Labor charges Royal Commission
report justifies monopoly rule

OTTAWA — Julien Major,
executive vice-president of the
Canadian Labor Congress, May
16 described the Report of the
Royal Commission on Corporate
Concentration as ‘‘a blatant polit-
ical justification of the right of
corporate interests to maintain
control of basic economic de-
cisions in Canada.”

Major said the report, ‘‘fails to
deal effectively with the social
and economic consequences of
corporate concentration in pric-
ing, investment and technological
decisions.” :

The CLC statement preceded
by one day the May 17 condemna-
tion of the Royal Commission re-
port by the Central Executive
Committee (CEC), of the Com-
munist Party of Canada, which
called it a ‘‘total whitewash of
U.S. and Canadian corporations
in Canada’’, and demanded com-
plete rejection of the commis-
sion’s recommendations, by the
working class and* democratic
forces in the country.

The CLC expressed its ‘‘most
serious reservations” over the
Teport’s tax proposals which re-
commended the elimination of the
capital gains tax and the gradual
phasing out of corporation taxes
supposedly to “‘stimulate’’ corpo-
rate investment in the economy.

Major questioned the need for
as extreme an increase in invest-
ment in the economy as the Re-
port of the Royal Commission
proposed. It recommended that

over the next seven years, in-
vestment would be required at the
rate of 25% of the Gross National
Product (GNP), or $460- to
$520-billion. -

This must be questioned, the
CLC officer said, ‘especially
since it likely implies a necessary
cutback in government expendi-
tures, probably in social services,
or wage restraint if the tax pro-
posals aren’t implemented.”

To create jobs, he said, re-
quired social and economic plan-
ning and the development of an
industrial strategy to develop
“more relatively labor intensive
industries (manufacturing) and to
harness technological - change

Tax incentives to corporations
to create jobs and promote in-
vestment, Major said, had proved
ineffective, and ‘‘have only
served to worsen the distribution
of income.”

The CLC also criticized the re-
port’s proposal to de-emphasize a
government suggestion for the
screening of mergers, noting that
in the past when mergers have
been allowed to take place by
themselves they have “resulted in
greater corporate concentration
which has the definite potential
for adverse economic effects.”
The Congress called for more
thorough screening of merger ac-
tivity, in the future.

Major said the CLC disagreed
with the commission’s conclusion

“that existing legislative regula-
tions or safeguards on corporate
activities are adequate to ensure
the social responsibility of corpo-
rations as it is reflected in the at-
tainment of such economic and
social objectives as full employ-
ment and price stability.

“These objectives can only be
satisfied through social and
economic planning, which would
require a number of important
legislative changes’’, Major said.

Though the CLC at its policy
convention last month in Quebec
went on record supporting public
ownership ‘‘as an instrument of
economic planning and industrial
strategy’’, this position wasn’t re-
flected in the critique of the Royal
Commission’s report. Neither did
Major elaborate on how social
and economic planning could be
implemented without direct con-
trol of the decisive economic sec-
tors now in the hands of the cor-
porations.

‘‘Vehemently’’ rejecting the
report’s claim that corporate con-
centration doesn’t impede com-
petition or the achievement of so-
cial objectives like full employ-
ment and price stability, Major

said. corporations dictated the ©

basic economic decisions in most
economic sectors in Canada.
‘*The general tenor of the re-
port’’, Major declared, ‘‘sets back
public policy thinking 40 years, to
the days of the Great - De-
pression.” :

worl

By DAVID WALLIS

CALGARY — ‘How do you
deal with the only problem of ul-
timate gravity the world has
faced?”’

This was the question Re-
verend John Guy, of the Calgary
United Nations Disarmament
Group posed to delegates of the
Calgary Labor Council recently.
The UN Disarmament Group, is
leading a campaign calling for the
dismantling of nuclear stockpiles,
and calling on Canadians to send
letters of protest to the Canadian
Government demanding an end to
the arms race, disarmament and
positive results from the UN
Disarmament Conference, May
23-June 28.

Rev. Guy noted how the USSR
was about 10 years behind the
U.S. in arms production and that
the Soviet Union would ‘‘breath a
sigh of relief’ and also cut back
on its arms production if U.S.
President Carter could be per-
suaded to de-escalate.

He also pointed out that the
vast atomic powder keg that the
world is sitting on can blow up at
any time. The establishment of
the Trident Submarine base near
Canadian cities would jeopardize
the lives of millions of Canadians,
he said.

Canadians would have a hard
time sleeping nights, Guy said, if
they were aware of the record of
near accidents. With the present
escalation, the disarmament ac-
tivist doubted that the world
could survive the next several
years without an accident which

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 2, 1978—Page 8

could result in the launching of a
major atomic war.

In other business, delegates re-
ceived a report from Alberta
Federation of Labor public rela-
tions director Warren Caragata
on the growing attack on the labor
movement. For politicians to win
votes and be popular, he said,
they have to take a “bloody
truncheon”’ and have a go at the
trade union movement.

Labor has to get politically in-
volved, he said, point out the real

el labor discusses
disarmament issues

causes of unemployment, and
elect a government that repre-
sents working people to build a
society where unemployment
doesn’t exist. ~

Caragata reported the AFL was
preparing a book about the prov-
ince’s trade union history, and
noted, when completed it would
help. new trade unionists to
understand that present working
conditions aren’t a ‘‘god-given-
right’’, but the results of long and
in some cases bloody struggle.

PHONE WORKERS
WANT WAGE PARITY

TIMMINS — About 240 mem-
bers of Local 6, Communications
Workers of Canada hit the bricks
May 23 for the second time this
month at Northern Telephone Ltd.

Northern Telephone is owned by
Ma Bell, (Bell Canada), and the

Strikers are trying to give her the

message they want wage parity
with other Bell Canada employees
doing the same jobs.

CO-OP WORKERS
ON STRIKE

‘SASKATOON — More than
400 members of the Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store
Union took strike action May 23
against Federated Co-operatives,
here.

The union wants an 8% wage
increase in a one year pact, while
Federated Co-operatives persists
in trying to force them to accept
6%.

The brutal tactics of the OPP, May 24 aren’t dampening the Fleck

WOODWORKERS
STRIKE IN N.B.

EDMUNDSTON — Picket
lines by 175 woodsmen are being
maintained at the entrance. to
Fraser Cos. Ltd. woods opefa: .
tions. The workers, members of
the International Union of Caf
penters and Joiners, set up picket
lines May 22. The men want
higher rates for cutting in areas
where trees have blown down and
also want the company to hire
workers who previously worked
for contracters supplying the mill.

LAYOFFS
IN KINGSTON

KINGSTON — Kingston Spit-
ners Ltd. of Kingston has laid off
120 of its 320 production workers
for an indefinite period. A decliné
in orders for carpet yarn 1s
blamed. Also a slowdown in the
construction industry is partly re _
sponsible because the demand fot
commercial carpeting has fallen.

strikers’ determination to win a first contract with union recognition, nof
are they discouraging the labor movement from showing their supp°
for the women in ever greater numbers. :

——

UAW pickets beaten,

knocked down

OPP launch brutal attack on strikers

Special to the Tribune

CENTRALIA — About 50
club-swinging Ontario Provincial
Policemen (OPP), smashed their
way through a picket line at the
strike-bound Fleck Manufactur-
ing Plant near London, May 24, to
clear the way for a busload of
scabs to get through.

One man was taken to hospital
after being clubbed unconscious
while three of the Fleck strikers,
all women, were taken to a doctor
after being beaten around the
breasts and stomach. The cops,
With another helmetted reserve
force of 50 more, armed with
clubs and waiting to be called in,
jabbed the women in the stomach
and knocked men down as they
charged through the line.

The Fleck strikers, members of
Local 1620 United Auto Workers
was supported by fellow UAW
members.from the Ford Windsor
plant. UAW Local 200 member
Louis Haggith, who was knocked
to the ground by the OPP said'the
police gave no warning of the at-
tack.

- He said he was hit in the ribs,
and hurt his shins hitting the
ground as he was briefly knocked
unconscious. After regaining
consciousness, Haggith said he
spoke to the police chief com-
manding the force, who refused
even to apologize for the assault.

Bob White, UAW Canadian di-
rector in a telegram to Ontario
solicitor-general George Kerr
demanded the OPP be removed

from duty on the picket line for
showing their pro-company bias
since the strike began. The tele-
gram told Kerr the UAW would
not be intimidated ‘‘for one mi-
nute by the (OPP’s) brutal and
appalling behavior.”’

Local 200 president Roy
Wakeman, who had led 40 Ford
workers to the picket, said the
police action was unbelievable,

‘and predicted the next time he re-

turned to support the Fleck strik-
ers, it would be with 1,000 UAW
brothers.

Ontario Federation of Labor
president Cliff Pilkey was on the
picket line the next day accom-
panied by members of several
UAW locals. .

. In response to the UAW tele-

gram, Kerr made it clear to thé
press. ‘‘The police are there 0
allow those people who want 0
go to work to get through the pic
ket line unmolested, as they have
a right’under the Labor Relations
Act’, Kerr said.

This gestapo-like behavior of
the OPP was the second incident!
in which they have attacked thé
UAW picket line. Last March 30;
more than 250 OPP smashed thé
strikers’ picket line, arresting fiv®
Fleck supporters. The striké
began March 6, with the
women involved, trying to win 4
first contract with union security:
The company is partially owned
by former Ontario deputy Indus _
try and Tourism Minister, James
Fleck. Z