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Calgary labor to form civic political party

By DAVID WALLIS
CALGARY — The Labor
Council, meeting Oct. 1 has de-
Cided to form a municipal political
Party and to campaign against the

0} Practice by employment agencies

of renting out workers as cheap
labor.

_ Bill Paterson Secretary of the
Calgary Labor Council told the
delegates: ‘‘As far'as we are con-
cerned, City Council is controlled
by big business. We think its

~ about time working people had a

Party to fall back on in civic elec-
tions, so that we can get our,
labour people into a majority on

the City Council and School

Boards.” .
Paterson said that they will in-

¢| | Vite members of political greups

to join the party as individuals,
and that way form a broad base to
et the Civic Party going. Low
Mcome people and_ tenants,

Members of the Communist and

New Democratic Parties and

: Small business people will be in-

Vided to participate.
Nat Ghersetti, Carpenters
1779, supporting the civic

Party said that ‘‘the present City

Council simply voted itself a raise
of 48% and 24% without losing a
day’s pay, yet city workers were
forced to strike for three months
for 7%,”’

_ The Civic Party and program

_ With corporate profits rising at
an all time high and double-digit
Inflation approaching. 15%, the
AFL-CIO Executive Council has

_ 88reed to participate in a volun-

tary: wage control program of 7%
Pay increases for American
Workers. The negotiations with
the Carter Administration, lead-
ing to the announcement on Sept.
28, had been conducted for

‘Months behind the backs of the

ated membership. The so-
Called ‘National Accord” in-
Cludes a taboo on tax cuts for
Working people but makes no
Mention of a 19% increase in the

United States military budget.

This policy position of the
AFL-CIO is of direct concern to
Canadian organized labor. Many
“nions in Canada are still under
= Union hegemony and often

ed to patterns of contract
scttlements negotiated in large in-

dustries 0 i
; perating branch plants
Canada.

nhs example of this is the auto
os Ustry, where negotiations are
W in progress for new

“ontracts:

® The greatest gain the UAW

Seems to claim in current GM

onnract talks is more money for
is pu Tetirees. But the cost of this
then taken out of COLA pay-
ts negotiated for the same
Prod sé on behalf of active
Saeed workers. It’s like rob-
fa Peter to pay Paul. Nothing
Made the fat profits of $2-billion

by GM in the first six

_ Months of 1979. Why?

imp The traditional 3%
of covement factor plus a roll-in
ply LA from the old contract,

'S.@ stock-option plan for U.S..

which is being initiated by the
Labor Council will focus on a
‘‘program for labor and _ all
working class citizens.” .

In addition to the proposal to
form a Civic Party, the council’s
Political Action Committee
(PAC) is conducting a cam-
paign for effective Canada Man-
power services and for an end to
employers using contract labor
pools.

Bruce Potter, .-a= PAC
member, said ‘‘labor must get
behind this campaign because
contract labor pools are: an

easy tool for strike breaking; a.

method of obtaining cheap
labor; a tool for possible right to
work legislation; and, a means of
taking people away from Canada
Manpower offices because man-
power doesn’t meet their needs.”’
In Alberta where it is illegal for
people to charge a fee for finding a
person a job the employment
agencies get around the law by
employing workers directly, for
low wages. They then charge a
regular union rate to the company
wanting workers, pocketting the
difference.
Maltworkers Local 241, said that
in his local this was combatted by
the union insisting that full union
wages be paid directly to all
workers. :
Jim Ostler,

Clarance: Sloan,

Labor Council

executive member, described
employment agencies as ‘‘slave

dealers, nothing short’? and
- warned about companies forming

their own reserve pools from
former empioyees wishing to
work only part time. He. added
that they have been built up inter-
nally by employers as a base for
strike breaking.

Labor Council delegates
heard from guest speaker Juan
Guzman representing the Calgary
Chilean Association. Guzman

emphasized the need for develop-
ing a permanent boycott of goods
from Chile. He said the money
that comes from the sale of Chi-
lean goods is not going to the
workers, who are paid only
$60.00 per month, but towards
buying arms for continuing the
repression of the workers. °
Guzman asked delegates to
continue with the boycott of Chi-
lean goods, and to step up the
campaign of withdrawing money

from Canadian banks who: are

loaning money to Chile. He also
said that in November last year
the Toronto Dominion Bank
loaned $370-million to the Bank of
Chile, and that the money was
used to pay international debts
and to buy more arms.

In reply to a question from the
floor Guzman stated that the un-
employment rate in Chile is close
to 30% and that 10% of the Chi-
lean people are now political re-
fugees, living outside of the coun-
try.

Conference charges Lougheed with human rights violation
Public service fights strike ban

By K. CARIOU

EDMONTON — Alberta’s in-
ternationally condemned Public
Service Employee Relations Act,
(Bill 41), came under attack Sept.
26-28 at an essential services con-
ference sponsored ‘by the
40,000-member Alberta Union of
Public Employees. Bill 41 forbids
strikes by the province’s
employees and limits their right to
bargain and settle grievances.

After receiving a complaint
from the Calgary Faculty Associ-
ation, the International Labor

Challenge to labor

_must be tackled

auto workers and which cannot
be legally applied in canada. No
new money for substantial wage
increases to meet the rapid in-
flationary- erosion of the wage dol-
lar. Why?

e No effort whatever to mount:

a struggle for a shorter work week
in the face of technological
change, rationalization and
speed-up that bring catastrophic
layoffs, a process that is rapidly
accelerating. Why? __

Is this what is meant by equal
sacrifice by all sectors of the
economy?

There would appear to be much
alienation and cynicism,
exemplified in the ratification of
the GM contract in the U.S.
where 59% of the 460,000
employees did not vote at all and
only 28% of the total membership
voted to accept the agreement
reached.

It is an open question at the

time of writing as to how many
‘Canadian GM workers will vote

here for acceptance or rejection.

However, one thing is perfectly
clear. A drastic reversal of policy
and overall union strategy 1s cal-
led for if the monopoly offensive
against labor is to be stopped and.
reversed. ‘

The point has now been
reached where real wages are
rapidly going down while un-
employment is increasing even
more rapidly in the auto industry,
where overtime and labor force
manipulation is the practice. —

All Canadian manufacturing
industry is seriously affected by
the export of capital. Research
and development is getting little
or no attention. Apprenticeship

training to replenish the skilled,

labor force is sorely neglected in
the complete absence of an in-
dustrial strategy geared to full
employment. :

This status quo cannot prevail
for long. Strong action by labor in
unison with all democratic and
anti-monopoly forces and move-

ments is needed. A serious strug- "

gle against the so-called privatiza-
tion scheme of the Clark govern-
ment is needed to reverse the di-
rection. Only. public ownership
and democratic control can come
to grips with private mangpoly
profiteering which is responsible

‘for the economic mess we are in.

This struggle has to take on
dynamic proportions in both the
parliamentary and _~ non-
parliamentary sense. It has to be
waged on both the economic and
political fronts at one and the
same time. The trade union
movement has a key role to play,
with participation of both the

-New Democratic Party and the

Communist Party. .

The objective must be the de-
fence of the living standard of the
people and a curb on the
monopolies. This will eventually
have to include a struggle to bring

‘the commanding heights of

wealth. production, development
of resources and secondary man-

ufacturing under public owner- .

ship and democratic control
through nationalization, including
banks and credit institutions.

Only then will it be possible and .

realistic to speak of meaningful
economic planning for indepen-
dent Canadian development, and,
for an extension of both home and
foreign markets and full employ-
ment without inflation.

‘with

Organization last year recom-
mended to the Lougheed gov-
ernment that strikes be prohibited
only in services regarded as abso-
lutely essential. The Tory reply
was that there was no intention of
changing the act.

A former ILO employee,
Michael Bendel, told confrence
delegates that the federal gov-
ernment should pressure Alberta
to change its position. He said the
province has in effect ignored the
1958 ILO Act, which is interna-
tional law, and which Canada

signed. The act deals with protec--

tion of workers rights, including
the right to strike. Bendel agreed
some delegates who
suggested that Alberta’s Tory
MLA’s may be ignorant of the
ILO, saying ‘‘they may think it
stands for ‘I Like Oil”. -

AUPE President John Booth
said the legislation leaves ‘‘all the
cards stacked in the govern-
ment’s favor’’. Without the right
to strike, he said, there is no such
thing as real collective bargaining.
Most provincial employees (ex-
cept senior civil servants) have
been limited to 6-7% pay in-
creases over the past several
years, largely because of Bill 41.
Booth pointed out that under “‘es-
sential services’’, it is hard to in-
clude liquor store workers, cleri-
cai and museum staff, and teach-
ing instructors.

Burke Barker, a University of

Alberta law professor and

member of the Alberta Human
Rights and Civil Liberties Associ-
ation, said the government has
““hijacked’’ an important human
right from its employees, and has
acted very arbitrarily. Civil dis-

‘obedience by workers to defy Bill

41, he said, is their right if they
feel- strongly enough about the is-
sue.

medicare

- not

Other speakers included John
Fryer, general secretary of the
B.C. Government Employees
Union; Richard Vanderberg,
executive director of the Calgary
Faculty Association, which filed
the ILO complaint; and Douglas
Fisher, former New Democratic
Party MP, now a daily newspaper
columnist.

The conclusion of the confer-
ence was that no worker or group
of workers should be regarded as
essential, except under certain
circumstances, such as emergen-
cies where lives were in danger.
Boiler workers were given as an
example. When emergency re-
pairs are needed to prevent a
boiler from blowing up, workers
should be sent to repair it before
returning to their strike. The con-
clusion will be discussed by the
AUPE convention later this year.

Despite receiving an invitation
to send .ayrepresentative to the
conference, the Tory cabinet was
absent. Premier Lougheed de-
clined thé original invitation, but
his officetassured AUPE another
cabinet minister would appear. At
the last moment, however, Ad-
vanced Education and Manpower
Minister Jim Horsman, and
Energy Minister Merv Leitch,
both of whom helped to create
Bill 41, became “‘unavailable’’.

TENTH WEEK AT
RADIO SHACK
TORONTO — Though certi-
fied last November, United
Steelworkers still don’t have a

-contract for 180 Radio Shack

employees entering their 10th

-week on the bricks. The Union
lawyer, Oct. 10 éalled on the On-

tario Labor Relations Board to
either impose a first agreement on
the company or appoint an arbit-
rator to impose one.

tory-—Care

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 19, 1979—Page 5