THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER MARCH, 1979 vy thewestern canadian is (Wor) 2200 cove Tes issue cem lumber worker 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.