The arbitration award of a
10% wage increase for 1973, in
the case of Toronto civic em-
ployees’ Local 43 of the Cana-
dian Union of Public Employees
versus the municipality of Met-
ropolitan Toronto and the cor-
poration of the City of Toronto
has fully vindicated the union

in its case for keeping work--

ers’ income on par with rising
living costs and _ inflationary
pressures on real wages. To
-turn their case around to try
and prove the opposite—that
this particular arbitration award
will set off a new and more
dangerous spiral of inflation—is
pure hog-wash.

The truth of the matter is
that this tempest in a tea pot is
the result of an inevitable back-
lash that was bound to come in
one form or another as a result
of the complete incompetence
and intransigence shown by
Metro and Toronto politicians in
bargaining with the union on
wages this spring.

Ludicrous Offers

The only reason for the strike
of outside workers was the
failure to bargain in good faith
on the part of management. The
. Offers made by management for
increases, following the Etobi-
coke settlement and the reali-
ties of the situation were simply
ludicrous and could not but lead
to a strike situation. The effort
to play on lack of bargaining co-
ordination amongst the civic
employees’ unions here to ob-
tain a cheap settlement at the
workers’ expense in a civic elec-
tion year, simply could not do
anything else but backfire.

As a matter of fact in Van-
couver, where the unions co-
ordinated their bargaining effort,
a negotiated settlement brought
17% wage increase over two
years. In addition to this, some
250 tradesmen and_ building,
plumbing and electrical inspect-
ors will receive an additional
5% July 1 this year. The B.C.
Socred government’s 6.5% wage
guideline was smashed and its
Mediation Commission was boy-
cotted and by-passed. Its pro-
posal for a settlement of 8%
January 1, 1973, with a 3% ad-
justment for tradesmen was re-
jected. The unions voted over-
whelmingly for a freely nego-
tiated settlement as demanded
by their union negotiators. Their
solidarity paid off by getting the
best settlement so far nego-
tiated for civic employees in
Canada for 1973.

Contracting Out

The: arbitration award now
granted by Umpire R. W. Re-
vill, Q.C. to outside civic work-
ers in Toronto brings their wag-
es closer to the level in the
Vancouver area. But on all other
matters, including promotions,
classification of jobs, hours of
work and rights of an employee
on lay-off, the arbitrator came
down on the side of manage-
ment.

The only exception to this, in
addition to the wages for 1973,
is on the contracting out of
work. Here the award says “The
employer shall have the right to
Contract Out work provided,
however, that prior to Contract-
ing Out work normally per-
formed by ‘members of the
Bargaining Unit on January 1,
1972, advance discussion will
take place between the ap-
propriate department heads of
the employer and the Union.
The Union shall be advised in

f ae

We RSe sla Avoid illusions of

BY BRUCE MAGNUSON binding arbitration

writing and. discussion
commence not more than three
(3) weeks from the date of such
written notice.”

There is nothing in this par-
ticular arbitration award to get
excited about. The civic politi-
cians are making a big noise to
cover up for their own mistakes
and incompetent conduct of ne-
gotiations, and to try and, im-
press the voters and taxpayers
before the civic election in De-
cember. But while they are
penny-pinching with the work-
ers they are allowing big deve-
lopers to walk away with mil-
lions through various schemes,
including tax evasion. This is
done at the expense of the small
businessmen and home owners
who are also the bulk of the
workers and taxpayers.

False Arguments

But there are also other con-
siderations. Sometimes figures
and statistics taken out of. con-
text can be used to prove
almost anything. Certainly, ‘em-
ployers in this country have not
been backward in using false
Statistics and false arguments
to advance the big lie that wage
increases are the cause of infla-
tion. This was done in the case
of the increase granted to work-
ers on the St. Lawrence Seaway
some years back after these
workers had fallen far behind
in the matter of real wages.

There is no doubt that the
award -granted under voluntary
arbitration in the case-of Toron-
to civic workers will be similar-
ily misrepresented by those un-
scrupulous enough to seek a re-
versal of the umpire’s judge
ment and decision, if for no
other reason than to prevent
others who need similar increas-
es from receiving them, includ-
ing the supervisory personnel
working for the City and bor-
oughs.

But the most unfortunate of
all would be to fall for any at-
tempt to sow illusions about
voluntary and binding arbitra-
tion aS‘a substitute for free col-
lective bargaining and the exer-
cise of the right to strike.

So-called Impartiality

There is' a particular section
in the judgement of Umpire R.
W. Reville, Q.C. on which such
illusions could easily be based
and which may cause the inex-
perienced to fall for the idea of
so-called impartiality of an um-
pire or adjudicator. For instance:
“This Award by the agreement
of the parties, is based on equi-
ty, merit, and justice. The Ump-
ire is, therefore, not concerned
with compromising or accom-
modating the position of these
parties, because he is an adju-
dicator, not a conciliator or
mediator. The Umpire hastens

shall —

to add that conciliation and
mediation are admirable devices
to bring about a negotiated set-
tlement between parties to a
dispute, involving Labour and
Management, in both the pri-
vate and public sectors but,
when such efforts fail, despite
the gargantuan efforts of the
participants, as was the case
here, arbitration and adjudica-
tion is the only alternative to
the savage sanctions of the
Strike or Lock-out.”

The falsity and hollowness of
this assertion in a society such
as ours where the relations be-
tween labor and capital cannot
be anything but antagonistic,
and every concession from man-
agement has to be won through

. Struggle and united action in

every single case, is most vivid-
ly demonstrated in the case of
the longshoremen at Montreal,
Quebec and Three Rivers.

For three years all the ex-
perts of the Federal Labor De-
partment worked through so-
called methods of preventive
mediation to produce a new con-
tract which was supposed to be
the answer to labor peace in

this era of technological change. ,

The workers were sold a piece
of baloney about big pensions
and a guaranteed income plan
in return for giving the manage-
ment a free hand on rationaliza-
tion and the reorganization of
the whole system of job assign-
ments on a computerized basis.
In fact the employers got too
excited about the deal and tried
to implement it prematurely,
whereupon all hell broke loose.
Class Struggle

Now, after conciliation, medi-
ation, arbitration and adjudica-
tion, including a strike and a
lock-out, the Federal Parliament
has finally stepped in with com-
pulsory legislation forcing the
workers back on the job. But
not until after taking the pre-
cautions of hoisting the appli-
cation of the new job assign-
ment and income plan, since the
feeling among the workers now
is so strong on job security that
they might not have abided
by an order of Parliament ‘to re-
turn to work, with nothing done
to sweeten the pill, as it were.
And all of this, after 2200 men
voted for and only six against
out of a total of 3200 to accept
the original contract in April.

A classical case, if there ever
was one, to prove that the class
struggle and the need for labor
unity in action, including free-
dom of collective bargaining
and the right to strike, cannot
be arbitrated out of existence,
except in the fertile imagina-
tion of philistines and bosses’
agents, who have no place in
trade unions in the first place.

Minimum pension of $150

THUNDER BAY Senior
citizens of this area have decid-
ed to send a delegation to the
annual convention of the United
Senior Citizens of Ontario at
Windsor in August.

In a resolution to be taken to
the convention by Mrs. Ethel
Gehl representing the District
Club of senior citizens and the
Finnish Hall Ever Young Circle,
the federal government is called
upon to make available a mini-
mum pension of $150 at age 60.

The resolution, presented by

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1972—PAGE 6

a sea

Tom A. Hill at a senior citizens’
picnic at Isku Park in June,
declares that ‘“‘we must get away
from the idea that a pension is
merely a pittance to keep body
and soul together.”

Canadian society with all its
wealth should be able to make
amendments to the Old Age
Security Act and the Canadian
Pension Plan to provide decent

pensions, the resolution states. —

In view of continually rising
cost of living, it foresees the
next objective as a demand for
$175 monthly.

Two sides discuss |
Korean unification

Representatives of North and
South Korea met recently in
Seoul and Pyongyang and set
out three points for re-unifica-
tion of the country:

“1) Unification shall be achiev-
ed through independent Korean
efforts without being subject to
external imposition or inter-
ference. —

“2) Unification shall be achiev-
ed through peaceful means and
not through the use of force
against each other.

“3) As a homogenious people,
a great national unity shall be
sought above all, transcending
differences in ideas, ideologies
and systems.”

The chief obstacle to unifica-
tion is the presence in South
Korea of 43,000 United States
troops calling themselves the
United Nations. Behind the same
mask, Canada, Britain, the Philip-
pines and Turkey also maintain
a military presence there.

The Workers’ Party of Korea
put it squarely in a statement
from the capital of the Demo-
cratic People’s Republic of Ko-
rea, Pyongyang.

“It is because of the U.S. im-
perialist aggressors who are oc-
cupying South Korea under the
U.N. signboard, and enforcing
colonial rule. and the revived
militarists who are joining hands
with them that our country, not
re-unified, has been in a state of
split for over 27 years since its
liberation.”

“If the U.S. troops withdraw
from South Korea, the UN Com-
mission for the Unification and
Rehabilitation of Korea is dis-
solved and the Japanese militar-
ists stop stretching their talons
of re-invasion to South Korea,
the question of Korean re-unifi-
cation will be easily settled by
our people themselves.”

Not excusing the “successive
rulers of South Korea (who)
have persisted in aggressive and
provocative -machinations,” the
Workers’ Party is convinced
\that “this new proposal of our
Party enjoys absolute support
and sympathy from the people
of. North and South Korea.”

Initial steps have been taken
in the area of assisting the tens
of thousands of Korean families
splintered during the war 22
years ago, to find their relatives.
The U.S. aggression in Korea
was launched on June 25, 1950
and culminated in an armistice
on July 27, 1953. The month be-
tween the two dates is now re-
cognized in widely separated

_kept stationing their ag

tic of Korea.

parts of the world as a time io
solidarity with the
eople.
: Not to be overlooked : a
long history of U.S. law
ing, says a statement issll
June by 12 North Korean ‘i
izations including trade ¥?
women, students, scientis!®
farmers. f
“In gross violation ae
Korean Armistice Agree™,
it recalls, “U.S. impel
broke the stipulation on oe
ing a political conferen?
the peaceful settlement ° i
Korean question, broug :
South ._ Korea atomic von
guided missiles and ¥
other . . . weapons. — p
“Even after the Chines? int
ple’s Volunteers withdreyi¢
Korea on the (North’s) im

- neriali
completely, the U.S. 2

eeu

troops in South Korea,”
gaging in “military prov
against the North.

Up to the present, 54°

i
statement, “in an atten
prop up their totter Ko

of colonial rule in Sou é
the U.S. imperialists. es
ping up the ‘modernizait
the South Korean pupP® mill
pouring in over one i|
dollars of special militaty |g
there, on the pretext of ie
call ‘US. army OG
and instigating . . -
manoeuvres against the
ern half of the Republic.
In what one Western ff
called a “spectacular COMl i § «
Democratic People’s Rep ay
Korea sent Deputy Premlt
Sung Chul for talks ™ ig
South Korea from May 4
June 1, this year.
President Park Chun,
the South. Hu
Later, May 2-5, Lee © 3
director of South ‘Kore@® i
tral Intelligence Agent ry
to Pyongyang for tal i
Kim Young Ju, director oe
Organization and Guidan wot
partment of the Korean .
ers’ Party. :
South eos Premic, i
Jong Pil, evidently no so
happy with the resultine oi
Statement, warned that ¥
take a long time 1
Korea. al gel
UN _ Secretary-Geneh 4 enot :
Waldheim said on July,” dil”
approved the Joint aa “
acknowledging that he tives
earlier with representa Rep :
the Democratic People®