LABOR —

HAMILTON — Estimates varied between 700 and 1,000 demonstrators as_ striking teachers (OSSTF District 8) and their many supporters picketed the Hamilton Board of Educa- tion June 13 in yet another at- tempt to force the recalcitrant Board to sit. down and negotiate.

The teachers, who were then completing their fifth week on strike, hold the board directly responsible for keeping 14,000 secondary students out of their classrooms, citing quality education and classroom size as the key issue in the strike.

**Hamilton composite schools have the largest PTR (pupil-to- teacher ratio) in Ontario at 17.5’, said Paul Kropp, Dis- trict 8’s External Liaison Of- ficer. ‘And not only that: our vocational schools also have the highest PTR at 12.5. We also have seven vocational schools in Hamilton, which is fully 25 per cent of the total number of voca- tional schools in the entire pro- vince of Ontario.”’

By comparison, Halton has 16.15 and Wentworth has 16.3. ‘‘What we’re asking for is 17.1”. said Kropp. What it means, he continued, is com- puter classes, for example, with 45 kids and 25 computers, and academic courses with an aver-

Hamilton teachers determined to win

Special education kids are even harder hit.

‘**That’s what this strike is all about’’, Kropp said. ‘And that’s why we have the support of the community. The majority of the people in this community think we’re right’’.

Citing the $768,000 surplus from the 1983-84 school year, combined with the $20-million reserve fund accrued by the Board over the years, Kropp said education in Hamilton has become ‘‘a huge business that consistently made money. What we’re fighting here is an in- transigent management that in- sists that all the power is theirs and that the teachers and kids be damned’’.

Sixteen months ago, when negotiations began on a contract that ran out fourteen months ago, ‘‘I used to think that this was all about negotiations. But now I think it’s about power. We want the Board to sur- render some of that power, to put a cap on classroom size, to guarantee special education, to provide quality education, but it’s not a simple struggle’.

One of the teachers demonstrating at the Board put it this way: ‘‘I’ve sacrificed 20 per cent of my pay to get quality education; now what’s the pub- lic going to do?” ~

The answer was all over the

picket lines, with. signs: declar- «

ing support and solidarity from the Hamilton and District Labor Council, Hamilton- Brantford Building Trades Council, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, United Steelworkers, Local 1005, Mohawk College staff and students, parents, students, and of course, the teachers from Halton and Wentworth, from the elementary schools, and from the AEFO (French Lan- guage Schools Association). Especially visible and welcome were teachers from OECTA (the Roman Catholic Teachers’ Association), who have a special interest in the strike’s outcome.

Communist Party City Sec- retary Liz Rowley was also there, ‘along with the entire leadership of the Communist

Rally backs strike for quality education

Party in the city who had moved a meeting and mobilized their members in mass support of the picket.

“This strike has the full sup- port of this community, and with good reason’’, Rowley said. ‘‘There is very good reason to believe that the outgo- ing Tory government, through the Ministry of Education and some say through ALSBO, the Association of Large School Boards of Ontario, targeted Hamilton at the beginning of these negotiations with the aim of breaking the teachers’ union and the spirit of the people to fight against provincial funding cutbacks and declining quality.

“*Since Hamilton is in a sense a pulse for the labor movement in Ontario, they hoped to suc-

=

cessfully test their theory that working people have moved to the right and would take such attacks lying down. How wrong they were!’’

“This Board has still to get the message: they’re out of sync with this community, and most of them could, and should, be out of office in the coming November municipal elections. More than anything else, this strike shows the need now for a democratic reform majority on the Board of Education that can and will take advantage of the new minority government at Queen’s Park to guarantee more money for quality educa- tion, decent wages and class- room conditions in Hamilton.

“This Board has got to go’’, Rowley said. )

Nurses won't go hack until

By BRENT FRASER EDMONTON — Nurses strik- ing at seven health units through- out Alberta are firm in their de-

»mand-for wage: parity with their:

hospital counterparts. Although some nurses crossed

r

B.C. CUPE meet charts militant new direction

VICTORIA — Rank and file members in the B.C. division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees are expected to play a larger role in the union’s affairs as the largest CUPE conven- tion in B.C.’s history took a new, more militant direction. :

The fight to popularize labor’s alternative economic program and an all-out fightback against the Social Credit government’s attack on the public education system were among the key issues which dominated the three-day con- vention which started June 13.

This spirit of militancy was reflected in the large mandate president-elect Mike Dummler and first vice-president Dianne Jolly received in their elections to the top posts in the B.C. division.

Another indication of that mood was the elec- tion of Gary Johnson to the division’executive. Johnson had previously run unsuccessfully for the presidency on a progressive platform.

The 456 delegates also put together a policy package of resolutions that focussed on the need for co-ordinated province-wide bargaining, and called on Operation Solidarity and the B.C. Federation of Labor to popularize the Canadian Labor Congress’ nine-point economic alterna- tive program.

The convention urged all levels of CUPE throughout B.C. to support the school boards which have been put under trusteeship by the Socred government, and to initiate whatever political action is necessary in support of the students, teachers, parents and all members of ans community fighting to preserve the public

education system which is under vicious attack .

by the Socreds.

The delegates also forwarded a resolution to the upcoming national CUPE convention, slated for next October in Winnipeg, that calls for amending the union’s dues structure to base it on a calculation of .6 per cent of the average wage in a local, per member per month.

Aid to working people and trade unionists in Nicaragua also came on the CUPE agenda as the convention voted to endorse the Tools for Peace campaign and urged CUPE national to offer ongoing support to the people and trade unions of Nicaragua and to encourage ex- changes between CUPE and their counterparts in that country.

Unfortunately, a number of resolutions deal- ing with the peace question, including one op- posing Canadian involvement in the U.S. Star Wars program, weren’t able to make it to the floor for discussion, although a pamphlet on disarmament from B.C.’s End the Arms Race organization was distributed to the delegates.

‘This convention signifies a new direction for the B.C. division’, Jolly said last week. ‘‘We should see more involvement of the member- ship, and a greater push by the union to get out

_and mobilize in the communities before crisis

situations develop.

“‘We were given a mandate to mobilize our members and answer the provincial govern- ment’s drive to privatization and the destruction of the public sector with our own program. It shows there is an alternative to cutbacks and that if we’re united and fight back, we can defeat the Socreds.”’

S

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 26, 1985

parity demands satisfied _

picket lines early in the strike, and three health unit locals of the Un- ited Nurses of Alberta (UNA) ac- cepted the management offer, the

giving up.

UNA members hit the bricks April 1, seeking a 16 per cent pay hike over two years. Health unit nurses currently earn between $12-$15 an hour.

The Health Unit Association of Alberta has rejected, outright, all of the nurses’ demands, including a proposed 5-5-4 work week that would see nurses work longer daily hours in exchange for every third Friday off. ©

HUAA negotiators ended the most recent talks, May 31, by re- fusing to discuss even the non- monetary items proposed by UNA bargainers.

Nurses believe management’s hard line is the result of sexism, anti-unionism, and a lack of commitment to quality preventa- tive health care.

Backing up the charge of sex discrimination, one UNA negotiator pointed to a recent settlement between management and the predominantly male non-nursing staff; that deal in- cluded the same 5-5-4 work week sought by the UNA.

“The male staff seem to have more influence with the health unit association,’’ said UNA bar- gaining team member Marge Blair. ‘‘Management doesn’t like us belonging to a union.”

HUAA negotiator George Zaharia claims the provincially- funded health units don’t have the cash to meet UNA demands, and that ‘“‘nurses don’t care about the bottom line’’.

Provincial funds are, in fact, in- adequate and that’s a political ‘problem that should be answered by social services minister Neil Webber, said UNA executive of- ficer Simon Renouf.

In the meantime, Renouf said

Strikers have shown no signs of”

the money is available in the HUAA budget. He estimated that the total wage increase demanded by the nurses equals $400,000 while the ‘health units’ budget reached $1 billion in 1985. Finding money for the wage hike is a mat- ter of shuffling management priorities, he said.

Blair added that striking was the last alternative for the UNA; the health unit nurses simply feel they shouldn’t be penalized by wage disparities for working at the clinics.

Most nurses could find work at hospitals for higher pay, but many chose health units as a commit- ment to making preventative community-based health. care work. In fact, several nurses have

’ taken temporary hospital jobs for -

the duration of the strike.

“We feel badly about our clients (at the health units) .. . but this is also a fight to keep quality care in the clinics,’’ said Blair.

The health units provide ser- vices that include immunization and health trips to schools, home care and visitations, and pre-natal classes.

Although picket lines have been up on a rotating basis throughout the strike, they are not aimed at clients taking advantage of the limited services still avail- able, but rather at management and scabs.

In the meantime, some cracks are beginning to management solidarity.

Boards of directors at local units, which originally supported the HUAA’s strong anti-labor stance, are beginning to feel the pinch of public pressure and are urging their negotiators to find a quick resolution to the strike.

‘“‘We’re not looking for any conditions, in terms of a settle- ment,’’ said one Edmonton-area director. ‘“We just want to return health unit services to the publics

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