Labour

Labour Notes

No concessions, says IWA-Canada

IWA-Canada members at four Fraser Valley lumber re-manufacturers’ have dug in for what the union expects could be a “long and nasty” fight against the employers’ combined demand for con- cessions.

The four companies — Island.Lumber Specialty, Fraser River Planing, Sawarne Lumber and Alwood Lumber — are among several lumber re-manufacturers in the province which take lumber from the big sawmills and custom-cut it for a specialized market. The first three are certified with Vancouver Local 1-217 of the IWA-Canada and Alwood is certi- fied with Local 1-357 in New Westmins- ter.

All of the re-manufacturers agreed earlier this year to go with the wage increases outlined in the coast master agreement. But where the other compan- ies have honoured that commitment, “these four decided to hang out to try and get concessions,” said Local 1-217 business agent Erich Ewert.

The other re-manufacturers have also warned the union, “if you sign for one penny less, we'll be knocking on your door looking for the same concessions,” Ewert said.

“That is totally unacceptable to us,” he declared.

Ewert said that. Sawarne Lumber, which locked out its 92 employees, later put up a For Sale sign outside the com-

the Soviet Union.

29 jet fighters and food processors.

cartons.

20 per cent.

and consumer goods.

workers making consumer goods.

during the transition period.

The Star journalist and his colleagues were shown around the top-secret plant that produces the advanced Soviet MIG-

This factory has been chosen for a Soviet military experiment. Within two years, half its military production will be converted to a civilian assembly line, pro- ducing consumer kitchen equipment, baby carriages, children’s toys and milk

Soviet spokespersons also told the jour- nalists that the defence budget for wea- pons and military hardware will be cut by

Under an eight-year plan, some 38,000 defence plants across the USSR will be converted to processing farm equipment

One problem for these MIG factory workers is that defence workers’ salaries and benefits are higher than those of

To prevent conversion to civilian pro- duction from making a dent in workers’ living standards, the Soviet government has agreed to step in and compensate them

The transition from an economy of armaments to an economy of disarma-

LABOUR IN ACTION

As the rest of the world, including even the United States, is moving towards peace, Canada is going down the road to militarization.

The February meeting of the Toronto Labour Council adopted a report from its peace and disarmament committee. It noted that the Business Council on National Issues (BCNI) was pushing the

Conservative government to adopt the

White Paper on Defence.

Canada is being pushed into this policy by the same people who pushed the coun- try into the trade deal. The, BCNI, com- posed of 150 chief executive officers of major transnational corporations, is now this country’s most powerful interest group.

The BCNI was the main force behind former defence minister Perrin Beatty’s Defence Industrial Preparedness Task Force which urged the government to “incorporate a military perspective when considering industrial policy.”

This information came to light in the

Stopping subs first on agenda

Stephen Handelman, Moscow corres- pondent for the Toronto Star, recently wrote an article titled “Swords into Ploughshares.” Handelman and two oth- ers were the first Western journalists to be allowed into a working defence plant in

One reason for increasing military spending is that corporate profits gener- ally run 3.3 times higher than in civilian production. Fewer jobs are produced.

Another reason for the Conservatives’ venturing into the further militarization of Canada’s economy is that this area is not

covered by the trade deal.

The Tories plan to use military produc- tion as a form of regional development. Workers in the less developed provinces will be forced to choose between well- paying jobs in military production, and UI or welfare.

The labour council report calls on local affiliates to get involved in the fight for conversion to socially useful production, and makes good recommendations just

‘how to do this.

At the same time New Democrats, both

at Queen’s Park and Ottawa, are introduc-

ing private members bills that would bring in legislation around the issue of conver-

sion.

But is this enough? The first task is to

stop the further militarization of Canada’s economy. It is far easier to prevent some- thing before it’s started than trying to change something that’s been imple-

mented. There needs to be an all-out effort by

the trade union movement in support of the peace movement to stop the purchase of the nuclear-powered subs, and to stop

the rest of the BCNI/Tory agenda which

includes the sellout of Canada.

This has to be tied to a workable alter-

ment was announced by Mikhail Gorba-

pany in an attempt to intimidate workers into accepting the concessions deal.

last December.

Defence.

chev in his speech at the United Nations

Soviet policy is a stark contrast to the Canada’s Tory government as it pushes ahead with its reactionary White Paper on

peace and disarmament committee report. It says the BCNI has three main objectives for the Tory government: 1) implementa- tion of the free trade deal; 2) reduction of Canadian social spending; 3) increases in military production.

native that puts people before profits, along with a new Canadian foreign policy. This will change the direction in which Canada is heading and will put this coun- try back on track with the rest of the world.

Strike program set at Citation

The B.C. Federation of Labour has launched an “adopt-a-striker” program to back striking members of Local 1928 of the Carpenters who have been on strike at Citation Industries since July 1987.

The federation’s executive council adopted the program earlier this month at the request of the 700-member local which has fought the anti-union com- pany through several Industrial Rela- tions Council decisions and B.C. Sup- reme Court hearings as well as a $1.2 million suit for damages which is still pending against the union.

Last month, the union filed an unfair labour practice charge against Citation for its efforts to launch a decertification petition among the striking workers.

Ina letter sent out to affiliated unions, B.C. Fed president Ken Georgetti noted that Citation workers and Local 1928 “are determined not to let this employer succeed in getting rid of the union and operating without a proper collective agreement.”

But the strike pay — currently set at $125 a week — is “rapidly depleting the defence fund,” he added.

The federation has called on union locals and labour councils to adopt a striker by undertaking to maintain the strike pay for a fixed period of time.

Budget rally

CBC workers ‘resolve is strong’ —

dential nature that would prohibit employ- ees from joining unions. All these have increased in intensity since government cut- backs began in earnest around 1985, Tohill said.

“Since the corporation started those cut- backs, we find there’s a shadow corporation that’s been created. There are probably more people working part-time and free- lance than regular employees.”

“It’s pretty hard when you’ve worked for the corporation for years and then you see your job being given away,” Tohill said.

Negotiations were also snagged on the question of job security. The corporation refuses to budge from a position that employees hired after Dec. 31, 1981, have no protection against layoffs and their replacement by non-union, - contracted workers.

Most of Local 695’s 240 members are out, as are employees in CBC’s five B.C. — regional bureaus. But about six or seven sales personnel have been running the line in Vancouver in what Tohill calls a “jugger- naut” the local suspects is being “orches- trated.”

Most of those unionists report for work reluctantly and continue to express their support for the CUPE pickets, spokesper- sons said. The local issued a thank-you note to those workers March 20.

“Our resolve is quite strong,” said Tohill, asserting that the members were maintain- ing picket lines across the country.

The B.C. Federation of Labour has declared it will not speak with CBC repor- ters for the duration of the strike. “Their product has to go behind the picket line and we won’t deal with the company if it involves struck work,” said communica- tions director Joy MacPhail.

The New Democratic MLAs have banned one-on-one interviews with CBC reporters.

Tohill said the corporation has been increasingly eroding union jobs in both the office — computer operators, paychequing and accounting, for example — and through freelance reporters, all of which he said are often paid better than full-time union members.

Additionally, CBC brass have been rede- fining what is considered work of a confi-

The “whittling away of our jobs” through lack of job security and jurisdiction protection are the key issues in the strike against the Canadian Broadcasting Corpo- ration, spokespersons for the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 695 say.

The 2,600 members of CUPE broadcast locals across the country walked out March 19 and 20 after failing to make progress in negotiations and working more than one “year without a contract.

Dan Tohill, first vice-president of Local 695 in Vancouver, said wages are a lower priority in the first strike by CUPE CBC workers, “although several of our members earn wages near the poverty line.”

More important to the members are the issues of job security and jurisdiction, he ‘Said.

“We think management is hoping to eliminate some of the unions in the CBC,” said David Mills, a television studio pro- ducer at the Vancouver station.

There are 29 bargaining units represent- ing most of the CBC’s 11,000 employees.

The CUPE members include radio news- readers and personalities, stage hands, light- ing technicians, directors and clerical workers.

Several unions refused to cross picket lines until ordered to do so by the Canada Labour Relations Board. From St. John’s to Vancouver, members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, the

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The Coalition Against “Free” Trade has set April 4 as Pro-Canada Day as it gears up for the campaign against the Tory budget.

A rally has been set for 12 noon out- side the Royal Bank at Georgia and Bur- tard in Vancouver.

12 « Pacific Tribune, March 27, 1989

Wire Service Guild (a local of The News- paper Guild), producers and directors asso- ciations and several other employee groups respected picket lines in most centres.

The CLRB ordered those employees to cross picket lines March 17 and 18, after the CBC filed applications.

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