Job

TORONTO — It’s going to be
a bleak holiday season for thous-
ands of Canadians who work in
the auto industry. After years
of assembly line work involving
a continual speed-up and over-
time, many auto workers in both
assembly and auto parts produc-
tion are now faced with the
prospect of massive lay-ofts.

The lay-offs in Canada are
coming as a result of a crisis of
over-production in the U.S. auto
industry. Inventories of cars are
growing at both the sales lot and
in unsold storage.

The problems of the crisis of
Over-production in the U.S. are
also compounded by the prob-
lems faced by Canadians in a
violation of the terms of the
Canada-U.S. Auto Pact of 1965.
Contrary to the terms of the
pact, Canada has a $1-billion
trade deficit in auto trade in
1974. As Canadians we have
then; purchased from the U.S.
$l-billion more in automobiles
and related products than we
have produced in Canada, which
means, in its simplest terms,
that we have exported $1-billion
worth of Canadian jobs to the
U.S. in the first nine months of
1974,

Auto First Hit

The crisis of over-production
in the U.S. is not isolated in the
auto industry. It is also being
felt in many other industries in-
cluding wood products, plastics
and chemicals and electrical ap-
pliances. But while the crisis
appears in other industries as
part of a general crisis of over-
production: in capitalist coun-
tries, it, for the moment at least,
appears to be most pronounced
in the auto industry.

The symptoms of the crisis in
auto over-production began to
show itself in earnest in the U.S.
in the first six months of 1974.
In that time period, car sales
plunged by 28% but the indus-
try, in hopes of maximizing pro-
fits, continued with stepped up
production. When the crisis
reached epidemic proportions,
the industry. made the workers
bear the brunt of the situation
and began sacking tens of thous-
ands while putting still others on

Soviet ‘Ladas’
for domestic,
export needs

While a Swedish car manufac-
turer urges Canadians to buy its
product because they are built
for the severe conditions in
Sweden, the Soviet news agency
APN reports: “The first 200
Ladas, specially made to meet
severe winter conditions, have
come off the conveyor line at
the Volzhsky Automobile
Works” in the city of Togliatti,
on the Volga. “They were order-
ed by a number of Swedish com-
mercial firms.”

Certain alterations were made
in the car’s design and finishing.
The seats are upholstered with
a soft and warm fabric. The
headlights are equipped with
wipers and the rear window —
with a special electric heating
device.

A portion of the plant’s pro-
duce (more than 600,000 cars a
year) is exported. One may
come across Ladas on roads in
socialist countries, and they are
also purchased by Finland, the
Federal Republic of Germany,
Austria, Belgium and other
countries,

uit : - =

§ exported—au

a short-time work basis.

The price that the workers in
the U.S. were forced to pay for.
the industry’s maximizing of
profits was high. By the fourth
quarter of 1974, more _ than
203,000 U.S. auto workers were
laid off on a temporary or inde-
finite basis.

As a car production slumped

}n the USA the effects began to

be felt in Canada. :
While the executives in the
Canadian auto industry knew

- what was happening to car sales

in the USA, they consistently
came forward with a cheerful
smile of optimism saying that
things in Canada aren’t at all
bad. But by mid-November, the
smile had changed into a frown
and Chrysler set the pattern for
what was to come.

In announcing that “there’s
no fix on numbers or timing. of
lay-offs yet,” Chrysler also an-
nounced that there would be a
lay-off of about 11% of its Cana-
dian work force. The Chrysler
spokesman, at the time of the
announcement said that he was
unable to be more specific about
the real numbers involved, but
that same afternoon, the Chrys-
ler Corp. of Canada obligingly
provided the exact figures to
Dow Jones — the lay-otfs were
set at 1,740 of its approximately
15,000 employees. The lay-offs
occured at the Windsor and Ajax
plants.

Lay-off of 400

Ford Motor Co. of Canada was
next. Earlier in the month Ford
optimistically announced that it
was going to reduce the US.
base price of its Pinto by $66 in
an effort to increase sales. The
action came too late to change
the drop in sales and by the end
of November, Ford was announc-
ing the lay-off of 400 production
employees at St. Thomas, On-
tario, where its Pinto is pro-
duced.

Later it announced a_ two-
week shut down of the plant.

At about the same time, Gene-
ral Motors of Canada Ltd. an-
nounced its schedule for lay-offs.
Again the announced lay-offs
were massive. In the company’s
“estimation”, 1,950 employees
would be laid off “by the end of
January because of a_ severe
decline in U.S. auto-sales.”

The .GM spokesman then got
down to the specifics. The main
blow would hit Oshawa where
1,130 workers were to be laid
off. In Windsor 220 were to be
dropped at the transmission
plant and another 200 at the trim
plant.

In the days following the an-
nouncement, the GM “estimate”
began to creep upward.

Secondary Industries

Then the last of the major
auto producers in Canada was
heard from in an announcement
of lay-offs. The Brampton Amer-
ican Motors plant, where Hor-
nets and Gremlins are produced
for sale in both countries, would
lay off its entire staff for one
week beginning Dec. 8. The plant
normally employs 1,200: workers.

As the auto assembly industry
reeled under the news’ of the
shut-downs and lay-offs, the
cruch began to show itself in the
independent and subsidiary auto
parts industry in Canada.

In the small town of Stratford,
Ontario, Canadian Fabrication
Products Ltd. announced the
closing of its plant for one week,
beginning November 24. Some
600° workers were idled in. this
subsidiary plant of the American
Motors Corp. where interior soft
trim such as seat covers is pro-
duced.

During the same week as the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13,1974—Page 6

Stratford announcement, the
Canadian Automotive Parts Ma-
nufacturers Association said in
a press release that as many as
27,000 of the 55,000 workers in
the independent auto parts in-
dustry face the possibility of lay--
offs in Canada. :

With 75% of the production in
the Canadian independent auto
parts industry going to the USA,
the toll quickly began to mount.

Indefinite Lay-off

In Windsor, John Moynahan,
president of United Auto Work-
ers Local 195 said, “The supplier
plants .are in one hell of a posi-
tion — there’s no way that we’ve
reached the lowest point yet.”

For 105 of the 200 regularly
employed workers at the Sun
Tool and Stampings Ltd. in
Windsor the lowest point had
been reached when they were
told of their indefinite lay-off.
The plant produces auto stamp-
ings for the Big Three and Ame-
rican Motors.

The lay-offs at Sun Tool must
have seemed particularly harsh
to the workers there because un-.,
like workers in the auto assemb-
ly for the Big Three, the Sun
Tool workers are not covered by
the protection of the Supplemen-
tary Unemployment Benefits
(SUB) which cushions the blow
of lay-offs to the Big Three auto
workers.

‘The SUB benefits will be of
some help to the 110 workers
who have been. laid off at Bendix
Automotive of Canada Ltd. The
plant which normally employs
540 workers, produces automo-
tive braking equipment in Wind-
sor. Stan Weiko, plant chairman
of Bendix for Local 195 UAW
said that all of the employees
laid off are “seniority employ-
ees” who are eligible for SUB.

f Not Eligible

Probationary employees are
not eligible for SUB, so it’s going
to be a bleak holiday season for
the 16 new employees who were
let go from Windsor Bumper Co.
Ltd. Windsor Bumper, which
normally employs 540 workers,
produces bumpers primarily for
Chrysler in the USA. :

At Tecumseh Metal Products
Ltd. 65 of the regular 190 em-
ployees have been laid off. The
Windsor plant produces stamp-
ings for the Big Three.

Wayne Eaton, plant chairman
of Kelsey-Haynes Canada Ltd. in
Chatam, isn’t looking forward to
January. With 60 of the more
than 650 hourly employees laid
off, he said: “The situation is not
too bleak yet — but it could
‘change in January if things keep
up the way they are.’’-

For Wayne Eaton and’ for
many other auto workers in
Canada the hard times in Janu-
ary may come as early as mid-
December. The Financial Times,
under an optimistic — headline
reading “Layoffs for Christmas
but . . . Our auto men avoid
U.S. despair,” said: “Sales of
new autos in Canada continue
to hold up remarkably well” and,
“We should not get the situation
in Canada confused with what is
going on in the U.S.” Those
statements followed the release
of the auto sales figures for Can-
ada in October. But for the
November sales it was a ditfer-
ent story and the figures show
why “the situation in Canada
‘may be’ confused with what is
going on in the U.S.” While U.S.
sales were off by 22% in Octo-
ber, the latest figures for
November car sales in Canada
show a slump of 19% under last
year’s sales.

’ The despair that the Times
announced our auto men were
avoiding is rapidly setting in.

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lay-offs soar