FREE TRADE

Continued from page 4

their food, their energy, or shelter, can only
get so uppity.

The folks who control world trade (guess
who?) find that parts of the world that rely
in a daily sense on trade are very easy to get
along with.

Take Grenada, for example. Since the
US. invasion, agricultural co-ops, intended
to promote self-sufficiency, have been aban-
doned, and land turned over to export crops.
Unemployment has risen to 40%.

But the Wall St. Journal (controlled by Du
Ponts) says on March 8, 1985, “Grenada was
and is an unimportant island, but our
successful intervention there had a very
significant effect on U.S. opinion.”

The U.S. has a whole battery of methods
with which to “persuade” folks that they
should play the game. For further informa-
tion on the subject, contact Vernon Walters,
former Deputy Director of the CIA. In 1964,
shortly before the military coup that
replaced the democratic, liberal Brazilian
government, Walters arrived in Rio de
Janeiro as “military attache”.

Just months later, his old friend General
Castelo Branco, (they met during WW2 in
Italy), led the coup.

Shortly thereafter, Brazilian peasants
were directed to stop growing the beans that
supplied the staple protein, and plant coffee.

Brazil’s volume of trade and GNP shot up;
but the majority of the population got less
and less, and millions suffered from mal-
nutrition.

Mr. Walters may be reached at UN Head-
quarters in New York, where he now serves
as US Ambassador.

WHO IS ANTHONY?

Because of the impressive experience of
two Canadian applicants for the Common-
wealth Relations Trust Bursaries, the trus-
tees decided that both should receive grants
for three-month study-tours of trade unions
in the United Kingdom. The 1985 bursaries
were awarded to: Jeffrey G. Anthony, a
member of the executive board of the local
union of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees representing employees of Met-
ropolitan Toronto, who has also served as
steward, chairman of the collective bargain-
ing committee and co-chair of the public
relations committee of this CUPE local; and
to Clay Perry, legislative director of the
Western Canadian Region of the Interna-
tional Woodworkers of America, with head-
quarters in Vancouver, B.C., who also edits
the region’s newspaper, the Lumberworker,

former research director of IWA Region
One.

YOUR
FORESTS,
YOUR

8/Lumber Worker/April, 1985

EVERYONE HAS TO SACRIFICE |

The rate of inflation may have slowed to a thirteen-year low of 4.0 per cent during the third
quarter of 1984, but that didn’t help workers or economic growth as earnings slowed even more.

The increase in earnings per worker amounted to only 3.5 per cent over the year ending with
the third quarter which meant that another 0.5 per cent was removed from real earnings.
long period of decline in real purchasing power continues.

During the thirty-year period after the Second World War — 1946 to 1976 — Canadian workers
achieved real gains in earnings which averaged about 2.5 per cent per year. Since then, there has
been an almost uninterrupted erosion of real earnings which have fallen by more than one per
cent per year, lowering living standards and removing valuable purchasing power which is
necessary to stimulate economic growth.

By the July-September quarter, workers had lost an average of $43.50 a week each in real
buying power. For all paid employees in the country, total lost purchasing power amounted to a
staggering $22.4 billion annually. — From: Canadian Labor

WELL, ALMOST EVERYONE

MONTREAL — Jean de Grandpre, chairman of Bell Canada Enterprises Inc. of Montreal,
received a 29.6 per cent increase in his 1984 cash compensation to $853,000, company documents
say.

The raise — of $195,000 is based on comparisons between figures disclosed in a shareholder
snioune sy circular prepared for this year’s annual meeting with those contained in last year’s
circular...

Cash compensation to all nine BCE executive officers in 1984 amounted to $3.63 million, an
increase of 30.4 per cent from the $2.79 million shown in the year-earlier circular for the executive
officer group. The number in that group was not specified last year.

The cash compensation figures include bonuses, BCE employees’ savings plan contributions
and relocation assistance.

About 20,000 unionized Bell Canada workers last week ratified annual raises of 2, 2, and 3 per
cent over three years, boosting their top scale to $36,869.56 in the final year. Operators received 3
per cent annual raises, bringing their salaries in the last year of the pact to $23,819.64.

The settlement also included some cuts in hours. — From: Canadian Labour.

Pre-tax profits of industrial corporations hit an all-time high of $9.4 billion in the final quarter
of last year, exceeding the previous record of $9.3 billion for the final quarter of 1980, Statistics

Canada says. — From: “The Province”, April 7, 1985

(Ida Dale, 50, has a few words about

FAIRNESS

“Tve worked at Eaton’s for 17 years.
My husband, Dennis, has been there for 31.
We're both on strike now for lots of
reasons. For one thing, we need to know
we'll have decent pensions when we retire.

We know Eaton’s employees don’t.
When my friend, Vera Sumka, retired
after 26 years at Eaton’s, her pension
was $115 a month. Clara Boone’s
was $70 after 16 years. Thousands
of people have the same problem.
And young people don’t want
that to look forward to.

You can help cut into Eaton’s
unfair control over people’s
lives. We're striking for
fairness. Please don’t buy

Ir you want to show your support for
from Eaton’s.”

_ — faimess for Ida, Dennis, Vera and the young
employees who could be in their position
someday, please shop elsewhere. If you have
an account card, cut it up and send it with
this coupon to the Ontario Federation of

ee

Eaton Tower, 1 Dundas St. W., Toronto,
Ontario, M5B 1C8.

Even if there’s no Eaton’s near you, you can
jot down a few lines of support for the
employees.

6 I Labour, c/o Committee for Fairness at
. >
Fairness for Eaton’s employees I Eaton’s, Suite 202, 15 Gervais Drive, Don
__T'm returning my Eaton's Account Card in support of people = Mills, Ont., M3C 1Y8. That way, you'll receive
like Ida and Dennis Dale. : ie t a letter of appreciation and a special button.
Please send me a button saying “I've cut into Eaton's”, ES 2 ‘

Es To explain why you won't shop at Eaton’s

ae until the company helps settle the strike with a
* Ke fair agreement, write to Fred Eaton, President,

|SDISESS: fi T. Eaton Co. of Canada Ltd., 19th Floor,

Tt

i

ss

Produced by the Ontario Federation of Labour Committee for Faimess at Eator’s, in conjunction with the Canadian Labour Congress.
For more information, contact your local labour council or the OFL at (416) 441-2731.

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