Wide FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 1970 LABOR SAYS: NO 10 WAGE FREEZE B.C. union fight-back wins support The Communist Party of Canada’s central com- mittee, meeting in Toronto June 6-8 extended the full Support of its party ‘‘to the Working people of B.C. and their unions in their fight to defeat the attack of the big monopolies to lower wage standards.”’ A special statement adopted by the meeting said: ~““The attack by the Employers’ Council - of B.C., aided and abetted by the Social Credit government and its anti-labor legislation, is an attack on all Canadian . labor. The~ big employers are aiming to under- Mine and weaken one of the most Strongly organized and militant . Contingents of Canadian labor. “If they succeed, it will Weaken the entire trade union Movement of Canada and €ncourage reactionary em- Ployers across the country to Step up their offensive against the wage standards and con- ditions of all workers. “The Communist Party calls On all Canadians, particularly Organized labor in all other Provinces, to express in the most effective way possible, their full Support behind the trade unions mB.C. “We, on our part, pledge to Tally support among all Cana- dians to defeat the bosses’ attack On B.C.’s trade union movement, to help B.C. labor break the employers lockout, defeat anti- labor legislation, and win much Needed wage increases and Contract demands.”’ Towboat union negotiator Arnie Davis being taken from courthouse to jail last Friday. Indignation follows jailing of unionist Amid gasps and boos in the B.C. Supreme Court last Friday, Captain een Davis, chairman of the Canadian Merchant Service Guild negotiating committee, was sentenced to six months in jail and two other union members fined $25 on charges of contempt for defying an injunction which banned picketing 1n the tugboat dispute. Davis was’ removed from critical negotiations with towboat operators and representatives from the Federal Labor Department, and sent off to jail under police escort. The court also ordered that the asse seized and held by the court. Union officers announced that 1,200 members of the tugboat i ote this week on terms of a proposed settlement. athe Uae et of Labor and striking tugboat men have decided to maintain picket lines despite the jailing, and BCFL officers have said that other unions, including officers of the Federation, will replace pickets removed. Indignation over the use of injunctions and courts against unionists has reached a high point. A t press time an appeal was launched and bail is being sought for Davis. ts and offices of the CMSG be VOL. 31 No. 24 Profits reach all-time high By MAURICE RUSH At the same time that the Federal government last week announced its program to limit pay increases to six percent, financial pages were reporting the highest dividend payments in the country’s history for the first six months of 1970. Last Friday Finance Minister Benson and John Young, chairman of the Prices and Income Commission, announced to the federal-provincial conference in Winnipeg that Ottawa aimed at limiting pay increases to a maximum of six percent. : “On the day before, Thursday, financial pages of daily news- papers carried a report that Canadian companies have declared the highest dividend payments in the country’s history for the first half of this year. Total dividend payments for the six months exceeded $788,500,000. Predictions are that they will exceed $1 billion by the end of 1970. While the government is determined to shift the whole burden of its ‘‘anti-inflation” drive on to the backs of working people by keeping wage gains to a top limit of 6 percent, corpora- tion dividends are 8% percent over the six month period last year, and 10% percent higher than for the first six months of 1968. ; The announcement by Benson of the government’s aim to limit wage gains brought an immediate’ storm of con- demnation from labor and praise from big business. Spokesmen for Canada’s two major labor bodies, the Cana- dian Labor Congress and Confederation of National Trade Unions, as well as leaders of major Canadian unions, charged the government was waging war on the working people and that labor. will not take the guide- lines ‘‘lying down.’’ Some heads of nation-wide unions have called for an immediate meeting of the CLC executive to draft a firm rejection of the plan. In B.C. trade union spokesmen roundly condemned the Ottawa plan to limit wage gains. Typical of the reaction was that of Jack Moore, regional president of the IWA, whose union is now facing a June 15 contract expiry without a contract in the forest industry, said: ‘‘I’m sure that trade unions in B.C. are going to resist any artificial ceiling Mr. Benson tries to put on wages.”’ Employer groups, and the Socred - government which speaks and acts for them, See WAGE FREEZE, pg. 12 NO 6% HERE Dividends set record TORONTO (CP) — Divi- dends declared by Canadian companies so far this year are the highest in history. Figures compiled by Bon- gard, Leslie and Co., a Toron- to-based securities firm, show total payments of $788,589,201 for the first six months, an increase of 84 per cent over the same period in 1969 and 10% per cent over the first half of 1968. The six-month disburse- ments figure includes $360.- 665,041 by miscellaneous industrials, $173,657,235 by ALL TIME RECORD. This item appeared on the financial page of the Vancouver Province Thursday, June 4.