By GEORGE MORRIS

€ Narcotics evil is now
idea factories and offices,
Mite rarer young and old,
1 data paee white, according
vin Tom several sources.
} .° 2 recent peeks have some
: been = runnin,
} 2, paces on the danger. :
ledge of 1S not lack of know-
| len the evil that’s the prob-
“teag © epidemic continues to
towed despite widespread
1 The 2 of its perils.
“tion ndifference of the trade
‘he point woment has revealed
‘ton on Where belated exhort-

menace has little

=

fo . G. Davies,
batchoy’® Secretary of the Sas-
Le. he Federation of Labor,
too win Tecently issued the
Met 8. Statement with res-

/ REGINA __ yy
rc

uncer, vt the changes an-
an € in the right direc-
i MS hesitant and de-

a tay iking of the basic
Ne benef €xemption provides
Ugh, Wai ts for example, al-
Mi teleggs nS until 1972 will
lag aan Bactions) dol-
, ave provided
eines distressed oe omay
es n of unemployment.

& that ee in this whole
he asin udget fails badly.
t 8 Of unemployment is
pe cdiately but

ar, or year and

bet The Federal’ Govern-
Mog hen 4 Continued with the
8 €d idea that jobless

°Y Bruce Magnuson

\a
Pecia] Session of the Nova

Ithos ature to pass tough
legislation to end

a action. Certainly
ae has never experi-
ae like that before.
at one nyas the province
Preced time purported to
a €nt for study and
ee policies and
eYveen © bring peace
Xtopian Pital and fesoe Such
Coy Q, me of affairs was,
Ditalig, ot © be achieved in
Stick Society. So now the
Sd “PProach is being ap-

. 8 ne

W a
the Tesyly proach appears to
a interests

Otia’s Premi

as ‘emier
Rew en trying to woo
8 in the €xtended invest-
ave province. As press
a the premier was
ie pressures on
t eeean tour where
nt capitn Sources of in-
‘Off, © back Sah As a result he
my sve t ane to go on the
) Slavag of ait-iac Tganized labor

ft et and make
Orej ers in th :
3 ba e Capital. e€ service
Ck

adi
Dita) vats pos to fall over
St invecs cccommodate ca-
Stors contrasts with

'ABOR SCENE

effect. And the worst is yet to
come as Vietnam veterans re-
turn to the shops and bring with

them the “new life style” they

acquired there, and addicted ex-

students become workers. A
summary of conditions in shops
and offices in the New York
Times on June 21, even allow-
ing for exaggerations indicates
the Situation is very serious.
The National Industrial Con-
ference Board of New York
says that its survey of 222
companies across the. country
showed 53% reported some drug
abuse among employees. A

number of companies are now

levels of 6% or more are ac-
ceptable. Evidently, too, the
Government does not see unem-
ployment as a grim and omi-
nous problem requiring prompt
attention and remedy... -

“It is openly conceded that
the: Federal Budget represents a
long retreat from equitable tax
proposals made by the Carter
Commission. Corporations and
big shareholders may rejoice,
but on both short and long
term, this means the average
taxpayer will have to make up
the difference .. - :

“If a deliberate and conscious
effort had been made in the
budget to get construction go-
ing, using as one method, the
removal of the 11% sales tax,
unemployment could have been
rapidly reduced. Several hun-
dred thousand Canadians will
not work because of this la-
mentable omission.”

sending job applicants to spe-
cial laboratories for urine tests.

Dr. David Sohn, medical di-
rector of the Laboratory of
Chromatography of New York,
says that from 70 to 80 of the
top 500 corporations on Fortune
magazine’s list, now test most

_ of their job applicants. A year

ago, says Sohn, his laboratory
had 20 to 30 such tests a week;
now the lab has 400 to 500 a
day, with New York’s General
Motors and New York Tele-
phone Co. among the clients.

An analysis of 50,000 tests,
says Sohn, showed 6.5 percent
heroin; 1.8 percent barbiturates
and .7 percent amphetamines.
Urine tests don’t show up mari-
juana or hallucinogens (LSD,
etc.) This may not be typical of
the country because New York,
the narcotics. capital of the
world, reportedly has about
half of the estimated 300,000
hard drug addicts in the coun-
try. But many areas are catch-
ing up fast. :

The Times’ hair-raising inter-
views with addicts, union lead-
ers and supervisors in Detroit's
Cadillac plant tell of a middle-
aged machanic who says he
goes into the men’s room four
times a day ‘at a cost of $60
daily, to ‘shoot heroin in his
veins. A young worker told how
narcotic peddlers have been
pressuring him to become a
pusher in the plant with assur-

ance that he could very quickly .

make enough to buy a shiny
Cadillac. Workers tell of their
constant worry as operators of
cranes and fork lifts known to
be high on drugs—drive their
equipment at crazy .speeds.

Why the spread of drug ad- .

diction to workers in plants?
Workers, a majority of the peo-
ple in our society, aren't isol-
ated from what’s happening in

Drugs menace U.S. workers

it generally. Drug addiction and
its companion, crime, are the
current symptoms of the dege-
neracy: that monopoly capitalism
brings as it comes into its last

stage. Historically, as is well

known, imperialism even in its
early stage imposed the use of
opium on subject people for the
profit it brings and the’ paralyz-
ing effect it has on peoples. Iro-
nically, ,Turkey, which received
billions in U.S. “aid”
principal supplier of the narco-
tics sold in the U.S.

Today, the drug evil is espe-
cially widespread among young
people and among the most
abused poor, who are condemn-
ed to a dead-end future of pov-
erty or death on battlefields.
The evil has now become wide-
spread among the well-to-do
youth. Many rob and kill to get
the price of a fix.

There are some additional
factors on the production lines.
The Times survey gives just a
hint. People at the Detroit plant
suggested, say the Times, “that
the tedium of the job drives
workers to drugs.” Many on the
assembly may twist a bolt or
set a screw 400 times during a

day. But that’s an old story.

Much of the new technology
accompying automation and
computerized equipment has
brought on occupations that tax
a worker’s mental capacity more
heavily. The United Automobile
Workers found it necessary to
set up a psychiatric department
some time ago to deal with that
problem. The last contract in-
cludes a provision covering psy-
chiatric treatment.

Along with the general trend
there is still another factor. Big
plants, especially in-the auto in-
dustry, have for many years
been a field of operations for
organized crime, mainly in the
numbers racket: Union stew-_
ards and others who move free-

is the —

acknowledged.

ly in a department, are usually
the object of racketeers seeking
policy slip handlers. So attrac-
tive has this become to some,
often providing more than the
wages — that in some cases
stewards would spend -big .mo-
ney in re-election campaigns.
The machinery has been quite
well set in many plants for
years. It was bad for the union,
as many union leaders often.

—(Daily World)

INS. strait-jacket for labor

the contemptuous attitude these
corporate giants show towards
the government. For instance,
Nova Scotia Labor Minister
Leonard Pace, who also carries
the portfolio of Attorney Gene-
ral, confesses that it was two
months after he took office last
October before: he found out
the identity of the general cont-
ractor now building two new
plants for the Michelin Mfg. Co.
at Granton and Bridgewater. In
other words, the elected gov-
‘ernment have become in fact
errand boys for big business.
The real proof of this was to
be seen in the struggle of the
Canso Strait fishermen Jast year
and subsequently. The new
Liberal regime in Nova Scotia
has not had the intestinal forti-
tude to see to it that the newly
amended Labor Relations Act is
properly enforced. On the cont-
rary, everything has been done
— including outright violation
of the Act and its intent a0
please the foreign companies
dominating the fishing industry.
As a consequence the fishermen
are still struggling for the right
to a union of their choice.
In the case of construction,
the new bill calls for agree-
y unions an

companies before construction

commences.
strike, there is to be no picket-
ing, only submission to compul-
sory arbitration. The pill applies

specifically to industrial con-
struction projects involving
more than $10 million, and
this sum may be cut down to $5
million before the bill is passed.

Unions that are not party to
an agreement when a construc-
iton job commences, may strike
for 30 days, but without picket-
ing. During this time, strike
breakers may not be employed
on the job struck by union
members. But if a settlement is
fot achieved within 30 days the
issue must be resolved by com-
pulsory arbitration. The parties
to the strike then have seven
days to agree to the personnel
make-up of an arbitration
board. If they cannot do so
within this time, the minister

will appoint a board. .

’ Looking at the publicized pro-
visions of this anti-strike and
antipicketing bill, it is the thin
edgeSof a wedge that will be
driven -wider and. deeper into
the body of Canadian labor. The
very heart of the collective bar-
gaining process is the right to
strike and picket. Without this,
free collective bargaining is as
dead as a dodo. ;
What Nova aaa aa
‘me is doing, and wha
Teicher would have liked to do
in Saskatchewan but never got
the opportunity to do, is an ex-
periment in the area of compul-
sion to see how far it is pos-

sible to go in that direction.
Some form of “legal protection”
against strike-breaking is un-
doubtedly the bait used to seek
labor “approval”, if only unof-
ficially, by behind-the-scenes
consultations with top jJeaders
in some of the unions, in much
the same way as U.S. President
Nixon did with his consultative
body of labor and management
representatives in the construc-
tion field, south of the border.

It is difficult to envisage such
an experiment in this vital area
of labor-management relations
without some prior commit-
ment by some top leaders of
unions to collaborate, and to go
at least part way with the em-
ployers and government in an
effort to behead militancy and
put the workers against a wall
by taking away the legal right
to strike and picket.

Unprecedented experimenta-
tions with fundamental rights
in this arbitrary way call for
unprecedented ways of struggle
to defeat the aims of the em-
ployers and the government.

In this particular case, one
can expect that the Nova Scotia
Federation of Labor, central
labor councils and_ individual
unions will
gency action to beat back this
serious threat to organized
labor’s right in Nova Scotia.

At the same time, this is not
only a matter of concern to

undertake emer- .

unions ‘in the province of Nova
Scotia, but a threat to organ-
ized labor everywhere in Can-
ada. For this reason, unions
from coast to coast face a se-

rious challenge at this time to

aiding labor in Nova Scotia,
ahd by so doing, save them-
selves from similar dangers.

The patchwork of provincial
labor legislation now in exist-
ence from British Columbia to
Newfoundland is not reassuring
for the trade union movement
and the workers employed prim-
arily in the private sector of
Canada’s economy. It is in this
area that the bulk of the labor
force is employed.

The time has come when
united action by labor, based
upon a more democratic and
sovereign trade union structure,
has to ve promoted by leaders
of Jabor.in this country. Only
labor solidarity and _ struggle
can beat back the- attacks on
labor’s rights and turn the tables
for effective action to curb the
power of the monopolies and
multi - national _ corporations.
Unity in action is the pass-word
for success, while class colla-
boration and disunity cannot
but lead to disaster for the
workers. The final solution will
eventually boil down to the
struggle for political power in
the hands of the working people
and an end to monopoly ex-
ploitation.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FRIDAY, JULY 9, 1971—PAGE 5

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