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Labor in Action

Sire = —_____ George Hewison

QWL versus the unions

Q Tom Rankin, writing in QWL Focus, magazine of the Ontario ality of Working Life Centre, and basing himself on the ex- Periences over the past ten’ years with QWL, concludes that: For quality of working life to move into its next phase streecement and unions must be prepared to change all the . Ctures and processes that make up their relationship includ- 8 the contract and the day-to-day organization of the work- a In short what is required is the integration of QWL.and €ctive bargaining.”’ anankin merely confirms what we already knew. QWL is alive - well, and flourishing on many Canadian job-sites. This comes : NO surprise, for QWL is of strategic importance to big business 1 this country. : Like free trade, QWL is dictated by the rules of international “pital. It is linked to increased productivity and quality. at IS also linked to the introduction of new technology which ‘ora Increases both. Thus QWL is the instrument for increased ies Mational competitiveness and enhanced profits for big busi- W S. In the stepped up world of cutthroat competition, the orker, despite the sophisticated tools at his/her disposal is still © only producer of wealth and profit. wigntthermore, the worker, individually and/or collectively orc Ingly or unwittingly can undo all bosses schemes to make his oft Making cycle even more profitable.

The QWL charade

ae please, enough hypocrisy about the boss wanting a more mr Mane work environment, or about a democratic work place, €. He wants profit!

ly Rankin confirms also that unions in Canada constitute a potent fore, that are generally not being co-opted into the QWL, a

or idable problem for Canadian employers. He calls therefore T integration of ‘‘QWL into collective bargaining.”

eat tread on each other’s turf, an argument used initially to ~“Mouflage the true nature of QWL.

et the second phase of QWL may well be more penetrating

. ve the introductory phase, if only because the crisis of the

tem has deepened, employers are faced with stiff competition,

at home and abroad, new technology is being introduced,

ihe Workers are threatened with making unpleasant choices, not Cast of which is whether or not they will have a job.

ing the workers at St. Thérése, who are being told to “‘shape

the by General Motors, or risk losing their plant. Obscured by

Worms for “‘shaping up”’ is the fact that Canadian auto-

‘tho €rs are among the most productive in the world, producing

apoands of dollars of value added annually over and above their

othe, Package. All of which accrues exclusively to GM and the tT atuo companies.

The Club and the Carrot

a workers are getting the “‘club”’ across this country; so teen So that when the ‘‘carrot’’ is offered, it’s a relief, at least Porarily. vouificantly, four federations of labor across the country th © submitted identical resolutions on QWL, calling for educa- ‘ Programs to warn of the pitfalls of quality circles. togtis is a useful beginning, because more work needs to be done Nee POse the quality circle and its many pseudonyms but experi- QW; “bows that the educational program by itself won't halt

.

thahe appeal of QWL lies in the appeal for less ‘*clubbing” and Qyyy omse of a more humane work place. The alternatives to the Must therefore address how to unite the trade unions to halt th, “O'Porate attack, the threat of unemployment, and provide eh .Workers with a safer, more secure, comfortable work Thonment. fram. Means uniting and mobilizing for labor’s complete pro- the . taking on the power of the corporations, including placing W I8gest foreign owned under democratic public control. Wn le labor conducts its campaign against QWL, and for its t alternatives, there is certainly no room for membership on 'ggest quality circle of all-the Canadian Labor Market ¢ “tivity Center, by the top leadership of the CLC. tea Uality circles, whether they are the semi-autonomous work ent? employee involvement programs, or the Productivity the _© are designed to undermine the trade unions, to separate len t@Mbership of the trade union from the aca For

Sick ad to endorse this process therefore is not only Stupid, its “Mal!

'4.Lhus ends the charade that QWL and Collective bargaining’

RIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS

Oil can bon

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fire wards off the cold for striking Inglis worker.

Inglis workers hit bricks — in battle over concessions

By MIKE PHILLIPS TORONTO — Corporate greed for fatter profits underlies the three-week-old strike by the United Steelworkers at Inglis.

Some 600 workers in the Steelworkers’ oldest Toronto local began picketing Inglis, April 7. Pro- duction workers in Local 2906 are pounding the pavement alongside office and clerical staff, Local 4487.

Inglis’ sweeping concessions demands are the central issue in the strike. ‘‘They want us all to work 20 per cent harder with no increase in pay,” Local 2900 president Mike Hersh said last, week.

He recalled how the Inglis workers had to wage a six-week strike for their last contract, in 1983, again in the face of massive takeaway demands by the company. ‘‘We beat them in 83 and we’re going to do the same in 86. The way the company is behaving, my guess is we’ll be striking for every- thing every time we try to negotiate a contract,” he said.

Inglis’ demands are awesome. The company wants a three-year wage freeze for both groups of workers; cancellation of the COLA (the product of a five-and-a-half months’ strike in 1974) for the duration of the agreement; a two-tiered wage sys- tem for new hirees that would reduce weekly wages by as much as $75 depending on job classi- fication; and, a new time study system exluding any union input or the right to challenge new pro- duction standards.

The company also wants to scrap the fifth and sixth weeks of vacation for all new workers hired after April 1 this year. This would mean that by 2009 senior workers would no longer be entitled to five and six weeks vacation.

Job security, better pensions, and wages are the key issues being pressed by the union. Hersh pointed out that there are 71 members of the local who will turn 62 next year and could benefit by early retirement if the pensions were improved to a decent level.

‘*As it stands now, if I were to turn 65 tomorrow all I'd get for a pension would be $394 a month,” one veteran Inglis worker said as he picketed the company’s Strachan Avenue gate.

Inglis is using the prospects of free trade be- tween Canada and the U.S. to rationalize its attack on the workers’ wages, benefits, seniority rights and to speed up production.

Last October company president Colin-Wright came to Toronto to blackmail the workers into swallowing concessions. Whirlpool Corp., which now owns 51.3 per cent of Inglis has a plant in

Clyde, Ohio which will be competing with the Strachan Avenue facility to supply the Canadian

appliance market.

Whirlpool has invested more than $600-million to modernize its U.S. facilities, with $165-million going to the Clyde plant. Not a penny is being invested in Canada, despite the fact that the Strachan plant supplies 51 per cent of all the wash- ing machines sold in this country.

The dangers of free trade are crystal clear to Inglis workers and to workers throughout the Canadian appliance industry. Strictly speaking there is no Canadian appliance industry, Local 2900 points out.

Inglis, CAMCO, and WCI, owned by White Consolidated, the giants of the industry in Canada are all U.S.-owned. Not only will these companies use the threat of free trade to drive down wages and attack Canadian workers’ standards but the jobs in this industry could easily disappear once free trade was achieved.

~ %; From the viewpoint of profitability, Inglis has

‘rarely had better times, the strikers point out. The company’s 1985 profits totalled $10.8-million, a 15 per cent increase over the previous year.

Its sales in 1985 broke all existing records at $334.8-million while its rate of profit, at about 16 per cent, soared above the Canadian average of slightly less than 10 per cent.

The strikers point out that at a rate of $125,000 in sales produced last year by each worker, and a growing productivity rate of 2 to 3 per cent a year since 1981 Inglis workers have already proven how productive they are.

‘Instead of investing their money here in Canada to improve productivity,’’ Hersh noted, ‘*they want to make us work harder for less money than we’re getting now.”

Paulette Watson, a machine operator with 13 years’ seniority noted that in a plant where most workers earn about $11.53 an hour, women are concentrated in job classifications that get paid about 17 cents an hour less. She said she was proud the union struck Inglis.

‘With a company like this you have to fight for everything you get,’ Watson said.

CLC raps federal maritime inaction OTTAWA — The 25 members of the CLC’s council of maritime unions lashed out at the federal

Tories, April 10, for ignoring the serious problems faced by the maritime industries and called for

- revitalizing those industries before it’s too late.

Meeting in St. John’s, the council discussed the severely depressed state of the country’s shipyards with contracts running out, jobs being lost and in some cases the shipyards closing down altogether.

The council reiterated the CLC’s long-standing demand for government action to create a Canadian-built, registered and crewed deep-sea fleet appropriate for Canada as a major trading, maritine nation.

Shirley Carr, secretary-treasurer of the Cana- dian Labor Congress, who chaired the maritime council meeting, spoke out against the current pro- posal before Parliament through Bill C-75 to in- itiate ‘‘use pay”’ fees for coast guard services to Canadian shippers and fishermen. Carr urged the government to withdraw the user-pay sections of C-75.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 23, 1986 e 11