llig

“ 800,000-member federation

ization for

LABOR

Labor mobilizing for jobs
and to scuttle free trade

TORONTO — April 26 is the
target date for a massive pro-
vince-wide demonstration by the
Ontario Federation of Labor
against Free Trade and for Jobs.

An extensive organizing drive
is being launched by the
in-
cluding the production of re-
search and education materials to
arm Ontario trade unionists with
the necessary information to
combat the big business and Tory
propaganda in favor of free trade
with the U.S.

In an interview, Dec. 19, OFL

‘ president Cliff Pilkey said the

federation is planning to hold a
series of 20 public forums on Fee

Trade and Jobs throughout the

province as a build-up and mobil-
the April 26
demonstration in Toronto.

At the same time he stressed
the importance of OFL affiliates
pulling out all the stops to ensure
the broadest possible mobiliza-
tion of their members. The April
26 rally, he said, has to be a giant
protest to be effective, and that it
will require an effort by the lead-
ers of the OFL’s affiliated unions
to ensure that participation goes
beyond the attendance of officers
and staff.

The campaign will intimately
connect the fight against free
trade to the fight for jobs, Pilkey
said.

The OFL executive council,

Dec. 17, approved the details of
the mobilizing campaign which
had been discussed and reviewed
on the previous day at a meeting
of the representatives of the
OFL’s affiliated unions.

The rally will take place on the
eve of the biennial Canadian
Labor Congress convention
which is also taking place in To-
ronto and where labor’s mobil-
ization against free trade will be a
top item on the agenda.

Labor councils will be encour-
aged to form local committees
against free trade as part of the
build-up for the demonstration.

The Dec. 16 meeting of union
leaders and the campaign against
free trade sprang from both the
1984 OFL convention decision to
organize a province-wide March
for Jobs, (which never got off the
drawing board), as well as a pol-
icy statement at this year’s con-
vention which, after a referral
organized by the Action Caucus,
mapped out a program to mobilize
against free trade.

The fight to stop a free trade
agreement with the U.S. is one of
the most critical tasks facing
Canadian working people, Pilkey
said.

‘‘Free trade would mean we
would lose up to 280,000 manu-
facturing jobs in Ontario and it
would impact on the cultural,
political and economic
sovereignty of this country’’, he

stated. ‘‘Eventually we would be
something like another state in the
US.
‘Secondly, the free traders,
are in the main, advocates of the
so-called free enterprise system
with a ‘survival of the fittest-dog-

eat-dog’ mentality. That’s what

they’re saying when they talk
about free trade.”’

He went on to predict that free
trade would put the survival of
many smaller manufacturers at
stake. ‘They ll face the mammoth
productive ability of the U.S., and
I’m not at all convinced that we
can compete in that kind of an
environment,”’ he said.

While not an advocate of a
branch plant economy, the OFL
leader pointed out that free trade
would make it easier for U.S.
corporations to move their Cana-
dian operations back across the
border.

Pilkey also warned of the dam-
age a free trade arrangement
would wreak on our network of
social services and benefits.

“‘There is an alternative to all

this’’, Pilkey said. ‘‘We ought to -

be looking at developing an in-
dustrial and economic strategy for
this country that addresses our
needs, not tying ourselves to U.S.
economic strategy.

“We're not saying that Canada
shouldn’t remain a trading nation,
but we ought not to put all of our
eggs in one basket, let’s develop
our trade internationally on a
worldwide basis.”’

GIFTS Fon
MoOERN PROFITS

Dik DRWE

AND VOT

PSAC says job
security top issue

OTTAWA — Federal public
works component members of the
Public Service Alliance of Canada
backed up contract demands with
a demonstration, Dec. 11, outside
the buidling in which a govern-
ment conciliation board was deal-
ing with their contract demands.

The workers, federal govern-
ment power, heating and station-
ary engineers are part of a 2,150
member group within the PSAC’s
public works component and
have been without a contract
since July 6, 1984.

PSAC recently broke off nego-
tiations with the government and
asked for a conciliation com-
mission after six fruitless bargain-

ing sessions in which manage-
ment refused to provide strict job
security language in the contract,
protection against the adverse ef-
fects of tech change, and a decent
wage package.

The stationary engineers are
the first group of government
workers under the Public Service
Staff Relations Act to begin talks
with a conciliation board. In addi-
tion to wages, job security and
tech change, the items referred to
the conciliation hearings Dec.
11-13 included vacations, hours of
work, overtime and contract
length. PSAC wants a $1.15 an
hour raise in a two year deal end-
ing next July 7.

Jobs, wages, shorter hours on 86 agenda

By DAVE WERLIN

Since the formation of the Canadian
labor movement, there has been a con-

Stancy to the demands of working

people. We want full employment. We
want a wage that will provide us with a
decent standard of living, both during our
work lives and in ourretirement. We want
a safe and clean work environment.
Most of all, we want a fair share of the
fruits of our labor. A share that reflects

_ the dramatic improvements in pro-

duction brought about by scientific and
technical advances.

That is: not happening. Current
unemployment rates are the worst this
country has witnessed since the great
depression of the 1930s.

In a society where being without work
is an automatic guarantee of poverty and
treatment as a second class citizen, there
are now officially 1,183,000 Canadians
unemployed. Best estimates of the real
-humbers of unemployed usually run 30
per cent higher than the official rate.

Employers, both public and private,
have used these high unemployment
rates to launch a savage, unethical attack
upon union rights and benefit levels.
Furthermore, provincial governments,
have instituted a two-pronged attack
upon working Canadians.

There Are Alternatives

Regressive, anti-union labor laws have
restricted the ability of unions at the
bargaining table, and resulted in wage
settlements far below the increase in the
cost of living, while at the same time
governments have been cutting back on
those social services which provide a

_ safety net for the working poor and the
- unemployed.

The situation working Canadians are
faced with then, is one of declining in-
comes and increasing unemployment in
an economy increasingly dependent
upon raw material exports as manu-
facturing declines.

There are however alternatives. The
labor movement has proposed reduced
worktime with no loss in pay as a partial
solution to unemployment.

We are aiming for a four-day, 32 hour
work-week with no loss in pay. We
aren’t sure how long it will take us to
achieve this aim in Canada, but that is the
trend in Europe and it is an objective to
which labor in Canada is committed.

The problems associated with the eco-
nomic direction the country is pursuing
will, of course, take political solutions.
That, if anything, is the critical area for
working people today.

We are being forced by the govern-
ment’s endorsement of free trade,
monetarist fiscal policies, and reduction
of social benefits, to become more poli-
tical in our fight to create a society with
an equitable distribution of wealth.
Moreover, I think that we will see an
increasingly militant labor movement in
this country as working people begin to
reject the bleak future proposed by the
corporate vision of the world.

The escalation of the monpolization of
our resources, largely by foreign capital
and the resultant export of jobs, the con-
cessions bargaining by our employers,
the deregulation of our industries and
the drive toward free trade with the U.S.,
has, however, caused Canadian working
people to begin to envisage, in the not too
distant future, a Canadian version of life
in a third world setting.

So what should be done about the

situation? What does labor want in 1986?

What Labor Wants
We cannot and will not continue to
accept the high level of unemployment
that exists in our wealthy, resource-rich
country, with one of the most highly skil-
led labor forces in the western world.
Nor are we prepared to tighten our

Backgrounder

belts, accept concessions at the bargain-
ing table or accept a further decline in the
standard of living of working people in
exchange for relief from joblessness.

We will become more and more in-
volved in the political arena where we
will slowly and eventually stall the drive
toward free trade by that or any other
name.

During the crisis of unemployment and
rising poverty in the land, what is re-
quired is improved rather than decreased
unemployment insurance benefits. The
labor movement calls for benefits for
people seeking their first job since enter-
ing the work force, benefits which are at
least equal to the poverty level estab-
lished by Statistics Canada and payable
for the full duration of unemployment.

The burden of taxation continues to be
shifted, by all levels of government from
the corporate elite to the working people,
including the poor and the under-
privileged. We must therefore continue
to press Mulroney to fulfill that other
famous election promise that the rich will
pay their fair share of taxes and that the
loop-holes that allow thousands of rich
Canadians to escape paying any taxes at
all will be eliminated.

In order that Canadian workers can
achieve what is their just due, a fair share
of the wealth they produce, we must also
restore free collective bargaining.

In a society in which women play an
increasingly important role in production
and in all aspects of our social fabric, we
can no longer accept the time-worn
arguments that it is not possible to de-
velop the criteria necessary to establish
the basis in Alberta for equal pay for
work of equal value.

Working women are entitled, no less
than their male counterparts in the work
force to a fair share of what they pro-
duce.

Enough Is Enough

For too long, too many working people
have swallo‘ved the big lies — you are
pricing yourselves out of the market, you
must tighten your belts, you must be-
come more productive, you must be-
come more competitive, you must
understand and accept unemployment as
a fact of life.

And while you are doing these noble
things, you must not be upset if you
notice that big business is reaping
maximum profit as your standard of liv-
ing declines.

Enough is enough, or rather too much
is enough. It’s back to the bargaining
table and into the political arena. What
we want in 1986 is fulfillment of the de-
mand of the unemployed in their On To
Ottawa Trek 50 years ago ‘‘Work and
Wages’’.

Dave Werlin is president of the Alberta
Federation of Labor. This article was
exerpted from a recent address he gave to
a meeting sponsored by the Conference
Board of Canada.

Ee

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 15, 1986 « 5