By RAE MURPHY

_ RRom whichever way you

look at it, the westward

' Push of the Confederation

Bie tonal Trade Unions is

challe to have a profound and

3 nging influence on the
Nadian labor movement.

) our ebatdless of the immediate
aay of the struggle of the
one e floor workers in Tor-
Be ns Make good their deci-
Bra a affiliate to the CNTU,
the Ou eee other adherents
ah € ec based centre can at-
reat at this time, the CNTU is
wide pe will remain a Canada-
re in the trade union
ef ent ma way it has not
Up until now.
mare Problem is that with all
ae ark rumors and specula-
eri threatened strikes and
eS heat €ned injunctions, more
G sit is being thrown on the
uation than light.

J pre teyer Seriously trade un-
or «Wish to take the “threat”

I ing Promise” of the CNTU moy-
at Bere’ the whole situation
I questi €s a number of vital
ment Ons for the labor movye-
is co 4S a whole. The problem
a Mpounded by the fact that
ing 4 of the questions, now be-
the Peed more urgently under
existed of the CNTU, have
for many years inside

th ;
© Canadian. Labor Congress.

his IS’ time now to pinpoint
Bee ems of structure and
aS cracy within both the CLC

'tS affiliates, and it would

als

ae Seem most opportune for
© unionists to ask them-

Selves jf

; there is anything wrong
aa the CLC that the CNTU is
ng to cure.

I fine Way not to go about get-
a CNTY. the challenge of the

See Was expressed in the last
Orga of the Miners’ Voice, an
| Bis ot of the United Steelwork-
ave Mik America. In an editorial

elf nS Fenwick, the editor of
te ia Voice, (as the saying
he ci blew his cool and con-
use ~ Up a plot between “Com-
j "unists

0 » @mployers and the

e Naree based Confederation of
| ally ae Trade Unions.” Natur-
On his plot has pipelines right
; Soviet foreign ministry.
th feck is a veteran practi-

ner of the art of turning a

0 3 : :
ri Ed anti-Communist cliche
| meyer a more solid answer
AG ree required, so there is no
il nists for either the Commu
7

the employers or the
nie to have hurt feelings over
bay oatses. However, such corn-
liey €xpressions (if he really be-
the .them and if they reflect
“shipitking of the Steel leader-
Hat are certainly not going to
We a CLC come to grips with
_ONrU, allenge posed by the

Stated simply, the CNTU de-

‘

cided, as it has every right to
do, that it is going to organize
workers in English-speaking
Canada. So far one small local
of the Carpenters in Toronto
has bolted from International
President Hutcheson’s fiefdom
and affiliated, which they also
have every right to do.

Whatever degree of skepti-
cism one has for the CNTU’s
immediate potential beyond this
one local, there is enough smoke
around to indicate there is some
fire, especially in the construc-
tion trades set-up as well as in
the service trades.

The leadership of the Cana-
dian Union of Operating Engin-
eers has been holding discus-
sions with the CNTU for the
past number of years. These dis-
cussions have naturally heated
up over the past months and
further exploratory talks are
going to be held in Toronto this
week «vith Robert Sauve, secre-
tary of the CNTU. The word is
also out that the Independent
Pulp and Sulphite Union in B.C.
is in discussions with the CNTU.
It is known that there are also
groups within Steel and Auto
who are in contact with the
CNTU.

There is enough of discontent
throughout the Canadian labor
movement with the leadership
and policies of the right-wing
establishment in Canada and
the American hatchetmen to
make the CNTU, especially
from afar, look like a_ pretty
good alternative to a whele
number of militant and respon-
sible trade unionists. ‘

In this context, the question
of whether or not the long term
interests of Canadian trade
union unity -would be _ best
served. by breakaways will be-
come secondary in the onrush of
life itself. To some such a path
may seem as a short cut but in
actuality it would be a long,
complex and messy proceedure.

The way for the rank and file
as well as the leaderships of
CLC affiliates to answer the
threat posed by secession move-
ments to get at the underlying
factors that cause the wide-
spread discontent. Until the
problems of inner union demo-
cracy and the elimination of
corruption are gotten at, the
soil for succession will be fer-
tile, even if this particular
threat does not materialize.

These are, of course, not easy
questions — especially in the
craft unions. A union is condi-
tioned by the type of industry
it operates in, and it is impos-
sible to universalize the consti-
tutions or internal relations
which exist within most indus-
trial unions and craft unions.

- It is essentially these internal
problems of democracy and
rank-and-file control that have

to be tackled within the exist-
ing unions rather than taking
what appears to be a simple
way out.

Getting at these questions
will not be made easier by re-
sorting to arbitrary administra-
tive measures on the part of
the union brass. Any such ac-
tions will just make these un-
ions more susceptible to succes-
sion movements.

It is one thing to deal with
“dissident elements” within a
union even when these dissi-
dents are the majority, when
there is no alternative facing
the rank and file. However, with
another house to go to, it’s a
new ball game.

It is an interesting commen-
tary on the bankruptcy of the
present building trades set-up in
Toronto that the decision of one
local of the Carpenters union to
affiliate to the CNTU has been
met with the threat of strike
action among the other con-
struction trades.

In effect this demand for
strike makes the other unions
in the industry foot soldiers for
the International headquarters of
the Carpenters and denies the
democratic right of workers to
belong to the union of their own
choice.

It is also interesting to note
that strike sanction, which is so
carefully guarded in the Inter-
national headquarters, can be so
loosely thrown about when there
is a threat to the interests of
the International set-up, yet
when it comes to job action
Over injunctions or some other
similar issue, such sanctions are
hard, if not impossible, to come
by.
It would now appear that the
strong-arm tactics of the Build-
ing Trades Council in refusing
to let their affiliates work along-
side the resilient floorworkers
in Toronto will not work out.
This opinion is based on the de-

Cision of the Toronto local of

the Plumbers and Steampfitters
not to go along with the pro-
posed strike.

{Behind the CNTU challenge...

If this decision of the plum-
bers proves to be the majority
will of members of the CLC
then the appeal of the CNTU
will have to be fought out on its
own merits. Ready or not, there
is going to have to be some
soul-searching and some changes
—in the hierarchy of the CLC.

In this connection it would be
interesting to examine the suc-
cesses of the CNTU in Quebec
over the past few years.

If the main appeal of the
CNTU to Quebec workers has
mainly been on nationalist lines,
it would fail to answer the
question as to why the Cana-
dian Brotherhood of Railway

“ Workers has been one of their

main victims during a period
when the United Steel Workers
has been making rather impres-
sive gains.

It is a crass. oversimplification
to dispose of the question of
Canadian autonomy as nation-
alism, devoid of any class mean-
ing. The workers of Canada de-
mand now—and in the coming
period this demand will become
irresistable—that they run the
affairs of their own trade union
movement.

However, it is the demand for
autonomy that in the long run
is the principle and not the
manner in which it is to be
achieved. In this context, the
politically backward construc-
tion and-craft union set-ups are
rotten ripe for drastic change.

Autonomy is not a question
for itself. Canadian autonomy is
part and parcel of the struggle
for inner union democracy and
for militant, rank-and-file direct-
ed policies. One does not by it-
self guarantee the other but they
certainly dovetail.

These questions of autonomy,
inner union democracy and mili-
tant policy are the issues in the
Canadian labor movement to-
day. To the degree that these is-
sues are submerged and denied
inside the labor movement they
become running sores and are
bound to cause some unhealthy
reactions.

The issues are unity,
autonony, democracy

It would be wrong for any-
body to underestimate the ap-
peal of the CNTU-to thousands
of Canadian workers and union-
ists. Its consolidation in Quebec
is based mainly on solid class
achievements,-especially in areas
of the underpaid service indus-
tries and in sections of the white
collar trades that cry for organi-
zation.

To come to grips with the ap-
peal of the CNTU. among sec-
tions of workers in English-
speaking Canada it is first neces-
sary to look at and to deal with
the root causes of the dissatis-
faction within the present trade
union edifice here.

The emergence of the CNTU
can be a catalyst in bringing
about a new unity and power to
the Canadian labor movement.
It can help to bring about the
necessary structural and policy
changes within the CLC.

The CLC is not going to be
destroyed by the CNTU nor is
the latter going to go away il,
some people call it names or
pretend it doesn’t exist.

This period in Canadian trade
union history can be marred by
inner union warfare and disrup-
tion, made all the worse for the
Canadian working class because
there are national overtones
bound to be injected into the
struggle.

There is another alternative.
That is recognition by the lead-
ership of both centres of the
need for unity—a unity based
on the mutual respect and an
agreement on common aims and
policy.

One step in this direction
would be in the immediate situa-
tion to resist the demand to read
breakaway groups out of labor
bodies such as the Building
Trades Council and, instead,
make concerted efforts to draw
in independent and CNTU-affilia-
ted bodies on whatever formal
or informal basis possible as an
avenue to eventual unity.

The initiative must be grasp-
ed here by the CLC before all
hell breaks loose.

January 13, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5