i TORONTO — Local 112:of the hited Auto Workers is enter- 8 its sixth week of a strike petnst the government-owned ehavilland Aircraft Co. face union which represents “most 1,800 workers at the air- Craft plant’s Downsview location facing a hard-nosed manage- Ment which has refused to meet With it since the workers were farly August. The pressures of inflation and h Previous four-year contract ave left the workers .behind et fellows in the aircraft and Uto industries. tage mPanY sluggishness in nego- m ms .was évident even prior aM Strike as the union had to , cure about 40 fruitless meet- .©8 With Dehavilland over. a —Ve-month. period. es tases in the strike are essen- tio Y wrapped around ‘the ques- Pe .. of wages, fringes. The : eee, offer of a three-year 7 one with 3% increase for every a rand no improvement in the |, Stof-living allowance doesn’t ‘9 oi the workers in view of the ie inflation has already taken | the; of the purchasing power of Be Wage dollar, and the de- | eo which their previous four 4 . Contract kept them behind in Test of the auto and aircraft UStries, bn EGINA — The 50,000 mem- Saskatchewan Federation of ‘cal r has called on the provin- the 80vernment to nationalize Province’s potash mines “‘be- wa of the mining) companies’ a Sant disregard for the laws the people of Saskatchewan, ma videnced by their refusal to eee and their challenge of .watchewan legislation.” ' pte companies obviously hold ieee ole of this province in de mPt,” the SFL said. “We s S id ply resent the fact that our the pelar will be going to pay 3 uge legal fees that the com- ri actions will lead to. We Rocoly resent their flagrant Wouter for the law, which te be tolerated from no pri- Be izen. The potash in this Ince belongs to the people, the 4 handful of corporations. Y have been making a profit a resource that belongs to hy oPle, and now they seem axe nk they shouldn’t even pay me to the province. They have katon ved their welcome in Sas- eng Vo" We shouldn’t have to 4, Our tax dollars ina legal to get the companies to heir taxes. We call on the ay ¢ V "tment to immediately na-- 0) . thig ize the potash industry in t a evince.” ty, “ddition the Federation in Teetj © day Executive Council ~"hg held recently in Saska- | MORE BORROWING uniatistics Canada reported con- : Credit outstanding on the hol is Selected Canadian cred- he . cts was $16.6-million at tha, Td of April, 13.7% more h ne year earlier. Personal Ose arty by chartered banks om: $11.4-million, up 18.7% == +Pril, 1974, forced onto the picket: line in- cht ae Ne ARAM tll La i - DeHavilland still out | over wages and fringes Class struggle | or classroom struggle? Parity with auto is one of the key demands as the union seeks an increase from $5.35 to $6.35 (weighted average) for produc- tion workers; and salaries for skilled trades ranging from $16,700 (up from $12,729) for tool and die; to $15,700 (up from $12,064) for mechanics: plus an improvement in the COLA of one cent for .35 increase in the Consumer Price Index as oppos- ed to the present one. cent for every increase of .45. Other demands by the union include changes- in the pension scheme which take into account the unstable character of the aircraft industry in its inability to maintain steadily employ- ment. : The government seems to be pursuing the same kind of “get tough with the unions” policy with its aircraft employees as it is with the post office. Dehavilland was purchased by the federal government from the Hawker Siddely Group Ltd., of Britain for a cool $38-million in taxpayers’ dollars last year when the company claimed to go broke. The financial position of De- havilland is now much better- and the government is now look- ing for a new buyer. Dehavilland is the only Cana- dian plant which designs and builds a total Canadian plane. | Saskatchewan labor calls | for nationalization of potash toon condemned the actions of the Post Office in forcing Next Year Country, a provincial maga- zine, to use the postal code. The executive termed the govern- ment’s actions as arbitrary and accused the Federal Government of “using the law to destroy one of the few tools that the work- ers have for bargaining, namely a public boycott. In other business the Execu- tive Council considered a draft position on Universal Sickness and Accident Compensation to be amended and presented to the upcoming Federation Conven- tion. - By SAM WALSH The September 1975 school re- opening revealed the weakness and injustice of Law 22. This law, which proclaims French as the official language of Quebec, exercises coercion and discrimination “against all those whose mother tongue is not English! La Presse of September 4 re- ported: “It was francophone par- ents, bitter and frustrated be- cause they can no longer send their children to English schools, who last night sharply criticized the new language policy of the Milles-Isles school board which demands that all those who speak any language but English at home must go to a French school”. The chairman of the school board maintained that the Ministry of Education had accepted this rule. At St. Leonard it is the im- migrants primarily who feel the coercion and _ discrimination. There the school board accepted a certain number into the English sector whose mother tongue is not English but who have a “suf- ficient knowledge” of it. But the number of places available for these people is frozen, and the remainder are obliged to go to a French school. ~ : So that, according to the pro- visions and regulations of a law which the Bourassa government pretends will defend the lan-. guage rights of the francophone majority, what we are witness- ing is the reinforcement of the privileges of those whose mo- ther tongue is English. The law is sufficiently “flexible” as to permit each school board to dis- criminate among those who ap- ply to go to an English school as in St. Leonard or to discri- minate against all who are not “pure-blogds” as in Mille Isles. In Hands of Anglophones But in a province where 80% of the population is French- speaking, why do so many peo- ple, including French-Canadians, fight for the right to send their children: to English schools? The main reason is universal- ly recognized. The big monopo- lies and -especially the multi- nationals are, in their vast ma- " everything QUEBEC TODAY jority, in the hands of Anglo- phones — Canadian and Ameri- can. When the problem is not race prejudice which is far from absent in the upper ranks of these companies, the question of “efficiency” is raised — that is, in their company must take place in one single language — evidently their lan- guage. So that, to get a job and promotion in many big compa- nies, English is essential, even though this is not always a guarantee against prejudice.. If these facts are recognized by everyone, one might have ex- pected that Law 22 would con- tain severe provisions to force the big companies to hire franco- phones, to allow them to work in their own language, and to promote them, without - discri- mination. To be sure Law 22 talks about this question, but here the “flexi- bility” knows no limits. Advantages for Multi-Nationals According to La Presse of April 17, Quebec ministers Guy _ Saint-Pierre and Fernand La- Londe, among other Quebec per- sonalities, were invited to speak before about 500 Toronto busi- nessmen on the implications of Law 22. “Don’t be frightened by it’, one of the speakers told them, ‘this law is not as bad as it might appear, and if you exam- ine it closely, you will find that it can secure for you many eco- nomic and social advantages.’ ' “The spokesmen of many na- tional and multi-national com- panies seemed to share this point of view. “The representatives of the Quebec government emphasized that the government understood the problems this created for many businessmen, and it would be accomplished as painlessly as possible. “The programs planned for the gradual introduction of French in the activities of the enter- prises will be adapted to their individual needs (do you see the enormous possibilities of patron- age and bribes inherent in this provision?—S.W.) and in certain cases, it may take 15 to 20 years to bring it about.” Chile labor asks Canada’s aid HALIFAX — Speaking at a public meeting here Sept. 17; Gilberto Oyanadel, a member of the Central Union of Trade Unions of Chile (CUT) called upon Nova Scotia labor unions to boycott Chilean goods in Can- ada. He said that foodstuffs are being exported from Chile while Chilean workers are starving. Oyanadel also asked for Cana- dian workers’ support for a re- lief shipment of food and cloth- ing being sent to Chile from. France on Nov. 15. On this, the last stop of a cross- country tour, the Chilean trade unionist also had an opportun- ity to meet with and speak to the 400 delegates to the Nova Scotia Federation of Labor con- vention. : Invited by NSFL secretary Js K. Bell, to be a guest at the convention along with represen- tatives of the Chilean solidarity committee, Oyanadel was called to the platform by the chairman, Gerald Jollimore, vice-president of the NSFL, and delivered a 10- minute address which brough him a standing ovation. : -At the evening meeting at Dalhousie University, chaired by Professor Michael Bradfield, the Chilean visitor was introduced by Karen McFadden, co-chair- person of the Halifax Committee for Solidarity with Democratic Chile. He spoke of the present oppressive situation in Chile under the Pinochet junta, and of the -people’s determination to win back their freedom. In his request for support for the aid-ship to Chile’s people (which is under charter to the Red Cross), Oyanadel suggested that contributions could be sent to the CUT account at the Bank of Montreal (Account 14038), 568 College St., Toronto. Other speakers included W. J. Wilson,. president of the Halifax Peace Council, who expressed -best wishes and support to the visitors, from the Halifax and Cape Breton Peace Councils and the Canadian Peace Congress. Wilson pointed out the part played by the multi-national corporations in the events in Chile, and informed the audience. of the holding of a World Con- ference on Multi-National Cor- porations, in Toronto on Nov. 14- 16. He expressed the hope that Maritimes organizations would participate. Dr. John Matthews spoke briefly about Amnesty Interna- tional on behalf of the Halifax group. Before returning to Norway, where he is employed in an elec- trical factory, Gilberto Oyanadel lunchéd with representatives of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labor and the 10-000-member Marine ~ Workers’ Federation, who agreed to submit the Chi- lean trade unionist’s proposals to the labor unions of the pro- vince, Former Quebec Education Minister FRANCOIS CLOUTIER Now that’s “flexibility” for you! Tell that to the parents of Milles-Isles or St. Leonard who_ found themselves in a vise the very first year of the enforce- ment of the same Law 22. Body and Soul Why this tenderness towards the multi-nationals? Well, to be- gin with, the multi-nationals aren’t accustomed to bowing sweetly before the laws of “local” governments. Chile, Por- tugal and even Canada are elo- quent examples of this attitude. But in the case of Quebec the government is working out quite a plan to prostitute itself, to sell itself body and soul, to the mul- ti-nationals. There is even a question of. offering $100,000 to Herman Kahn, head of the “think-tank” Hudson Institute of USA, to think up a way of im- plementing multi-national enter- prises in Quebec, while keeping © those which are already here. Thus Quebec would procure the services of a “pimp”. And God knows that Mr. Bourassa doesn’t need one, as we have seen in the sad case of James Bay, where he sought out the multi-national Bechtel Co. in the USA to man- age the project at the expense of the taxpayers of Quebec. Class Struggle It’s in this context that we find the “solution” of the Parti Quebecois to the language ques- tion so pitiful and so pious. They would refuse access to English schools to all immigrants — in- cluding those who come from Great Britain, while maintaining access as a privilege for Anglo- phones already “installed” here (who have more chance of being descendants of the conquerors?). There it is, no discrimination among immigrants — only dis- crimination against all immig- rants. And this, not to benefit the francophones, but to benefit the privileged Anglo-Saxon “pure-bloods”. Since September 17, 1968 the Communist Party of Quebec has taken a position against these nationalist and pro-multi-natio- nal “solutions” which, whether the sponsors like it or not, strengthen the privileges of the “real’» conquerors. National (and language) équality can be achieved by class struggle on the political front and in the plants and in the mines, and not by classroom struggle. _ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 3, 1975—Page 9 .