Injured workers union rallies

in support

TORONTO — Charges!”’ Rallying behind this slogan, Members of the Union of Injured ‘Workers (UIW), and their sup- Porters in the labor movement and other democratic organi- Zations will demonstrate June 21 outside Toronto’s Old City Hall, as the eight people charged in the Police attack on the injured work- ers outside the head offices of the Ontario Labor Ministry, May 29, are to appear in court. The rally is Slated to take place between

8:30-9:30 a.m.

- In addition to the seven who Were charged immediately follow- ing the incident May 29, UIW Provincial president Phil Biggin ‘Was subsequently charged with obstruction and is to appear with

€ others in court June 21.

Beggin told a press conference June 8, the UIW and its officers Were considering pressing “Charges against the police officers Chiefly responsible for attacking the injured workers during the demonstration. . He denied Charges by Metro Toronto Police that the incident was started by an Injured worker grabbing a Policeman’s gun.

“Tt’s not true’’, he said. ‘‘It is an attempt by the police to cover up the violence of their attack on the injured workers. Several in- Jured workers sustained further injuries because of this attack.”

Biggin also charged that the re- cent seizure by police of photo Negatives, television film, and tape recordings from the Global

hetwork, the CBC, the Ta- Tonto Sun, and CKEY radio were Part of the police department’s ef- fort to cover up their behavior in the confrontation. _ The injured workers blame the Violence, May 29, on the police, and say television film footage

“Drop All

of accused eight

“Drop all charges!” demands the Union of Injured Workers. The union has scheduled a demonstration in support of its accused members..:

shows the trouble started when a policeman grabbed a cane from an injured worker and began beating him with it.

The injured worker was coming to the assistance of an injured woman the police had pinned against the wall after the de- monstrators in the lobby of the

building housing the labor minis- |

try had set up a symbolic picket- line urging ministry employees to support the UIW, and not return to work. Tempers heated as police pushed demonstrators around, to make room for the employees entering the building.

The attack on the man with the cane signalled a full scale police attack on the demonstrators, the UIW charges, and’ the police began indiscriminately beating the protesters.

The UIW demonstrated at the labor ministry May 29, to demand “Job security or full compensa- tion” and immediate increases in

Workmen’s Compensation Board pensions, after repeated efforts by the injured workers to con- vince the Board to improve their

- treatment of the disabled failed.

They were told by WCB chairman Michael Starr, that the changes in the Workmen’s Com- pensation Act had to be made by the Labor Minister, so the UIW began lobbying the Tory minister Dr. Bette Stephenson.

The last cost-of-living increase

- the injured workers got on their

pensions was in November 1975, when they‘won a small increase after a series of militant demon- strations.

The 25% hike in the cost of liv- ing since then has made life for the injured workers and their families

pretty miserable. Stephenson’s’

response to their plight, was to tell them and the UIW in February this year: ‘‘If the injured workers are not satisfied with their bene- fits, they should apply for wel- fare.”’

Journal is o

By LILLIAN BOYD

OTTAWA — A bid to smash the Newspaper Guild at the Ot- tawa Journal was aborted June 6 with circulation department Workers voting 24-23 in favor of Sticking with the union.

The decertification. campaign was launched by scab workers last Thanksgiving while Guild Members walked the picket line set up 19 months ago after Management locked out the pa- Per’s five unions.

Guild president Katie Fitzran- dolph said the victory “means we're back in business at the Journal without a threat to our certification. We’ll continue be- having like a responsible union for the people we represent.”

It was under the decertification threat that Guild members were forced to drop their picket and ac- cept a meagre management con- tract in March.

During the lockout their ranks

had been hacked from 46 to 18.

“Ban injunctions in labor disputes”: SFL

REGINA — It’s happened again! Another injunction has N issued that strikes at the art of the Saskatchewan Trade nion Act.

In a statement June 13, the F :000-member Saskatchewan €deration of Labor protested the Se of an injunction at Dad’s Ookies Ltd., in White City, Sk., barring the employees’ Union representatives from set- foot on company property,

eee a study session by the

The SFL said it has called on

Saskatchewan’s New Demo-

‘cratic Party government “time

and time again to take away the power of the courts to grant in- junctions in labor disputes. Be- cause this hasn’t been done, we're again having to demand that the Trade Union Act be amended to overtum an injunc-

tion decision that flies in the face.

of trade union rights.”

The federation said it was call- ing on the government to amend the Trade Union Act to rectify this intolerable situation, and secondly to bar the use of injunc- tion in labor disputes altogether.

ut to smash Guild

Back on the job they joined 32 non-union members despite lay- offs by publisher Lou Lalonde.

The vote’s final tally indicates seven former strikebreakers pledged support for the union.

“Tt took quite a leap of faith for

them to throw their lot in with us,”’ said Fitzrandolph.

The vote is the latest incident in embroiled labor relations at the Journal. In October 1976 the company slapped on a lock out after typographers staged work slowdowns to protest sluggish contract talks over the paper’s conversion to computerized typesetting.

OTU president Richard Weatherdon was overjoyed with the Guild victory, noting that a loss would have set back efforts to win a fair contract for his members.

“I’m sure they support us and that support is very important”, he said.

Talks between the typog- raphers and management broke downin December. The company has offered to rehire 18 workers but the union is demanding sever- ance pay for the 17 whose jobs have been eliminated.

Weatherdon said there is no in-

_dication that negotiations will re-

sume in the near future.

MINERS WANT

| 5-DAY WEEK

AGNEW LAKE — Uranium miners at the Canadian Mine En- terprises near Sudbury ignored news June 14 that the company was seeking an injunction to end the walkout over lousy working conditions. :

The walkout, the second in two weeks, began June 9 against the

. company which is owned by + Kerr-Addison Mines Ltd. The 400

workers, members of United

| Steelworkers want a five-day week

with week ends off.

8-HOUR DAY, STRIKE DEMAND

TORONTO — About 3,000 tunnel builders, laborers and truck drivers, members of Local 183 Laborers’ International Union and Local 230 Teamsters went on strike June 12 against four contractors’ associations to back up demands for decent wages, the eight hour day, a contractors-paid rehabilitation centre to retrain handicapped and injured workers, and, contrac-

- tors’ policies of hiring handicap-

ped workers for light duty jobs

like watchmen and flagmen.

STRIKE CONTINUES AT WESTINGHOUSE

HAMILTON — Talks between Ww of Canada and the United Electrical workers Local 504, under an Ontario labor minis- try mediator, broke down June 14 and the month-long strike con- tinues.

Some 1,700 Wesinghouse work- ers in Iton, Burlington and Toronto are on the bricks, seeking a substantial wage hike in a two- year pact, vacation, pension and fringe benefit improvements, and a COLA for 1978 based on one cent for every .24 rises in the Consumer Price Index.

320 JOBLESS AS MINE SHUTS

STEWART, B.C. — Some 320 people will be left jobless when the Granduc copper mine here slams shut at the end of June.

The owners, Newmont Mines Ltd., want to invest the profits they have sweated out of their workers elsewhere because they

can’t get a big enough return on

their investment because copper prices apparently aren’t high enough.

LEN GUY RESIGNS B.C. FED. POST

VANCOUVER — Citing ‘‘per- sonal reasons’’, Len Guy secretary-treasurer of the 250,000-member B.C. Federation of Labor resigned from his post May 31.

He will be replaced by the feder- ation’s assistant secretary Dave McIntyre, a former business agent for the Vancouver Printing

- Pressmen’s Union, who will fill out Guy’s term which expires at the next annual federation convention in November.

TALKS RESUME WITH IOCO

MONTREAL — With talks be- tween the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOCO) and the United Steelworkers representing some -10,000 miners in Northern Quebec and Labrador slated to resume June 20, 3,500 northeast- ern Quebec miners signed a pact June 12 with Quebec Cartier Min- ing Co., winning an 80-cent an hour wage boost over three years. With fringe benefits improve- ments, the union estimates the

total increase is valued at $3 an .

hour.

For 14 weeks strikes and lock- outs have stopped production of three-quarters of Canada’s ‘iron ore production.

POLICE PRESSURE STRIKERS

MOOSE JAW — Striking woodworkers are being threatened ih ae with cancellation of their insurance unless they agree to take lie detector tests. : : The strikers at Moose Jaw Sash and Door Ltd., members of the In- ternational Woodworkers of America have protested to city council and the Saskatchewan At- torney General over police intimi- dation in investigating a warehouse fire on company property.

THEY ALWAYS ATTAct THE RIGHT TO STRIKE

SPNING:

a c Hours Last oo MKS.

THEY SAY STRIKES

CAUSE EVERY THING Fran:

AND So THEN SAN

CAM STRIKES

BuT WE LOST OVER} J.) 000, 000, 000 Hila Hous Due TO UNEMPLOV NET YOU THINK THEY BAN THAT

ov if te A, ae U 78 Ac

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 23, 1978—Page 5