Stelco strikers —
determined to win

_ By MIKE PHILLIPS

HAMILTON — Warming themselves
around the picket line stove they’d made
2m a 45-gallon drum, the four o’clock
Shift at Stelco’s Scale gate had a blunt
Message for the strike-bound company
' > “‘we haven’t fought the longest strike

| Stelco history just to return to work for’
_ Peanuts.”’

By Nov. 16, some 13,000 Stelco work-

| €s, most of them from the company’s

Massive Hilton works in Hamilton will
__ have entered their 108th day on strike for
 Adecent contract. As the Tribune talked
_ to strikers, Nov. 10, on the eve of the
- Collapse of contract ‘talks between the

Company and Steelworkers Local 1005,
the general opinion at the Scale gate and
Shared by the vast majority of strikers is

| that the Lake Erie settlement, which

Stelco is trying to bludgeon its workers
Mto accepting stinks, and that if the
Company doesn’t want to see its steel
Making facilities freeze up next month,
they'd better sit down and seriously
Negotiate with the Local 1005 bargaining
Committee.

This message to Stelco was reinforced

Ov. 12 as more than 10,000 strikers
flooded into Ivor Wynne Stadium to hear
_ Local 1005 president Cec Taylor and the

_ hegotiating committee explain the details
Of the Stelco’s final offer — pretty much
the same $7.23 an hour package in a
three-year pact which the company
Negotiated at the Lake Erie plant in
Nanticoke.

_ Taylor was given a standing ovation
_ by the strikers when he began to speak

and his offer to the members to express

their opinion of the company’s offer —

when he held it in the air resulted in the
ball stadium erupting in shouts of
“Strike! Strike! Strike!’’ and ‘‘Shut
Stelco down tight’’.

The meeting unanimously endorsed
the bargaining committee’s rejection of
the Stelco offer in a motion put before it.
The strikers enthusiasim was fueled by

’ the total unanimity of the entire seven-

person negotiating committee.

The spirit of the epic Stelco strike of
1946 was evoked by a striker from Stel-
co’s Mechanical Department who was a
participant in that battle. He compared
the current strike with 46 and stressed
that with the same unity and deter-

’ mination this time, Stelco could be de-

feated again. i

Responding to the hysterical red-bait-
ing campaign the local media have been
conducting on behalf of the company,
the Stelco mechanic said, ‘‘you can al-
ways tell when someone is losing an
argument, they start red-baiting. Stelco’s
been doing that since 1923.”

He also warned the strikers, “if we

_ accept Stelco’s offer and go back on our

hands and knees, we’ll never get off
them.”

Striker Bob Mann linked the Stelco
fight to an even longer running strike by
the United Electrical workers at Wabco
in Stoney Creek. Mann spoke of both
strikes and the need for the workers
throughout Hamilton, united with the
community at large to take these corpo-
rations on ina united, militant fight to win
decent living standards.

10,000 strikers cheer union rejection of Stelco offer

Many of the strikers interviewed Nov.
10 by the Trib, confirmed they were
planning to join the giant anti-interest
rates rally, planned in Ottawa for Nov. 21
by the Canadian Labor Congress and the

broad coalition it has helped form to—

press the federal government to lower
‘“‘loan-shark’”’ level interest rates.

Though everyone had a specific issue
they want the new contract at Stelco to
deal with, money and pensions emerged
as the two most common demands by the
Scale gate strikers.

“It’s rotten pensions that have me on

~ the picket line’’, a 31-year Stelco veteran

said. ‘‘Who wants to retire on $360 a
month after putting 30 years in this place.
I’ve been here 31 years and I can’t even
afford to retire.” ;

- He echoed the sentiments of many of
his fellow strikers when he pointed out
that Steelworkers’ wages, at one time at
the top of the line as far as industrial
wages in Canada go, have been steadily
dropping relative to other industrial sec-
tors after a series of lacklustre contracts.

“It’s the young guys you have to talk
to’’, he emphasized. ‘‘They’re trying to
raise families and some of them are the
sons of Stelco workers carrying on
where their fathers have left off.”’

If Stelco’s bargaining ploy is to wear
the strikers out with a long strike, they're
missing the boat if the mood of the picket
line reflects the general temper of the
membership. Though Joe and Chris, two
of the younger strikers on the line were
looking at ‘‘a not too exciting Christ-
mas’’ this year, they nevertheless stres-
sed the need for a substantial wage hike.

With seven years at Stelco under his
belt, one of the strikers tapped the defiant
and determined mood of many of his
brothers and sisters in Local 1005: ‘As I
see it, for us to stand out here more than
three. months on the picket line then go
back for the Lake Erie contract, to my
mind, is crazy.”

The way in which Stelco has been able
to mobilize all aspects of the local media
— radio, TV and the newspaper — to
push its stingy offer and attack the strike
leadership has only stiffened the work-
ers’ resistance. One striker described the
media blitz by Stelco to try and convince

the workers their economic offer was a -

good one, as an effort to “cram their
insulting contract down our throats.”’
John Holmes, a local open line radio
jockey, was singled out by the strikers
for a particularly offensive program in
which he invited the strikers’ wives to
explain why they thought Local 1005
president Cec Taylor hadn’t brought the
last Stelco offer before the members. Ina
display of support for the strike, the pro-
gram’s bid to generate hostility toward
the union and drive a wedge between the
leadership and the strikers back-fired as
the majority of callers explained how the
strikers had given the negotiating com-
mittee a mandate to bring back a decent
contract and not capitulate to the kind of
cheap settlement Stelco was pushing.
Since the breakdown of talks between
the local and the union Nov. 11, Stelco
has‘taken out full page ads in the local
press, again trying to peddle their wares,
and company executives have been on
the airwaves accusing the strike leader-

ship of being under the ‘‘influence of left -

wing socialists.”’

But, neither the strikers nor the com-
munity are buying Stelco’s bill of goods.
Another young worker, a woman who
works in the hot strip mill put it this way:
‘We have to support the bargaining
committee. Everyone has to stick to-

_gether or you don’t accomplish anything.
We’ ve also got to think about three years
from now and what inflation will be doing
to our living standard.

‘‘For the people with families it’s going
to get tougher’, she said, ‘‘but we’ll all
have to stick together. We want a good
contract.”

| Labor action needed on global scale

The 10th Congress of the’ World Federation of Trade
Unions will take place in Havana, Cuba from February
10-15, 1982. This will be an historic occasion as it will
mark the first time that the 250 million strong WFTU will
have convened on the soil of the America. S
For the workers of North, South and Central America
it could offer an opportunity to view more closely the
central parliament of this great world trade union move-
ment.
Unlike the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions (which split away from the WFTU in the early
-Cold-war years) and which represents only unions in
capitalist countries, the WF TU joints in its ranks unions
_ from both socialist and capitalist countries. —
~ Since its inception the WFTU has stood solidly on the

Bround of class-struggle trade-unionism and clearly :
identifies itself with the struggle for social change; the

end to exploitation of man by man from all society, ue
conducting a relentless day by day battle to protect an
extend the economic and social interests of its members
who are the victims of capitalist exploitation. —
The Canadian trade union movement is tied in with
-the ICFTU (which is largely influenced by the Socialist
International) and is thus removed from direct contact
With its socialist brothers as well as some of the most
Militant centres of the world trade union movement.
The struggle to overcome this split in the world see
Union movement and to strengthen the cooperation be-
tween all world trade union centres in common cause
against the transnationals and world imperialism will be

Cc central theme of the 10th World Trade Union

Ongress. : :
Although the draft resolution for the WFTU parley
has not yet been circulated it is clear that its main thesis

Will be around the issues of development and disarma-
Ment. :

The WFTU sees these two issues as inseparable and
at the centre of the problems and struggles of the working
class in capitalist and underdeveloped countries.

-. With more than $500-billion a“year being spent on

armaments the jobs, health and welfare of the working

» “! | Labor in action
mf William Stewart

f

=

.

people of the world are suffering. From this standpoint
the question of disarmament is a vital matter for workers
in advanced capitalist countries, the underdeveloped
world and world socialism as well which is forced to

spend large amounts of money’ to protect its interests *

against world imperialism. —

Beyond this the reckless course of U.S. policy today
places the world in danger of world nuclear war which
would be a monumental tragedy for the working class, as

‘it would be for all people.

The other major issue facing the world’s working class
and all those who take part in the production of the needs
of life, physical, moral and cultural, is putting the explod-
ing revolution in science and technology to the service of
man. :

- Both of these objectives call for confronting the huge
transnational corporations who are using both the arms

‘race and the revolution in science and technology to

swell their profits and increase their power over entire

countries and to decide the direction of world.

development.

The World Federation of Trade Unions perceives the
need for united action of all of the contingents of the
world trade union mdvement to counter the actions of
the transnationals. It sees the question of international
working class solidarity as a vital day to day necessity for

the workers around the world to protect themselves.

against unemployment, falling wages, worsening condi-
tions of work and deteriorating social services.

The WFTU does not see this as simply a defensive
proposition but calls for actions to control the trans-

- countries and establish mutual beneficial relations be-

“employers, are shut off from common actions and

nationals and develop a new world economic order
which would strengthen the economic and political inde-
pendence of all countries, end monopoly control over
the natural resources and manufacturing industries in
advanced capitalist countries as well as developing

tween all countries.

In these two crucial struggles the WFTU sees much
more than unites the working people around the world,
than divides them. It works perseveringly for united
actions by trade unions in different countries against
common employers such as automobile makers, oil car-
tels, chemical giants, etc. :

There are no Canadian unions directly affiliated to the
WFTU although a number of unions such as the United
Electrical Workers, the United Fisherman and Allied
Workers and others maintain a cordial relationship with
them. Unfortunately for Canadian workers major Cana- |
dian unions who hold common interests with French,
Italian, and other European workers involving the same

discussions because of the senseless boycott carried on
by the Canadian Labor Congress against working rela-
tions with the WFTU.

As the crisis deepends in Canada arising in large
measure from the unchecked actions of transnational
corporations in our country, the need for unity is going to
become more and more urgent as well as apparent.
Those who stand in its way. will have to answer to the
workers they are elected to represent.

The 10th World Congress of the WFTU in Cuba will
undoubtedly strike a strong blow for unity, disarmament
and development. Observers from most parts of Canada
and representing workers from key industries in our
country will attend and take part in the ‘proceedings.
Canadian workers will look forward to hearing their
report back from this historic meeting of the WF TU and
will respond enthusiastically to the plea of the WFTU for
united actions of the workers of the world against their
common. enemy, world imperialism and the. trans-~
national corporations. = ;

Pe Ce =

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 20, 1981—Page 9