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PLAN ANTI-LABOR STRATEGY

By MAURICE RUSH

Who are the men directing the big business war
against the unions and public, using lockouts,
injunctions and court actions, to impose their will on
unions and small businesses — and who have already
crippled the province’s economy?

It is now generally
acknowledged that big business
is “acting in concert,” as one
union leader described it
recently.

Co-ordinating and _ giving
overall direction to the big
monopolies in this year’s
contract negotiations is the
Employers’ Council of B.C. It
acts and speaks for ‘“‘the big
lions” (as they describe them-
selves). The Employers’ Council
is acting without any social
responsibility — it’s only aim is
to drive down wage standards,
which means bigger profits for
them.

Until recently most people had
not heard of the Employers’
Council. They were totally
unaware that the big foreign and
Canadian monopolies had
combined to form the most
powerful grouping of monopoly
power ever assembled under one
roof in B.C.

F.G. Peskett, president of the
Council, put it bluntly in an
interview in the Financial Post:
“We are not an objective body
and we don’t intend to be. We are
the voice of big business.’

There was a time when the
Employers’ Council was not so
outspoken, when it tried to
conceal its real aims. Back in
1966, when it was first formed, it
called itself the Commercial
and Industrial Research Founda-
tion (CIRF).~

Spokesmen said then it was
mainly set up for research — but
the top layer of corporate wealth
it brought together on its Board
of Governors made it clear that
this was no ordinary ‘‘research’’
organization, but a grouping of
the most wealthy and powerful,
brought together to advance the
aims of big business in B.C.

ATTACK READIED

The present attack on the
unions in B.C. has been in
preparation since at least 1966,
when CIRF was founded. To
prepare for the showdown,
which the Employers’ Council
considered inevitable, big
employers brought in ‘‘tough
guys’ who would stand up to the
unions in a showdown.

Included among these was Ed
Strang, who was with the
Shipping Federation of Canada
in Montreal, and was brought to
B.C. as general-manager of the
B.C. ‘Maritime Employers in
1966;- Ed Benson, former
personnel manager for the Con-
solidated Mining and Smelting
Co., at Trail, who became
manager of Pacific Press; C.J.
Connaghan, who held the job of
personnel manager for a number
of companies in eatern Canada
and B.C. and was considered ‘‘a
tough cookie,’ was made head of
the newly-formed Construction
Labor Relations Assoc. (CLRA)
to deat “with the construction
unions.? .», .

Frederick G. Peskett, presi-
dentsofthe Employers’ Council

and its chief spokesman, was

brought to B.C. in 1968 to

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1970—Page 8

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transform CIRF into what is now
the Employers’ Council. He is
known in the big business world
as ‘‘The.Man Who Quit Eaton’s.”’
He left eastern Canada where he
was general manager of opera-
tions for the Eaton’s chain, to
take his B.C. post.

But these ‘“‘tough guys”’ are not
the real power. They are hired
by the ‘‘big lions’ to do their
work. The real power lies in the
13-man Board of Governors of
the Employers’ Council. They
are the men who have vast
economic power. They are in
effect the General Staff
directing the present war
against the unions. They are the
ones who lay down the broad

policy guidelines for the big busi- ’

ness community in B.C.

WHO’S WHO

Who are these men? What do
they represent?

The 13 men who make up the
Board of Governors of the
Employers’ Council are: W.M.
Hamilton, E.G. Shorter, G.B.
McLean, E. Benson, J.V.
Christensen, J.V. Clyne, G.R.
Dawson, G.H.D. Hobbs, T.H.
McClelland, J.S. MacKenzie,
J.E. Richardson, J.H. Salter,
H.E. Wolfe. -

Through these 13 men the
major corporate interests in
B.C. — of both foreign ‘and
domestic capital— are combined
in a powerful array of economic
and political power. Here is a
thumbnail sketch of the major
business connections.of the 13:

W.M. Hamilton: President,
Canadian Park & Tilford Ltd.;
Director,” Fidelity Life
Assurance Co., Pacific Coast
Fire Insurance Co., Spilsbusy
and Tindall Ltd.

E.G. Shorter: Vice-Chairman
Macmillan Bloedel; President,
MacMillan . Bloedel_ (Alberni)
Ltd., Canadian Transport Co.
Ltd.; Director, MacMillan
Bloedel Industires Ltd.,
MacMillan Bloedel Packaging
Ltd., Kingcome Navigation
Ltd., Northwest Cedar Products
Ltd., National Paper Box Ltd.

G.B. McLean: Pres. & Man.
Dir: Standard Oil: of B-C.
Director: Trans Mountain Pipe
Line. (Standard Oil -of B.C.

F.G. PESKETT, Employers’
Council spokesman.

“We

are

not an a

objective body and

we don’t

intend to

be. We are the voice
of big business.”

—Peskett in Financial Post
interview, Nov. 21, 1968.

e

wholly owned by Standard Oil of
California. )

E. Benson: Gen. Manager
Pacific Press Ltd.

J.V. Christensen: Connected
with Tahsis Co. Ltd., which is
owned jointly by Canadian Inter-

national Paper Co. with head-

office in New York.

J.V. Clyne: Chief officer of
MacMillan Bloedel, (former
Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court, who together with former
Attorney General Robert Bonner
head the M-B empire). He is a
director of Huron & Erie Mort-
gage Corp., Imperial Bank of
Canada, Canadian Pacific
Railways, Canada Trust.

G.R. Dawson: Pres. Dawson
Construction Ltd., Chairman
Dawson Developments Ltd.,
Pres. of Dawson and Hall Ltd.
(Sansan Installations Ltd.),
Director of Andres Wines Ltd.,
Canadian Mine Services Ltd.,

’ Forest Lawn Developments

Ltd., Hayes Manufacturing Co.

Ltd., Multipak Custom Canners
Ltd., Sceptre Dredging Co. Ltd.,
and Seaboard Life Insurance
Company. Former president of
the Vancouver Board of Trade
and past president of Heavy Con-
struction Assoc. of B.C. Director
of Kaiser Industries Ltd.

G.H.D. Hobbs: President,
Western Canada Steel Ltd.;
Director, Johnston Terminals,
Royal General Insurance,
Straits Towing, Whitepass &
Yukon Corp., Ltd. (Western
Steel is wholly owned by
Cominco and CPR through Cana-
dian Pacific Investments Ltd. )

T.H. McClelland: Pres. and
chief officer of Placer Develop-
ments Ltd., giant holding and
exploration company, operat-
ing extensively in B.C., Spain,
Greece and other world centres.
It has substantial holdings in
Endako Mines, Craigmont
Mines and Mattagami Lake
Mines. Wholly owns and
operates Emerald Mine at
Salmo. Financial ramifications

of Placer Development are 00
extensive to list here.

J.S. MacKenzie: Top officer #

the Aluminum Company of
Canada.

J.E. Richardson: Top officer
of B.C. Telephone. Director of
Imperial Bank of Commerce,
Halifax Insurance Co., Com
mercial Life Assurance.

J.H. Salter: Vice-president,

Western Region of Comincd,
Director, Pine Point Mines,
Member of advisory Board
Royal Trust Co.

H.E. Wolfe: Top officer %!
Dillingham Corp., which has 60

percent interest in Marwell Com .

struction, which in turn has pa!
interest in Vancouver Oceall

Terminals.
* OK OK

As the above shows, the 13 me?
who run the Employers’ Council
exercise wide control ovel
every ‘aspect of the B.V
economy. They are the key me?
‘in construction, towboal,
forestry, mining, banking, insul-
ance, and what have you.

This is the force labor is UP
against in its fight for decent
wages and conditions this yeal:
That’s why unity of workiné
people is so essential if they ar
to win over this anti-social

_ monopoly power.

LABOR RALLY

Cont'd from pg. 1

being directed entirely against
the labor movement.

‘present inflationary problem is

rooted in the U.S. economy a”
cannot be resolved in Canada.
The policies of the federa —

government could possibly Be

to a depression, and ©

employers in B.C. and the provi”
cial government are makine —

the inflationary scare an excus€

to attack the living standards ° —

the workers. :
The resolution called on te”
federal government to relax its
stringent economic policies, 4?
called upon the provincia
Minister of Labor to insist thal”
all of the employers sit down a?
bargain in good faith. *

It called upon the labor move —

ment to continue its campaig?
to convince the general pub
that the true cause of inflation
not wages, but is caused by hié
interest rates and even highé
profits. j 3

The 13 men of the Employers’ Council

lic ©
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