OPSEU wants members covered by health and safety legislation

TORONTO — Delegates to the annual convention of the 60,000 member Ontario’ Public Service Employees’ Union, (OPSEU), June 8-10 elected a new president.

Sean Q’Flynn, labor studies co-ordinator at Niagara College, in Welland, defeated incumbent OPSEU president Charles Dar- row by 14 votes on the second ballot in the five-man contest for the union’s top post.

Flynn’s election expressed the militant tone of the convention, which saw some 600 delegates leave the meeting June 8 to mount an angry protest on Queen’s Park against the Ontario Tory govern- ment’s refusal to include public service employees in the occupa- tional health and safety legislation (Bill 70) it is considering.

The next day, the delegates overwhelmingly voted to donate ‘$10,000 to their strike-bound sis- ters in the United Auto Workers fighting for union recognition at Fleck Manufacturing, near Lon- don. The resolution also con- demned the “‘use of public funds

The axe has once again fallen on Toronto local 353 of the Inter- national Brotherhood of Electri- cal Workers (IBEW): It has been placed under trusteeship by the parent union with headquarters in the United States. Canadian vice-president Ken G. Rose, has advised that, as of May 18, 1978, all activities whatsoever of local union 353 are cancelled until further notice. In the interim period, Mr. Rose has appointed

international representative W. _

Moore as Trustee over all affairs of the local union. That means the cancellation of local union elec- tions scheduled for the current month of June, and suspension of nearly all elected executive board members.

The trusteeship is a culmina- tion of a long history of conflict between the U.S. union head- quarters and the local member- ship. About three years ago an appointed business manager was ousted in a local election. The man elected to take his place was fired by the international union in March of 1977, when the previ- ously appointed business man- ager was reappointed over the membership’s protest.

For more than two months last summer, the members of this local union engaged in a hard-fought strike for a shorter work week motivated by the heavy unemployment in the con- struction industry. During this strike the members of local 353 displayed exemplary working- class solidarity and _ readiness for self-sacrifice in the inter- est of their unemployed brothers.

But as soon as the strike started to pinch, the employers set their news media apparatus in motion to discredit the strikers and their mottve. Together with the pro- vincial government of Ontario and the international union

and the police for purposes of strike breaking.”

The Queen’s Park demonstra- tion, specifically was protesting the cutback policies of the Tory government, and the lack of safety legislation covering public service employees, which was aggravated by the serious injury June 6, of two employees of the North Bay Psychiatric Hospital.

Robert Guillemette, and John Black were attacked June 6 by a patient in the psychiatric hospital who had been committed on a Lieutenant-governor’s warrant after recently being transferred from the maximum security hos- pital for the criminally insane at Penetanguishene.

Guillemette was listed in criti- cal condition and transfered to a Toronto hospital for neuro surgery as a result of severe head injuries after being attacked with a metal pipe. Black, who was hit with a piece of wood, is in satis- factory condition in a North Bay hospital.

Government cutback programs

bureaucrats south of the border they sought to break the strikers’ solidarity and bring the strike to an end.

Two days following a tentative settlement proposal, and before members on strike had a chance to vote on it, Ken Rose an- nounced that he had instructed his own personally-installed busi- ness manager, Mr. William Har- dy, to order all strikers back to work.

The labor relations manager of the Toronto Construction As- sociation immediately said he was “overjoyed”’ with Mr. Rose’s move. Likewise, Ontario’s Tory Labor Minister, Dr. Bette Stephenson said she was “‘just de- lighted’* with developments.

But the union membership was far from happy. In a mailed ballot after the men returned to work, the tentative settlement was car- ried by only a 13-vote majority out of the 3,200 who had been on strike. In fact, opponents claimed the voting by mail ballot had been mishandled.

Rose’s Reasoning Inadequate

The Ontario Labor Relations Act provides that a hearing must be held before the Ontario Labor Relations Board if a trusteeship is to be continued beyond one year.

The fact that the business agent who had been fired as well as a member of the local executive board were both planning to con- test the office of business man- ager in the pending elections may have played a role in the imposi- tion of a trusteeship. Money spent for Christmas parties and the use of ‘‘vile and abusive remarks’’ about Mr. Rose, mentioned as reasons, can hardly qualify for such a serious step.

The chairman of the local union executive had earlier been ac- cused of creating dissension and had been suspended from office. He was also barred from holding

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 23, 1978—Page 8

Buildings trades need autonomy not trusteeship

are causing the release of prison- ers from maximum security facilities like Penatanguishene, who need the extra supervision to help themselves, the staff, and the community at large, Darrow said. “It’s only a matter of time before the crazy budget slashing ends up killing somebody’’, Darrow warned.

“The government of Ontario is a cheap, bad employer’, he charged. ‘‘Labor minister Bette

‘Stephenson is refusing to bring

back the saftey legislation as amended (Bill 70), because it would cost the government money. Sooner or later our people are going to get fed up with waiting for the legal right to pro- tect themselves and they will re- fuse to perform unsafe work any- way.”

Currently employees at psychiatric hospitals, mental re- tardation centres, jails and educa- tional institutions enjoy no health and safety protections what- soever under the existing laws.

The union announced June 8, it

office for a period of seven years.

Left in office by Rose were his appointed business manager, the vice-president, recording secre- tary and financial secretary of the local.

Only one member of the elected executive remains unsuspended. He is Wally Majeski, who is also the executive director of the Met- ropolitan Toronto Labor Council.

Aim is Continental Control

Legislation presently govern- ing bargaining in the construction industry of Ontario has come about as a result of collusion be- tween multi-national finance and construction companies, the Tory government, and top of- ficials of international construc- tion unions who fear a growing drive for Canadian union au- tonomy. The aim is continental control over employee bargaining units, depriving rank and file workers of any influence over the process of collective bargaining whatsoever.

- Some international unions have gone so far as to withhold per capita payments to the Canadian Labor Congress (CLC) as a form

of blackmail to disenfranchise its

members and force the Congress to go along with their attack on inner union democracy.

The remedy for this intolerable policy is an independent, sovereign and united Canadian trade union movement. A step towards this in the building trades would be a Canadian building trades department chartered by the CLC. Its rules and procedures must be drawn up on the basis ofa made-in-Canada constitution ag- reed upon by Canadian members of the building trades unions.

The upcoming conference of Canadian building trades unions here in Toronto, July 17-19, needs to address itself to this problem, and Canadian building trades workers must see to it that it does.

working conditions.

had filed five charges against John Douglas McMillan, the adminis-

trator of the North Bay Psychiat- -

ric Hospital for criminal - negli- gence in allowing the patient to wander unescorted on the hospi- tal grounds, allowing him access to dangerous implements, and for failing to ensure that proper safety procedurés were established. .

Policy decisions undertaken by the annual convention include the

. adoption of a resolution on occu-

pational health and safety calling for: the establishment of safety committees in every local of OP- SEU; that the union establish an educational program to train these committees; that OPSEU establish a health and safety re- source facility within the research department; that the union work

OPSEU employees picketted the Toronto Psychiatric hospital October demanding an end to government cutbacks. At their ann convention they warned that these cutbacks were resulting in uns

jas! ud

with labor councils, other unio# and community:groups to prof ote and lobby for progressi\! health and safety legislation; a™ that all, bargaining units fight {0 clauses in their collective agte ments, to protect their health at safety rights on the job.

The convention also passed! resolution that OPSEU, ‘“‘stri¥? to achieve through political, leg® lative and collective bargat means, a workable form of wot place, or employer-paid 44) care.” With some 45% of oF SEU’s membership composed © women, the: convention went 0 record calling for the implement” tion of an equal opportunity Pp icy for OPSEU that would fight © realize the objective of equal pal for work of equal value, in colle’ tive agreements.

Oshawa auto workers call for 32-hour week

By RUSS RAK

OSHAWA — The - shorter work week, and support of the Fleck strikers, were the subjects of resolutions United Auto Workers local 222 passed June 1, to forward to the recent UAW Canadian district council meeting.

On the shorter work week, local 222 members resolved to make the 32-hour work week with no loss in pay and the elimination of overtime work ‘‘a priority de- mand in the next round of con- tract negotiations.”” They also called on the UAW to “‘strongly endorse’’ the resolution passed by the last Canadian Labor Con- gress (CLC) convention making the 32-hour work week with no reduction in pay the object of a “‘national campign’”’ spearheaded by the CLC.

The local 222 resolution also called on the UAW to call ‘‘with- out delay”’ a conference of dele-

| dispute as scab protectors

gates from all trade unions in OF tario to ‘discuss ways and meal of stopping the closing of plants!” Ontario and the transfer of pl? duction to low wage areas in U.S. and other countries .-'— This practice by the multi-natio® al corporations, the resolution noted was. ‘‘increasifl unemployment and leading to 8, de-industrialization of Ontario. —

Noting the obvious implicatio® of the Ontario Tory governmel, in the ‘‘indiscriminate use ! riot-equipped Ontario Provinc! | Police to assist Fleck manag? | ment in harassing and intimid ing striking workers to thw?” their organization,” the local dorsed another resolution calli?” on the union to intensify suppot of the striking women. |

The resolution called on th UAW to “organize and lead? mass demonstration of | it membership and all org: i labor in Ontario to (the province legislature at) Queen’s Park, ° | manding the government probity the use of any police in any a

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goon squads that violate the leg? | rights of workers to strike apt picket for union rights, a ivi wage and humane workifl conditions.”’ aS | The meeting also witnessed th | stepping down of local 222 pres

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dent Abe Taylor after 15 years a the job. Taylor didn’t seek ©

election to the post in the cure |

elections. He was replaced Ted Murphy who topped the p? in the presidential vote.

Taylor ran for, and was electe! to the position of fil§ vice-president.”’