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The manufacturer of a popular brand of window blinds with a recent history of attempted union-busting and goon tactics may think it’s escaping negotiations by leaving British Columbia — but that’s not so, arally outside the plant in Burnaby was told June 26.

“Tf they think they’re shutting it down peacefully, we’ve got a message for them: they’ve not going to get away with it,” B.C. Federation of Labour president Ken Georgetti declared.

“What Canadian Window Coverings has just done is put themselves in the sights of the entire labour movement, and not just in British Columbia, but in Can- ada,” he told trade unionists from atop a flatbed truck parked across the street from Canadian Window Coverings, which manufactures Levolor window blinds.

Earlier, local [WA-Canada official Joe Leclair had to tell a representative group of the plant’s 120 mainly women workers

Canadian fis — page 8

India’s left parties are mounting a campaign against separatism in Kashmir and

The United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union launches its Pro-Canada Fleet campaige to protect the ing industry.

other regions. — page 3

that the union had just been informed the company was shutting the plant down.

“T’m absolutely devastated, I’m absol- utely angry,” Leclair said in relating that mediator Allan Hope had passed on the message that the company wanted to dis- cuss a severance package the following morning.

Some workers assumed the company was bluffing, but in an interview June 28, Leclair said the announced move still Stands.

For the Levolor workers, some 80 per cent of whom are women, many from ethnic minorities, the announced move was the latest in a series of outrages that have included court injunctions limiting picketing and goon tactics.

“As the strike has progressed I’ve come to realize that they can always go lower than the lowest we thought they’d sink,” plant chairperson Michael Collins said at the rally.

- IWA-Canada local leader Joe Leclair vows union will force Levelor window blinds to pay heavily on a severance package. Firm, after three weeks of strike and goon tactics, announced closure of Burnaby plant last Tuesday.

The workers certified with IWA- Canada Local 1-357 last February in an effort to end arbitrary wage structuring and a history of verbal and physical in- timidation by company officials, Collins said.

The plant workers make between $6- $11 per hour on a piece-work basis, pick- eters said in an interview. In an effort to achieve wage hikes of $1 per hour, they went on strike for a first contract June 4.

The company officials obtained an in- junction limiting pickets to one entrance and have engaged in “goon activity at a time when they knew the picket line would be at its weakest,” Leclair, Local 1-357 vice-president, said.

Six uniformed men including the plant manager and “a skinhead” armed with sticks shoved six women picketers shortly after a shift change at approximately 7:15

a.m. on Saturday, June 16, and sub- see COMPANY page 8

July 2, 1990 50 cents Volume 53, No. 24

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By GEORGE HEWISON

The death of the Meech Lake Accord marks the end of one chapter in Canadian history and the beginning of another.

The Communist Party said from the out- — set that Meech Lake was “unprincipled and unworkable.” We called it the “companion piece to the Free Trade Agreement.” Both serve the interests of the transnational cor- porations.

The passage of the accord would have frozen the injustices throughout the country for a long time, including the unequal union of Quebec with the rest of Canada. It would have maintained the alienation of Quebec while fragmenting English-speaking Can- ada. Meech Lake would have constitution- ally enshrined the racism of a society which denies its first nations an equal place at the bargaining table. Meech Lake would have been regressive for democracy, both in con- tent and in process.

The real alternative to Meech Lake, like the real alternative to free trade, never sur- faced in the constitutional debate. The only choice, other than Meech, was the increas- ingly unprincipled and unworkable status quo. The status quo federalism continues to deny Quebec’s right to self-determination, thus placing the arguments for and against Meech Lake in the framework of trying to expand or reduce provincial rights.

The negotiating process around Meech Lake was also rigged. The fate of the country became the special preserve of 11 men meet- ing behind closed doors. The people were excluded.

In the dying days of the accord, when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney set up the Charest Commission, the Canadian Labour Congress and the National Action Commit- tee on the Status of Women, the two largest popular organizations in the country, were excluded from the hearings. The Com- munist Party, the only all-Canada party which has long recognized the national

see FRAMING page 4

As the Tribune drive wound up June 23, supporters had turned in a total of $79,658 — an incredible ach- ievement but still short of the $82,000 we Set as the minimum we needed.

With this issue, we make one last appeal to our readers to give us a hand to put us over the top. And our many thanks to all those who contributed so generously to the drive. (Drive details, page 2.)