EDITOR

Mulroney government sets
out to bash unemployed

he heartless government of Brian Mulroney just
got more heartless. In the name of reducing the
national deficit Federal Finance Minister Don
Mazankowski announced in early December an
outright attack on the unemployed.

Starting April 1, 1993 those who quit or get
fired from their job without "just cause" will no
longer be able to receive unemployment insur-

anes benefits and those who do will receive less bene-
_ This mean ape attack against the unemployed is
inexcusable. Today there are more unemployed
Canadians than at any time in our nation's history and
taking a potshot at workers who quit or get fired is one
of the lowest blows that a government can deliver.

_ These new changes in unemployment insurance poli-
cies give employers even more power over their work-
ers. As everyone should know when a worker is fired or
quits, it is the employer who fills out the records of
employment stating the reasons for departure.

en an employee quits work in the future she/he
will have the sole responsibility to show "just cause." If
they are fired, and want to contest it, the employee

must once again challenge the system.
The onus is always put on the employee to prove
cause in appealing a firing or demonstrating that she/he

had legitimate reason for quitting.

That is unfair and a violation of workers' rights.

It's especially hard in a case of sexual harassment
when a woman is arbitrarily fired or quits to escape
harassment. Is the employer going to fill out a separa-
tion form which says the cause is sexual harassment?

From there the woman must go through a lengthy and
costly appeal process, during which time she will
receive no benefits, and prove harassment to the unem-
ployment insurance commission.

During the appeal process the woman will have to
produce witnesses or testimony to relive the entire
experience of harassment.

efore 1990 an einpleyec could quit work or be fired,
wait 6 weeks or less for UI benefits. After 1990 the law
changes to 7-12 week waiting period. Now the federal
government says there are no benefits torecontne:

The changes will also be especially hard on the low
paying non-union sector where job security is minimal
at best. Now when a non-union worker is red, and
wants to fight the employer, she/he must go through a
costly, Kee process of hearings at the Employment
Standards Branch or equivalent in her/his province.
Now add on the fact that the worker is also cut off of
unemployment insurance benefits and you've got a case
of double repression.

These government. penetaed actions against workers'
rights are reprehensible.

lazankowski said the changes will save the govern-
ment $400 million a year but failed to mention that peo-
ple who can't get UI and can't find a job in today's high
unemployment economy will likely wind up on jose
cial welfare rolls. So the feds annually save $300 million
in a $22 billion system while provincial governments are
saddled with increasing welfare rolls. The provincial
governments have also, as of 1991, had their welfare
Dp: ent transfers capped by the federal government.

en the government's own numbers show that there

is no real reason for the hard hearted UI changes. Of the
4 million annual claimants that were handled by Canada
Employment and Immigration in the last year, only
100,000 cases were deemed to have quit without just
cause. And these numbers don't reveal just how many
eons quit for any number of legitimate reasons.

The federal government isn't doing hing to really
handle the deficit. It is always out on its budget deficit
predictions by billions of dollars.

It isn't doing anything substantial to fight unemploy-
ment and has pursued a number of right-wing policies
such as free-trade, deregulation and privatization which
have swollen the ranks of the unemployed. z

Instead of attacking unemployment they are attacking
the unempic ey who contribute $3.00 to the UI system
for every $100.00 of insurable earnings.

LUIMBERUIORKER

Official publication of WA-CANADA

-ARCIA, GERRY STONEY .. President
ee Ne NEIL MENARD. Ist Vice-President
FRED MIRON |. 2nd Vice-President
WARREN ULLEY . 3rd Vice-President
5th Floor, HARVEY ARCAND | th Vice-President
1285 W. Pender Street ‘TERRY SMITH .. Secretary-Treasurer

Vancouver, B.C.
V6E 4B2

BROADWAY += PRINTERS LTD.

As humbly predicted in the
Lumberworker over 2% years
ago in a story which appeared
in this place called, "Free
Trade with Mexico Next on
Tory Agenda," a North Ameri-
can Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) is now moving closer
to reality.

On December 17, the lead-
ers of Canada, the U.S. and
Mexico took another photo
opportunity to sign the NAF-
TA, which now only has to be
ratified in the legislatures of
all three countries.

To insult the people of
Canada even further, the Tory
government held public hear-
ings on NAFTA during Decem-
ber in five cities only. The fact
that Canadians were consult-
ed after NAFTA was a done
deal, doesn't even phase the
Tory government.

When NDP Trade Critic
Dave Barret asked the Tories
to spend only $15,000 in ad-
vertising the hearings pub-
licly, the government refused
outright. Obviously, in their
eyes the less attention to the
window-dressing "consulta-
tion hearings" of the Com-
mons sub-committee the
better.

It's not that the Mulroney
government was trying to
save money either. In Novem-
ber, it spent $1.4 million in
sending 10 million copies of
pro-free trade disinformation
to Canadian households.

The NAFTA, if and when
ratified by all three countries,
will kick in on January 1,
1994. In the United States
president-elect Bill Clinton
has declared himself a NAFTA
supporter. Although, to please
a wide range of political sup-
porters he says that there
must be trilateral commis-
sions on environmental pro-
tection and protection of
labour standards.

Clinton, although safely in
the fold of the U.S. multina-
tionals, has said that Ameri-
can consumers must be
protected against Mexican

agricultural products sprayed

DARN!

NOW MULRONEY WILL
NEVER STEP DOWN.

with pesticides that are ban-
ned in the U.S. and has vowed
to institute training and work-
er adjustment programs to
take care of U.S. workers hurt
by Mexican exports.

The labour movement in
the U.S. has told Clinton that
any honeymoon will soon be
over if he moves quickly to
ratify the NAFTA without sub-
stantial changes.

In Canada, the Mulroney
government doesn't want
changes. It will introduce en-
abling legislation in January
or February next year despite
the public outcry against free
trade.

The labour and coalition
movement are gearing up to
fight against the NAFTA. At
the Commons sub-committee
hearings in Ottawa Tony
Clarke, national chairman of
the Action Canada Network
said the following: "Five years
ago anti-free traders had to
rely on abstract economic
forecasts, unproven predic-
tions, and a basic gut instinct
that told them trouble lay
ahead...Today we have the
facts -- job losses, a gutted
manufacturing sector, cuts to
unemployment insurance, and
the gradual dismantling of our
social programs -- to prove
our case. Free trade is not
working for Canada."

As more facts come out
about the NAFTA we find that
the federal government has
given away further protection
to American multinational
drug companies who now
have drug patent protection
that can last up to 20 years
without competition from
generic Canadian drug pro-
ducers. It's ironic that in an
era of Tory deregulation the
Canadian government has giv-
en into regulations that the
U.S. multinational drug lobby
a 20 year holiday to monopo-
lize drug prices in Canada.

The new patent protection
in NAFTA has been called "a
master stroke" by a former
head of a multinational drug
company. And rightly so.

TNGRID RICE POR THE LUHBERAJORKER

NAFTA snowjob reaches a critical phase
as government wants quick approval

Traditionally Canadians
have benefited from drug
prices that were about 1/3
less expensive than in the
States. Now experts say
Canadian consumers will pay
about $1 billion a year more
for drugs which will stretch
provincial health care budgets
even further.

U.S. consumer advocate
Ralph Nader says that the
lack of compulsory drug li-
censing will help bring down
Canada's universal medical
care system and accuses the
powerful U.S. drug and hospi-
tal lobby of conspiring to
bring down our health care
system which is a model for
the U.S.

Nader said in a letter to PM
Mulroney that the new U.S.
patent protection in NAFTA "is
a step backwards 25 years to
a period when foreign based
drug companies dominated
the Canadian drug industry
and used their patent protec-
tion periods to set Canadian
drug prices among the highest
in any industrialized country."

Like the Free Trade Agree-
ment between the U.S. and
Canada, NAFTA does not pro-
hibit the U.S. from arbitrarily
using its powerful trade laws.
This ensures that U.S. harass-
ment of Canadian softwood
producers will continue un-
abated. And now Montana
Senator Max Baucus said that
Democratic Congressional
support for NAFTA will de-
pend on US. trade action
against Canadian wheat pro-
ducers who he says receive
transportation subsidies.

U.S. trade domination over
the world is a key factor to
understanding NAFTA. The
USS. is using NAFTA to set up
its own trade mechanism
boundaries which will eventu-
ally be more influential than
the General Agreement on

Trade and Tariffs. Provisions
in the deal open up the trade
agreement to countries in
Asia, Europe, and Latin Amer-
ica who are now lining up to
join the NAFTA structure.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1992/5