. Local

Parrot at Edmonton rally

A militant union movement needed

By K. CARIOU EDMONTON — “We have been called anarchists, Commun- ists, Marxist-Leninists. But there is one thing I am very proud of. We have never been called Liberals or Conservatives.”’

With these words, Postal Workers president Jean Claude Parrot, addressing a Fair Deal Rally, called for a more militant trade union movement in Canada, to better aid any group of striking workers, whether financially or on the picket line.

Solidarity with the strikers at Inco and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers were the themes of the first Labor Council spon- sored May Day since 1969 in Ed- monton, held May 12.

Bill Danyk, Edmonton Labor Council president, welcomed 300 people to an evening benefit for Steelworkers Local 6500 in Sud- bury. After outlining the history of May Day, Danyk noted that the event is celebrated in the socialist

countries, Western Europe, Latin America and other areas, but not in many parts of North America. The city’s trade union movement, he said, hopes to help change that by marking May Day annually.

The proposal was received g¢n- thusiastically by the crowd, which raised over $2,000 for the Inco strikers. In addition to CUPW president Jean Claude Parrot, who was given a standing ovation, speakers included Public Service Alliance of Canada leader Andy Stewart; the University of Alberta poet-in-residence Tom Wayman; representatives of Local 6500, the British Journalists Union; and the Central Union of Workers of Chile (CUT). Music was provided by Edmonton’s Fat Chants band, famous for its ‘Yeft-wing swing’’.

Long-time labor militant Bill Berezowski, a veteran of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union and the United Steelwor- kers, hosted the benefit.

Earlier in the day, 200 trade

unionists and supporters attended the ‘Fair Deal Rally’’ in defence of CUPW and other public ser- vice unions, where Jean Claude Parrot, made his first major public appearance since his sentencing and night in jail. It was here, while commenting on the federal elec- tion that he made the reference to the two old parties.

Other speakers included CLC vice-president Shirley Carr, Al- berta Union of Provincial Employees president John Booth, Alberta Federation of Labor president Harry Kostiuk, and Public Service Alliance of Canada president Andy Stewart. They all hit hard at the anti-labor policies of the federal Liberal and

‘ provincial Tory governments.

On May First itself, the annual celebration sponsored by the Edmonton May Day Committee featured the film, Controlling In- terest. This documents the effects multi-national corporations have on workers in South and North America.

Ontario CUPE backs Parrot plans cutbacks protest demo

LONDON — The Gites di- vision of the Canadian Union of Public Employees will stage a demonstration at Queen’s Park to protes: health, social service and other cutbacks implemented by the Tory provincial government, before the current legislature

_closes.

The decision came at the May 11-13 annual Ontario divison convention in a resolution which also called on CUPE Ontario di- vision’s executive board to peti- tion the Ontario Government to

“‘re-examine their spending priorities so that proper funding can be granted to all-important social programs for the citizens of Ontario.”’

Support from all Ontario work- ers through the Ontario Federa- tion of Labor was also requested.

The resolution noted Queen’s

Park’s implementation of the

reactionary Henderson Commis- sion Report which has already led to cutbacks in homes for the aged, daycare centres, nursing homes and hospitals. Working condi- tions for the employees in those services, the resolution pointed out, will be undermined by cut- backs as contracts are gutted, workloads are excessively in- creased, job security is de- stroyed, and the practice of con- tracting our flourishes.

Support For CUPW

The convention also adopted a resolution submitted by CUPE 1023 delegate Kate McNamara that Canadian Union of Postal Workers president Jean Claude Parrot be sent a telegram from the convention showing that CUPE ‘‘supports him and his union in their struggle for justice, which is CUPE’s struggle too.”’

CUPE national president Grace Hartman, im her speech to the convention, focussed on the persecution of Parrot as part of the general attack against public sector unions launched by big- business governments. She called

- Parrot’s recent jail,sentence ‘‘the

“Sick decision, by a sick leader of a sick government...” — Grace Hartman.

end result of a sick decision by a sick leader of a sick government using a court system no longer capable of defining what is prop- erly a matter of law and what is a matter of justice. ...

‘‘When Jean Claude Parrot was brought from the court in hand- cuffs,’’ she said, ‘‘I thought that we had endured the final humilia- tion — a humiliation brought about not by the ego of Brother Parrot, as Justice Evens suggested — but by the ego of Pierre Trudeau.

Hartman noted that the judge and the Crown repeatedly stres-

sed that no one is above the law,

yet recalled the fate of former solicitor-general Francis Fox who forged another persons’ signature during a hospital admission, —

nothing. Two Laws?

‘*How should we feel about two cabinet ministers improperly con- tacting judges?’’ Hartman asked. “Do we mention this? Do we keep quiet about it? Or do we in- sist that they be handcuffed?

“How are we to react when we learn about the nation’s police force burglarizing offices — de- stroying personal property — vio- lating federal laws by opening

mail?

‘Do we jail them?”’ she asked.

“Do we bring them before a court to answer for criminal con- duct? Do we insist, as responsible citizens, that they be taken to courthouses in handcuffs?

She contrasted Parrot’s treat- ment to Prime Minister Trudeau’s recent remarks there was no reason to get excited about ‘*some policeman opening a letter somewhere’’.

The implication of this is that policemen are above the law, Hartman pointed out, and she recalled Trudeau’ s suggestion that if the RCMP was breaking the law, the law should be changed. Joe Clark, she observed would give the police permission to break the law.

Public Sector Scapegoats

Tying together anti-public ser- vice worker legislation across the country such as B.C.’s Essential Services Act, Alberta’s Bill 41 and the:federal government's Bill C-22 — all wiping out collective bargaining rights for civil ser- vants, she charged public service workers are being used as scape- goats for government incompe- tence in handling the economic crisis.

She called on public sector workers to fight back against the politicians and to change public attitudes created about public service workers by the media and big business politicians.

‘People must be made to realize the we are the people who make this country work’’, she said. ‘‘We clean the schools and take care of the elderly. We clear snow-clogged street and make the hospital beds. We collect the gar- 6 bage and beautify the parks. And we take pride in what we do — we care about the public services we provide — and with good reason.

“Far from being the villains’, Hartman said, ‘‘it must surely be evident that the employees in the public service are the very found- ation of the communities where they live and work.”

The keynote speaker, Alberta Communist Party secretary Bill Tuomi, discussed the successes of the international working-class movement over the past year, and called for greater efforts than ever to support labor struggles at home and abroad. The 125 people pre- sent also heard greetings from the local branch of the Chilean CUT and from the peace movement. A collection was taken for the Inco strikers.

Parrot ... “! am proud that we have never been called Liberals or Conservatives.”

QUEBEC WORKERS GIVE MANDATE

AYLMER, Que. — Northern Telecom workers, members of the Communications Workers of Canada have voted 83% to give their negotiating committee a strike mandate. The 401 workers were recently locked out by the company in a contract fight which sees the workers demanding a 13.4% annual wage hike. They have been without a contract since March 1, and in a so-called ‘‘legal’’ position to strike since April 15.

CUPW PRESIDENT ACQUITTED VANCOUVER — Local

Canadian Union of Postal Workers -president Frank Wal- den was acquitted May 15. of charges against him arising from the country- -wide postal strike last fall.

The judge instructed the jury to acquit Walden on the grounds that he was in Ottawa when the back to work law was passed in Parliament.

ALBERTA’S SHAME TWO YEARS OLD

EDMONTON — It’s been more than two years on the picket line for the members of CUPE Local 41, to win recognition of their union and a first contract from Parkland Nursing Homes. The strike has been named ‘‘the pro- vincial shame”’, with the Tory government refusing to force management to negotiate, and denying the strikers any social as- sistance. The provincial labor

:

minister has called the union unreasonable for refusing Park- land’s offer to settle based on CUPE accepting a blacklist of some of the strikers. The Parkland workers are asking for union rec- ognition and parity with other unionized Parkland workers, to bring their wages up to $4.00 an hour.

STRIKE LOOMS AT BELL CANADA

MONTREAL — The 13,500 Bell Canada technicians will be in a strike position seven days after federal conciliation commissioner Pierre Dufresne submits his. writ- ten report to the Labor Depart- ment on talks between Bell and the Communication Workers of Canada. Conciliation talks bet- ween the parties broke off May 16.

“TWO KINDS OF JUSTICE”: HUNT

REGINA — Nadine Hunt, pres- ident of the 60,000-member Sas- katchewan Federation of Labor May 8, called the jail sentence of postal union leader Jean Claude Parrot “another example of the crass and vindictive attitude of the federal Liberal government to- wards working people of this coun- try, and an attempt to scapegoat postal workers in particular as an example to all public sector work- ers of what kind of harsh treatment they can expect should they try and exercise their legal rights in the col- lective bargaining process.’’ Hunt cited the sentence as a demonstra- tion of ‘‘two kinds of justice being

administered in this coun

TORONTO — Some 700 delegates to the international convention of the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Cierks (BRAC) formally ap- proved a separate constitution for the BRAC Canadian division May 14. Canadian members elect their own officers, control union dues and set union policy in Canada. BRAC international president F.J. Kroll (above) Oipised ne Canadian oe: 8 CORRES to the international. union.

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