LABOR Be my valentine, remove asbestos Post office told EDMONTON — Workers in the three unions at the post office here are determined to rid their work place of cancer-causing asbestos. On Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, representatives from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, (CUPW) the Letter Carriers Union of Canada (LCUC) and the Union of Postal and Communication Employees, (UPCE) a com- ponent of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, launched their campaign for the total removal of the dangerous substance from the Edmonton Post Office. The top leaders of the three unions, based in Ottawa are slated to meet Feb. 23 with Canada Post management in the capital to demand a specific date to begin Moving the asbestos from the Edmonton facility. Exposure to asbestos has been found to cause a vari- ety of respiratory diseases including emphysema, and deadly cancers such as mesothelioma and asbestosis. Members of the three unions sent Michael Warren Valentine cards with the message: ‘“Be My Valentine — Remove the Asbestos Now!” They’ ve also been turning health and safety pins, handed out by management, over to their unions as another show of protest and a sign that they will accept nothing less than the total removal of asbestos from the workplace. Pins Returned The pins were returned with covering letters from the local union executives. Tom Olenuk and Julie David, president and first vice-president of the Edmonton CUPW local called on Warren to stop spending tax- Payers’ money on health and safety campaigns and use it to actually improve the health and safety conditions of the workers. Despite the posters, contests and repeated claims by management that safety is a “priority’’, the CUPW of. ficers point out in their letter, ‘‘the Edmonton plant is full of asbestos. Workers are being exposed to this deadly Carcinogen constantly. ‘Edmonton has the highest rate of injury, with Over two hundred injuries in 1983. For every 3.5 workers (in the plant), one worker is being injured,”’ the CUPW letter said. In ajoint press conference, Feb. 14, spokespersons for the three unions recalled the four year-old fight to have the crown corporation address the asbestos problem. Every approach at all levels has been met with manage- ment’s assurances and promises which were rarely kept. In August CUPW Staged information pickets outside the plant demanding total removal of the asbestos. Deadly Fibres In October, a Canada Post vice-president met local Officials of the three unions and promised to set a date when the work to get rid of the asbestos would begin. Since the August demonstration the unions charge that asbestos fibres have been released into the air at least seven times, and local management still has plans for major renovations that will disturb the asbestos. “Another major incident that results in asbestos being released could result in employees refusing to work in the Edmonton plant”’, the unions have warned. ‘ “We are urging Canada Post to take immediate action to remove _asbestos in order to avoid putting the public in a situation where there is no postal service in Edmonton.”’ The unions also point out that Canada Post has considerable experience in removing asbestos citi their experience in removing it from the Ottawa Post Office. Despite promising a date for the asbestos removal, management formed an ‘‘Asbestos Advisory Commit- tee’’ with UPCE and the LCUC. There have been two serious incidents involving asbestos since then, and the committee’s safety procedures were ignored by management in both cases. Immediate Removal Now Canada Post’s promises of a date to start remoy- ing the asbestos have been replaced with a proposal for a feasibility study, Suggesting that CUPW’s suspicions were well founded. The unions, Feb. 14 called on the public to lobby their MPs to pressure Canada Post into taking the asbestos out immediately. ‘‘The unions are not asking for a great deal’’, spokespersons for the three locals told reporters, “We simply want Canada Post to live up to one promise —_ Ba give us a specific date when it will begin removing asbestos.”’ 6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 29, 1984 in, (holding banner) leads protest to the provincial legislature: Broad fightback coalition formed in Alberta Solidarity moves eastward By DAVID WALLIS EDMONTON — Solidarity Al- berta’s militant fightback, trade union unity and peace were high on the Alberta Federation of Labor’s convention agenda, Feb. 14-17. In his opening address, AFL pres- ident Dave Werlin situated. or- ganized labor’s resistance to the cur- rent relentless attack on trade union rights within a rapidly deteriorating economy. Profits vastly outpacing wage in- creases, massive unemployment and a barrage of anti-labor legislation by the Tory provincial government aimed at stripping public sector and health care workers of the right to strike, and smash the building trades unions, demanded utmost unity within labor’s ranks, Werlin told the delegates. With representatives of the build- ing trades unions, independent non- affiliated unions, and a wide range of other civic and democratic organiza- tions and interest groups seated as observers at the convention, Werlin declared: “‘If there is ever a time for all-in unity that time is now. “Surely we don’t need more Bill 11s, Bill 41s, Bill 44s, or Bill 110s to drive the message home’’, he told the convention. ‘‘And, if we do need more anti-labor legislation to prove the point I’m sure the Lougheed government will be happy to oblige.”’ The expansion of the annual con- vention to include such a wide array of observers and guests heightened the mood for a massive fightback ex- pressed in the debates and resolu- tions by the delegates. Amid thunderous applause the convention delegates unanimously voted to en- dorse the historic launching of Soli- darity Alberta, the all-in coalition in- itiatied by the AFL executive council. Solidarity Day Designated Solidarity Day, the second day of the convention heard spokespersons from the various con- tingents of the massive coalition echo the AFL’s call for a militant, | united fightback against the attack on working people’s living stan- dards, trade union rights and demo- cracy itself. The coalition brings together both AFL and non-AFL union organiza- tions, health care workers, church representation, the unemployed, tenants, civic organizations, educa- tors and school boards, municipali- ties, the peace movement, women’s organizations, consumers, native rights organizations, the working poor and, “‘any other groups and in- dividuals who share a sense of moral and social responsibility to the over- all community.” Predicting that Solidarity Alberta would become ‘‘the voice of the people’’, Werlin told reporters prior to the convention that the new coali- tion would ‘‘develop a sense in the general population of the need to fight back and not just take it.”’ Convention delegates solidly ral- lied behind Solidarity Alberta. Reg Baskin of the Energy and Chemical Workers accused the Tory govern- ment of living inthe 19thcentury. “‘If we don’t pay some attention to union rights and if we don’t pay attention to democratic rights, then we know democracy will not survive’, he said. Winston Gereluk, vice-president at large of the federation, traced the vast transfer of wealth from working people to the corporations from the federal government’s imposition of the notorious anti-inflation act, dur- ing the mid 70s, and said the coalition represented people under attack by capital and its governments, throughout Canada and the world. Unity Stressed Letter Carriers delegate Greg McMaster stressed the importance of uniting affiliates with non-af- filiates and other organizations ‘‘to bring in working people not repre- sented in the trade unions.”’ AFL general services director Don Aitken said Solidarity Alberta would place the AFL in the forefront of the fightback in Canada. : “Alberta is the testing ground for repressive legislation’”’, Aitken said. “If we do not lead the fight we will not win, we will win if we stick together.”’ Among the non-affiliated guests who spoke to the convention on Solidarity Day were Fr. Jim Roberts of B.C.’s Operation Solidarity, Ed Motowylo of the National Farmers Union, Laurie Cook of the Alberta séction of the Plumbers and Pipe- fitters’ union, David Summers of the United Church of Canada and Un- ited Nurses of Alberta president | i Margaret Ethier. for | Motowylo stressed the need fan | farmer-labor unity with all ot% Canadian working people and ho ‘ one day to see Solidarity Alberta am a other coalitions across the cout et develop into Solidarity Canada a challenge the lawmakers in Ottaw® Cook pledged the plumbers, union’s support for the coalition, i Margaret Ethier was defiant int face of Tory government attacks OP her union. ‘‘We will never lose HE right to strike — no one will ever los® the right to strike until we accept that | it has been taken away’’, she sai@: Support Peace Caravan The convention’s support fof Solidarity Alberta was further det onstrated by a 2,000-strong rally 1 cluding building trades workers and the unemployed on the provincl legislature steps. Provincial Labor Minister Les Young was warned t any further attacks on organiZ labor and working peoples’ living standards will be met with mass OP” position and action. The convention also called on the AFL to form a Peace Caravall Committee and to urge its labor councils to set up peace committees to facilitate union participation in country-wide Peace Petition Cara van endorsed by the Canadian Labor Congress. Canadian Airline Flight At tendants Association delegate Anne Sirdiak, supporting the resolution — linked the nuclear weapons build-up to unemployment. Doug Elves, president of the Ed- monton Labor Council, urging sup- port on the grounds that the alterna- tive could be the annihilation of hu- manity, said, ‘‘we must call for a halt now that there is rough parity of nuc- lear arms.’’ He urged support for balanced multilateral disarmament. In the realm of international af- fairs, the convention called for a con- tinued boycott of Chilean goods and support for the campaigns of the Chi- lean trade union movement; con- demned the U.S. invasion, sup- ported by the six Caribbean states, and toppling of the Bishop govern- ment in Grenada; urged Canadian Government support of the Nicara- guan revolution; and condemned the foreign occupation of Lebanon urg- ing the UN to replace the present so-called ‘‘peace force’’.