But they’re delighted! ericultural engi nthe Soviet Union, ult of automation at the big Roslov neering works ees some 300 eee have lost their jobs ~Uy—and most ¢ dighicns of them are No t one was laid off, andnearly how j i a : have jobs with higher Nikolai p Stance, y, Man in th ogibelny, 43, for in- Orked as a knock-out © foundry. eh See cnlzation was about oo , 1S heavy job, he and - Sn aa were invited to Offe ade union office and Teds ichoin z i Sections, Choice of jobs in other Five Nikolai, Partment. They alre: ledge” pec, had a sound know- Elonth’ foundry work. so a “3 peace Course was all that “ ded to fit th i a ihe. em for their Nikolaj i eo Works as a pourer S Wages chee 8€S have gone up by When n« : Welding 4 machine for automatic wet et Square-section pipes Welders peration, six electric . Bere Made redundant. ing c sterred to weld- > Pre ction Pipes, where Beate, oo lighter, but demands soe ee e : ledge €cision. Special know- experience are to @ of them including chose the casting de- ing ’ Fomenko is still at- © free course arranged y the trade union, but Squ Machine Ware-section welding - atom Sse mbly Ship, however, and An- atoly | Mas draw j ne UStons awn the appropriate en oe. Courc he finishes his present 2 He intends to complete his secondary education at free evening classes. “The new machines make a man use his brain,’’ he says. Fitter Vladimir Pukovsky is one of 2,000 ‘*Rostselmash”™ workers who have put forward ideas and inventions to improve production or do away with heavy work. He has been studying engin- eering at evening college and received his diploma just as the new automatic machines were being installed. He could have remained where he was, but he preferredatrans- fer to the drawing office. His wages are up by a fifth and he prefers the more creative work. Of course, the transfer of the 300 workers wasn’t as smooth in every case. Eight assembly workers, for instance. transferred to jobs in the tool-shop which they knew would result in lower earnings for quite a while. They requested the transfer cheerfully, however, for they knew that, as soon as they had required the special skills the job demanded, they would be earning a lot more than formerly. It's relatively easy to absorb workers when you are expand- ing. But this is no **temporary boom”. The workers know that expansion will go on and on under Socialism. In 1959 they were turning out 36,600 combine harvesters, this year 70,400, next year substan- tially more still, Over half the advance is due to technical progress, but the rest comes from _ increased capacity and extra staff. During those four years the plant has taken on many more workers than were released by automation. Srganize unorganized Union ont'd from pg. 2 On Movement OMe rig i Ss ht-wing le: 2 & ert ets ing leaders as 1S a need for less _ and more ‘*respect- i ; N order to organize lar workers. Would es © wrong for pro- Siy p fox Yes to ignore the need eat Cj Dros, Mfferent and particular - - to the organization of : lar workers, to thin, VOUld be equally wrong Men my the trade union move- : Militant transform itself from "Orking _ Organization of the a flexip) 4SS, What is needed is ashte, approach, of biggest Suggested that the area Sanizatj Possibility for the or- ‘hite i) : Erg s of white collar work- Work Mong white collar “Nterp mee loved in industrial “losena.. Here, there is a ‘ESS r and to industrial workers rig painity Of interest against ° e “a boss, White militancy existing among Sop Was av Workers in this cate- ler as demonstrated by Chrys- Teg * Workers in Windsor “ction. Members of the office Ker » Of the United Auto Wor- Strip - oe Were prepared to M a contract. At th j ee % Same time there is a 5 eas hint Va SO oe rl a erowing militancy among teach- ers (as in Quebec) and nurses (as in Toronto), and the evid- ence indicates such tendencies growing among professional white collar workers. Those who say it is not pos- sible to organize white collar workers are wrong, Kashtan de- clared. But the trade union move- ment needs to appreciate that to do the job means ending jurisdic - tional disputes. ending raiding and uniting to organize the un- organized, : Kashtan reminded his audience that it took 20 years to organ- ize the industrial unions, and it should not be assumed that if there are difficulties in organiz- ing white collar workers. these can be circumvented by short- cuts. The fight ahead is a hard one, requiring unity. Kashtan welcomed the estab- lishment by the Canadian Labor Congress of a committee to give attention to the organization of white collar workers. He said all progressives should try to stimulate an organizational campaign similar to that in the thirties if not in the same form, based on the fact that if the trade union movement does not expand it will become a weakening force in the economy. $5 ee EEX LEADING ECONOMIST SHOWS U.S. bleeding Panama dry while pleading ‘poverty ’ VICTOR PERLO, leading U.S. economist, recently wrote a long article on the money made by U.S. imperialism in running the Panama Canal. Below, we offer some ex- cerpts from that artic‘e, which ap peared in the People’s World. e Justifications of Washing- ton’s hard-nosed attitude towards Panama emphasize the claim that the Canal is unprofitable, and imply it is virtually acharity run for Panama's benefit. In fact the Canal operates at a rising profit now exceeding $50 million yearly. The United States budget shows that in fiscal 1964 the Canal should receive $68.5 million in transit revenues, and pay $22.8 million in transit operating exp- enses, for a profit of $45.7 mil- lion. Note that costs equal only one-third of revenues. Other services (ship repairs, operation of company commis- sionaries, utilities, etc.) are scheduled to yield $41.6 million, at a cost of $36 million, for-a net profit of $5.6 million. The total operating net, there- fore, comes to $51,3 million. The $1,930,000 paid to Panama rep- resents less than 4% of this. The remainder is appropriat- ed by the U.S. Government, main- ly as follows: 1. $16.6 million is paid by the Canal Company to the Canal Zone Government, covering the entire net cost of operating the U.S. military government in the Canal Zone. If the U.S. will grant Pan- ama’s just demand for sover- eignty over the Zone, and close its military bases, the excuse for this diversion of funds — unreported in all Official pub- licity — will vanish. 2. $10.5 million is paid to the U.S. Treasury as interest on its investment in the Canal — a rather substantial return on capi- tal for a supposedly deficit op- eration. It is 55 times the ren- tal payment to Panama. And original U.S. investment — some $300 million—has long since been repaid many times out of profits taken from the Canal and diverted to U.S. mili- tary bases and other governmen- tal operations. 8. $11.5 million is taken for *-veneral corporate expense.”” Judging from the slender de- tail given, this includes big fees to bankers, payments to Pen- tagon administrative offices in Washington, and other forms of typical corporate - bureaucra- tie devices for dividing the pro- fits among the insiders. These three items total $38.8 million, three-fourths of the pro- fits. By charging tolls to cover them, the United States violates its international commitment to run the canal as an international public utility at cost. For decades the colonial re- gime used a ‘‘gold’’ wage scale for Americans’ and ‘*silver’’ scale for Panamanians, who did most of the work on the Canal for one-third to one-fourth the wages paid Americans. The 1955 Treaty Revision, under pressure of Panamanian people’s struggles, nominally ab- andoned the double scale. (One reporter) claims that now ‘‘the official policy of the Canal Zone government and Company has been to hire Panamanians for any job for which they are even remotely qualified ... in preference to North Americans equally well qualified.”’ Other press comments fuzz Noe Neen saline CENTRAL AMERICA * = 5G Pacific Ocean over the question, conceding some remaining inequality, but implying it is minor. All this is a fraud. Then Asst. Army Secy. G. H. Roderick testified in 1955. when the treaty was up for ratifica- tion: ‘‘Though a_ single wage scale would be established it would not mean that all posi- tions would carry an American rate of pay. *-On the contrary, those posi- tions in which the majority of workers were recruited from the -general geographical area of the Canal would continue to be com- pensated at the locality rate of pay or a little better... this was a world-wide United States ‘practice’ (NY Times, Aug. 26, 1956). To this day the overwhelm- ing majority of Panamanian em- ployees are hired at ungraded hourly rates, or at special scales outside the regular US civil ser- vice grades, far below the low- est wages paid United States citi- zens anywhere in Government service, U.S. corporations flourish in Panama, and a few thousand Am- erican zonal employees enjoy colonialist privileges. But the Canal Zone operation costs the whole American people financial- ly, besides disgracing the United States in the eyes of the world. Caribbean Sea Map shows the location of the Canal Zone in relation to other Central American countries. Press Drive off to flying start! our paper. bracket, or better. The PT Spring Financial Drive is off toa roaring start! As we went fo press, almost $1,000 had already been turned in by press builders and clubs. even though the drive didn’t open officially until April 1. This is the most auspicious start in years and could herald the beginning of a whole new period of growth and popularity for Even as the opening salvos of the drive were being fired, 12 of our supporters were already listed as Press Builders. two were Premier Press Builders and one had even at- tained the rank of Honored Press Builder. These 15 quick starters included: Rita Tanche. with $100 turned in. and Searle Friedman and Fred Hanson with over $50. John Tanche, Ed Skeeles, A. Eyton, N.B. (Broadway), C.P. (Kingsway), Dunc Mc- Lean. L. R. (South Vancouver), Carl Rush, Maurice Rush, Julius Stelp, William Shaw and Lil Stoneman have all reached the $25 Nine city press clubs already have turn- ed in something towards their quotas and have been chalked up on our tabulation board in the PT office, the same holds true ““Swoosh.”’ $1,050 already in! for six provincial clubs. City clubs are. Broadway, Kingsway, Niilo Makela. Olgin, Vancouver East, South Vancouver, West End, North Burnaby (leads the city with 20 percent of its quota sub- mitted), and North Shore. In the province, Ft. Langley, South Surrey {46 percent of the way home). Kamloops, Nanaimo, Steveston and Correspondence have left the launching pad with a These results are really heartwarming. They indicate that our friends all over B.C. realize just how desperately we need the _ $18,000 objective we ve set for ourselves. if this start is any criterion, we’re in for a truly splendid drive effort this year. But, we should remember, it’s only a start. There are 18 other clubs in the pro- vince and eight in the city that aren’t ‘‘on the board”’ — as yet. How about getting on it in time for our next week s issue? Watch the PT next week for the latest re- sults and each club's standing. are published. Meanwhile, go out and collect a few dollars to make sure YOUR club won’t have a blank space beside it when those results April 3, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7 a Le a 0 ee ee | TT