_ ern workers to

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SaRAEEREER EE eee

MACDONALD SPEECH Hit AY

economic slowdown

Donald MacDonald, acting
president of the Canadian Labor
Congress, in his opening address
to the largest-ever convention
spoke of the all-time high record
for union membership at pres-
ent.
“Yet,” he continued, “it would
not do to be unduly optimistic.
I need hardly remind the dele-
gates here that there is a very
direct connection between trade
Union growth and union condi-
tions, Full or high employment
has added to trade union ranks;
Unemployment has diminished
them.”

Turning to the economic slow-
down now present brought
about “by government mis-
Management,” he said:

“But our concern about the
economic situtation is not for
our members alone. It. might
quite properly be argued, by vir-
tue of the very fact that they
‘are organized -in trade unions,
that they are better off than
Other wage and salary-earners.
Our concern is for all the people

He

Northern Electric workers
from Local 531 of the United
Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers last week took a brief
to the government of Ontario on
the question of the serious crisis
in housing in the community.

Earlier they had appeared as
a delegation at the municipal
council in the Township of Chin-
Buacousy asking the Council to
Participate in the delegation.
The Council unanimously agreed
to endorse the brief and sent a
letter to that effect to Ontario’s
Economics Minister Stanley Ran-
dall.

The brief to the government
pointed out that the minimum

' annual earnings necessary to
a home in Bramalea

- purchase I J
_ through the Ontario Housing
Made Easy plan was $7,800,

which is more than the top-rated
Worker at Northern earns and

Considerably higher than the
munity average earn-

Plant com
ings,

Rents in the area are also
high and constantly escalating.

gure of 25 percent of
right amount for
sible for North-
find accomoda-

Using the fi
income as the
Tent, it is impos

tion.
“Data supplied by the North-
ern Electric Company,” the brief
at of a total of

Says, “shows tha
3,473 employees 19 the Bramalea
plant, only 438 or about 12 per-
Cent; live in the community of
Bramalea. Another 1,376 or 40
Percent live in Brampton. The
Temaining percent of the
Workers reside outside the im-
Mediate area of the plant, and
Many have to commute up to 35
Miles and more each day to get
to and from work. ioe:
jef continues: r S
e pe vertised as a planned
- COmmunity. We wonder where

the developers planned that the

of this country and more parti-
cularly for those who are less
fortunate in their circumstances.
The relatively good years which
preceded 1967 were not good for
everyone. The poor are still with
us in larger numbers than many
would care to admit. The aged,
the unskilled, the deserted and
the widowed, many of the un-
organized, still live under con-
ditions in which we can take
little pride. For a time, there
were brave words about a war
on poverty. But the warriors
have retreated from the field and
the war is no longer being
waged. Those who were to have
fought this war now prefer to
try and make poverty bearable
but even in this respect they
show less than a modest zeal.
The purchasing power of the
people is being daily eroded by
rising prices and there is no
practical measure to cope with
ite?

MacDonald then referred to
the campaigns of Congress on
medicare, social welfare meas-

workers in the community’s in-
dustry should live — obviously
not in Bramalea, since housing
is priced beyond their means
and rented accomodation almost
nonexistent.”

Stating that government must’

recognize that housing is a
“public utility for which they
have direct responsibility,” the
union says that the crisis now
is proof that private enterprise
cannot fulfil the housing needs.

Their proposals to the govern-
ment of Ontario include:

e allocation of public housing
based solely on physical need
for shelter, not on income;

e federal government to con-

- tinue to bear 75 percent of the

ures, housing and other measures
to attack the social problems of
the country.

He then turned to the question
of labor legislation which he
says is being transformed into
a “device to inhibit union free-
dom of action and to interfere
in the internal affairs of the
unions themselves.”

“We have seen the introduc-
tion of compulsory arbitration
in one province after another.
We have seen our members sent
to jail because of the infamous

use of the injunctive process. We’

have seen legal strikes broken
by legislative enactment.”

This leads MacDonald to the
conclusion that answers must be
found for labor in political ac-
tion. ;

“In an age of slogans we have
suddenly become confronted by
the slogan of ‘The Just Society.’
It has a fine sounding ring about
it and is undoubtedly attractive.
It is probably only coincidental
that the slogan was first used in
a CCF Convention 12 years ago,

capital costs of public housing;

@ province to subsidize con-
struction, bear 25 percent of the
capital costs and all of the rent
subsidy;

® municipalities to operate
the projects, maintain them, and
turn over any net revenues to
the province;

® legislation to be passed by
the province to provide for the
establishment of municipal rent
control] authorities and an im-
mediate temporary rent freeze
that will remain in force until
other measures ease the present
crisis;

@ immediate expropriation by

but that is really beside the
point. What does matter is whe-
ther it is possible for an old-line
party, with the kind of philoso-
phy and vested interest it repre-
sents, to introduce measures
which will come anywhere near
producing a ‘just’ society in Can-
ada. My own experience tells me
that this is not possible. You can-
not at one and the same time ac-
cept a market economy, think of
social security as ‘this free stuff,’
reduce medical -benefits for In-
dians in order to save money,
and at the same time promise to
achieve a ‘just society.’ A just
society can be achieved, but not
without the will to create it.”
Turning to international af-
fairs, MacDonald spoke of the
need for world. peace, adding,
“One seemingly hopeful develop-
ment is the initiative towards
negotiations between the United
States and North Vietnam. Sure-
ly everyone would wish to see
these negotiations end success-
fully and the ghastly war in
Vietnam brought to a close.”

the province of land held by
companies for speculative pur-
poses;

e greatly accelerated program
for assembling undeveloped land
for housing purposes and begin-
ning to open up the land already

, assembled;

e Ontario Housing Corpora-
tion and the municipality of
Brampton to begin immediately
to construct at least double the
amount of family rental units
recommended in the Corpora-
tion’s survey of that Town’s
needs last year;

e establishment of an Ontario
Department of Housing and an
Urban Development to be res-
ponsible for planning of public

Finally, he dealt with the situ-
ation facing Canada as a result
of the “strivings of French Can-
ada for cultural and linguistic
equality” and came down firmly
against any suggestion that there
are two nations in Canada, say-
ing, “The Canadian Labor Con-
gress has consistently supported
the principles of bilingualism
and biculturalism . . . We must
continue to give our support to
those forces which will not only
make Canada genuinely bilingual
and bicultural but harmoniously
SO;

He ended on the note of the
future of the CLC, saying that
he was hopeful that “one day
our movement will be even more
broadly based and will show a
greater degree of cohesion than
is now the case . . . Complete
labor unity will not be accom-
plished at this convention alone.
It will take more conventions
and more efforts elsewhere. But
it is an objective to which we
must commit ourselves now and
hereafter.”

ommunity campaign
for public housing

housing, cultivation of new sour-
ces of funds such as capital
gains tax for housing, removal
of sales tax on building mate-
rials and supplies, expropriation
price to be such as to provide
comparable alternative housing
and prohibition of discrimination
in housing based on race, color,
family composition or income
status.

The union is planning a wide
campaign in the community to
press forward its demands in-
cluding a delegation to the
Brampton Town Council, a peti-
tion, discussion with candidates
in the area in the forthcoming
federal election and a further
delegation to the Ontario govern-

ment.

: _ benefits of our society.

THIS FREE STUFF

... had really not intended to engage in an elaborate

- discussion of social security ot this time. There are resolu-

tions before this convention through which you can express —

~ your views and determine Congress policies. | am, however, _
prompted te speak further on the subject because of a —
staement made by our new Prime Minister. While still a _
candidate for the leadership of his party he spoke several
times in favor of selectivity which is a euphemism for the

means test. He was not against medicare, he was quoted —

as saying. But, and here | quote him directly as reported in

the press, he said further: “! am talking of the future after
this great plan. We have had enough of this free stuff.”

What free stuff? Free for whom? Was he talking of un-

| employment insurance? We pay for it in full measure. Was

he talking of old age security? We poy for that; more than

our fair share. Was he talking of the Canada Pension

| Plan? We pay for that too. We will most assuredly pay for

| medicare and for every other kind and form of social bene-

| fit that has been or ever will be enacted. If there is “free

__ stuff” around, it comes not to us but to those others who

have always received more than their fair share of the

—Donald MacDonald
in Presidential Address, CLC convention —

MAY 10, 1968—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

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