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PRAIRIE PROVINCES

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Growing poverty strains food banks

Poverty continues to spread in Saskatchewan, and
activists on social welfare issues say the provincial
government is evading its responsibility to tackle the
problem.

Recent months have seen a further growth of food-
bank use in the province. More and more working people
are unable to make ends meet, as shown by such indica-
tors as stagnant retail sales and declining cheque cash-
ings. Thousands more have been forced to turn to social
assistance and to the food banks, of which there are now
five in Saskatchewan. Regina’s opened in 1983, followed
by others in Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw
last year, and now the first rural one at Punnichy, north
of Regina. Organizers of the Punnichy food bank told the
press in April that “‘local farmers are having a hard time
of it’’, and that poverty has become a way of life for
families on nearby Indian reserves.

In Regina, about 3,000 people received a total of

60,000 pounds of food per month last fall. This year the -

figures have jumped dramatically. In April 8,200 people,
the majority children, received 100,000 pounds of food.
Under increasing strain, the food bank has reacted with
new rules. Amounts per day have been reduced, reci-
pients are required to present their hospitalization
number to prevent ‘‘cheating’’, and organizations refer-
ring ‘‘clients’’ are required to carry out checks to make
sure their referrals are ‘“‘truly needy’’.

Dodging the Issue
Such changes have strengthened fears that the pro-

From
Regina

Kimball Cariou |

pressure for improved social assistance rates. University
of Regina professor Graham Riches, speaking at a recent
conference of food bank organizations in Edmonton,
stressed that the organizations are becoming a part of the
public welfare system. This lets governments off the
hook, he pointed out, allowing them to dodge the real
issue of inadequate wages and unemployment insurance
(UD, and welfare rates insufficient to let recipients buy
enough food.

As the economic crisis drags on, the proportion of
Saskatchewan’s one million residents receiving pro-
vincial or federal income assistance has risen to about 25
per cent. Unemployment has continued to climb, to a
current level of 44,000, up 4,000 from a year ago. Social
Services was one of only five government departments
to get a substantial spending increase in the April budget
— 9.8 per cent, to deal with the growing numbers on
welfare.

Riches has also done a study of the effects of last
year’s changes in the welfare system in this situation. In

“March, 1984,-Social Services Minister Gordon Dirks

vincial government is using the food banks to relieve

announced a major “

reform’’ of the system, claiming

Unions,

No Way Tan Jay is the slogan
which has rallied wide commu-
nity and labor support to the side
of Local 286, International Ladies
Garment Workers Union, in its
battle with Manitoba’s largest
manufacturer, and Canada’s
largest clothing manufacturer,
Tan Jay International.

The ILGWU is bargaining
agent for almost all production
workers at four Winnipeg plants
operated by Tan Jay. Contracts at
three plants have expired and
workers have voted by more than
95 per cent support if a strike is
called. d

Peter Nygaard, company
president, has long made head-
lines in Manitoba with his*‘rags to
riches” success story, his expen-
sive cars, dates with movie stars
and growing corporate empire in
Canada, the USA and Asia.

But the No Way Tan Jay cam-
paign has publicly revealed the
true side of the story — an em-
ployer who has amassed his for-
tune through the super exploita-
tion of women and immigrant
workers.

Union Threatened

Besides wages, seniority rights
and working conditions, the main
issue emerging is the very exis-
tence of the union itself at Tan
Jay.

Tan Jay has brazenly placed it-
self above the law by publicly de-
fying recent Manitoba Labor
Board decisions which found the
company guilty of unfair labor
practices. The Board ordered Tan
Jay to reinstate workers who
were laid off because they were
union activists and to pay up the
thousands the company owes to
the Union’s Health and Welfare
Fund.

Tan Jay was also ordered to
immediately allow union access
to its plants, since the company
has, in violation of the collective

‘Labor,

From

community Winnipeg

back ILGWU fight

agreement, refused union
representatives entry into its
Notre Dame facilities. in
Winnipeg.

Nygaard and Company refuse
to work within even the most
basic agreements and laws which
the capitalist class has been
forced to accept after decades of
working-class struggle. Instead,
he attempts to take industrial rela-
tions back to the Dark Ages.

‘Open Season’ on Labor

Should Tan Jay get its way, it
would serve as a signal for other
employers in the province that it
is open season on the labor
movement and that Manitoba
labor legislation
obstacle.

The Manitoba Federation of
the Winnipeg Labor
Council, the Manitoba Govern-
ment Employees Association and
seven other unions are solidly
backing the ILGWU and have
joined with women’s groups, im-

_ migrant associations, churches,

MLAs and MPs in a No Way
Tan Jay Coalition to support the
garment workers’ struggle for
justice.

The Coalition has pressed Tan
Jay to negotiate in good faith and
pledged assistance on the picket
line should there be a strike, as
well as support for a possible
boycott of Tan Jay clothing and
subsidiary brand names — Alia,
Parcours and Jayset — and of the
Tan Jay-owned retail outlet Pjiro
Liisa.

The No Way Tan Jay cam-
paign, spearheaded by Local 286
Business Manager Leslie Spillett
and local union supporters, is
being buttressed by ILGWU or-
ganizers from other Canadian
cities and from the International’s
New York headquarters.

Ata Winnipeg news conference
called by the union and the sup-
porting coalition, Spillett outlined

Paula Fletcher -

is not an‘

attempts by the union to bring the
company to the negotiating table,
including meetings with Manitoba
Labor Minister Al Mackling.

The minister appointed a con-
ciliator after the union asked for
this on March 20. However, by
the end of April, Tan Jay has can-
celled three conciliation meetings
arranged by mackling.

Spillett indicated that the
Union wanted to avoid a strike
but that it wouldn’t walk away
from one. She charged the com-
pany with making unreasonable
demands that may force strike
action.

The company’s refusal to
negotiate a contract with the
workers is being widely labelled
as having racist and sexist
overtones.

Racist Attitudes

The Union says that racism
underlies Tan Jay’s harassment
tactics against the workers, many
of whom hail from the Philip-
pines, India, Vietnam and Korea
and are unfamiliar with Canadian’ -
labor law and feel vulnerable.

The central theme of justice
and equality for women workers,
which played a large role in
galvanizing support for the
Eaton’s strikers; is also swelling
the ranks of support for Tan Jay
workers.

Winnipeg’s garment industry
has a long history. Today, it ranks
second as a source of employ-
ment in the city and second in
importance as an export industry
in Manitoba’s manufacturing sec-
tor. However, the poor working
conditions and exploitation which
have long characterized the
industry remain.

The struggle of the ILGWU to
bring Tan Jay workers out of the
sweat shops is another chapter in
a century-long battle of garment
workers in Canada for justice and
equality.

that rates were too high for some categories, removing |
people’s incentives to seek employment. Monthly rates
for single jobless employables were cut from $530 to $345
a month. Many recipients were reclassified as employ- —
able, despite evidence to the contrary. The provincial
annual tenant rebate, a program which returned up to |
$150 to tenants before being eliminated this year, was
counted as’ income for most clients (as had been done
earlier with family allowance cheques).

Employers Subsidized

Slight increases to seniors and some children on wee
fare were presented as proof by the government of its
alleged fairness. But at the heart of the changes was the
announcement of an ‘‘Employment and Skills Develop-
ment Program’’, to provide jobs and training for welfare
recipients. Dirks reported last month that 2,160 jobs had
been created under the program, which spent $10.8-mil-
lion to pay the $4.25-per-hour minimum wage to
employers. Dirks was unable to say how many of the
jobs continued past the end of the government subsidy,
or to guarantee that participating private employers had
not laid off other employees to a advantage of the
program.

Critics such as unemployed work organizations |
charged that one aim of the ‘‘reform’’ was.to get some)
recipients working long enough to qualify for UI, putting
the burden on the federal rather than the provincial
government. Not only that, but while employers were
asked to ‘‘top up”’ the $4.25 per hour, the average added
was only another 68 cents per hour, leaving the,
employees below the poverty line.

Similarly, it is unknown how many of the people given
training under the plan were able to complete courses oF
find jobs afterwards.

Riches concludes that ‘‘the unfortunate impression iS
that welfare reform is really about low-paid-jobs crea-
tion; on the cheap, and is to be accomplished at the
expense of the poor.”’

North Hardest Hit

Meanwhile, the numbers on welfare are still rising
with the increases in unemployment. January figures
showed a caseload of 63,815, up 3 per cent over a yeal
earlier. Norther Saskatchewan, where most commu-
nities suffer unemployment of 80 to 95 per cent, remains”
the hardest hit part of the province, and the Devine
government recently made matters worse by cutting oul
subsidies which helped lower food prices in the area. It
Regina, the official number of jobless has gone from
7,000 to 11,000 in the last year, leading Tory politicians tO.
regard the capital city’s 10 seats as a virtual write-off iq
the provincial election expected by next spring. And
hunger is spreading i in rural areas as well. |

The conclusion is inescapable — in one of the richest
food producing areas of the world, the system is failing t0
ensure for ever larger numbers of people throughout the
province, the right to a secure future — or even theif
daily bread. 5 |

PRAIRIE NEWS DIGEST

Angry CPU members walk out

PRINCE ALBERT — About 400 members of
the Canadian Paperworkers Union walked off the |
job May 1 at the Prince Albert Pulp Co. mill. The |
dispute began when anemployee wastoldtomove |
bags containing asbestos, and refused. The worker
is not trained in the handling of asbestos, and
feared working in an area contaminated by the
substance. When he was ordered off the job, the |
rest of the shift left with him, and other shifts later —
joined the strike, until 385 workers had walked out.

The CPU says the issue involves health and
safety, and has called for a safety program to be
developed jointly with the company to deal with
such materials. PAPCO, however, claims it is an
industrial relations. problem, and has refused to
meet with the union to resolve the issue until the
workers are back on the job. PAPCO has hinted
that some workers may be disciplinedasaresult of ]
the walkout.

Tories oppose NWFZ resolution

WINNIPEG — Peace activists are angry at an
about-face by the provincial Tories on the New
Democratic Party government’s resolution to
make Manitoba a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone.

The day after Tory leader Gary Filmon said his
caucus would support the resolution, the Tories
switched and attacked it as being futile and
misleading. Instead, they are trying to embarass
the NDP by proposing a new resolution which calls
for endorsing both a nuclear freeze and Canada’s
continued membership in NATO. -

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 29, 1985