Communist Party pledges
solidarity with strikers

The B.C. executive of the Com-
Munist Party has characterized the
Current strike actions in B.C. as a
Teaction to an employer offensive
against living standards being co-
Ordinated by the Employer’s
Council.

Andina special public statement
adopted by the CP executive Feb. 9
the party pledged the full support
of its membership to workers cur-

‘Tently on strike and to others enter-

ing crucial collective bargaining -

Sessions.

_ “The 11,000 members of the
Telecommunications Workers
Union are conducting a militant
Strike against the B.C. Telephone
Company,” the CP stated. ‘“While
the Supreme Court ruling that the
Occupation of the B.C. Telephone
buildings placed the union and its
Members in criminal contempt of
an earlier injunction and led to the
voluntary evacuation of the
buildings, it was no victory for the
company. If the company thought
the workers surrendered as a result

of the court order, it must be sadly

disappointed. The union has
declared an all out strike with the
backing of the powerful B.C.
Federation of Labor.”’

‘The Communist Party pledges
full support to the Telecom-
Munications Workers Union and
the B.C. Federation of Labor in
their struggle to win acceptance of
the recommendations of federal
conciliator Ed Peck which the

union membership adopted by a
majority of 91 percent. The Com-
munist Party further pledges that it
will continue, along with the trade
union movement and others, to
campaign for the nationalization
of B.C. Telephone Company.
Public ownership would provide a
better labor-management climate,
better service to the public and
more revenue to be used in the in-
terests of the people of B.C.”

The party statement also pledg-
ed support to striking municipal
workers in Greater Vancouver, the
Fraser Valley and on Vancouver
Island.

‘‘Here too the key issue is wages
because of the rapidly increasing
cost of living. This struggle reflects
the anger of municipal employees
over the fact that their wages have
fallen behind those of many other
groups of organized workers. Here
also the workers determination to
struggle has not been diminished by
adverse court decisions restricting
the use of pickets,” it said.

The CP charged that the real
source of the confrontations is the
Employers Council of B.C.
“mouthpiece for the big corpora-
tions”? which has ‘‘masterminded”’
the current labor strife in an effort
to hold down wages to the level of
inflation ‘while profits continue to
rise and more money is poured into
labor saving devices; in order to
displace more workers and amass
even greater profits.”’

“With some 250,000 workers
due to enter into collective bargain-
ing this year including the
Steelworkers at Cominco in Trail,
the IWA and the two pulp unions,
the outcomes of the current strikes
can have a decisive bearing on what
transpires later,’’ the statement
said.

“‘The Communist Party
welcomes the enhanced role of the
B.C. Federation of Labor as a co-
ordinating centre in the current
struggles and is hopeful that the in-
creased unity and solidarity will
continue through 1981.

“The working class is experienc-
ing an absolute decline in real
wages. The answer is unity and
solidarity, based on class struggle
policies . . . Unless labor continues
to fight militantly in defense of its
living standards, big business will
become more agressive in attacking
living standards.

‘One of the positive gains aris-
ing from the current situation is the
thorough exposure of the anti-
working class nature of the theories
of labor-management togetherness
and tri-partism.

“‘The current situation cries out
for unity of the trade union move-
ment, the NDP, the Communist
Party and other democratic
organizations in support of labor’s
struggle for better living standards
and the protection of trade union

rights.”

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

support pledged to Telecommunications
Workers as union launches full-scale strike against U.S.-owned
B.C. Telephone Company.

B.C. FED RALLY ...

T=

For labor victories in 1981.

Canadian workers will be involved in difficult strug-
gles in 1981 to maintain their present incomes and liv-
ing standards.

Close to 400,000 public workers will face negotia-

inflation. This is most apparent in government refusal
to include cost of living clauses in agreements with
their employees.

Steel workers face major steel producers in the spr-

as some construction workers and longshoremen. All
told more than 800,000 organized union members will
face a boss determined to use the present monopoly

on the cost of the crisis to the working people.

Many unions with their agreements locked up for
the next two years, are facing ‘reverse’ collective
bargaining. Companies are demanding the reopening
of contracts with wage-cuts, suspension of cost-of-
living provisions, and attacks on other major revenue
areas of contractual agreements.

the public trough for government hand-outs to moder-
nize their operations, substantially increasing produc-

force.

May be gutted and the jobs and living standards of the

: is lunions, by and large, are dealing with them on
Attege and individual basis.

forces, to
for wage col |
behind inflation’®?

Costs have gonthe past three years.

Se of anon tH cisehood that wages are the
The only effective respo.
to thisajl-out offensive by bi

even though wages have lagged

ner.
The call\y Canadian Labor G.
Dennis McDtnott, at the last CLC%

tions in an atmosphere colored by government
demands that their wages must lag behind the rate of

ing. Rail workers will be at the bargaining table, as well

inspired crisis to drive down living standards and pass

At the same time these companies are lining up at

tion while effecting major reductions in their work

_ Developments in auto, rubber, electrical and textile
industries point to the danger that entire industries

workers slashed. Monopolies and governments have
‘eveloped a coordinated approach to these events

pare being made again, led by government
“ae workers for inflation, and set the stage

while real wages have gone

by the labor movement

isiness is to close ranks
and fightback in a fully united’< a cocordinated man

ess president
avention, for

Such unity needs to embrace the CLC, the Con-
gress of National Trade Unions, the Quebec Teachers
Central, the Teamsters, the Canadian Council of
Unions . . . all organized workers in Canada.

It would be of great value to Canadian workers if the
CLC leadership would use its influence and prestige to
bring together the top leaders of these Canadian trade
union centres to work out a common strategy to face
the monopoly-government offensive. Such a con-
ference might well work out a minimum program for
workers facing negotiations in 1981, and a joint com-
mitment to support each other in the fight for such a
program.

It should include:

(1) Substantial wage increases.

(2) 32 hour week with no reduction in take home

ay.
6) Cost of Living clauses to fully protect workers’
income. Government laws which would compel the
inclusion of such clauses in all existing collective
agreements where workers and their unions demand

t.
(4) Increased contributions by employers and
government into UIC funds to provide for 80% of laid

off workers’ wages for the full period of their -

unemployment.

(5) Prevention of plant closures and mass layoffs
without establishing justification before show-cause
tribunals, whose make up would include labor and
community representatives.

(6) Final say by workers over the introduction of
new technology.

(7) Right to strike during the life of an agreement.

The New Democratic Party and all the democratic
forces in Canada should give their full backing to such
united efforts by the trade-union movement in this
critical year.

An indispensable corollary of these critical economic
struggles will be an intensification of the movement for
Canadian autonomy. This is likely to extend beyond
the bounds of autonomy now obtaining in most inter-.
national uions and move more in the direction of in-
dependent sovereign Canadian trade unions.

In this period of growing control by huge multi-
national corporations, much greater co-ordination and
co-operation will be required between national labor
centres facing the same corporate giants. Such co-
operation however must be on the basis of complete

As presently led and oriented, the AFL-CIO in the
USA would more likely act as a brake and impediment
to the struggles of Canadian workers. Canadian
workers may be expected to more clearly envisage this
contradiction and move to resolve it in a united and
disciplined manner in the immediate future.

Thus the economic battles of 1981 will tend to join
with the demand for greater autonomy and for com-
plete independence for Canadian unions. This is a de-
mand the entire labor movement must support and
champion.

It is clear.also the demands of workers at the
bargaining table can be expected to encompass such
matters as plant closures and the accelerated pace of
technological change, together with the introduction
of robots into industry.

Trade unions will find themselves more and more
drawn into independent labor political struggles for
new economic policies, new energy policies, new
policies to stimulate manufacture, housing and
agriculture. -Such policies will provide jobs and
guarantee the living standards of all productive Cana-
dians.

Trade union centres are more and more coming to
understand that such new policies and programs must
be based on nationalization under democratic control.
Likewise they will increasingly realize that the defence
of peace and detente and the defence of their ving
standards are inseparable.

The Communist Party is in full solidarity with the
trade union movement in the big struggles it faces this
year and in the future. We will exert our full energy to
help unite the labor movement and the entire Cana-
dian democratic community behind these legitimate
endeavors. —

The working people of Canada must not be made to
pay for the crisis of state monopoly capitalism. Nor can
the trade unions become ensnared in company and
government inspired joint endeavors to “solve” the
present crisis. Such joint efforts are designed to such
labor into paying the costs of the crisis.

What is demanded is joint united struggle of the en-
tire labor movement behind the unions’ legitimate
demands for maintenance of living standards.

The Communist Party pledges itself to such efforts
and appeals to the entire labor and democratic move-
ment to do likewise.

collective, 2ctio needs to be put inte It is
precisely such @ iat to action which is deniet, from
the CLC phe ¢ jj to unite and figh\to pect the
living standards Of © orking people.

This statement inserted by the Central Executive,
Communist Party of Canada. For further information
contact 408 - 193 E. Hastings, Van., B.C., 684-4321.)

equality and the ability of Canadian workers to reach
entirely independent decisions based on Canadian

needs, conditions and appraisals.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 13, 1981—Page 5