Disarmament: more jobs, less inflation One of the focal points of the current crisis in the construction industry is mass unemployment. On an average it may approach as much as one half of all con- struction workers across Canada. One of the consequences of this situation is the inclination, on the part of construction labor and their unions, to view every pro- ject or undertaking as socially useful and constructive as long as it means jobs. While this one-sided and limited criterion is understandable in the circumstances, it is neither helpful to labor nor in the best national and public interest. As an example let us look at current cutbacks on almost every human need ostensibly to fight a war on inflation. Even unemployment insurance for tem- porary and part-time workers has been cut drastically. This is a terrible blow to unemployed construction labor. But the war on inflation is forgotten. when it comes to military spending. Yet, military. spending is pure waste of both resources and manpower, creates higher prices and runaway inflation. As Abe Feinglass, International Vice- president, Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North Ameri- ca, AFL-CIO, has said: “I don’t believe that an additional bil- lion dollars spent on feeding the young or on medical research or on improved edu- cation can be called inflationary. Such spending provides needed goods and services which will in the long run cut the costs of a good life ... ‘*I would argue that just the opposite is true of military spending. True enough, a billion dollars spent on war planes or missiles or submarines creates new wages and additional profits. But it turns out nothing on which such additional in- come may be spent. Nobody is going to decorate the house with hydrogen bombs or buy F-15 fighters for vacation flying. So, military spending does jack up in- come, but provides nothing on which such new income may be spent. This is certain to heat up the competition for - available goods and services. The result is higher prices ... ““Cost overruns and gross waste are ~ characteristic of military production. Such patterns also affect the civilian economy. This seems to me economic and social lunacy. It costs less to send a young person to university for a year than to join the army for the same time. But we are cutting the educational and social programs to educate and train our young people. “‘Instead we are spending our Sallinos on what used to be called, and still are in fact, instruments of death. Such pro- ducts either go on the scrap heap and are wasted as obsolete or they bring horror to people all over the.face of the earth.” More jobs in construction Military production requires fewer jobs (per. dollar spent) than does civilian production: $1-billion spent for military production creates 75,000 jobs, while the same amount spent for civilian produc- tion would create 92,000 jobs in the area of mass transit, or 100,000 jobs in con- struction, or 138,000 jobs in health care, or 187,000 jobs in education. While Canada does not spend as much on military hardware as the U.S., the fact remains that our spending for military hardware has more than doubled in four years, and is still increasing. What we need now is a reversal, with half of these military expenditures trans- ferred to education, health care and con- struction, particularly a large-scale na- tional plan for housing at prices working people can afford. What we need is con- struction for human needs. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 23, 1979—Page 8 1 cruise missile worth some 1 million Dollars costs as much as 1 multi-purpose aircraft worth some 32 million Dollars costs as much as 1 aircraft carrier worth some 1,000 million Dollars - costs as much as 1 indoor swimming-pool of the IAB project in Austria 10 ice stadiums of the Kreuzlingen project in Switzerland 20 times the sports facilities in the Olympic centre in Montreal/Canada ‘the fire spread so fast as to make it i Affordable — housing a right” Challenging the phoney ‘‘hums rights’’ stance of President Jimmy ter, the Communist Party USA (Qj lahoma) has issued a statement conc : ing the violation of human rights 4 people in that state from which we tak the liberty to quote the following: ‘*What of the ‘human rights’ of the ty children who were burned to death in q apartment house fire on Feb. 15 in O| lahoma City? Firemen reported chea construction, with no sheet rock b tween the walls. This, coupled plywood walls and hollow doors, possible to get to the children befo was out of control. 4 . The landlord must have decided it wa too éxpensive to ensure adequate fin protection. How many other tenants apartment. houses across the state q living in the same dangerous cond tions?”’ 5 * * * F Canada and Canadians can ask same question. Wehave an abunda over-expensive firetrap apartme nt some of which are rat and vermi infested, unsanitary and health ha the community at large as well as tenants who occupy them. Slum lap lords, some of whom administer sy¢ property for wealthy developers as we} are allowed to get away with it becays the capitalist politicians are dominate by the power of corporate wealth. less, and until, the power of monopo capital is curbed, housing will continy to become more expensive and beyop the reach of working people, while m and more construction workers go w out a job. E By HERVE FUYET Workers in the construction industry will enter into negotiations for a new con- tract in March-April 1979. They want to make gains in terms of job security and _ security on the job. The unemployment rate in Quebec fluctuates presently around 11%, In the . construction industry, it is higher than 30%. There is however an urgent need for decent housing for low and medium income people. The Société Centrale d’Hypothéque et de Logement (SCHL), the Quebec governmental body dealing with housing, estimated in 1971 that 35.4% of the population was poorly housed. The situation has not signi- ficantly changed since. The point is that, with real wages sta- ble or declining, working people cannot. afford in many cases to buy, or even to rent the living accommodation they need. The lack of sufficient help to small owners for remodelling or, building does not help. The rising mortgage rate further aggravates the situation. As aresult, the percentage of the con- struction workers in the Quebec work force went down from 6.95% to 5.14% from 1951 to 1971. Asa matter of fact, the combined share of the primary sector (mines, agriculture, forest, etc.) and sec- ondary sector (manufacturing, construc- tion, etc.) in the Quebec gross national product went down from 43.2% to 36.7% from 1961 to 1975. During the same years, the service sector, which gener- ates few jobs, increased from 56.8% to 63.3% (Comptes. Economiques . du Québec). The greed of the capitalists in the con- struction industry makes the work more hazardous. In 1977, according to gov- ernment statistics, 20.03% of the worker- ers in construction were victims of an accident or professional illness. In 1976, General picture is bleak 80, 000 Quebec construction worker 1,528 workers, i.e. 15.7/1000 were per- manently incapacitated because of acci- dents on the job. ; The White Paper on health and safety on the job does not include the collective right to stop work in ease of danger. It leaves grievances on job safety to a union-management tommittee supposed to work by consensus. The White Paper has been judged inadequate by the trade union movement in Quebec. In the up- coming negotiations, the unions will fight for a union rep on safety attached to a particular company, rather than to a building site only. A government regulation on the placement of employees in the construc- tion industry establishes a system of hir- ing by seniority and by regions in Quebec. Real construction workers will have a priority over students séeking a summer job, or workers in another field temporarily laid off. The same regulation places undue restriction on construction workers from outside Quebec who want to work in Quebec. This led to frictions between Quebec and Ontario in particu- lar, and possibly countermeasures taken by other provinces. Many hope that there will be a com- mon front at the next negotiations bet- ween the construction: unions affiliated with the Quebec Federation of Labor and others affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions, at least on matters of health and safety. Initially founded by the Catholic Church, the CNTU became quite milit- ant in the 60s. Rivalry and union raiding between the two groups will not help to develop unity. The general picture. is bleak for con- struction workers. The situation de- monstrates the need for an economy planned for the people. The unity~of progressive and democratic forces in a mass federated party of the wo : people, as advocated by the Communi Party of Quebec, is necessary to. x complish ,such a fask, since the pet bourgeois Parti Quebecois seems unab and unwilling to cope with it. * Glossary of union terms © Closed Shop — A provision in a coll tive agreement whereby all employee: a bargaining unit must be union membe in good standing before being hired al al new employees hired through the uni Rand Formula — Also called an agen chop. A union security clause in a coll tive agreement stating that the employ agrees to deduct an amount equal to ti union dues from all members of the bi gaining unit whether or not they @ members of the union for the durationt the collective agreement. Open Shop — In practice, open shopsa closed to union members. sin¢ employers with complete freedom of hi ing anti-union employees usually will tolerate a union member in their shop.