THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

Ostensibly the act was
“passed to end a dispute bet-
ween the Oil, Chemical and
Atomic Workers and the

_ government-owned Saskat-
_ ehewan Power Commission. In
retrospect there is reason to
believe that this may have
been little more than the ex-
 cuse that Thatcher, with all the

- acumen of a_ successful
politician, was looking for. He
had warned the people of
Saskatchewan of the dire
consequences that would
follow a halting of gas supplies

in mid-winter; and those who
know Saskatchewan weather
can easily understand that
this, indeed would be
something disastrous. Ac-
tually, of course, there was no
real suggestion that gas
supplies were to be cut off. And
Thatcher had made no real
effort to effect a settlement;
there had been no conciliation.
Rather, having prepared the
ground by the creation of fear,
he summoned a session of the
eee and pushed through
Bill 2. : i

3 PROHIBIT STRIKE RIGHT
ae It’s application was ex-

tremely broad. It was aimed at
_ prohibiting the right to strike
: in any operation ‘‘furnishing or
3 ‘supplying water, heat, elec-
tricity or gas service to the
public or any part of the
public’”’ and it also applied to
the provision of all hospital
services. The word ‘‘strike”’
was defined to include ‘‘a slow
down or other concerted ac-
tivity on the part of employees
designed to restrict or limit
’) output.”
The solution provided by this
+ law for such disputes is
compulsory arbitration and the
provincial cabinet has full
authority to decide when an
emergency exists and the act
© should be applied. A union
which fails to comply can be
“~  de-certified — put out of
___ business — by the cabinet. The
other penalties are also im-
pressive. Persons calling,
A authorizing or counselling a
~ strike contrary to Bill 2 are
subject to fines of $1,000 for
each day the strike continues.
While the act was instituted

to deal with the Power Cor-
poration dispute, it was next
applied with regard to hospital
workers at Prince Albert.
Then, in June, 1970, it was
extended to apply to all con-
struction workers. This was an
important change in principle;
new construction was not in the
same category as the provision
of light, heat and water. But
there was a construction strike
and Thatcher again used the
big club method. He called the
legislature into session and had
the act amended to include
construction in its broadest
sense. He was imposing
compulsory arbitration by law.

The construction workers
who were the victims had
simply been seeking parity
with their fellow workers in the
neighboring provinces of
Manitoba and Alberta. But the
Premier, who on occasion had
used political platforms to
proclaim the right of
Saskatchewan workers to
equality with other parts of the
prairies, conveniently ignored
this fact.

| a

6% GUIDELINE

; And then, a short time later,
he threatened to use the act
against a group of pulp and
_ paper mill workers who were
on strike. Again, it is difficult
to see how a situation like this
could be a threat to the health
and lives of the people of the
province; but minor dif-

erences such as that do not
the He
weatened to again call a
session of the
lature, the second in six

and added an almost
ackmailing suggestion that if
did take that step the ex-
nsion of the act this time
d apply to all unions in the
. The Prince Albert
mill strike was settled.

government contra

itself, in the crudest possible
manner, by bluntly telling the
chairman what the settlement
should be. Thatcher has
consistently stuck to the
federal government’s six per
cent guideline and a short time
ago he told a delegation of the
Saskatchewan Federation of
Labour that while it was six
per cent for 1970 it would be
only five per cent for 1971.
Some of the members of that
delegation represented unions
which were already in
negotiation. A prime example
is the potash industry, a highly
profitable enterprise with
heavy dependence on export

markets which can have little:

inflationary effect in Canada.
Thatcher bluntly said this did
not matter, if the potash in-
dustry exceeded the guideline
supported by the government
then they would face the
likelihood of a cancellation of

cts.
Thatcher and the

Liberal party in Saskatchewan
are on a collision course with
organized labour; but not with
organized labour alone. It does
not take a very deep study of
Thatcher’s character — and it
should be noted that this is
very much a_= one-man
government — to understand
that there are other sectors of
society with which he is in
conflict. Prominent among
these are the educators.

Three or four years ago he
had a stiff battle with the
faculty of the University of
Saskatchewan when he tried to
intervene in jurisdiction which
the faculty members con-
sidered to be theirs. There was
a compromise settlement but it
was indicative of the Premier’s
attitude toward education.
Thatcher has never quite got
over being a hardware mer-
chant. Education appears, in
his terms, to be a necessary
financial outlay to equip a
person to do a job. Anything
beyond that is subject to
suspicion.

More recently he has found
himselfiin:sharp conflict with
the teachers of the province.
The number of teachers has
dropped considerably and this
is attributed to his insistence
on more pupils per class and
the elimination of what he
regards as -‘‘frills’. In
education, as in all other
departments, it is Premier
Ross Thatcher who calls the
shots.

Salary negotiations with the
teachers are lagging badly,
nearly a year behind; and the
regional boards, with which
the teachers are theoretically
supposed to negotiate, have no
real authority because of the
overall financial control of the
province. The Teachers’

Federation has accused. the

government of  scuttling
agreements which were
reached with some regional
boards. The teachers want
province-wide bargaining so
they can meet the holders of
the provincial purse strings
face-to-face.

There have been mutterings |

about strikes and a group of
teachers at Prince Albert did

stop work for a short time. .

Well-qualified observers will
tell you that the only thing that
is stopping the teachers from
walking out is their dedication.
And at the same time you will
be told that_there is really
nothing that Ross Thatcher
would like better than to see a
general walk-out of teachers so
that he could rise in righteous
indignation and impose tightly
restrictive legislation on the
teachers, forcing them to
accept salaries and
educational conditions which
appeal to him in the dollars and
cents terms of a business man;
but which violate the con-
victions of those whose lives
are devoted to education.

NAIK

AN

Beyond all this there is, of
course, the attitude of the
farmers. Saskatchewan is still
a strongly agricultural
province. There has been in-
dustrial growth but it has been
slow and some of the newer
industries — potash and oil —
have not been large employers.
The much-touted potash in-
dustry provided jobs for a
considerable number during
the construction stages; but
when construction was com-
pleted the job-requirements for
production were relatively
light.

And, beyond this, those
fortunate enough to have jobs
were falling behind in their
earnings. Saskatchewan once
boasted of the highest
minimum wage in the country,
now it is among the lowest. As
far as weekly wages and
Salaries are concerned in 1966
Saskatchewan was not doing
too badly (Manitoba, $85.51;
Saskatchewan, $90.79; Alberta,
$95.45). But now it is different,
Saskatchewan is running third
(Manitoba, $116.98; Saskat-
chewan, $114.13; Alberta, .
$128.37). i

PROPAGANDA BARRAGE

The position of the average
Saskatchewan industrial
worker is certainly not
anything to boast about; but
this has not prevented That-
cher from presenting the in-
dustrial workers — and par-
ticularly the union member —
as somewhat of a bogey man.
He has used his political skills
to make the most of the
propaganda barrage about
inflation and strikes and has
capitalized on this to create
division between the farmer
and the industrial worker.
Saskatchewan farmers, with
others on the prairies, have
been going through difficult
times and they have been

natural targets for this type of
brain-washing.

The attitude of some farmers
was apparent at the recent
annual meeting of- the-
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool
which adopted a_ resolution
calling for compulsory ar-
bitration with ‘‘a permanent
Jabour-management tribunal
authorized to preside over
industrial disputes and to pass
judgment which would be
binding on both parties.” On
the other hand there are some >
sections of the farm population
which have displayed an un-
derstanding of the position held
by organized labour.

ISSUES VITAL TO ALL

Saskatchewan has not had.a
bad strike record. Prior to
1964, in the days of the CCF
government, the time lost as a

result of strikes was well below

the national average and this
was largely attributed to a
successful plan of voluntary
conciliation. As late as 1968 the
Liberal Minister of Labour
boasted that Saskatchewan's
lost time was one-twelfth the
national rate; yet, strangely,
at the time he was sponsoring
more repressive legislation.
The Saskatchewan Federation
of Labour recently compiled
figures showing that in 1969
time lost through unem-
ployment was 190 times that
lost in strikes: and the
disparity for 1970 will un-
doubtedly be much wider.

NDP Leader A. E. Blakely is
optimistic. He and_ his
colleagues have been quick to
capitalize on the ‘tHome-
coming ‘71’’ idea. This
year marks the 39th an-
niversary of the founding of the
CCF, forefather of the NDP,
and supporters say it will be
the year when a government in
that tradition will again enjoy
a homecoming. The NDP now
holds 25 seats to the Liberals
32, with one vacancy. Interest
in the election is starting to
build. There are suggestions
that the February session of
the legislature may be short
and followed by a quick
election. When it does take
place it will not be Saskat-
chewan’s fight alone. The
issues at stake are vital to all
Canadians. ee