te

About 15 members of the Machinists and Operating Engineers and 300 members of the Marineworkers and Boilermakers Union struck Canron Steel Sunday to back demands for a one year agreement. Canron has insisted on a two year contract, offering 7 percent in the second year. With AIB guidelines coming off in time for 1979, the workers voted 84 percent to strike. No talks are currently slated.

Native workers strike

Muckamuck restaurant

Native employees at the Mucka- muck, Vancouver’s only restaurant serving Northwest Coast Indian food, went out on strike last week to back up wage demands and to demand the reinstatement of several workers fired for union activity.

The strike, called by Local 1 of the Service, Office and Retail Workers of Canada _ which organized the restaurant, involves only some 18 people but has already become a contentious dispute because of the intimidation against employees and because of the attempts by the three, non- Native owners, to use the Native Indian community against the strikers.

Union representative Christina Prince told the Tribune Thursday that the union organizer had been fired the day that certification was sought, in March, and that since that time six more people were either fired or. were intimidated into quitting.

Wages at the restaurant consist of the minimum wage for most of the staff.

Contract proposals include an average increase of $2 to $3, job security, provision for uniforms to be supplied, reinstatement of those fired and a say in job scheduling.

Although the proposals were placed on the table April 17, the owners have refused to bargain in good faith, seeking instead to break the strike.

Forest plan next edition

A comprehensive critique of Bill 14, the new Forest Act, and an 11- point program for a completely new forest management policy in B.C., by Communist Party leader Maurice Rush will be featured in next week’s Tribune.

Orders for extra copies of the issue will be received until Wed- nesday, June 14.

Vicki Peters, one of those fired from the restaurant, told the Tribune this week that Doug Chris- mas, one of the three owners, sought to bring American Indian Movement leader Russell Means to Vancouver to urge the strikers to quit the union and return to work.

“But it backfired,” Peters said, “and Russell Means pledged his support for the strike.’ Other Native organizations have done the same, including the United Native Nations, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the Vancouver Indian Centre.

The owners of the Muckamuck are planning to open a second restaurant as well as an art gallery, specializing in Native crafts.

Will the election of Gerry ‘Stoney to the presidency of the New Democratic Party in. British Columbia reconcile the differences between the leadership of~ that party and the B.C. Federation of Labor?

The differences referred to above found their sharpest ex- pression at the 1976 convention of: the Federation.

Shortly after the convention Stoney, who is president of New Westminster Local. of the In- ternational Woodworkers of America, gave his analysis in the November issue of the newspaper published by his local.

The division as spelled out then by Stoney, can be summarized as follows:

e The Federation was : almost evenly split over the question of carrying out the policies adopted in convention and who the officers should be.

e Most IWA delegates lined themselves up with unions in op- position to the incumbent officers: Firstly, because the Federation officers tried to work out a united approach to the 1975 contract negotiations between the IWA, the Canadian Paper Workers’ Union,

and the Pulp, paper and. Wood-

workers of Canada. According to Stoney, the IWA leadership was “not interested’ in such unity against common employers.

e The Federation officers constantly ‘‘found reasons _ to publicly criticize’ the Barrett government during its term of office ‘‘and attacked them in ways which undermined the government and played a part in bringing about their defeat in December of 1975.”

Stoney went on to say: ‘‘Any declarations of support for the NDP, even after the election was called, appear to have been made with tongue in cheek.’ What Stoney said, in effect, back in November 1976, was that the NDP government should have received unqualified support. According to him, there should have been no public criticism of the government, even though it went along with the Trudeau wage control program, disregarded the opinions of the Federation on labor legislation and enacted sweeping back-to-work

legislation to settle labor disputes-

in 1975.

Fish treaty suspended

Continued from pg. 1

issue, Canada and the U.S. signed an interim agreement earlier this year, allowing each country to fish in each other’s waters. The interim agreement, however, was challenged in U.S. courts and the U.S. government pressed Canada for added concessions that would grant a bigger advantage to the U.S. fishing industry over Canada’s.

With Canada’s suspension of the interim agreement, U.S. fishing vessels are barred from Canadian waters.

The issue of maritime boun- daries came to a head with the declaration by both countries of a 200-mile limit and the subsequent need to extend boundary lines to the limit. But in successive ne- gotiations over several years for reciprocal fishing rights, Canada has retreated consistently to the point where the U.S. presently enjoys a two-to-one ration over

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 9, 1978—Page 12

after U.S. violations

Canada in the amount of salmon intercepted by each country.

Continuing its weak approach, the federal government has released little supporting argu- ments to back up Canada’s position. The U.S. government has released strings of statistics — widely reported in the Canadian media — presenting the view that Canada takes far more U.S. fish

-resources than the U.S. does in

Canada. The U.S. figures are not

-accurate however, as they include

the Canadian waters that the U.S. has laid a claim to. In actual fact the U.S. has a wide and growing margin over Canada in the reciprocal interception of fishery resources. ;

In its statement June 5, the Com- munist Party charged that “giving into U.S. pressure has been char- acteristic of government policy and is not the way to protect the interests of Canada and of Canadian fishermen.” :

In the article, Stoney accused the Federation officers of using ‘‘the full-time hired staff’ of their office to campaign actively to elect the Guy-Johnston group. However, an- other article in the same issue had this to say about the campaign of Art Kube, who unsuccessfully opposed Len Guy for the position of secretary-treasurer: “It was most disturbing to see the IWA regional staff, whose wages are paid out by the IWA members and _ the Canadian Labor Congress staff, whose wages are paid by all af- filiates through per capita, working full-time for re-election of Art Kube during the convention.” -

LABOR COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

Obviously, there were paid staff members on both sides of this policy dispute, so the Federation officers could not be faulted on that score. :

Then, there was what struck me as the key section. of Stoney’s comment: “It was reported during the convention that the present Federation officers were a’ more militant group. In. fact the Federation’s militancy is deter- mined by its affiliates. If the IWA and other affilates to the Federation decide on a more militant approach, then that is what it will be. If they decide ona more moderate approach, then that is also what it will be.”

While this was very democratic on the face of it (the majority will decide) it was a clear signal that the IWA leadership wanted less militancy and more ‘‘moderation.”’

I sat through the 1977 convention of the Federation as an observer. It was not an election year and the top officers seemed to be working hard to unite the delegates around basic trade union issues. However, it was noticeable that even though the executive position paper repudiating the tripartism of the Canadian labor Congress was endorsed, there was_ substantial opposition from the IWA and the B.C. Government . Employees Union, the key unions opposed to the Guy-Johnston leadership.

I’ was reminded of the position taken by most IWA delegates at the 1977 Federation convention by a statement issued by C. C. Knudsen, president of MacMillan Bloedel, on February 17 of this year, in con- nection with the agreement -not to close down its Vancouver Plywood Division (Vanply).. A few quotations will illustrate the point:

e “The economic issues which led to our original annoucement to phase out Vanply have~ not changed. However, the-assurances of cooperation to achieve increased productivity which have been given by the IWA, together with

their commitment. to. eooperaté with MB in. future ~-manpowé! changes, have resulted in the company giving the attached agreements its full support.” —

Among the commitments made by the IWA leadership was thé following: :

“Both employees. and’: thé company must work together improve our competitive positiol in world markets. and: 10 minimize the impact on individual employees that might be:caused by changing technology, changilié markets and -changes in raW material supply.”

This approach. to the problem ‘was more clearly ‘spelled out by Canadian Labor Congres’ president Dennis McDermott. The Vancouver Sun.of May 29 quote him as saying that. a Congres® resolution calling for a 32-hout, four-day week was “impractical.

“There isn’t any point in the British doing it unless the Germans follow suit; there isn’t any point the Canadians doing it unless thé Americans follow suit; there ist! any point in any of us doing unless the Japanese follow suit.

If that approach had been take? to the fight for the eight-hour day; we would still be working ten an 12 hours a day. What McDermo™ proposes is the MB — IWA. for mula: Work. harder to maké Canada more competitive and, accordingly, wait for a shortet work week until the capitalists © all the major trading countries ar prepared to grant it voluntarily and simultaneously. That woul mean waiting forever and a day:

It is significant that Len Guy; who resigned as_ secretary’ treasurer of the Federation ef fective June 1, issued, a strong statement before -he left, com demning McDermott’s position. It is equally significant that Gerry Stoney, a top leader of the IWA and new president of the provincia NDP, has, to the best of my knowledge, remained silent.

Which was Stoney. will go 4 president of the NDP remains to be seen. At this moment, the obvious fact is that the right wing of the party was in complete control of the convention and Stoney need their support to be elected. This same right wing wants to subot dinate the trade union moveme to the party’s electoral machin and to silence any criticism from organized labor, however justifi that criticism may be. ot

We can expect a provincial election in the next year. The tradé union movement can help assure the defeat of the Socreds by fighting harder. around the vital needs of working people and by working to unite all labor, left and democratic forces for a broad, anti-monopoly program. Howevet: the question remains: Can Stoney be won for sucha policy?

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