TORONTO — A recent study by the United”Electri- cal workers shows.that an average factory worker living in Metro Toronto is going to have to win a $3.50 an hour wage hike over the next year just to protect his or her family’s existing standard of living. ' Inflation, runaway mortgage costs and the results of ’ the oil pricing agreement between Ottawa and Alberta, _the UE study shows, will cost this family an extra $606.39 @ month to meet living costs. The UE warns, “‘trade unions are going to have to pay hikes that even come close to spiralling living | Costs.” And, the union sounds another warning to the provin- . Cial labor federations and the 2-million member Cana- ~ dian Labor Congress that co-ordinated wage demands and co-ordinated wage drives among CLC affiliates will _ have to be undertaken by these leading labor bodies *‘if there is to be a chance of workers even keeping their heads above water in this period.” The UE used the recommended family budget calcu- lated by the Metro Toronto Social: Planning Council (SPC) for a family of four as the basis for calculating living cists in its analysis. The typical family described in the UE study includes a husband working as full time wage earner getting fight like hell over the next five years to win the kind of | This typical family earns $3,000 a year less than what the SPC estimates is adequate to meet its recommended family budget. UE researchers took the SPC budget and reduced it to fit their model family’s budget to its income. The total combined income from the husband’s wages, the wife’s earnings and family allowance came to $1,770.65 per month. The bracketed numbers in the following breakdown of the UE family’s monthly ex- penses indictae what the SPC estimates a family would spend in a budget adequately reflecting today’s inflatio- nary situation. Monthly expenses Food — $ 330.00 (389.38) Clothing 90.94 (136.94) Mortgage 456.30 Property Tax 72.92 Heat (oil) FA AT Water 5.67 Hydro v3.12 Repairs and maintenance 36.03 Insurance (home) 11533 Home furnishings 32.14 ( 62.14) ‘Household operation 10.00 ( 18.05) Health care 44.80 Personal care 30.42 ( 39.42) Recreation, gifts 60.54 (114.81) $320.63 for a 40 hour week. His wife works part time asa Phone, stamps 20.01 sales clerk earning $4 an hour for a 20-hour work week. Alcohol 19.22 ( 33.00) They have an eight-year old daughter in grade 3 and a Tobacco 0 ( 22.09) four-year old son still at home. Car 162.00 Item Cost per Increase over Hourly wage month present budget hike necessary Mortgage $793.80 $337.50 $1.95 ($45,000 at 22%) « Energy related costs due to oil pricing agreement! : Gasoline 80.46 22.66 Fuel oil 107.90 36.73 Food 336.60 6.60 - Consumer goods 218.32 4.28 Public transit 20.80 99 Sub-total $ 71.26 41 Inflation’ $197.63 _ a ddae: TOTAL $606.39 $3.50 - 'Cost increases are based on federal government figures plus Ontario’s 20% ad valorem tax plus an industry mark-up of 50% of the wellhead increase. eae *Inflation assumed to be 13% and covers all items except mortgage rates, gasoline and oil, which have been dealt - with separately. : Worker will need to win a $3.50 an hour wage hike. This table shows how the new oil pricing agreement, rampant inflation and soaring interest rates will add another .39 to the average worker's monthly expenses. Just to keep the family income above water, the average factory - $3.50 more an hour to pay for oil deal Public transportation 19.81 Child care 43.27 School costs 4.64 Life insurance 0( 9.50) Contingency 0 ( 17.00) Income tax 161.90 CPP 23.85 VIC 30.57 TOTAL $1,770.65 The health care item assumes the employer is paying one half the OHIP costs and that the family didn’t en- counter any medical costs resulting in over billing by their doctor. The operation of the car allows an expendi- ture of $57.80 a month for gas, and the child care costs assumes the family found a baby sitter willing to accept $2-an-hour for watching the four-year old while the mother was working. The $456.30 mortgage payment is on the $50,000 home the family bought in 1976 with a $45,000 mortgage at 1154,% interest over 25 years. Next month their mortgage comes due and they’ ve been told by the bank their new interest rate will jump to 22%. Monthly payments will soar from $456.30 to $793.80. Just to meet this extortionate increase, the hus- band’s wages will have to increase by $1.95 an hour or 24.3%. The Trudeau-Lougheed oil pact will deal the UE fam- ily another nasty blow. Gasoline for the car, assuming they drive the modest SPC average of 7,665 miles (12,343 km) a-year and they get 20 miles per gallon (7.1 km per litre), will increase in price by $22.66 a month. Fuel oil will cost an extra $36.73 a month on an average yearly consumption of 3,650 litres a year. : The UE shows that the typical Toronto family will have to shell out a total of $71.26a month more as a result of the new energy pricing agreement. Higher energy prices will also mean a 2% increase in food costs, 5% higher Toronto Transit Commission fares, and a2% in- crease in manufactured goods. This means, the UE’s factory worker will have to get another 41 cents an hour wage increase to meet higher energy costs. : The shocker, is that none of these cost hikes have Yet taken inflation into account. If the current 13% inflation rate.continues into mid-1982, and there isn’t any reason to assume it won't continue at least at this level, the family will face cost increases of $197.63 a month. The UE study urges the labor movement to act im- mediately. In co-ordinating wage struggles, wage de- mands and in mobilizing support for the growing num- bers of workers who will be hitting the picket lines to protect and if possible, extend their living standards. The union warns ‘‘to do less will mean greatly di- minished incomes and living standards and a weaker labor movement. The time to plan and act is now.”’ ioe On September 19 about one half-million U.S. trade Unionists and supporters converged on the White House in Washington, D.C., to express their indignation at the determination to consign them to the ash can. : It was by far the biggest demonstration since the mass anti-Vienam War movement of the sixties, and for or- ganized labor the largest mass action since the thirties. News analysts spoke of it as a major blow to th Reagan policies, and coming as it did at a time when the President’s policies are under fire from business, making Up a pressure which it will be impossible for the Repub- licans to ignore. __ The tactic of the U.S. administration was to downplay the demonstration hoping to negatively affect its success '| and at the same time pretend that whatever the turnout it Was of no consequence. — __ The president’s strategy failed and labor has moved front and centre in the U.S. against Reagonomics. __ In Canada working people are increasingly demonstrating their unwillingness to be made the goats | for the monopoly-inspired crisis gripping our country. : strike movement is increasing in its scope and intensity. Workers are placing demands on the bargain-_ ing table which will not only compensate them for in- flation, high interest rates and escalating prices, but ad- Vance their economic and social welfare. ges In spite of concerted efforts by monopoly to force Workers to accept cheap settlements, they are demand- ing and winning, as often as not on the picket line, increases which far exceed the unwritten limits set out by governments and corporations. Policies of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and their _ ~ busi | Labor in action William Stewart , «ee This determination shown by workers on the picket lines attests to their capacity to understand and fight back against the monopoly offensive. What is required at this moment is action by labor centrals which would mobilize this fighting capacity into mass forms which could compell the government to address itself to the problems of high prices, high interest rates and high inflation. — At this very moment the government is preparing a budget which is likely to go even further in attacking the living standards of Canadian workers, farmers and s ssmen. It would be more than timely if they were confronted by the mass working class movement with the demand for'a budget which would instead set out to solve these problems at the expense of the big corpora- tions and banks whose profits are escalating. Those who argue that such actions are of no value must surely re-appraise their positions on the basis of the Sept. 19 demonstration in Washington. All around the capitalist world working people have ._ been taking to the streets to dramatize their problems, advertize their solutions and mobilize their membership and supporters. Workers in Britain, France, western Europe, Au- small. | U.S. labor action example for Canadians Stralia and now the United States have reverted to the trusty methods of mass actions, marches, and meetings to confront their class adversaries with their strength and determination. : Canada, which was among the first to flex its muscles with the great one-day general strike against wage con- trols in 1976, needs to move now from the struggle on the picket line, to the streets to demand new policies to meet the needs of its members. ~ : Workers will be quick to recognize that the joining of such new policies for jobs,- industrial development, economic and social-advance together with their strug- gles at the bargaining table, can take them from a defen- ae rte for survival toward the offensive for a sec- ure life. In the last couple of weeks the leaders of the United Automobile Workers and the United Electrical workers have produced facts and figures showing that working living cost increases and $3.50 by 1982 to keep up with projected ‘increases. It is clear that labor has to raise its sights both at the bargaining table and in the political arena if it is to avoid being saddled with the cost of the monopoly crisis. It is also becoming clear that the rank and file has the forti- tude and muscle to wage such a battle. September 19 USA was a good curtain raiser for the kinds of mass actions and struggles needed here in ‘Canada to mobilize and win these battles. Editor's note: This column was written prior to the CLC’s call for a massive demonstration, Nov. 21 on Parliament Hill against soaring interest rates. henene PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCT. 2, 1981—Page 5 people need $2 an hour increase now to catch up with |.