1982 — labor faces big challenge Dull, won't be a word we'll be using in 1982 to describe the collective bargaining scene. By all accounts, next year is shap- ing up to be one of the heaviest periods in contract renewal that we’ve ever seen. According to Labor Canada, next year there will be 444 col- lective bargaining situations involving groups of 500 work- ers or more for a total of 1,116,595 Canadian workers renegotiating their contracts in 1982. To give an idea of how many people and bargaining situations that involves, the federal government keeps track of 985 such “‘situations”’ involving a total of 2,078,615 workers, at any given time. Spokesmen for the Ontario Labor Ministry say that next year will be the heaviest collec- tive bargaining period since the province started keeping re- cords with a total of 3,865 con- tracts coming up for renewal involving some 706,000 work- ers. For its part, Ontario keeps tabs on 8,200 contracts, that it keeps on file, and this involves some 1,360,000 workers in the province. Looking at Ontario first, the industrial heartland of the country, the expiry of the con- tract between 15,200 members of the Canadian Union of Pub- lic Employees, (CUPE), and Ontario Hydro in March will open the year up for at least one major set of negotiations coming up for renewal every month till the end of the year. Contracts for some 4,000 workers at Northern Telecom expire in February. In April the province-wide agreements for some 104,000 building trades workers come up for re- newal, along with 13,500 pulp and paper industry workers. In May the contracts for 11,700 Inco workers in Sud- bury and another 750 Inco workers at Port Colborne ex- pire. Over the summer months contracts will expire for: 2,100 miners at Falconbridge Nickle in Sudbury, 5,400 logging workers and 79,000 ele- mentary and secondary school teachers, all in August. September sees the end of the contracts between the Uni- ted Auto Workers and the big three auto giants, Ford, Gen- eral Motors and Chrysler, in- volving some 50,000 workers according to Ontario govern- ment figures. Also expiring in that month are contracts for 690 Consumers’ Gas workers, 44,700 health care workers in- cluding about 16,000 CUPE hospital workers. In December it will be 2,000 brewery workers. at Labatt’s, Molson’s and _ Carling- O’Keefe, 1,300 at Brewers’ Warehousing, 8,500 United Electrical (UE) workers at “Canadian General Electric, 22,900 inside postal workers, and 20,500 letter carriers, some 50,000 provincial public ser- vice workers, members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, (OPSEU), and another 21,000 municipal workers, members of CUPE, throughout Ontario. British Columbia is another busy jurisdiction with Ottawa recording 51 bargaining situa- tions for a total of 107,950 workers, and contracts for 44 building trades locals, which . like the Ontario construction industry come up for renewal in April. The provincial public ser- vice with 30,535 workers seek- ing a new contract at the end of July, 11,000 telephone workers in December, more than 5,000 in the fishing industry, about 3,000 miners, 12,500 nurses and 6,200 Vancouver munici- pal workers, make up the key bargaining groups in this pro- vince. In Quebec it will be workers in the building trades, hospi- tals, education sector, hydro Quebec and the provincial pub- lic service for a total of some 391,460 seeking new pacts. Province by province, the line-up of renewing bargaining Situations include 23 in Man- itoba, for 32,595 workers; 11 in Newfoundland, for 23,150; two in Prince Edward Island, for 3,500; 13 for 15,135 work- ers in Nova Scotia, 8 for 7,695 in New Brunswick, 4 for 3,385 in Saskatchewan and 28 for 61,620 in Alberta. In addition to this, Ottawa also reports on 59 multi- province bargaining situations which includes the railway negotiations, federal treasury board employees, Air Canada, the CBC, Canadian Pacific Air- lines and several trucking firms for a total of 189,035 workers. Undoubtedly the railway negotiations involving some 17 unions and 80,000 railway workers, the auto talks, and public sector negotiations will have a great deal of attention focussed on them. Like the battery of provin- cial public service contracts coming up for renewal in prac- tically every province, talks in the railway industry and in the post office are likely to pro- duce a tough stand by govern- ment to impose an undeclared form of wage controls on the workers they bargain with, and the clamour for compulsory aribtration will continue. Federal finance minister Alan MacEachen has already urged his provincial counter- parts to hammer public service workers by ‘‘holding the line on wage demands’”’ and they all agreed. Meanwhile inflation continues to run at 13%, in- terest rates continue to soar, and it isn’t likely that public service workers are going to accept any wage controls or surrender the right to strike for the rip-off of compulsory arbit- ration without putting up a stiff fight. Reaction to MacEachen’s call to roll back public service workers’ living standards, by the unions representing these workers have been-loud and clear’ in their anger and defiance. The clammy grip on our economy by the U.S. multi- MIKE PHILLIPS TRIBUNE PHOT: Bargaining scene, breaks all records nationals will be highlighted as never before in the auto talks. While the United Auto Work- ers (UAW) in the U.S. have cleared the way for con- cessions to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler on the desperate, but vain hope they can save workers’ jobs, the Canadian section of the union is stubbornly resisting any im- port of this made-in-USA economic blackmail. UAW director for Canada, Bob White, dissented when the international executive board voted 25-1 this month to let bargaining units re-open their contracts in response to corpo- rate demands for concessions. Since then, White has been arguing forcefully against creating an international com- petition between workers to “see who'll work the cheapest for the greedy corporations, and has consistently pointed out that despite the many con- cessions auto workers and others are making in the U.S., the jobs are still being lost and the economic picture: con- tinues to worsen. Already there are rumblings in the major auto centres over here like Oshawa, Windsor, and Oakville of meeting this economic pressure from the U.S. with a more autonomous Canadian UAW. There’s even talk of seeking an entirely in- dependent union altogether. The principled position taken by White on the inter- national executive board on the concessions issue speaks for a sentiment that is deeply rooted within the Canadian section of the union. It will be. an important aspect of the developing situation in auto, including the coming negotia- tions, to chart the growth of the demand for Canadian in- dependence within the union, and the increasing pressure from workers,and the public at large to tackle the auto crisis with Canadianization under public control of the industry itself. Labor Beat Mike Phillips * This fightback mood among ; workers seen in the recent postal workers strike and the | epic battles at Inco and Stelco, |: has been reflected in CLC pres- |} ident Dennis McDermott’s call |’ on organized labor to refuse |! any concessions demanded by |! the employers, and warned |. such concessions would be | “the path to destruction’’ of Canadian living standards and — the workers’ purchasing power. — 1982 offers the CLC and the | provincial labor federations a unique chance to make co- | ordination of this unpre- | ’ cedented economic warfare | and the protection and support | of strikers throughout Canada ~ a top priority for labor while opening the perspective of im- portant victories in stopping the drive to force workers to commit economic suicide for the benefit of monopoly. oe With 3,865 ponte up for renewal in Ontario next year, the Ontaric-Federation of Labor will have nan : opportunities to implement the recent convention policy on strike support. A NEW QUEBEC INDIAN LEADER KAHNAWAKE, QUE. — ““There’s been a - World appeal for Native rights talk about protecting the ‘unborn’ ... movement isn’t unborn. It’s alive and well ane The India! change in the presidency of the CIQ but there’s no change in our commitment to fight for full recogni- tion of our aboriginal rights to freely govern our unceded lands and preserve the Indian culture those lands and their resources represent.’’ Chief Bernard Jerome of the Maria Micmac Ter- ritory made the comment at the close of a Dec. 10 meeting of leaders of the Confederation of Indians of Quebec in Kahnawake. Chief Jerome succeeds Chief Joe Stacey of Kahnawake, who did not run in the CIQ election held during the organization’s General Assembly.. ‘That stand,”’ continues Chief Jerome, ‘‘means we are firmly committed to continue our opposition to the false protections of Indian rights which are contained in the Canada Act this country is trying so hard to rush through British Parliament. “Tt seems as though Mr. Trudeau and his ‘gang of nine’ provincial premiers want this package ap- proved before any more Canadians and Indians realize just how gravely it slashes at our very right to exist as a unique people. “In effect, the supposed Charter of Rights is an ae to ‘gut’ the natural urge of the Indian to ive PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 8, 1982—Page 6 ‘‘And members of this government and country increasing in strength with each passing month. ‘The Canadian government is not proposing thé abortion of an unborn being. It’s Broposig ne cold-blooded killing of a people who have e the right to be free through thousands up i“ thousands of years of existence. ; ‘‘What we really are is unwanted — at least 2 long as we insist on surviving as a separate race. apples, we’re acceptable. And that’s what tht ‘Charter of Rights’ want to make all Indians —Red on the outside but White on the inside. : He points out that ‘after reading through ne maze of this Charter of Rights, we come back to thé bottom line: Ottawa and the provinces reserve thé right to tell us who we are and what we own, if anything at all. Though we will keep the right 0 dance on Parliament Hill on Canada Day — in ; traditional regalia, of course.”’ Chief Jerome did confirm that the CIQ would | be sending a delegation to England before the find reading of the Trudeau package. He noted how: ever, that ‘‘increasingly we will be turning ov! efforts toward seeking the support of the Inte } national Community. > Though he concludes thé “most of it must come from within — from Indian heart and Indian spirit of we land.”