the kind
of housing programs needed to fill
the needs of Canadians, new jobs
would be created in the forest in-
dustry for tens of tpgusands of

_ Canadians.

In essence, what is wrong with
the Munro-Stoney approach is that
they are placing their major ‘em-
phasis on the industry becoming
more efficient by increased mon-

" opoly control and greater penetra- -

tion of foreign markets. That
should explain why the union has
joined with the big corporations
and government in sending trade
missions to other countries. It
should also explain the reluctance
of the top leadership to take up the
fight for the shorter work week.
The big corporations which
dominate the industry in B.C. are
integrated corporations, in the
sense that they have major holdings

in lumber, pulp and paper produc- —

tion. That should explain why the -
Communist program places so
much emphasis on unity between
the major unions in the industry.

For. example, the program: makes —
_these projections:

@ ‘The workers in all three un-

‘cae have suffered in terms of .
-- wages, benefits and working con-. :
ditions, as a result of the disunity

that exists in collective bargaining.
The employers, on the other hand,
are linked together through Forest

- Industrial Relations Bureau (FIR), .

Interior Forest Relations Bureau
and the Pulp and Paper Industrial
Relations Bureau. Behind these

Council of British Columbia, the
voice of the big corporations in this
province arid. the co-ordinator of
big business strategy in relation to
the trade union movement.”

_ On that basis, the program ad--

vances the long-range goal of one

union in Canada for all workers in-

the wood, pulp and paper industry,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The immediate. action program
advanced by the Communists in
the industry contains (among oth-
ers) the following planks:

@ Co-ordination and unity of
the three major unions in the-in-

dustry: International Woodwork-.

ers of America, Canadian Paper-

_ workers’ Union and Pulp, Paper

and Woodworkers of Canada.
‘‘We propose a permanent co-or-
dinating committee, on a mutually
acceptable basis, thus bringing an
end to division in collective bar-
gaining, raiding and public recrim-
inations.’

@ Action at the job and local
level: ‘“We believe there is too
much reliance on the costly and
time-consuming system of arbitra-
tion and other legalisms in settling
grievances. We therefore propose
that greater emphasis be placed by
~ the unions on the settling of
grievances at the job or local level.”

@ Asixand one-half hour work
day for all workers in the industry,
which the fallers have already.
achieved. There are many ways this
can be implemented for different
occupational groupings.

- @ Noreduction of staff, reloca-
tions of plants or plant closures
without negotiations with the un-
ion, bas€d on extended notice of at
least one year. Workers affected by
layoffs to be provided with ade-

quate severance pay, or in the case ©
~of older workers, adequate pen-

sions indexed against inflation.
@ Improved pension coverage,
indexed against inflation, with op-

"against rising living costs. Cost-of- —
living escalator clauses in addition © 4

for united action:

tion to retire on full pension at any ~ ;
time after 35 years of service. .

@ Short-term collective agree-

a |

ments with adequate protection

to. negotiated wage increases tO — 4
provide an extra dollar on the pay
‘cheque for every dollar increase in 4
the cost of living. -’

{
@ More involvement of ; on

membership i in negotiating proced< —

- ures based on solidarity between lo- —

cal unions and the backing of the —

ly information on the course of ne*

gotiations will generate a desire on —

the part of the members to respond —

favorably to whatever action may
. have to be taken. This involvement |

of the membership of all unions in

strike vote.

I would suggest. that union mem- ¢|

bers at every level of the three un--~
ions should take up the fight for —

such an action program. For ex-
ample, co-ordinating committees

could be set up (formally or in- —
formally) at the local level, with —

solidarity and-common union ob-* ~
_jectives serving as i denominat-
Ors... %

While leaders who stand in the
way of such unity and the develop-
ment and application of progress- —
ive policies will be the subject of

criticism, such criticism should be

based on a principled approach to
policy and program. A negative,
anti-leadership approach, basedon ~

‘the concept that the leadership can

do no good under any circum-
stances, and that any group which

is anti-leadership must be support- —
ed, irrespective of what they stand ~
for, (or don’t stand for), will be -
counter-productive in thelongrun. —

RiBuUNeE

‘Published Weekly. at Suite 101 — 1416 commercial Drive,
: Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186

Read the paper that fights for labor

. Address
City or town
Postal Code

lam enclosing:

1 year $10. [| 2 years $18 6 months $6 ~

Old New posse 1 year $12 ©
: Donation $... .

‘the industry should include all-out
participation in any ratification or =

. entire union behind the workers dim _
tectly involved. Frequent and time-