Municipal workers prepare for strike to back demands

TORONTO — The city’s 10,500 municipal workers told their boss Feb. 17 they'll go on strike if negotiations don’t pro- duce a satisfactory agreement.

Members of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Loc- als 79 and 43 voted over- whelmingly to give their negotiat- ing committees a mandate to calla strike by the end of the month to back contract demands for a new agreement which would provide, among other demands, a 30% wage hike over two years.

The vote was 86.5% to strike by CUPE Local 43 (Metro and city outside workers), and 90% by the inside workers, members of Local 79. The unions will be in a legal strike position Feb. 29. Meetings between the unions and negotiators for the city and metro’ began Feb. 19 in the presence of provincial mediators. This was the first meeting with manage- ment since talks broke down Feb. 5. Talks began Nov. 19.

With management’s lousy

wage offer, (5.67% in 1980), and | bp

some 44 outstanding non- monetary issues, CUPE wasted no time in taking its case to the public for support in the battle that looms ahead.

Large ads placed in the three Toronto daily newspapers Feb. 18, outlined the union’s position

LABOR SCENE

By BRUCE MAGNUSON

The decade of the 1980s prom- ises to be a decade of sharp class battles both at home and abroad. The defeat of a right-wing Tory government after only nine months in office indicates grow- ing political instability. This polit- ical instability arises from the crisis of imperialism. That crisis poses a threat to living standards at home as a result of the arms buildup, and the threat of another world war which is not inevitable but can and must be prevented.

For Canadians the lessons of half a century ago and the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy and Ja- pan culminating in World War II have not been lost. Nor has it been forgotten that the staunchest ally in defeating fascism was pre- cisely the Soviet Union. Despite all the provocations and cold war antics of imperialism during the past 35 years, the warmongers and arms profiteers have been held at bay thanks to the peace- loving policies of détente and dis- armament pursued by the Soviet Union and its socialist allies.

At the same time peaceful co- existence between states with dif- ferent social and economic sys- tems does not mean a halt to so- cial and economic progress. On the contrary the advance of the socialist world system and the na- tional liberation movement has al- tered the balance of world forces and brought about a rapid growth of class and social consciousness among working people of all cap- italist countries, including Canada. .

Evidence of this can be found in a careful analysis of the 1980 fed-

in the talks and appealed to the labor movement and the commu- nity to back their civic workers, by phoning municipal representa- tives to press management to be- gin serious bargaining.

*“We work hard for Toronto, but it doesn’t pay”’ is the theme of the ad campaign and the buttons and posters being distributed by CUPE. The ads show how civic workers in Toronto are actually earning less money in real terms today than they earned in 1973.

While inflation rose by 69.8% in Toronto between 1973 and 1979, CUPE notes that wages only in- creased by 65.2%. The union charges that the 4.6% drop in real wages has meant that civic work-

ers’ wages have been helping to finance Toronto’s operations. The city’s offer of a 5% in- crease in January and 2% in Sep- tember, which works out to an annual increase of 5.76%, will rob civic workers of another 5% in real wages when. the estimated 1980 inflation rate reaches 11%. CUPE points to recent in- creases in the wages of other civic workers throughout Ontario to re-inforce its demands for a wage hike that will protect the workers’ buying power in the face of ram- pant inflation. Sudbury civic workers have just won a 15% wage hike, with 14.2% recently negotiated in Sault Ste. Marie, and 11% in London for 1979. In

1980 the London workers will re--

ceive a 1% wage increase for ev- ery 1% increase in the inflation rate over 7.5%.

CUPE also notes that private sector wage increases in 1979 av- eraged 10.3% and they contrasted the offer placed before civic

workers with the recent contract -

won by Toronto Hydro workers. That contract produced a 10%

_wage increase in the first year, 8%

in 1981 and a cost of living ad- justment providing a wage in- crease of 1% for every 1% in- crease in the inflation rate over 8%. j

The civic workers al8o0 want

1980’s to be a decade of sharp class battles

eral election in which the forces of

-the political right were stopped in

their tracks and a growing strength of the political left has at last become discernable.

This process could have pro- duced even better results had it not been for the shameful capitu- lation of right-wing leaders of the

New Democratic Party and the

trade union movement, which succumbed before the onslaught of imperialist propaganda of anti-Sovietism and anti- communism.

It is extremely important that this particular aspect of the 1980 federal election be studied by working people, particular or- ganized workers, and that proper conclusions from this be drawn in preparation for, during, and after the forthcoming convention of the

Canadian Labor Congress, as the.

main trade union centre in this country. ; : It is today more imperative

than ever that the interests of the -

working class be protected by international solidarity against

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 29, 1980—Page 8

imperialist attacks. For this reason Canadian workers must seek to build a bridge between the working people of all continents with particular attention paid to countries where the working class has assumed political power and countries where the revolutionary struggles are presently .devel- oping toward a socialist way out of the crisis.

It is important to ‘understand that in the Soviet Union the trade unions have a dual task as be- tween their protective functions on social and economic questions and their role in-developing and improving material production. This dual role arises out of their position as the largest Soviet pub- lic organization, numbering more than 125 million.

The Soviet trade unions’ par- ticipation in the management of state and public affairs is guaran- teed by the make-up of the Sup- reme Soviet of the USSR, with its 769 industrial workers, who are members of Soviet trade unions. Working-class political power in

the Soviet Union finds expression ©

in the regular publication of documents of state bearing the signatures of the leader of the Communist Party, the state and of the top executive of the trade union centre.

It is this which characterizes a genuine people’s socialist democ-. racy as distinct from the abstract and formal bourgeois democracy exemplified in the casting of a bal- lot at certain intervals while work- ing people are excluded from the day-to-day workings of par- liamentary and state power.

Some 10,500 members of CUPE Locals 43 and 79 voted overwhelmingly

Feb. 17 to give their negotiators a strike mandate to back their contra demands. :

improvements in vacations, promotion policy, and working conditions. CUPE is calling for reductions in the work week for 40 hours-a-week employees by one hour per week, per year, over a five year period.

The>=CUPE.. ads charee management has stalled negotia- tions in the hope civic workers will “Just forget about decent

wage ‘increases.’’ But this is a false hope. As the ads point out municipal workers, ‘‘live in To ronto — one of the most expel sive cities in the country. have children to feed and clothe And we work hard for the city W& love. It’s time the employers were told in no uncertain terms that oul service and dedication should pay off — for us and our families."

Jaggard’s

rests on final appeal

HAMILTON — Bob Jaggard’s latest confrontation with the bos- ses’ legal system has brought him one step closer to the possible loss of his job and livelihood.

Jaggard, a bus driver with a 26-year untarnished record with the Hamilton Street Railway, learned Feb. 13 that the Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto had

-Tejected his latest appeal of a

criminal conviction.

He was convicted in Nov. 1978 of “‘leaving the scene of an acci- dent”’ after a confrontation with Steel Company of Canada (Stel- co) security guard Ronald Han- nah on public property. Hannah had demanded Jaggard turn over his camera to the Selco cop, and - when Jaggard refused, Hannah followed him to his car and tried to block Jaggard from leaving.

After asking Hannah several times to get out of his way, Jag- gard drove off and Hannah later pressed charges. Jaggard’s sub- sequent appeals of the conviction were both turned down.

Though it was irrelevant to the trial, the crown attorney was al- lowed by Judge A.J. Marck to re- peatedly. bring Jaggard’s membership in the Communist

_ Party of Canada into the trial as

evidence.

Osgoode Hall law professor Michael Mandel, who argued Jaggard’s case before the Ontario Court of Appeal Feb. 1, and is preparing to seek leave to appeal: before the Supreme Court of Canada May 5, called the Feb. 13 judgement ‘‘shocking.”’

Mandel appealed the original conviction and earlier appeal on several legal grounds, including the fact the trial judge had allowed the crown attorney to introduce and extensively use Jaggard’s membership in the Communist - Party as evidence during the trial.

He argued, that Jaggard’s polit- ical beliefs were irrelevant to the case, that it should not have been admitted as evidence and the conviction should be thrown out. Trial judge A. J. Marck convicted Jaggard on the basis of the lack of credibility of his witnesses, de-

_ gard’s political beliefs — was not

livelihood

BOB JAGGARD

spite the fact that he had pro- duced one eye witness to the con- frontation with the Stelco cop,

and two character witnesses.

Hanah had failed to produce # single character witness, yet hiS testimony was accepted without question.

“‘T was shocked by the charac- ter of the judgement’’, Mandel said Feb. 21. ‘‘What was most startling was that the basic grounds for appeal — the fact the crown kept hammering on Jag:

4

even mentioned in the judgement, as if it has not been raised at all.””

He called this a dereliction of the judge’s duty. ‘‘I want to raise | this point in the Supreme Court of Canada’’, he said. ‘‘It has to be explained why it’s alright to do that.

He also said it was ‘‘frighten- ing’’ that the judgement seemed to assume that judges would not be influenced by anti-communism in arriving at their decision. ‘‘This

is totally unrealistic. Anyone

familiar with Canadian politics knows this isn’t the case’’, Man- del said.

Jaggard’s lawyer said the use of his client’s political beliefs in the” trial ‘‘amounted to a smear cam- paign’ his grounds for appealing the conviction were excellent, ‘I. don’t think Jaggard has been answered in any of the courts yet.””

’, and noted that although —

_