Chrysler workers solid : in fight for decent pact By JOHN MACLENNAN WINDSOR — As the Tribune went to Press, Nov. 18, another dramatic devel- pment seemed to be shaping up in the _Wo-week old strike by 9,600 united, mili- fant and determined Chrysler Canadian Workers. _ That day, a meeting was slated to take Place in the United Auto Workers’ inter- ‘Rational headquarters in Detroit in- Yolving the international leadership of the UAW and both U.S. and Canadian UAW Chrysler bargaining committees. The dominant feature of the strike last Week was the solid determination and Unity of the strikers in Windsor, _ Etobicoke and Ajax shown in powerful _ Mass membership meetings. These meet- Ings pulled out the overwhelming major- _ ly of strikers to give the Canadian UAW _ adership and the bargaining committee Unanimous support for the fight to re- Over the buying power lost through Concessions over the past three years. The rallies culminated in the massive -lumout, Nov. 11 at Windsor Raceway Where more than 5,000 members of | UAW Local 444 showed Chrysler and Its chairman Lee Iacocca the union’s _ tanks were solid in this fight. Bob White, UAW director for Canada, : lold the strikers that the time has come to _ Tecover some of the more than $1.5-bil- lion Chrysler workers loaned the ailing _ 0rporation through concessions made _ 'n 1979-80. He also told the strikers that both the CLC and OFL presidents have _ Pledged full support for the strikers. Noting the difficulties that lay ahead for the strikers, White went on to warn — 80cca: *‘Don’t misread the member- - Ship. You're going to have to settle with YS sooner or later, and let’s hope it’s _ SOoner. We'll be just as determined in \ [neces - January as we are now, so you might as well do it now.” To the strikers asking whether full re- covery of parity can be achieved in this fight White said: *‘I can’t tell you that today’. But he pledged that the bargain- ing team and the UAW would hold out for ‘‘significant’’ up front wage increases and raises later in the agreement, that would bring Chrysler workers *‘as close to parity as possible’ with workers at General Motors and Ford. A motion from the floor of the meeting calling for support for White’s and the bargaining committee’s stand, passed unanimously. As the rally was opened for discussion by the strikers them- selves, the emphasis by speaker after speaker was on Chrysler Corporation as the enemy, not U.S. Chrysler workers, and there were harsh words for those in the media and elsewhere who are trying to divide U.S. and Canadian workers. Emphasizing this international unity were the greetings from Chrysler work- ers in Sterling Heights, Michigan, brought to the Windsor rally by UAW UAW’s Bob White A OR 5,000 Chrysler workers at Windsor Raceway Nov. 11 Local 1264 president Larry Leach. Speaking for his local’s 3,000 members Leach who, two days earlier had walked the Canadian picket line accompanied by his whole local executive, told the strik- ing Canadians they were fighting the fight for all Chrysler workers on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. “And, if you’re still out in January, then your U.S. brothers will be there with you,’’ Leach said. Local 444 member Red Wilson out- lined the strikers’ plans to organize a Christmas party for the children during the week of December 18. All the com- munity’s small businesses will be can- vassed for contributions to the party, ina direct challenge to the Windsor Chamber of Commerce who attacked the UAW for daring to strike Chrysler and rejecting the course taken by the U.S. section of the union. Canada’s Major Fight Ken Gerrard, Local 444 president, recuperating from a heart attack he suf- fered during the negotiations, warned the strikers from his hospital bed not to let “the capitalists and Iacocca starve Canadian workers back or move equip- ment out of the company. **We have the right to defend our jobs, even if we all end up in jail’, Gerrard said. “‘They don’t have a jail big enough for all of us.” Support for the strike is growing. The 35,000-member Windsor Labor Council has pledged its opposition to Chrysler’s blackmail threat to move operations out of Windsor. Local businessmen are al- ready answering the union’s call for do- nations to the Christmas party. In addi- tion to the messages of support from U.S. workers, the Communist Party of the USA has called for all-out support by American Chrysler and other workers behind the Canadian strikers. In its own message to the strikers, last week, the Unity Club of the Communist Party of Canada, in Windsor, pledged its full support to the union and the strike. ‘‘Chrysler workers are not alone’, the club’s leaflet to the strikers pointed out. ‘*This strike is the major fight in Canada today, and will be a victory for all Cana- dian workers.” We had the opportunity to sit in on the British Colum- bia Federation of Labor convention last week. It was Vintage B.C. _ The officers of the federation seemed to have. con- _ Cluded that the only effective response to the employer- | 80Vernment assault on workers’ wages and living condi- tions was a political one — election of the New Dem- cratic Party. _ , This is what the officers’ report had to say on this Score: ‘‘It would be very easy for us to declare a general | Strike in areas suchas the Alberni valley where at certain times during the past year such a strike would involve _Yery few people off the job. The ravages of unemploy- Ment cannot be ignored. Our members can fight only so | Many battles and the issue of union survival has become ount. “The CLC has recognized this priority and your _ £xecutive council supports this priority. Accordingly we ie lieve that the struggle against wage controls must be at | "is time waged on the political front. zs __ “We must involve our membership in political action : and We must throw the repressive governments that have in uced wage controls and restraint programs out of 4 Office at the first available opportunity.” b is thread ran throughout the various reports Tought in by the officers, designed to give a lead to the 3 discussions and set the tone for the convention. r Es ; ‘‘Retreatist’’ Approach | _ Anyone who attended the Canadian Labor Congress | Convention last May, in Winnipeg, could not but be ; ck by the difference in approach between these two NVentions. # , May in Winnipeg heard brave, inspiring and militant declarations against concessions, flat declarations of “abor’s refusal to accept wage controls and calls for Grass roots militancy at B.C. Fed meet Labor in action y | William Stewart action up to and including a general strike if necessary. November in B.C. heard ‘‘retreatist’’ acceptance of wage controls, mild declarations against concessions and a new panacea to defeat both — elect the NDP the next time up. The question partly lies in the inability of the leader- ship to live up to the mandate of the CLC convention and the present attempts to hide this failure behind the prom- ise of the election of the NDP. It also lies in the resistance by the B.C. NDP leader- ship to labor's militant fightback against wage controls and concessions. The question begged by this conclusion is: How cana party which opposed militant mass trade union action against wage controls on the basis that it would hurt the ’ NDP’s electoral image expect workers to believe they will act differently when in power? ee Fortunately, the debates at the federation convention added the missing ingredient to the convention docu- - ments. Action, mobilization, policy, were the words to describe the debate. Delegates Wanted Fightback Declining to be drawn into a slanging match with the B.C. Fed leadership, none the less the delegates, mostly young workers, men and women, addressed themselves to the need for a fightback. When the report on unemployment and technological change came before the convention, the delegates took over. Attempts by a section of the leadership to substitute *‘self-help’’ committees for flat-out action by the federa- tion to organize the unemployed into a fighting contin- gent of the labor movement was rejected solidly by the delegates. More than half a day of the week-long gathering was occupied by this debate. Most striking was the under- standing displayed by the young militant workers on both the nature of the problems and the solutions. Clearly the mood of the membership of the B.C. Fed- eration of Labor, as witnessed by their representatives at this convention, is to fight back on all fronts — eco- nomic, political and ideological. Clearly, also, many of the leaders lagged behind this mood. If this convention is any guide, those leaders who stand in the way are either going to be pushed ahead by the march of their membership or pushed out of the way. , Growing Awareness Helping to ensure this, was a newly-formed left caucus in B.C., the Action Caucus, which presented a fightback program to the convention and played an important role in elevating the debate and focussing it on the major issues. : Mirrored vividly in the B.C. Federation of Labor con- vention were the differences in the ranks of the leader- ship about the way out of the crisis; differences between the leadership and the membership; and given this, ob- viously some differences within the membership itself. But shining through all these differences is the growing consciousness in the ranks of the labor movement of the need for a more militant, grass roots, class struggle trade union movement to lead them out of the deepening capitalist crisis. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 26, 1982—Page 9