Teachers win major issues Renfrew Board ends lockout

By J. HAYWOOD PEMBROKE — Renfrew

_County’s 430 striking high school .

teachers re-entered their class- Tooms May 19 for the first time Since the County Board of Educa- tion locked them out in mid- March. May 19 would have been the 43rd day out of the classroom — only two days short of Kirk- land Lake’s record of 45 days.

The return to work came as the Tesult of a ratification vote held May 18 on a settlement package that emerged from mediation ear- lier in the week with provincial mediator Martin Teplitsky.

Highlights of that package:

e Teachers scored a clear vic- tory on pupil-teacher ratio, (PTR), the major concern since Negotiations began more than one year ago. Under the new agree- ment, the PTR will drop roughly One full point over two years, (18.5 to one, dropped to 17.33 pupils to every teacher).

e Tighter seniority proce- dures.

e At least seven new jobs Created through redundancy pro- tective clauses.

e Severance pay allowance of $12,000 after four years, or 2%

per year: to a maximum of 20% which ever amount is longer.

allow the monetary issues to go before a three-man board of bind- ing arbitration, a teacher proposal which the board had rejected for six weeks. Teachers will be paid retroactively on the basis of a 6% “without prejudice’? wage in- crease, until the arbitration award.

Teachers are asking serious questions concerning the second longest strike involving the On- tario Secondary Teachers Feder- ation (OSSTF).

First, why did the Renfrew County Board of Education allow its schools to remain .closed for weeks rather than accept binding arbitration which it finally did on May 18?

Secondly, why did the Board resist all of the various stages of Bill 100 which might have ended the dispute several times? Was there, as many outsiders believe, an attémpt to prove that collective bargaining involving teachers could not work?

Teachers returned to their clas- srooms confident that they had conducted the most successful

e The school board agreed to ~

Renfrew teachers won a victory when the pupil-teacher was low- ered.

student assistance program of any similar crisis situation, offering Grade 13 programs in 19 different locations. Public opinion shared this view, buttressing the teachers’ confidence.

_ Newsmen reject Toronto Star

offer — strike action likely

TORONTO — Angry mem- bers of the Toronto Star unit of the. Toronto. Newpaper “Guild, May 30, gave their boss an ul- tmatum to move from its nothing Contract offer, or face a strike of the entire Star operation, mid- night June 2.

After narrowly defeating the bargaining committee’s recom- Mendation to accept a tentative Settlement with the Star by 297-

9, the Guild members over- Whelmingly instructed the com- ie to return to the company _® Convey the members’ rejec- tion of the tentative agreement,

_® inform the Star of the begin- cae of an immediate work-to-rule

Mpaign beginning with the first Shift Mai e

e inform the Star that a strike Of the \entire operation would €nsue midnight June 2, unless the COmpany showed significant Movement on five major items which the Star wants to take away

Om the current agreement.

Everyone who spoke in favor of recommendation, or of rejec- tion were united in one opinion.

© proposed contract stinks.

The only change the company Made from its ‘‘final offer’’ was to €xtend the term of the agreement to 18 months, to make it more difficult for the Guild to get back In line with the Star’s other unions or the purpose of joint bargain- ng.

The wage package was 6% or $22 whichever is less, effective Jan. 1/78 and 3% or $12, Whichever is less, Jan. 1/79. The Pact would have expired June 30/79,

If ratified the contract would ave taken away: double time pay

Or circulation and delivery work-—

€rs for work on the Sunday paper; Protection for reporters, photo-

graphers and editors from arbit- rarily being transferred by man- agement anywhere within a 50- mile radius of Toronto, without compensation for time or money spent travelling or moving.

On the question of union sec- urity, the Star took a step toward weakening the Guild by removing reference in the agreement to pro- tection from discrimination by the employer for union activity. The Star is notorious for transferring local Guild leaders to less desira- ble assignments as a form of punishment for representing the workers.

The Guild is currently fighting a grievance, which is awaiting judi- cial review, in the case of a former Guild president who was moved from his assignment at the On- tario legislature, to general report- ing. The union feels the removal of the protection for stewards and officers of the union could jeopar- dize the outcome of the griev- ANCE sak

The tentative settlement would have also taken away a gain estab- lished in the first Guild contract signed in 1949 protecting editorial workers from non-union competi- tion and free-lancers. The Star wants to have the unlimited right to buy contributions from free- lancers, thus doing away with the policy of paying Guild rates to anyone whose time is controlled by the Star.

Not only does it threaten the job security of Star employees but it will make negotiating a decent wage increase at the end of the agreement very difficult.

A spokesman for Star man-

agement said May 31, the com- pany. was willing to meet: with the union, and the Guild contacted

provincial labor mediator Ray Il--

ling to arrange a meeting with the

‘ employer prior to the strike dead-

line.

The Guild represents some 1,350 editorial, circulation, finance, and advertising depart-

- ment employees at the Star. The

current agreement expired Dec. 31 and the parties have been negotiating since last October.

The bargaining committee said they recommended acceptance reluctantly because they felt it was the best contract they could get without taking strike action. Guild members vented their anger at the Star for the insulting offer.

Star reporter Gerald Utting spoke about ‘‘getting up off our knees’’, to “‘show management we are prepared to back. our bar- gaining committee with the in- structions entrusted to it.

‘‘’m in favor of clearing out number one Yonge Street’, Ut- ting said referring to the Star headquarters and the strike dead- line.

Bob McCarty of circulation, said about half of the Star carriers would back the Guild. ‘“‘We can stop the paper being delivered’’,

he said. ‘With what-it will cost —

them (the Star) just to keep up last year’s circulation, they’ll have to talk to us eventually.”’

John Bryant, Guild executive:

secretary, in outlining the terms of the proposed settlement toid the members, ‘“‘management is increasingly arrogant and un- mindful that we are human be- ings, that we've made the six owners of TORSTAR (the Star’s parent company), millionaires ~He said the Star listened to the bargaining committee but didn’t want to hear them. ‘‘All they care about is the almighty dollar. It’s not easy to take them on’’, Bryant said, ‘*but if the Star is going to listen to any one, it’s going to be you — not me.”

TORIES WON’T BRING IN BILL 70

TORONTO — Tory Labor Minister Bette Stephenson said May 30, the working people of On- tario shouldn’t expect to see the Occupational Health and Safety legislation she has been promising for years, come before the legisla- ture in the near future.

Bill 70, which the opposition and the labor movement strengthened

in committee to give workers the-

right to refuse unsafe work, and made coverage universal, has been bitterly opposed by the employers’ lobby, which explains why Stephenson doesn’t want to bring the bill up for third and final reading.

STEEL CAR PACT SIGNED

HAMILTON — The 650 members of local 7135 United Steelworkers ratified a tentativé agreement with National Steel Car Corp. here May 30, which gives them a 60 cent-an-hour wage hike over two years, and will see the company pay 100% of the Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan premiums for _ the employees.

Pay will be retroactive to Oct. 5, 1977, and the agreement ends the strike which began Jan. 12, 1978.

TORONTO — Metro Police charged into a crowd of injured workers

1OCO REFUSES

TO NEGOTIATE LABRODOR CITY Nfid. —

Steelworkers here, who have been on strike since March 13, and without a contact with the Iron Ore Company of Canada since. Feb. 28, were disgusted with the company’s decision not to get down to serious bargaining. The workers agreed in a standing vote prior to the news of the latest IOCO position not to talk until the members voted on their current offer that the company’s pension plan offer was unacceptable and there wasn’t enough money on the table, to bother putting the offer to the members in a secret ballot.

CHANGES IN CPI

ATTACKED BY UE

TORONTO — The 20,000 member United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers Union (UE), has sent a sharp protest to Prime Minister Trudeau expres- sing the union’s deep concern over planned changes in the method of compiling the federal Consumer Price Index. The telegram sent by UE President C.S. Jackson, says the projected changes “‘would con- stitute.a further attack on workers’ living standards,’’ and would re- duce the substance and value of cost-of-living clauses, now in force in hundreds of collective agree- ments, which are based on the pre- sent index.”’

May 29, fronting for Ontario labor minister Stephenson who refused to meet with representatives of Union of Injured Workers on their demands for improvements in the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

_ OFL tells Tories improve rent review

TORONTO — Speaking for its 800,000 members, many of whom are tenants, the Ontario Federa- tion of Labor told the provincial Tory government May 24, to not only continue the current rent controls program; but include all of the buildings currently exempt from rent‘review.

In a brief to the Standing Com- mittee of the Legislature studying the rental problem, the OFL urged immediate action to get at the root of Ontario’s shortage, greater public sector investment in the production of housing and rental accommodation, and called for land banking.

‘The private sector as the main delivery system for housing has proven incapable of housing On-

tarians at affordable prices’’, the brief said, condemning govern- ment subsidies to the develop- ment monopolies to create rental housing.

Such housing subsidies amounted to about $7,700 per unit in 1976 and have failed to keep up with the demand for housing. Meanwhile the vacancy rate in Metro Toronto which houses more than one third of the citizens of Ontario, fell from 2.2% in Oc- tober 1975 to the current .9%.

The OFL brief called for con- tinuation of the existing program ‘until an adequate, affordable and sound supply of housing and rental units is available’’, and that all buildings currently exempt from rent review coverage be in- cluded.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 9, 1978—Page 5