In 1993 we identified the pressures which were being placed on many of our benefit programs. They included escalating costs, an ageing population, increased utilization of health services, increased disability rates related to "lean production", and perhaps most important of all, cost shifting by virtually all governments. Three years later, the pressures have, if anything, intensified. Federal government transfers of funds for health care have been reduced, provincial governments have closed hospitals, delisted services, and increased deductibles and co-pays for a variety of health care services.
The continuing impact of these pressures has been intensified at the bargaining table as employers have not only resisted absorbing additional costs but have actively sought ways of either eliminating or reducing many benefits. Precisely because of these pressures we must maintain a high priority for benefits in collective bargaining.
The economic insecurity associated with restructuring and downsizing clearly points to the need to ensure adequate benefit coverage in times of sickness, layoff and retirement. To that end, even in difficult times, we must remain focussed on improving and expanding our benefit programs. In particular we must:
Recognizing that medication awareness is an important factor in the lifestyle of those who have retired, their spouses, as well as those who are disabled, and also recognizing that the increasing cost of medication is a concern, the CAW has been promoting Medication Awareness Programs.
To date, the program has been established and run in several communities through the efforts of retired workers. There has also been a breakthrough on the bargaining front, through the negotiation of the program at Local 598 with Falconbridge Limited.
We need to expand this initial success in collective bargaining by negotiating a program based on the following goals:
LEGAL SERVICES
The CAW Legal Services Plan has continued to be an important and growing benefit program, which has provided significant assistance to many members, retirees and their dependents. The Plan provides a wide range of legal services through a network of staff offices, with 27 staff lawyers, and 75 other employees (including paralegals, legal secretaries, intake clerks and other staff), as well as over 1,000 cooperating lawyers. Since its inception in 1985, the Plan has handled over 436,000 legal cases.
Since our last bargaining convention the Plan has been negotiated in eleven more units.
In 1993 a sliding scale for funding was established at the Big 3, which ensures a solid financial foundation for the Plan and essentially means that the employers will have to pay whatever is necessary to maintain benefits. Improved financing remains a goal for other units in the Plan. In this next round of bargaining we will also be committed to extending the Plan to other bargaining units, as well as improving the range and level of benefits for existing Plan members.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE LANGUAGE
It is vitally important that we increase our efforts on all fronts in the area of substance abuse. Language must be negotiated in our collective agreements that not only recognizes substance abuse as an illness that is treatable, but also provides for trained substance abuse representatives in the workplace. Training programs that have been put in place for several of our larger plants and offices should be extended to the representatives in the smaller workplaces.
Recovery programs that are now in place must be expanded to cover the family members who are also affected. Programs should be established to provide proper support for any affected member or dependent during the recovery and follow-up periods.
To ensure the ongoing success of our CAW Substance Abuse/Recovery Program it is also important that we negotiate training for our workplace leadership and for members of management to provide them with a better understanding of the issues and problems associated with substance abuse and recovery. Without that recognition our program will never attain its full potential.
Many of our members and their dependents suffer from problems associated with addictions other than substance abuse and we must make every effort to bargain provisions which will allow them to obtain full and proper assistance. Addictions are treatable and with proper treatment we can help our members and their families get their lives back in order. Failure to provide this help hurts not only the individuals involved but also hurts us as a Union.
Mandatory Drug Testing
The U.S. government initiated MDT legislation in 1991 for transport workers in "safety-sensitive" jobs and is demanding similar legislation for Canadian transport workers entering the U.S.
The Canadian government abandoned draft legislation on mandatory drug testing (MDT) in 1993. Our government seems to be waiting for U.S. decisions on cross-border operations in aviation, marine, and pipelines. The Canadian railroad operators are complying with U.S. railroad rules for drug and alcohol testing in post-accident and for-cause testing--which seems to satisfy the U.S. government.
Motor carriers, however, are a more contentious sector of Canadian transportation. Although Transport Canada does not require MDT for Canadians employed in the motor carrier sector, the U.S. government is demanding that Canadian operators comply with their regulations by July 1996.
Defending Our Gains - Advancing Our Rights
The face of our union has changed dramatically over the last decade. We have a more diverse membership today than at any other time in our history; it is important that our strategies for collective bargaining and legislative improvements take this into consideration. We need to respond to the needs of all our members - including women, workers of colour, aboriginal workers, immigrants and refugees, gays and lesbians and workers with disabilities.
If we want to ensure that all our members are treated equally and given real opportunities to participate at different levels and in all aspects of union life, we must recognize the differences that exist within our membership. We must undertake the measures that breathe life into the promise of equality.
There is no greater challenge for any one of us or our union as a whole. Nor any greater good. We will be a more united, stronger organization as we move into the next century.
The struggle for equality and the advancement of our collective rights is made more difficult by the corporate and government attack on equality rights. Some of the attacks take a very recognizable form like the erosion of equal pay gains, legislative action to eliminate employment equity initiatives, the closure of women's shelters and community supports for abused women and children, the withdrawal of the promised national child care program, the imposition of an immigration head tax and landing fees, and so on.
Some policies have a less obvious but very significant impact on our equality gains. Take for example, the devastation of the public sector workforce. These mass layoffs rob us of some of the better jobs in our economy, many of them open to equity-seeking groups as a matter of public policy. Consider too how social program cuts that reduce bus service for those with disabilities jeopardize their ability to hold on to hard-won jobs at a time when their unemployment rates are extremely high. And when the wrecking ball is taken to our labour laws, some of the most vulnerable workers including new immigrants, workers of colour, youth, workers with disabilities and women find it that much harder to organize to improve their working conditions.
All of this is happening in the context of growing economic inequality. There are cuts to social housing, to minimum wage protections, to welfare benefits, to unemployment insurance coverage, to seniors' pensions, to public education, to workers compensation, to supports for retraining, to child care centres, to immigrant and refugee services and all the rest. There is also the introduction of more regressive forms of taxation and the attack upon laws that defend our right to organize, our health and safety, and our basic employment standards. These moves threaten to dramatically polarize our society into those who are secure in their human rights and have sufficient income and access to services - and those who do not.
This threat to job security, income and benefits is being experienced by workers around the world. Globalization has become synonymous with greed, poverty, homelessness and unemployment. It is based on "international competition", a contest which only the multinational corporations, bankers and other financial players can win. In country after country, "competition" is being used as a battering ram to try to crush our collective agreements, social programs and public policies and laws.
Corporations and right wing ideologues promote unrestrained free-market policies and then, when hardship, unemployment and insecurity flow from those policies, they offer us scapegoats. We are encouraged to believe that certain groups or communities are the cause of the problems we face. Anti-immigrant and anti-refugee rhetoric takes root when we fear our way of life is under threat. And those who benefit from employment equity policies are often blamed when others have difficulty finding work.
Our attention is diverted from the underlying policies that really explain the problems we confront. High unemployment, for example, is best understood by examining the policies of fiscal restraint, high interest rates, deregulation, free trade and deindustrialization supported by the corporate and governmental elite.
In the last decade, the CAW has made significant advances towards equality in human rights. We also fostered the recognition of human rights which had been denied in the past. We have provided support to our community partners such as food banks and shelters. We have become leaders in equity.
In upcoming contract negotiations, we need to strongly reaffirm our commitment to equality and challenge the corporations to defend our hard-earned gains and to further advance our rights. In our negotiations we must build on our past initiatives so that each one, every one of us, can fully benefit from the recognition of our human rights and dignity. This same message must be carried to every legislature in the country.
Human Rights Commissions
As a union, we have always fought for broad powers for human rights commissions in order to defend workers who have been victims of discrimination. In some provinces, and at the federal level, there is a drive to reduce the power of these commissions. Governments have also slashed commission budgets which reduces their staffing and office locations and ultimately, their effectiveness. It is vitally important that we ensure the continued protection of our members' rights and in the current context, that means more attention to our collective agreement provisions. We must also continue to insist that governments provide adequate funding to these commissions, and that they deal with human rights complaints in a fair and timely manner. Most importantly, we must insist that the commissions use the powers granted to them to address and eliminate systemic discrimination.
Gay and Lesbian Rights
Gay brothers and lesbian sisters have always been a part of our membership but they have been systematically deprived of a basic benefit entitlement that other union members take for granted - benefit coverage for their partners. This is in addition to discrimination encountered by many gays and lesbians in other aspects of their lives.
We can be justly proud of our bargaining achievements with respect to same-sex benefits, including early provisions at Greenshield and CAMI. Some of the gains have been groundbreaking ones, notably the coverage of pensions at NorTel and 3M Canada. The CAW has been a leader in extending these rights through collective bargaining, from white collar workers to blue collar miners, and in workplaces under federal as well as provincial jurisdiction, from coast to coast.
Having said this, same-sex benefit provisions are not yet found in the majority of our collective agreements. We need to consolidate our gains by embarking on a major initiative to ensure same-sex spousal benefits are systematically negotiated in all our agreements and that our gay brothers and lesbian sisters are treated equally under our collective agreements. Alongside this initiative, we need a parallel campaign to secure stronger leadership from our legislators in the federal and provincial parliaments so that these sisters and brothers might finally enjoy legal recognition of their rights under their respective Human Rights legislation.
There is some caucus activity within the CAW and exchange of information, most especially with respect to same sex benefits, and we have representatives on the CLC's Working Group. We also encourage locals to participate in local Gay Pride Day marches and offer other visible support. It is recognized that we must do more in this area to ensure gay brothers and lesbian sisters achieve their equal place in our union.
Anti-Harassment Initiatives
Our CAW anti-harassment policy is working well in many workplaces. To reinforce this policy, all our agreements should include strong language which obligates the employer to maintain a harassment-free work environment and provide clear procedures for resolving harassment complaints. CAW's Anti-Harassment Policy should be the minimum that we are prepared to negotiate.
In service sector workplaces, we also need provisions that deal with harassment by members of the public. Frustrated with service cutbacks, too many people direct their anger at front line workers.
Harassment in the workplace is a serious problem; it can have a devastating effect on our lives. If a worker's complaint of harassment is ignored or unresolved, he or she must have the right to refuse work without loss of pay until the problem is adequately dealt with. We can build on our success in 1993 Big Three bargaining and negotiate the recognition of this right in all our collective agreements.
Our membership need to be well informed about human rights and the employer's obligation to respect and protect those rights in the workplace. Accordingly, we should bargain human rights education for all our membership, on company paid lost time, with a program which is developed and delivered by the CAW. The employer's financial obligations with respect to this type of training arises out of its obligations to provide a harassment-free working environment. In addition, leadership education and training should be developed and delivered by the CAW, on company paid lost time. Our leaders need to strengthen their ability to work with a diverse membership; they also need the tools to play an effective role when dealing with harassment complaints. They need a solid understanding of the roots of sexism, racism, homophobia and disability issues, as well as a good working knowledge of human rights law.
No Discrimination Clauses
The majority of our collective agreements contain clauses that prohibit discrimination in the workplace; these provisions allow the union to file grievances and defend our members when their human rights are violated. They are supposed to provide for a speedy and equitable resolution of complaints.
These "no discrimination" clauses are becoming more important than they ever were. With the recent cutbacks to federal and provincial human rights commissions, and in light of the refusal of some provincial human rights commissions to process complaints when a worker is represented by a union, we need to take a fresh look at the language in our agreements. We need to make sure these clauses are updated to name all the prohibited grounds of discrimination in our current laws, as well as grounds such as sexual orientation which are not necessarily recognized in law but which could affect some of our members.
Employment Equity
The need for employment equity is as important today as it ever was, if not more so. We need to make corporations accountable for their hiring practices and to remove all obstacles that prevent women, workers of colour, aboriginal men and women and people with disabilities from fully and equally participating in the workforce. Our commitment to the negotiation of employment equity plans with targets and timetables remains an important part of an overall strategy to ensure that our workplaces fairly reflect the population of the communities in which we live. We must be prepared to negotiate employment equity if we are to end systemic discrimination in employer hiring practices. When the Harris government killed off Ontario's employment equity law, the employers' absolute power over hiring practices was reinstated. This power means that too many workplaces do not reflect the diversity of our communities.
Human Rights Advocates/Equity Co-ordinators/ Women's Advocates
In the absence of legislation and effective Human Rights Commissions, we need to develop a multi-pronged approach so that we can promote broader recognition and support for human rights in the workplace. The approaches may vary but the need for this kind of advocacy is the same. In many workplaces there is a need for a human rights advocate who would be available to the membership during working hours to discuss specific human rights issues, to support members who have been the victim of human rights abuse, to monitor for racist, homophobic or sexist materials, and the like. In the case of the Big Three, we have negotiated a highly successful Women's Advocate program with rank and file women who are trained to assist other women on paid work time. We need to pursue more women's leadership training, especially in workplaces where women are in the majority. We are also reaffirming our commitment to the negotiated programs that provide for an Employment Equity Coordinator and to continue negotiating for additional locations.
Racism
The Workers of Colour Program is an essential part of encouraging workers of colour to become more active and to take on leadership roles within their union. The creation of workers of colour caucuses in various locations across the country has provided a space to debate issues and develop strategies to help workers of colour overcome the challenges they face.
March 21 marks the International Day to Eliminate Racism; this date should be acknowledged in all our workplaces with a poster campaign and time off for anti-racism education workshops, paid for by the employer. We can also encourage members to organize educational forums across the country on March 21 and the period surrounding it.
Accommodating Workers with a Disability
We need to make our workplaces accessible for people with disabilities and we have to continue pressing the employers we bargain with to hire people with disabilities. Accommodation for members who are injured on the job is also an essential part of ensuring that members who are injured return to their rightful place at work. To ensure employers accommodate members with disabilities, we need clear language in our collective agreements that encompasses accommodation for members who have suffered disabilities. These accommodations should be focussed on modifying the pre-injury job, thus respecting the negotiated seniority system and at the same time, providing genuine reinstatement rights for workers with disabilities. These brothers and sisters are too often excluded from meaningful work because employers refuse to invest in appropriate retraining and equipment and other necessary ergonomic changes. We must incorporate disabled workers' perspectives and needs in our contract bargaining. Failure to do so would mean that many of our members are excluded from re-entering the workplace.
Child Care Program
Our child care centres, including our Windsor, Ontario centre, are models of the kind of quality child care that can be negotiated in the private sector. Our CAW child care centres offer high quality, affordable child care for infants, toddlers, and special needs children, and for extended hours to cover shiftwork. Last year, we renamed our Port Elgin Centre to recognize the contribution of former Executive Board member Roxie Baker.
In January of this year, our newest centre opened in Oshawa. We are currently making assessments at Chrysler (Bramalea) and Ford (Oakville).
In light of the federal government's abandoned child care promises, we should press the corporations and provincial governments to expand our child care programs into other communities. At the same time, we want to reaffirm our commitment to the campaign for a universal, affordable, high quality child care program in this country as a matter of public policy and funding.
Family Responsibility Leave Days
Social service cutbacks have given rise to more pressure on families, especially women, to provide care for the ill and elderly. While fighting cutbacks and demanding adequate services, we also need to bargain the right to paid time off from work to meet family obligations such as care for a sick child or an elderly parent.
Women's Equality
Since the Montreal massacre of December 6, 1989, the CAW has stepped up its campaign for the eradication of violence against women and this issue has become an integral part of our education program. December 6 is marked in a variety of ways in the union, including a minute of silence in some workplaces.
The level of violence against women is a barometer of women's status within a society. Rejecting this violence is one measure of a society's willingness to eradicate the root causes of that unequal status. We must redouble our efforts to deal with those root causes.
There are concrete steps that must be undertaken. To our union's credit, we have not shied away from taking those steps, although women represent just over 20% of the membership. We have, for example, developed women activist leadership training, an annual women's conference and CAW Women's Networks that are active in many areas and provide a structure where women can work together on bargaining, legislation and social action.
Our collective bargaining strategies must include a renewed commitment to:
Extending the equality gains made in 1993 Big 3 bargaining.
Developing bargaining demands that reflect the priorities of women in our union.
There are some issues that are raised over and over again by CAW women - fully paid pregnancy and parental leave, improved rights and benefits for those in part-time jobs, restrictions on contracting out and the use of temporary workers, opportunities to move out of lower paid job ghettos, ending pay discrimination, input on job design to prevent repetitive strain injuries, training to improve skills and other improvements. We must be prepared to address these and make gains at the bargaining table.
Defending Our Gains. Advancing Our Rights.
We need to see more workers of colour, more women and others who have been historically absent from the bargaining table moving into those vital roles in the life of our union. We need to advance equity proposals in contract negotiations and to that end, to produce an Equity Bargaining Kit for locals. We need to ensure that all CAW analysis and commentary on public policies has an eye to the consequences for our equality rights. And we need to build on the very significant advances and accomplishments of our union in the struggle for human rights and equality.
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The Women's March Against Poverty, jointly sponsored by
the Canadian Labour Congress and the National Action Committe on the
Status of Women, set out with caravans from both coasts on may 14 during
the CLC Convention. It will arrive on June 15 during the NAC Annual Meeting.
Inspired by the Quebec Women's 1995 March Against Poverty, this years march calls for Bread and Roses! For Jobs and Justice! reminding us of the challenges ahead in this, the United Nation's Year for the Eradication of Poverty The Women's March will focus on 15 demands, as agreed between the CLC and NAC. While speaking specifically to the needs of women, they are universal in many respects and can guide other work on equality rights:
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Our PEL program has been central to building our union in the plant and socially. Over 5200 CAW members have gone through either our four-week program or the one and two-week programs which were introduced in recent years.
It is vital that the many new units in our union have access to education and leadership training. Our goal is therefore to both negotiate new monnies to strengthen PEL in the over 600 units that already have the program and to spread it to cover all sections of the union.
As trade unionists, our struggle to improve conditions in the workplace requires our growing involvement internationally. That is why the CAW-Canada negotiated the Social Justice Fund.
The CAW Social Justice Fund (SJF) was first established in 1991, to provide humanitarian relief, and development assistance internationally and to some degree, also here in Canada. The fund is a registered charity under Canadian income tax law. Its directors include the six top officers of the union, plus three prominent Canadians representing our social partners. Corporations contribute to the SJF on the basis of a negotiated one cent (or more) per straight time hour worked. Currently, 65,000 CAW members in 60 units are covered by the SJF. The SJF also receives matching funds from the CIDA, a Canadian government agency, for its projects with trade unions in developing countries. This government contribution is part of a three-year agreement with the Canadian Labour Congress, known as the Labour International Development Committee (LIDC), which runs until 1998.
In 1993-95, SJF priorities have included the repatriation and rebuilding in Rwanda, assistance to those displaced by the conflict in Chiapas, Mexico, and education in post-apartheid South Africa. In Canada, the SJF provides sustaining support to food banks and women's shelters. Currently, the SJF administers 71 ongoing projects with annual project expenditures of $917,000.
The CAW-Canada will increase SJF funding in 1996-98 bargaining, to meet the increased needs in our increasingly global economy and to provide greater support to our social partners here in Canada.
The increased number of members participating in the full skilled trades program has been dramatic. This is reflected by contract language and the number of participating Locals at the Canadian Skilled Trades Council.
The 1996 Skilled Trades Bargaining Conference has developed a program to take the Union into the future through policies such as contracting in and out and wage and pension compression in the trades and benefits.
Contracting In and Out
Our bargaining goals shall provide for strict controls on contracting out of work whether such work is performed within the plant or outside the plant, whether in Canada or other countries. This shall include a provision which requires management to retain all work within the bargaining unit and to fully utilize (i. e. for all hours - not just 40 hours per week) the in-unit workers for the work required. Additional workers could be hired in the classifications needed to keep the work in house, except where such work is normally or historically performed by the CAW supplier or parts plant. These controls must contain provisions that require recovery of work that was contracted out to non-CAW workshops that may have been subcontracted out due to full utilization of members prior to our members being laid off.
All contracts should include restrictions preventing management from contracting out work through the subterfuge of using attritional reduction in the workforce. Restrictions must be included on warranty service, service and maintenance agreements, lease arrangements, etc., to prevent any such "arrangement" from being in effect for any period.
Contracts must contain provisions that will require the companies to assign the appropriate bargaining unit members to assist the vendors who are brought into the plants to install, service, maintain, and modify equipment and/or machinery during short term warranty periods for technical modifications.
Prior to any action on outsourcing or subcontracting, management should be required to submit complete information to the Skilled Trades Rep and all outsourcing and subcontracting must be preceded by a mutual agreement between the Union and Management to assure that such contracting meets the conditions set forth in the contracting in and out resolution. Information submitted to the Union must be complete and thorough. For example: vendor bids, blueprints, personnel requirements, time limits, equipment lists, etc.
The company must be obligated to buy, maintain or rent the necessary equipment, tools and machinery in order to perform in-plant work and must utilize their own skilled work force. Only after mutual agreement recognizing the work cannot be performed by current personnel, should work be contracted out and then only to Union shops paying Union scale wages and benefits.
Emphasis must be placed on obtaining adequate language in our contracts due to the limitation on our right to strike during the life of a collective agreement. All contracts must contain a clause that prohibits contractors from performing maintenance or tooling work that belongs to our bargaining unit, until the company has replaced trades lost to attrition or has hired new trades to do the work we normally perform. With the advent of the Free Trade Agreement and companies' right to move labour across the border, all collective agreements must contain language to protect CAW members from the effects of this new contract workforce.
The issue of job ownership goes to the core of our relationship with the companies. Movement of work can only be granted by the owner - our members - and the certified bargaining agent for the work. Aren't we the bargaining agent for the work performed by our members? We therefore own the work, not the corporations, and reductions in hours or layoffs must only occur when the work no longer exists - not because of the profit obsession of corporations.
Apprenticeships and Training
Although the rhetoric about the need for a highly skilled workforce is common amongst employers, many have in fact done very little to plan for the future by increasing the number of apprentices today. Concentrating on the shortcuts of immigration and pirating rather than expanding the number of apprentices undermines opportunities for production workers to move into the trades, undermines opportunities for Canadian workers more generally, and undermines our future economic base. This is no longer acceptable to our members or to Canadian youth.
In bargaining, we will continue our efforts to have companies implement broader apprenticeship programs and to fully implement negotiated contractual ratios. Legislatively, we will point to the failure of "voluntarism" and argue for a grant-levy system to ensure a future supply of skilled tradespersons.
Modular training is being urged, which is designed to fragment traditional apprenticeship programs. And so-called critical skills programs are being supported by the Canadian government, further eroding traditional training programs. We reaffirm our support for a full 8,000 or 9,000 hour apprenticeship program which allows apprenticeship training directly under a journeyman/woman for the entire training period, and we will resist efforts to combine or fragment trades. We must continue to upgrade the content of all programs to keep in touch with the latest technologies and continue tuition payments for apprentices on layoff. Apprentices will be graduated at maximum journeyman/woman rate.
Historical biases against the participation of women in the trades must be overcome and we will intensify our affirmative action measures to assure equal opportunities for all workers.
Regular training and updating to ensure that our skills do not become obsolete and that we can in fact respond to the new technology, must become the norm. Such training and new opportunities within the trades must respect seniority; senior workers, regardless of age, must be given the opportunity to upgrade their skills.
A section must be inserted into the Joint Apprenticeship Committee language that the Union representatives must verify the Company has registered the apprentice properly (example: Electrician Const/Maint - not Industrial Electrician).
We must assure that programs are put into effect that will counteract the gender bias in the education system, and negotiate these programs in every work place across the country.
Fragmentation of Basic Trades
Companies have embarked on programs such as team concept, employee involvement, quality networks, socio-technical systems, multiskilling, and designer trades. This encourages interchangeability by teaching work at other than your own trade. The outcome is not new opportunities for workers but the erosion of skills and job content and, in the longer term, a threat to job security (as skills are watered down, companies will turn to subcontractors for "special skills". We must protect the traditional established basic trades and resist all efforts to establish super seniority classifications that merge basic trades.
This can only be achieved by establishing lines of demarcation language spelled out in collective agreements. Once the negotiated lines of demarcation are established and negotiated, the skilled trades will have the right to refuse to work outside of their trade lines and shall not be disciplined by this refusal to comply.
Plant Closings and Relocations
In order to have some measure of protection, all CAW contracts should have strong and unequivocal language giving workers special protection in the event of plant Closings, sales, mergers, or relocating allowances, protection of retirement benefits and full compensation for any monetary losses suffered by workers due to plant closings, mergers, or relocations.
For additional protection, CAW journeymen/women should have preferential hiring rights when CAW plants are hiring and the following language negotiated into collective agreements:
(1) A holder of a bona fide CAW journeyman/woman or a bona fide UAW journeyman/woman card be recognized and accepted as a Skilled Trades Journeyman/woman and this be accepted as fully qualified.
(2) Any CAW plant hiring any journeyman/woman give hiring preference to laid off CAW journeyman/woman who hold either a bona fide CAW journeyman/woman's card or a bona fide UAW journeyman/woman's card.
Technological Change
We must insure that new technology be used in a way that creates or maintains jobs and improves the working conditions of CAW members. Our contracts must prohibit or restrict layoffs/displacements due to technological change.
New technology job training must not be delayed. Employer financed training and re-training programs must be developed jointly to prepare our members for the new skills required. Members should be paid for such training or retraining. The opportunity for this training must be provided on an equal basis to all skilled tradespersons whose job assignments have or will be affected by advancing technology.
We oppose competitive bidding between corporation divisions for corporation work that CAW members have historically performed at each corporate location.
New Technology Committees should be established in each Local Union. The function of such Committees would be to serve as advisors to the Local Union Bargaining Committees. This would include such tasks as:
(a) Determining management's planning for the future through discussions with management personnel who are responsible for purchasing, placing and incorporating new technology into the manufacturing system.
(b) Determining job impact resulting from the introduction of new technology and keeping the bargaining committees informed of any reassignment of historic work.
(c) Determining new technology training needs and being an active part of all training decisions and the implementation of all training programs.
(d) Determining impending safety problems arising out of new technology applications and making recommendations for safety training.
Wages
The CAW has dealt with the whole question of wage compression due to flat rate C. O. L. A. and was successful in the last round of negotiations to achieve major trade equity improvements to rectify this problem. We must continue to monitor and address this in the future.
Within the trades themselves, there is no justification for a wage spread since all CAW journeymen/women have either served a bona fide apprenticeship of 8,000 or 9,000 hours or have worked in the trade for eight years. We must establish parity at the top rate.
The CAW traditionally negotiates an across-the-board defined pension benefit related to years of service. In some units, like the Big Three, the benefit has been related to base rates. This was done so that the replacement ratio (the pension income compared to former regular pay) for the trades would better match what it was for production workers. The pension differential had, however, not been changed over the years so the replacement ratio for the trades has fallen significantly behind. This must be updated and corrected in coming negotiations.
Canadian Skilled Trades Council Dues
All collective agreements where trades are employed must include that all skilled workers, as a condition of employment and when passed by the membership, be a dues paying member of the Canadian Skilled Trades Council, CAW. This Council has taken an active role at various boards, councils, government bodies and processing of bona-fide cards, etc. Wherever we have the Skilled Trades Program, the one half-hour dues deduction should be part of the collective agreement.
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