ewesiern canadian lumber worker ! publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA ional Council No. 1 Affiliated with AFL-CIO-CLC ender Street, Vancouv: E482 Phone 683-1117 Wyman Trineer nce with convention decisions. 34,000 copies printed in this issue Published once monthly as the of Western Canadia’ Sth Floor, 1285. Editor—Patrick S. Kerr Busin Forwarded to every member of the IWA in Western C: ‘Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year. EDITORIAL HE unmitigated gall of the B.C. Telephone Company to suggest that the current dispute with its employees could be settled by having the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission grant the company another rate increase to cover the settlement package is more than ample reason to have it brought under public ownership. B.C. Tel has demonstrated time and time again that it doesn’t care a tinker’s damn for the rights of its employees or the public it's supposed to service. The American-owned company — a subsidiary of the giant multi-national General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) — has one prime interest and that is to ensure healthy profits for the parent company. It does this by paying low wages to its employees, providing its customers with out- of-date phone equipment while charging them the highest rates possible. Its service is notorious for being one of the worst in North America. As a monopoly it will continue to operate this way if allowed. The blatant manner in which the company announced a sixty million dollar profit in 1980 twenty-four hours after being granted the right by the CRTC to increase phone rates to the tune of fifty million dollars a year, indicates its arrogance. This same arrogance is reflected in the manner in which it treats the collective bargaining process. To suggest that the CRCT cover through another rate increase, the estimated twelve million dollar difference between the union and company proposals, would set a precedent that could have disastrous results for the country. This must not be allowed to happen. We believe that federal Labour Minister Gerald Regan when he stood up in the House of Commons and suggested that B.C. Tel should sign the agreement would have made more friends in the West for the Liberals if he had set the machinery in motion to put the company under public ownership. FED'S VIEW ON CONSTITUTION The B.C. Federation of Labour announced that it has made a submission to the Special Joint Committee on the Constitution of Canada. Federation President Jim Kinnaird tolda news conference that the province’s central labour body participated in the Committee, “with reluctance”. “It was with considerable reluctance that we submitted a brief,” said Kinnaird. “We have maintained all along, and still main- tain, that there are some equally important issues which have been neglected because of the constitutional debate. If the federal government put as much energy into solv- ing the economic problems of the country and unemployment as it has put into the constitutional debate, the whole country would be better off.” “Be that as it may, we also believe that we have an obligation to make sure the voice of 270,000 working British Columbians is heard in the constitutional debate. We firmly believe that the position taken by the provincial government is not representative of all the people of B.C. and the federal government should be aware of that fact.” “Thirty-five pages of the brief contain those issues which are most important to us. The hasty timetable established by the government made it impossible for us to do more than what we have. The highlights of our brief are as follow: e The Constitution must guarantee a strong, undivided Canada. Talk of West- ern separation in our view isirresponsible and non-productive. e A major priority must be the inclusion of economic and social rights, including the right to form and participate in trade unions. e We are in favour of the entrenchment of rights in the Constitution, but not as presently proposed. © Mobility of workers from one province to another must be protected. e A section on the rights of women must be included. © We are concerned that the present pack- age does not contain any course of remedy if constitutional rights are violated. “We hope that the Constitutional Com- mittee will seriously consider these points contained in our brief and act accordingly,” said Kinnaird. By MARGARET MITCHEL NDP-M.P. Vancouver East When it comes to pensions, women are still second-class citizens, according to NDP Housing critic Margaret Mitchell. Not only are most women not eligible to receive benefits under the Canada Pension Plan, but those who are eligible receive a miniscule sum because of the discrimina- tion inherent in the plan. A further impediment to decent pensions for women is the government’s proposal to allow women at home to contribute volun- tarily to the Canada Pension Plan. “This plan further discriminates against poor women,” says Mitchell. Mitchell says women on welfare could not afford to make payments toward a pension. Other women who are full-time homemak- ers would have to rely on their husbands’ generosity to make the contributions. “So a woman’s pension is dependent on a man’s earning power.” Moreover, pensions that working women are able to earn for themselves are low because women earn only 58 cents for every dollar that a man earns and therefore receive 58 per cent of a man’s pension. If a woman takes time out from her career to raise children, this reduces her average earnings on which the amount of pensions is based. Given the life expectancy for women, says Mitchell, “more of our female pensioners are living on less.” In fact, three-quarters of all female senior citizens have annual incomes of less than $5,000. This is below the Statistics Canada poverty line. Most of these women are forced to live in poverty because they spent their lives as full-time homemakers, rather than in the workforce. They received no pay and now they receive no pension. They must rely on Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, which together add up to less than $5,000. The NDP believes that the problem of widespread poverty among senior citizens will not be solved until it is recognized that most of the elderly poor are women. “A government program for women to make voluntary payments into the Canada Pension Plan does nothing to eliminate the basic inequalities in pension legislation concerning women,” says Mitchell. “Women who are now senior citizens will continue to be poor under this program.” HUMAN RIGHTS The Canadian Labour Congress has reiterated its strong support for the human rights work of Amnesty International. CLC president Dennis McDermott stated that Amnesty International is the one body vigorously and impartially defending human rights throughout the world, and the CLC is highly appreciative of its continuing determination. He added that the work of the Canadian section of Amnesty International on behalf of imprisoned trade unionists around the world was warmly welcomed by labour and the CLC would continue to support the organization. 4/Lumber Worker/February/March, 1981