MAJOR B.C. UNIONS PUT FORTH PLAN

How to meet challenge of automation

Five big Vancouver-based in-
dependent trade unions and one
of B,C,’s most influential trade
union papers, The Fisherman,
under a May 19 dateline, for-
warded an open letter to the Hon,
Leslie R, Petersen, Provincial
Minister of Labor, the Confer-
ence Planning Committee, and
all delegates attending the Labor-
Management Conference on In-
dustrial Relations held last week
in Vancouver’s Bayshore Inn,

The letter protests the rules
imposed by the Conference Plan-
ning Committee, which prevents
conference delegates, whether
labor or management, from being
able to freely express opinion
from the floor, which its signa-
tories declare is to prohibit free-
dom of speech rather than pro-
mote “maximum audience par-
ticipation,”

Programmatic issues which
these big independent unions are
of the opinion should have en-
gaged the attention of the Labor-
Management Conference include
the following:

“All of labor is acutely aware
of the fact that any new labor
saving technology is a double-
edged weapon which can have
either of two effects:

* “Rither automation is to be in-
troduced under planned public
control to produce maximum
benefits for the whole people, or

* “The unplanned introduction of
automation for self-seeking
profit-making ends, will produce

unemployment and misery on an
unprecedented scale,”

These unions draw attention to
the fact that *Canada has not felt
the full impact of automation
yet, The number of computers
in use has been approximately
doubling every year for some
time and has still not reached the

-point where it is a major factor

in industry, But at this rate of
development it could become so
in a very short period of years,
If it follows the pattern of pre-
vious technological innovations,
it could begin to saturate the
market within the next five
years,”

“The Economic Council of Ca-
nada has warned that the next
five years will see an unprece-
dented bulge in the growth of the
labor force, requiring one and
one-half million new jobs in that
short period, The likelihood is
that sharp increase in the number
of jobs required will occur at
precisely that period when auto-
mation is having its maximum
effect in eliminating existing
jobs,

“In these circumstances, no
one can be satisfied with mere
corrective measures designed to
ease the flow of labor between
occupations, The problem cannot
be met without central planning
to utilize the full productive ca-
pacity of industry and labor.”

To this end the letter advances
a number of proposals: the need
of government to “maintain full

employment and maximum eco-
nomic expansion under all cir-
cumstances,”

* A vigorous program to develop
secondary industries, which
would include a percentage limit
upon the export of raw materials,

* More government intervention
in the “planning and direction
of investment” in fields now left
to private interests, plus large-
scale government investment in
community facilities,

~

The open letter also stresses
the urgent need of overhauling
the whole range of collective
bargaining, in order that proper
labor safeguards “ against the po-
tential dangers of automation”
be considered, thereby assuring
the labor “the potential benefits
thereof,”

AUTOMATION

MORE AND MORE PRODUCTION
WITH LESS AND LESS WORKERS”

“Rising productivity must pro-
duce shorter hours of work, The
reduction in hours may take the
form of a shorter work week, .
increased vacations, earlier re-
tirement, etc, This is most like-
ly to come about if the trade
union movement adopts a single
objective, such as the 30-hour
week, and rallies its forces to
achieve it. in all industries
through a co-ordinated move-
ment,”

It is alsoemphasized that
labor-management must begin to
negotiate on the principle that
the worker has a right to a job,
“This means that collective bar-
gaining contracts in future should
include provisions against lay-
offs and for guaranteed annual
wages; provisions when neces-
sary “where plants or parts of

plants are automated,” in on
to assure that “the inevit
reductions of the work foreé of
place with the minimum possi
displacement of workers #0"
employment,” 2 :

The open letter and statem@
to the Labor-Management
ference is signed by WM
Stewart, President, shiny
General Workers Federal!
Homer Stevens, Secret
United Fishermen and all
Workers Union; Jack phillif®
Secretary, Vancouver civic
ployees Union (Outside workel®
Al King, National Execut tn
Board Member, District
ternational Union of Mine;

& Smelter Workers; and Geol
North, editor, The Fisherma™

‘Need great effort to prevent nuclear war’

Last weekend the Communist
Party of B.C., over the signature of
Provincial Leader Nigel Morgan,
addressed an Open Letter to the
New Democratic Party provincial
convention meeting in the Vancou-
ver Hotel. Following is the text of
the letter:

The Communist Party of Bri-
tish Columbia extends warm
greetings to the delegates at-
tending the B,C, Provincial Con-
vention of the New Democratic
Party,

You are meeting at a crucial
point in human history, Not since
the Caribbean crisis in October
1962 has the danger of nuclear
war been more menacing,

President Johnson’s recent

declaration that the United States
*will permit no more Cubas”
and that *no force on earth can
remove the U.S, from Vietnam”
means in effect, No social ad-
vance or there will be nuclear
war,

The fact that the Johnson ad-
ministration has adopted the
Goldwater program and policies,
including advocacy of nuclear
weapons in Southeast Asia, con-
stitutes a grave threat to
humanity,

U.S, aggressions in Southeast
Asia and the Dominican Republic
are not isolated incidents, On
the contrary, they are manifes-
tations of the general worsening

of the international situation,
symptoms of which are to be
found not only in Asia and Latin
America', but also in Africa, the
Middle East and Europe,

The Pearson Government’sat-
titude to the war danger arising
from the U.S. role in Southeast
-Asia and in Dominica isa shame-
ful one. We agree with, and
heartily support, the courageous
stand taken by Mr, Douglas, Mr.
Peters and others of your Party,
that Prime Minister Pearson’s
role of “Yes Man” for President
Johnson is extremely dangerous
for Canada and the world,

Although it may prove difficult
for our parties to formally work,

together on 4 number of vital —

questions, we feel that no ob-
stacle should be allowed to
stand in the way of uniting our
maximum efforts to head off
the threat of thermonuclear war,
History records that had it not
been for disunity in the socialist
and labor movements following
World War I, Hitler could not
have seized power andthe Second
World War could have been pre-
vented,

Hand in hand with the war plans,
big business is pressing hard its
offensive against the working
people of industry, farm and
office, Speedup, mechanization
and automation are taking their
toll while corporation profits
have soared to their highest point,
as have the cost-of-living, taxes,
medical and auto insurance, etc,
Our pensioners and those on fixed

_ incomes face acute hardship,
while the monopolists resort to.

every means of crippling the
trade unions and intensifying ex-

ploitation of farmers, pro-
fessional and small business
people,

Another important develop-
ment affecting all of us is the
rise of the movement for French-
Canadian liberation from Anglo-
Canadian domination — the demo-
cratic demand for recognition of
French-Canadian national rights,
for equality, human justice and
freedom,

Re-negotiation of the terms of
coexistence in a new federal
state of two nations deeply affects

HONORED BY POWELL RIVER. The
Municipal Council of Powell River,
acting on a request from Wildwood
Ratepayers Assoc., has changed the
name of Sany Beach to Gibson park in
honor of the late Ken Gibson. Gibson,
a well-known Communist and PT sup-
porter, was a Councillor at the time
of his passing last November. He held
civic office in Powell River for many
years.

May 28, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE=

ofl
the whole of Canada. Not
al of

does it involve removV
national inequality of
Canada, on which the
provincial system of i
based, but long overdue Fi
reforms such as medicaté
adequate pensions: overc?
the crisis of education; theP

of our municipalities whi

on an antiquated-and unwol ti
tax structure: and repatria
from U,S. hands of our 1
resources and industries:

We of the Communist 2
believe that these problem val
be resolved, But we are ~ cp!
convinced that it will be PO
only on the basis of the 2
efforts of the entire ae,
progressive movement.
action by all who want ae
could bring quick dividend?

It is in the search for oe
approach on our part © igi
have decided to addreaamm
appeal and greetings 0?
casion of your conventions |

Certainly the things that
us, are infinitely more
than the questions th
us at this crucial ines
questionably, co-operatio”
uniting of the various s +8
of the labor and demo”
movements prepared 0 Fi
change, would bring enco™
ment and stimulation |
gressive activity 2m° rf
people of our province ie
bend every effort to we i
gether to help dissipate
clouds of war that hané te
and to end opporession es
ploitation of people at ™
abroad,

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2