UAW will ‘wait and see’ __ if Feds act on auto Crisis OTTAWA — Reaction by auto workers to federal Cabinet promises Sept. 15 of some kind of action to Telieve them of the stern pressures of the current auto Crisis ranged from a skeptical ‘‘wait and see”’ attitude, to anger and frustration. The United Auto Workers (UAW) presented the fed- eral politicians including Industry and Trade Minister Herb Gray and Employment Minister Lloyd Axworthy With a brief similar to that presented to the Ontario 80vernment Aug. 6. % Both briefs called for the re-institution of Transitional Assistance Benefits (TAB) by the federal government which were discontinued in 1976. The UAW also called for tougher laws to restrict corporations from closing Plants without regard to the interests of the workers and if Communities. _. The UAW also called on Ottawa to re-negotiate the /U.S. auto trade pact to give Canada a fair share _ Of jobs parts production engineering, tooling, auto re- machinery and research. Full employment as the main priority of governments _ at all levels is demanded by the auto union and both governments were urged to initiate and develop planned Strategies of industrial development based on increasing Social control over the country’s productive capacity and potential. With 27,000 members out ofa job, the UAW has taken @ tough stand on plant closures demanding government legislation that would provide for placing runaway com- Panies under public ownership if they refuse to live by tougher laws controlling plant closures. On the eve of the Sept. 15 meeting with the federal cabinet, UAW director for Canada Bob White said his Union was prepared to join whole heartedly in the mas- Sive protest being sponsored by the 800,000-member Ontario Federation of Labor on the jobs and shut downs issues and stressed his union was prepared to carry the fight and step up pressure on politicians to the steps of parliament if necessary. __ The day before, at the union’s Canadian council meet- ing held in Ottawa White urged the local auto workers’ leadership to return to their locals ‘‘and arrange every local union’s massive involvement.” White said ‘‘there must be a clear understanding, that... all, and I mean all local union leadership at every level will be there on Oct. 18 and that includes sections of our union that have experienced little or no layoffs. . . . Make No mistake’’, White stressed, ‘‘our union is one of the driving forces behind this demonstration and we should Not let others in the labor movement down." Though one member of the UAW Canadian council Occupy OAS building Members of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR) of El Salvador have occupied the Or- ganization of American States (OAS) office in San Salvador, barricading themselves in together with a number of local employees. This action, which occurred Wednesday, was undertaken to draw world attention to the struggle waged by the Salvadoran people for an end to gov- ernment repression and terror, the release of polit- ical prisoners and the freedom of organization by aor unions, according to a representative of the The junta’s troops surrounded the OAS offic while snipers from rooftops fired at the people in the building, the Spanish news agency EFE re- ported. Three people were killed. Release Antonio Maidana! Shafic Jorge Handal, general secretary of the Salvadoran Communist Party, accused ‘U.S. im- perialism’’ of complicity in the kidnapping of An- tonio Maidana, general secretary of the Paraguayan Communist Party, on August 26 in Buenos Aires. In an interview with Radio Havana, the Sal- vadoran Communist Party leader pointed to the support which is given by the U.S. to the reactio- nary regime of Paraguay, which has been trying to extradite Maidana and other progressive. and democratic leaders. . Handal urged the intensification of the interna- “INTERNATIONAL NOTES left the Sept. 15 closed door meeting between the council _ members and the cabinet saying it was ‘‘a joke’’, the UAW leadership responded to the promises of action by Axworthy with a wait and see attitude. Auto workers were angered by the employment minis- ter’s virtual rejection of the UAW’s demand for TAB. The program originally was ‘created to sustain auto workers laid off as a result of the implementation of the Auto Pact. It provided auto workers with 70% of their regular income for a period of up to three years. Axworthy refused to be specific about what he was proposing for the cabinet’s approval, but he suggested existing social service programs could be extended for auto workers. This could mean extended unemployment insurance benefits, (about 20% of the unemployed UAW members have been cut off UIC), special job creation programs and an early retirement benefit program cur- rently applied in the textile industry. White also urged the federal government that if it helps bail Massey Ferguson out ofits debt-ridden predicament with Canadian tax dollars, this aid should be linked to guarantees of more Canadian jobs in the farm imple- ments industry. Brantford, where both Massey- Ferguson and the White Farm Equipment Company have announced massive layoffs faces a bleak and bitter winter of unemployment. Massey-Ferguson currently has some 5,000 workers out in the cold. UAW Canadian council members brieting the Ontario cabinet in August. Last week the council brought its pro- posals to the federal government. “7. if : ' © Labor Briefs | BONUS LINKED TO DEATHS SUDBURY — The co-chairman of the Inco work- ers’ health and safety committee told a federal- provincial enquiry into mine safety Sept. 18 that he believes the present bonus system may be costing the lives of miners at the expense of increased produc- tion. Vernon Ramsey, co-chairman of Steelworkers Local 6500 health and safety committee argued that monetary incentives for production work are built into the system at Inco but safety isn’t, and he charged Inco periodically cuts bonus rates forcing the miners to work faster to make up their usual bonus earnings. In the first seven months of 1980, Ramsey said, 52% of all medical aid accidents at Inco involved bonus workers despite the fact that only 3,000 or Inco’s 10,500 hourly rated workforce are on bonus. The joint federal-provincial hearings by a three-person com- mission which includes Keith Rothney, also co- chairman of the local’s health and safety committee, are probing the 20 mining deaths which have occurred this year in Ontario. The hearings began in Sudbury Sept. 16. j STEEL DEMANDS SAFETY PROBE SAULT STE. MARIE — The United Steelwor- kers union wants the Ontario Ministry of Labor to investigate safety conditions at Algoma Steel Corp. Ltd. Steelworkers’ Local 2251 sent a telegram Sept. 11 to Labor Minister Robert Elgie, 24 hours after a 29-year-old man working for a private contracter was killed in the Algoma plant. William Ebertt died in a Sault Ste. Marie hospital seven hours after being in- . jured on Sept. 10. It was the third fatal accident at Algoma in the past three weeks and the fourth since the beginning of the year. POTASH WORKERS STRIKE SASKATOON — Some 330 members of the Un- ited Steelworkers had to walk off the job for 16 hours at Allan Potash Mine, 50 kilometres east of here, before management would agree to hold special meet- ings to deal with the workers’ grievances. The work- ers struck Sept. 5 charging the company with unfair labor practices. tional campaign for the immediate release of Maidana, who spent 19 years in solitary confine- ment as a political prisoner in Paraguay. Act of “divine justice”’ Thousands of jubilant Nicaraguans poured into the streets Wednesday, dancing, setting off fireworks and honking horns of their cars upon hearing that the “genocidal Anastasio Somoza” had been assassinated. A spokesman for the Nicaraguan governing junta said the former dictator’s death was an act of “divine justice” but denied Nicaraguan leaders had ordered the killing. Reactions on Capitol Hill were mixed. Sen. Ed- ward Zorinsky (D-Neb) said he was not surprised at the manner of Somoza’s death given his human rights record. “Considering Somoza’s human rights record in Nicaragua, it is not surprising that those who live by the sword, die by the sword,” said Zorinsky, who as chairman of the Senate Western Hemisphere Subcommittee was a strong critic of the Somoza me. Staunch anti-Communists and longtime Somoza - supporters in Congress, such as Rep. John Murphy (D-NY), tried to blame ‘‘international com- munism”’ for the slaying. ; ‘However, the professional paramilitary-type attack has raised questions of possible CIA in- volvement. The timing of the assassination also coincided with the final preparations of extradition papers by the Nicaraguan junta to be presented soon to the Stoessner regime in Paraguay. Child slavery Portuguese police have uncovered an under- ground organization which sells children. The group was reportedly headed by a US. citizen named Moreira, who posed as an official of the U.S. embassy. Moreira built up a whole network of ac- complices throughout the country who supplied him with 5,000 escudos per child. Before his arrest, he reportedly sent dozens of children up to eight years of age to the U.S. Agostinho Neto Day The Central Committee of the MPLA Workers _ Party of Angola had decided to mark September 17 as Agostinho Neto Day. The date is the anniversary of we birth of the first leader of independent An- gola. Norwegians attack NATO plan Norway’s position in NATO and the nature of the commitments imposed on it by the NATO military are becoming the subject of sharp debate within the ruling circles of the Scandinavian country. The plans by the Norwegian government to de- ploy U.S. military depots on its territory were sharply condemned by members of the ruling Labor Party. As reported, the heavy military ‘equipment will be used by U.S. marines, who, in line with NATO plans, should be moved to this country in case of emergency. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 26, 1980—Page 5 —