edge.”

Continued from page 1

Bryan Hadden, one of the
Canadian observers during the
recent elections in Zimbabwe,
told the rally that the Zimbab-
wean people ‘‘clearly
understood that the guerrillas
had been representing them all”’
in their bloody struggle against
the existing racist government,
and the election results reflected
that overwhelming suport.

“For the first time, a major
international conflict was
brought to a peaceful conclu-
sion through negotiations and a
free election,’’ Hadden remark-
ed.

He noted that he brought
“‘with him, the thanks from the
Zimbabwean people to the
Canadian people for their help

and support,”’ adding that they

across the border, South Africa
poses ‘‘a very real threat.”’

Mike Darnell, northern
representative of the UFAWU
and newly-elected Prince
Rupert alderman, attacked
“‘Trudeau’s capitulation to
Carter and the transfer of deci-
sion making from Ottawa to the
White House.

“Economic stability for
workers won’t be secured by
boycotts, trade embargoes or
sabrerattling, but by policies of
peace and detente,’ he said.

The first of four resolutions
presented by the rally’s chair-
man, Frank Kennedy, Van-

| couver Labor Council vice-

MAURICE RUSH .. ’U.S. propelling world towards the razor’s

‘Peace only guarantee
of economic security’

still want support because .

~ withdrawal from NATO and

‘president, asserted the need for
“unity of French Canadian and
English-speaking workers in the
common struggle against big
business interests who are our
common enemy.””

It was prefaced with the text
of a motion passed at the B.C.
Federation of Labor convention
last year which called on
English-speaking. workers to
“respect and defend Quebec’s
right to self-determination.”’

Another resolution called for
solidarity. with the victorious
peoples of Zimbabwe and
Nicaragua and support for the
workers from South Africa,
Namibia, Chile and El Salvador
struggling against racism, ex-
ploitation and oppression.

A six-point resolution on liv-
ing standards in Canada, in-
cluding solidarity with Cana-
dian workers for better wages,
shorter work weeks, protection
against layoffs and shutdowns,
and defense of labor’s rights,
passed unanimously as did all of
the resolutions.

The final resolution called for
the end of cold war policies, an
independent foreign policy for
Canada, improved trade and
cultural links with socialist
countries, immediate

Norad, a reduced military
budget and support for Pauline
Jewett, NDP foreign affairs
critic, in her stand against the
Olympic boycott.

Continued from page 1
the same old rut of simply saying
something might be done.”’

Jackson said that those resolu-
tions — still to be debated — must
indicate a commitment to collective
action that leaves ‘‘no doubt in the
mind of big business that we are on
the march and that we will claim
our rights, and that we will use the
tried and true methods we have
always used.”’

Other delegates expressed con-
cern that the report did not reflect
in enough detail the crisis gripping
the auto industry and suggested
that elements of tripartism still in-
fected the proposal for a man-
power committee which the policy
statement said should include
business and government represen-
tatives.

The report was adopted,
however, as was a strongly worded
resolution that the CLC launch a
nation wide campaign to “‘press for
free collective bargaining, in-
cluding the right to strike.”

‘Act on CLC policy?’

During debate on that resolu-
tion, Dave Patterson, president of
United Steelworkers Local 6500 in
Sudbury, Ontario, levelled a sting-
ing attack on CLC president
McDermott. McDermott had
undermined the right to strike of
the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers in comments made during
the 1978 postal strike, Patterson
said, and for that ‘‘you deserve a
little kick in the pants.”

He invited McDermott ‘‘to
stand up likea man”’ and apologize
to the labor movement and say, “‘I
was wrong, never again.’” McDer-
mott studiously ignored
Patterson’s challenge.

On the same motion, CUPW
president Jean-Claude Parrot said
‘Tabor must ensure that the 1980’s
will be years of work at the bargain-
ing table. We should not try and
find alternatives to the right to
negotiate and the right to strike in
tripartism, quality of life programs
and all these things recommended
by the employers.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MAY 9, 1980— Page 12

McDermott call for peace
at odds with CLC report

Special to the Tribune

WINNIPEG — An apparent
commitment to the fight for peace
and disarmament by CLC presi-
dent Dennis McDermott was
significantly watered down during
CLC convention debate on inter-
national affairs Tuesday.

McDermott surprised and pleas-
ed many delegates in opening the
convention Monday when he
warned the labor movement ‘“‘we
must be cautious about joining this
hysterical partisan chorus,”’ which
urges areturn to cold war attitudes.

Events in Iran and Afghanistan
have been used to stall the develop-
ment of East-West . detente,
McDermott said, in an aggravation
of international tension which he
speculated was motivated by
“domestic political considerations
in the U.S.” :

The failure to ratify SALT Il and
renewed U.S. pressure to deploy
the neutron bomb underline the
fact that “‘the question of the
1980s is: will we survive?”’ he ask-

“‘The answer is to recognize each
others placeinthesun . . . andlive
with a policy of containment and
peaceful coexistence,’’ he said, ad-
ding that Canada’ should develop
an -independent foreign policy
geared to the needs of Canadians.

McDermott’s remarks, which
headed off his speech, set a unify-
ing and conciliatory tone for the
entire convention.

His failure to implement some
policies in the 1978 convention and
his refusal to mount an effective
campaign of support for CUP'W
had been expected to spark serious
criticism of his administration.

But he abandoned his usual ag-
gressive attacks on his critics in
favor of plea for unity around a
program of collective labor action.

The CLC commitment to
political action, particularly its sup-
port of the NDP had paid impor-
tant dividends, he said.

‘Almost all our institutions are

controlled by a priveliged few,”’
and as a result, working people
need more than ever ‘‘a party
created by the people and beholden
to no one but working
people . . . to break themonopoly
of the privileged elite.’’

The parallel campaign in sup-
port of the NDP ‘“‘was on the right
track,”’ he said. He proposed con-
tinued. mobilization of the labor
movement to win long term gains
through collective action.

Trade union activities are not in-
compatible with political activities,
he added. ‘‘I have no intention of
surrendering the interests of the
trade. union movement to any
government, no matter how
friendly.”’

He said the CLC must ‘‘serve
notice on management it can’t ex-
pect to wage war against us over
here and expect amicable relations
over there.

“We will not stand idly by and
watch the destruction of one of our
own if there is a solution through

collective action.””
Convention debate Monday and

Tuesday reflected much of McDer-
mott’s new commitment to a
nation-wide mobilization of the
labor movement. But Tuesday’s
approval of an omnibus resolution
on international affairs blunted the
progressive thrust of his opening
remarks.

The committee charged with
reviewing local resolutions on in-
ternational affairs boiled 58 resolu-
tions down into a 4% page report

which was approved by the con-
vention after a brief debate.

Covering subjects as varied as
SALT II, and the Law of the Sea,
the report’s main points were:

e Condemnation of the ‘‘Rus-
sian invasion of Afghanistan;”’

e Restoration of human rights

- whenever they are violated;

e Continued pressure to end the
arms race;

e Opposition to apartheid in
South Africa and to trade with the
facist junta in Chile;

e Support for continued in-
volvement in NATO and Norad.

While McDermott made. no
specific reference to NATO and
Norad, a committee singled out
this issue in its report, recommend-
ing the rejection of the idea that
Canada pull out of the so-called
Western defence alliances.

“Tt would be dangerous for
western and Canadian security for

Canada to pull out of NATO” the
committee claimed, adding that
“this Congress cannot seriously
assert that NATO is an offensive
organization.”’

- Vancouver Carpenters Union
delegate Lorne Robson opposed
the adoption of the report which,
he said, failed to reflect ‘brother
McDermott’s remarks of conte
about the drift to the cold war.”

Robson was supported by
United Electrical delegate Art
Jenkyn who termed the report a
‘watering down of the reality of
the arms race as explained by the
president to this congress.

“Events in Afghanistan and
Iran are being used by reactionary

_circleto turn detente around and to

distract people from the economic
crisis in the West,’’ Jenkyn said.

“There is a need for a commit-
ment to McDermott’s perspective
to make progress,”’ he said.

LRB raps Delta paper
in landmark decision

The Labor Relations Board has
ruled that Delta Optimist publisher
Emest Bexley, who has sought
since last September to block a
Newspaper Guild organizing drive
at the newspaper, was ‘‘coercive”’
in his anti-union campaign and
ordered him to take steps to redress
the unfair labor practices he com-
mitted.

The 51-page decision, brought
down by April 30, is considered of
major importance because it goes
beyond a cease-and-desist order
and sets out specific remedies aim-
ed at correcting the situation
created by the illegal actions of the
employer.

In spelling out those remedies,

the LRB stated that a mere cease- —

and-desist order ‘‘would only
charge the employer a licence fee to
commit unfair labor practices. ..””
The eight orders laid down by
the LRB instructed the employer
to:
Distribute copies of the board
decision free to all 19 employees;
post it in the lunchroom for 30
days; set up a meeting within two
weeks to allow the Guild to address
the employees; pay full back wages
to Jacqueline Davidson who was
unfairly fired last October for
union activity; refrain from any

similar violations of the labor code; —

freeze wages and conditions for 30
days, with an option for a 30-day
extension should the union seek it;
give the Guild access to the lun-
chroom for 30 days; and pay the
wages of a Guild representative for
that period.

The board subsequently ruled
that the orders would take effect

RIBUNE

May 13, following an application
by Bexley for an extension. ;

A major omission in the order
was any board action on the refusal
of Bexley to come to the bargaining
table to negotiate a first contract
with the Optimist employees. The
board argued that the failure to
bargain was part of a separate un-
fair labor practice charge.

“Despite that omission, Patty
Lane, administrative officer for the
Vancouver New Westminster
Newspaper Guild, called the ruling
a ‘landmark decision.”’

“Tt’s an important victory for
the trade union movement because
the board has now recognized that
the problems of organizing a small,
intransigent employer are dif-
ferent,”’ she said. :

The problems are particularly
acute, she said, when that employer
adopts the strategy of ‘“‘protracted
litigation’? — hiring a lawyer to

‘stall negotiations and drag the

dispute through endless legal pro-
ceedings — as the Optimist has
done.

‘Although the Optimist was cer-
tified Oct. 10, Bexley has repeated-
ly thwarted any bargaining even
though several negotiating
meetings have been set up at which
he was to appear. ,

The Apr. 30 ruling by the board
was itself held up for some seven
months as a result of delays caused
by personnel changes by the LRB
and the employer.

Lane also noted the board’s fail-
ure to rule in its decision on Bex-
ley’s refusal to negotiate. She said

_ that he has still not agreed to sit

down at the bargaining table.

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