CHOUHAN OUTSIDE DAMAGED CFU OFFICES...

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

. “they can never succeed in frightening us.”

CFU condemns attacks by thugs

Barely three weeks have gone by since the formation of the Canadian Farmworkers Union and it has been made the target of violent \acts aimed at, according tounion president, Raj Chouhan, ‘“ntimidating people from join- ing with and working with the union.”

Two weeks ago, the windows of the union’s office in Burnaby

were broken on two Separate oc- casions, but more serious was the physical attack by unnamed assailants on vice-president, Jawala Singh Grewal.

‘‘Armed with beer bottles and baseball bats, they also smashed the windows in his house, broke the windows of a car in the back: alley, smashed the windows and slashed the tires of Grewal’s pick- up parked at a nearby garage.”’

Chouhan said they had faced violence for over the past year by farmers, contractors and their agents during their organizing struggles, and added that it would not deter the union in its cam- paign.

‘Their attempts have not ee us from organizing and they can never succeed in frightening us from launching our upcoming spring organizing drive,’ he said.

China-Chile collusion shown

Continued from page 1 tions and persons as well as their ac- tivities over a number of years. This information is of great value in the building of our new political regime.”’

The document continued:

“China is sympathetic to the process of establishing a new na- tional and Christian democracy in Chile. The unconditional support accorded to Chile by China at inter- national forums is of great impor- tance to the international image of Chile. China has rapidly removed all obstacles to normalizing its rela- tions with our country and has granted us, since 1975, important credits at a time when there was an international plot to encircle RS ss

“The proposal of People’s China to give us assistance in nuclear technology with conditions beneficial to us will consolidate the defence position of Chile in face of the potential threat of foreign ag- gression.’

Another document, dated Mar. 18, 1975, from the Chilean secret police to the minister of the interior stated that the National Service of Detention (SENDET) had been in- structed “‘not to arrest Chinese na- tionals involved in political ac- tivities’’ and noted, “* , .. Members of our service abroad and representatives of China have had very useful ex- changes of information about political exiles in Chile.

“This information is of interest

Workers

MAY DAY RALLY

Sunday, May4 2p.m. Templeton High School Auditorium 727 Templeton Dr., Vancouver

Hear: MIKE DARNELL

Northern representative, United Fishermen and Allied

SVEND ROBINSON NDP MP, Burnaby

MAURICE RUSH B.C. leader, Communist Party and: a member of the Canadian observer team during Zimbabwe elections and: striker from Boise Cascade sawmill in Ontario

Proceeds to aid Southern African refugees and strike relief for Boise Cascade Workers

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 25, 1980—Page 12

to both parties,”’ it said.

The third document sent Jan. 9, 1979 by Pinochet to the director of the secret police revealed the close links between the intelligence ser- vices of the two countries.

In the letter, Pinochet stated:

. I have the honor to inform you that considering the advan- tages of an increase in contacts bet- ween the intelligence services of Chile and. People’s China, the government has decided to allow the exchange of news and informa- tion on the following points:

“1..The activities of interna- tional communism directed by Moscow against Chile and China.

“*2. The subversive actions. of the social democratic parties and other organizations against Chile and China.”

The bargaining council for the province’s building trades council blasted what it called ‘‘pro- vocative, unacceptable and thoroughly unreasonable demands’’ advanced by the employers association as major talks in the construction industry — expected to be particularly tough this year — got underway.

The bargaining council for the 17 unions faced Construction Labor Relations Association in the first round of talks covering all the trades — the ‘‘main table’ talks — Monday. The current contracct covering some 45-50,000 tradesmen expires Apr. 30.

Already CLRA has put a hard edge on its bargaining position, the unions’ bargaining. council chair- man Roy Gautier charged, deman- ding rollbacks in several areas of the contract including one key area covering union security.

Gautier said Friday that the bargaining council had placed ‘‘a reasonable set of proposals before the industry’’, aimed primarily at obtaining ‘‘a catch-up for tradesmen’s wages and conditions that fell drastically behind during, and as a result of, the infamous AJB era.

But CLRA ‘“‘has decided to in- troduce provocative . . . demands implying a rollback of hard won conditions .. .’’, he said.

He cited the CLRA demand to ‘hold the line”’ on travel and living out expenses, a demand for a special cut-rate contract for sawmill construction and the de- mand for elimination of unions’ affiliation clauses.

The CLRA bid for a separate, inferior contract for sawmill con- struction is linked to a still- unresolved jurisdictional dispute with the International Wood- workers of America which does some construction work but at lower wage rates and on a longer. work week than building trades unions.

Gautier said that there was ‘‘ab- solutely no way that we’re going to do anything else but reject a separate agreement.”’

Labor council applauds nurses wage contract

B.C. Government Employees — general secretary John Fryer’s crit- icism of the registered nurses con- tract was again repudiated last week as representatives of Vancou- ver unions voiced their support for the catch-up pact recently negoti- ated by the. Registered Nurses As- sociation.

Delegates to the Vancouver and District Labor Council meeting Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to “congratulate the RNABC for their catch-up settlement’’ and to give their backing to government nurses in their continuing struggle to win a just settlement.

Tom McGrath, president of the seamen’s local of the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway and Transport Workers, rapped Fryer for his attack on the nurses’ settle- ment and told the council: ‘‘Rather than criticizing the nurses, he should be pushing for them to get a

fair settlement at the bargaining table.”

Earlier, the CBRT local endors- ed a resolution condemning Fryer for attacking the nurses’ settlement and for ‘‘fuelling the government’s desire to hold government employees down.””

He added that the attempt by the CLRA to get the lower rated con- tract ‘‘confirms in an oblique man ner previous council positions.’

Building trades unions warned earlier that continued construction work by the IWA under inferior contract conditions could lead 10 CLRA efforts to undermine building trades wages and condi tions.

The jurisdictional issue is still before the Canadian Labor Con- gress although a CLC umpire ruled earlier that such construction wol was properly the jurisdiction of the building trades.

Particularly contentious among the CLRA demand is that calling for elimination of affiliation | clauses — the clauses which give union tradesmen the right to refuse to work on the same job site wi non-union tradesment. Gautiet turned the clauses ‘‘our one protec tion against attempts to introduce non-union and low rate construc- tion.’ :

The employers have sought the elimination of the clause as part OF their campaign to undermine union organization and facilitate the in- troduction of non-union subcon-_ tractors and tradesmen.

Some construction firms have already chipped away at uniom organization through the use of “dummy companies” — com= panies set up by a union contractor under a different name and doing work originally contracted by they unionized employer.

The practice violates the labor code but because of the nature the industry in which jobs are com pleted rapidly and because wi do not have the right to carry ou organizational picketing and face long delays waiting for Labor Rela- tions Board hearings, employefs _ are not often brought totask.

Although building trades unions in this province have not faced the same problems as the U.S. Alberta where non-union — ani anti-union — contractors havé established a firm hold on con struction, the efforts by CLRA 10 get rid of the affiliation clause - signal a renewed effort to undef mine union strength.

But the attack has sparked 4 reaction. Gautier warned, «« |, . the main line attack by the employer’s association on some of the major elements of the historically achieved collective ° agreement has already created 4 growing sense of resentment among the various trades.” }

The building trades demands in current talks call for a $3.50 total package increase for all trades in the first year plus other benefits.

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