THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

MARCH, 1979

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onthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA
Western Canadian Regional Council No. }

Affiliated with AFL-CiO-CLC

2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. Phone 874-5261

Editor—Patrick S. Kerr
F

Business Manager—Wyman Trineer
orwerded to every member of the 1WA in Western Canada in accordance with convention decisions.

Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year.

GUEST EDITORIAL

OF MICE AND MEN

OMMY Douglas, former premier

of Sastatchewan, former national -

leader of the NDP, tells the story about
politics in Mouseland, where the mice

kept electing a government made up of
_black cats.

The black cats passed laws pro-
hibiting the mice from running so fast
that the cats couldn’t catch them, and
forcing the mice to enlarge their
mouse-holes so the cats could get their
paws into them.

Finally, fed up with the black cat
government, the mice decided they
needed a change. So they voted
instead for the white cats and elected
them.

Unfortunately, the white cats were
no better than the black ones. They
passed laws making mouseholes even
larger, and preventing the mice from
running at all.

So the mice went back to supporting
the black cats, who had promised to be
kinder to the mice. The weren’t. Then
the mice tried electing ginger cats,
black-and-white cats, grey cats, Per-
sian cats, and every other variety of
feline. But nothing worked.

Finally, one exceptionally bright

mouse said to the others: “Why do we
keep electing governments of cats?
How can we expect them to treat us
fairly? Why don’t we form a party of
mice and vote for them?” .

He was immediately denounced by
his fellow mice as a “communist” and a
dangerous “radical” and thrown into
jail. 5

Says Tommy Douglas, “You can jail
a mouse, or a man. But you can’t jail an
idea whose time has come.”

His allegory is particularly relevant
today. For more than a -century,
Canadian workers have been voting for

.and electing Liberal and Tory poli-

ticians who are the representatives of
the nation’s business community. They
have as much sympathy for workers as
cats have for mice. Meanwhile, the
NDP — the workers’ party — is lucky to

get 20% of the workers’ votes.

Let’s hope, with a federal election in
the offing, that this is the year union
members prove they’re smarter than

mice, and vote en masse for the party

that represents them instead of voting

_for one of the bosses’ parties.

lf they do, 1979 will truly be an
historic year for the labour movement.

Canadian Transport

NDP MEMBERS BOYCOTT |
LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURE STUDY

Barbara Wallace, NDP
member for Cowichan, says

and on top of that, there has not

the two main consultants to the

she will boycott the $3 million
legislative committee’s
agriculture study because of
lack of accountability, inepti-
tude, and over-runs. She said
she will not attend anymore of
the meetings of the committee.

The original 11-month study,
commissioned in April 1977, is
now almost two years old, and
there is no end in sight, Wal-
lace told a press conference.

Two other NDP members of
the committee, Chris D’Arcy
(Rossland-Trail) and Dave

ch (Nanaimo), said they
will not attend any further
meetings that involve either
travel or the spending of public
funds.

Wallace called for the final
report, and full accountability
of the expenses of the commit-
tee and its research staff. She
said she is y about the
agriculture

“The $3 |

been one single positive effect
on the retail cost of food in this
province, as a result of the
committee’s work,’ Wallace
said.

She said she is making her
objections public only after ex-
hausting every effort within

the committee to get answers .

to the questions she has raised.

The study consists of four
phases, Phases 1 and 2 were to
have been completed by the
end of August, 1977, according
to the instructions given when
the select standing committee
was commissioned. The final
phase — the general over-view
of the food price situation, was
to have been submitted to the
legislature by the end of March
1978.

Wallace said the researcher
studying the B.C, Milk Board
charged the committee $175
per day. Yet his report was in
part lifted word for word from
a standard text published by
the Fraser Institute in 1976.
She also pointed to the lengthy
study researchers made into
kickbacks by food suppliers to
retailers and wholesalers.

Wallace said she is also con-
cerned about the funds paid to

committee. During the course
of their work for the commit-
tee, the two companies
merged. Together they were
paid more than $500,000 up to
the end of October and further
fees are still being charged.
The two companies also han-
dled more than $350,000 for
work turned over to other con-
sultants, while in some cases
charging a commission of 15
per cent. The delays in work
have been matched -by over-

runs in fees. For .example, -

Boeing Computer Services of
Seattle submitted an estimate
of $2,000 for work on one aspect
of the study, but the final figure
was in excess of $33,000, said
Barbara Wallace.

LIGHTER SIDE

The two prisoners were talk-
ing in their cell at Sing Sing.

“Well, if you was so good
with that female disguise,’’ one
said, “how come the cops ever
caught you at all?”

“It was almost the perfect
crime,” said prisoner number
two. “But I forgot myself when
I got on the bus. I had the right
change ready.”

Sure I know what a metre is . . . but what’s a fallin’
star got to do wit’ fallin’ trees?

[DT Te

= %

The worst has been con-

firmed. Women have _ been -

eliminated officially from gov-
ernment programmes dealing
with high unemployment.

Last fall, Ed Broadbent. re-
vealed the contents of a confi-
dential memo sent to Directors
of Employment and -Immi-
gration in the Ontario Region
with regard to the Outreach
programme.

_It stated simply: “Projects
which have been developed to
serve women are no longer in-
cluded as target groups under
the current policy guidelines.”

Bud Cullen, Minister of Em-
ployment and Immigration,
confirmed the>memo and in-
dicated that complete termina-
tion of women’s employment
counselling and placement
services are being considered.
The first in what is expected to
be a series of cuts, came on
January 18, when the Saska-
toon project, Women in Society

Today, was told it would be -

terminated.

The purpose of Outreach, a
federal programme sponsored
by the Department of Employ-
ment and Immigration, is to
fund community based ser-
vices -which can provide
specialized employment
counselling and placement
assistance to specific target

groups.
The 22 women’s Outreach
programmes across the

country help thousands of
women each year with the
special problems they face in
entering or re-entering the
labour force. They prepare
women to get jobs for them-
selves by providing counselling
in labour market trends,
educational opportunities and
job search skills such as as-
sertiveness, resume writing
and interview techniques.
While they do not serve

primarily as job placement
agencies, many of the projects
have higher placement rates
than that of Canada Employ-
ment Offices.

Cullen justifies the elimina-
tion of women as an Outreach
target group on the grounds
that women can take advant-
age of regular government
programmes offered to both
men and women, but women’s
groups have argued that there
are no other services which fill
the needs that Outreach pro-
grammes address.

Canada Employment
Centres are not prepared to
help women deal with many of
the obstacles they encounter
when looking for work: sex
role stereotyping, discrimina-
tion on the basis of family
status, sexual harassment, and
lack of confidence.

In’ addition, many women
come to Outreach projects
after experiencing humiliating
and discriminatory treatment
from Canada Employment of-
ficials themselves.

Following a meeting with
three of the women’s Outreach
projects, the NDP caucus
unanimously approved .a plan
of action to oppose any cut-
backs in these services, parti-
cularly now when the real rate
of unemployment for women is
twice as high as that for men.

According to Broadbent,
“women’s projects should not
be singled out for a dispro-
portionate share of cuts
precisely at a time when they
should be getting more
assistance.’’

: The caucus has been raising
this concern repeatedly for six
months and will continue to
demonstrate that the employ-
ment-related needs of women
are a government responsi-

bility which should not be
ignored.