Pattern of U.S. control: _ Loss of jobs, 4 By RAE MURPHY MERICAN penetration into the Canadian economy comes in all forms and all sizes. We have the multi-million dollar schemes which turn Canada’s water resources into a reservoir for American indus- try. We have a minor American electrical manufacturing com- pany deciding that its export manufacturing will be discon- tinued in Canada and the jobs of a handful of workers vanish. We see the thousands of companies with the qualifying phrase “of Canada” after their name thumbing their nose at Canadian law as they answer the behests of the Pentagon and the State Department. We see the recent purchase of a small specialty printing plant by an American octopus smashing a well-established union because the masters in California have an anti-union philosophy. “ No matter which way you get at the question you open a can of worms. When you ap- proach it in the grand terms of national destiny,-the tendency is to forget the small cases of individual actions. However, when you come to grips with immediate instances, a pattern emerges. * * x STANDARD COILS LIMITED TORONTO On Jan. 13, Standard Coil Products of Canada was forced by its parent company in the United States to discontinue production in Canada for the export market... The export market amounts to about 35 percent of the company’s pro- duction in Canada. This deci- sion was taken in the United States less than two months after the Canadian management assured the union representing the workers~ that no such thoughts were contemplated and that production in Canada would increase in the coming period. A fully automated plant some- where in Ohio changed that out- look. Or was the decision tied up with the general American problem of balance of pay- ments? Anyway, the jobs of 100 workers are on the line and Canada’s exports will decline to the small extent of Standard Coil’s Canadian exports. Looking at the larger picture, not many workers are involved, although it is a rather major question to those involved. The subtraction of Standard Coil’s contribution to our total export picture won’t cause much of a ripple on the total scene of ex- port-import balances, but it all adds up. In a letter to Prime Minister Pearson, Local 512 of the Unit- ed Electrical Workers, which represents the workers at Stan- dard Coil, wrote: “It is not our intent to go into the many similar examples that have occurred in the past with Canadian industry as a whole. However, we do ask you and your government to take the necessary steps to see to it that legislation be passed as quickly as possible to curb such US. corporations from actions such as this which are so detrimen- tal to the job security of Can- adian citizens.” The legislation which the union speaks about has been projected by many spokesmen both within ‘and without the labor movement. Such laws are an absolute necessity for Can- ada because at one and the same time they will tackle vast and decisive questions of our national destiny and protect the growing number of workers scattered here and scattered there who are suffering the effect of present policy in their >lay-off notices. * * * KIMBALL SYSTEMS TORONTO An appeal before’ the last meeting of the Toronto Labor Council from the Printing Spe- cialties and Paper Products Union, Local 466, spoke of “the strike by 60 men and women for a living wage” ‘being in dan- ger because scabs were crossing the picketlines with police pro- tection. But there is much more to the strike than just that. The company has employed a “protection agency” with uni- formed men cordoning off the area of the struck plant. The uniforms bear a_ remarkable similarity to the uniforms of the Toronto police, and this “protection agency” runs the scabs through because of a nickel wage demand and the company offer. The company has offered to take back the striking male employees but not the women. There is a principle involved with the workers and, as they reported to the labor council, they told the company “to go to hell.” There is a principle in- volved with the company now, and that is to smash the union.. This is a new principle for the company, because in effect it is” a new company. Kimball Sys- tems has recently become an- — \ \ difference between the - ‘clusions union busting other pearl on the Lytton Indus- tries of California necklace. Company policy is no longer set in Canada but in the Unit- ed States, and the policy of Lytton is viciously anti-union. It is a multi-million dollar cor- poration, which operates basic- ally as part of the “industrial military complex” which Presi- dent Eisenhower spoke about in the United States. ‘Tex’ Thorn- .ton who has parlayed Lytton into a massive diversified em- pire is an old buddy of US. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, they both were “whiz kids” at Fords after the war, and Thornton struck it out on his own to get some of the military gravy being dished out by the Pentagon, and McNama- “ra had himself appointed as. the man in charge of the ladle. Thornton will not tolerate any part of his empire union- ized, and that includes 60 spe- - cialty printers in Canada. When Thornton’s money moved up here so did his philosophy. When the matter came be- - fore labor council, there were many enthusiastic demands from the floor to give Toronto’s labor movement a full commit- ment to the strike, but it was Murray Cotterill of Steel who got at the broader side of the question. He proposed that the labor movement demand of the government that Americans who operate in Canada must give assurances they will abide by the traditions and norms of Canadian industrial practice. Cotterill no doubt knows that the American corporate giants won’t give such assurances. After all, master races just don’t operate that way among their minions. But it was in drawing the political aspect of the question, that the point was made. It would be impossible to conveive of a government head- ed by Lester Pearson to enact the legislation demanded by either the workers in Standard~ Coil or by Murray Cotterill in labor council; neither the Liber- als or the Tories are built that way. But the problem of Amer- ican domination is essentially a political problem no less than jt is an economic one. The fight to regain our coun- try will be won by the Can- adian workers first being made aware of the immediate, deep- going nature of the struggle, then getting mad about it and doing something about it. * * * I may occur to some people that the Tribune is drawing too many wide and sweeping con- from two relatively minor and disconnected cases. We hope so, because we intend to continue doing it. la RUMORS are circulating in the General Motors pitt Oshawa of a 14-week lay-off in mid-May for the model ahh Rumor also has it that after. the spring layoff workers Wi : than five years seniority will not be recalled. So far it is} | talk that goes around; however, for the past few months © rumors have proven pretty acurate. Meanwhile General has announced that about 10,400 workers in Oshawa will bey off for six working days beginning Jan. 27, to bring, as a ‘ “vehicle stocks more closely in line with current demane automotive market.” ; : * * * Be REJECTING a company offer of from 34-to 46 cents an F in wages and fringe benefits over a proposed three-yeat ment over 8,000 General Electric employees, represented | F United ‘Electrical Workers union, have voted to take strike ® By a 96 percent margin the workers in GE operations © ronto, Peterborough, Guelph, Barrie, Trenton and Bramptot ‘s to back up demands for a 35-percent wage increase over #9 year agreement. : ; oS In addition, the union is seeking equal wage rates same job grades in all plants, regardless of geographical oC’ ip job and wage protection under conditions of technological (TS paid lunch periods and double time for all overtime work. * * * * 2 THE OIL, CHEMICAL and Atomic Workers union has “ie an important breakthrough in protecting its members in th a: of layoffs due to automation. In a recent agreement sign te tween the union and the Gulf Oil Corporation’s refinery. Wa Arthur, .Texas, it is stipulated that there will be no layoffs A the life of the agreement, but if the company does decide he any layoff, it must provide advance fiotice to the union W! if cellation of the agreement, thus putting the union in a posit strike to prevent layoffs. ; * * * THE BRITISH COLUMBIA-based United Fisherme? Allied Workers Union has Jaunched a drive to unionize fist on Canada’s east coast. At the present time the average f paid to fishermen and shoreworkers on the east coast js abo those that have been established by the Union in B.C. The 9 sity of extending organization to the east coast is heightet the movement of B.C. operators into various parts ~ | Maritimes. The UFAWU is actively seeking the cooperation of | a unions in the Maritime provinces and relationships have © 7 tablished with many unions in the area. 3 -* * * * | BRANTFORD electricians have backed up demands {0 parity with Hamilton electricians by striking all the constt projects in the city, including the new city hall. The yi members of Local 105 of the International Brotherhood © trical Workers are demanding a new contract which will & the same time as the contract covering the main body of ele in the Hamilton area. The present wage in Hamilton is ? 9 hour and in Brantford $3.70.