Steel layoffs

STEELWORKER, Vancou-
ver, B.C.: The steel fastener
industry is in a serious mar-
keting crisis. Since 1939 this

‘ industry has been in a boom

condition. Only in the’years
1946 and 1950 did the bolt and
rivet industry find itself in
momentary difficulties. In
B.C. it has seen a period of
large scale capital investments.

Today, in the short period
of one month the industry and
the working personnel find
themselves back where they
were 18 years ago.

The bolt and rivet industry
in B.C., which 10 years ago
had to rely on outside steel
bars from competitors for the
manufacture of its products,
today is almost completely a
vertical industry from the
scrap metal to the rounds and
squares that are rolled at the
Marine Drive plant of Western
Steel Company, from which it
recéives ‘steel billets from its
sister plant in Burnaby.

One third of the personnel
of the bolt works have al-
ready been laid off. There is
a good possibility that the
Vancouver Steel Company will
shut down for a 10-day period
in the coming month. Van-
couver. Rolling Mills has al-
ready sent its entire crew (ap-
proximately 100 men) onto the
Unemployment Insurance rolls
for a week.

The short production month
program is here to stay for the
winter if the signs that point
to the immediate future are
any indication. This mill has
a capacity for the production
of 45,000 tons of rolled metal
per year. Its production will
likely be cut in half before the
winter is out.

The condition of the Steel
Company at Burnaby is the
same, because the inventory of
billets is beyond the safety
mark now. :

Pacific Bolt Manufacturing
‘Company, the third subsidiary,
has laid off 30 men, and con-
templates four-day production
weeks for the immediate fut-
ure.

Problems of seniority that
previously were well establish-
ed will now have to be dealt
with in a new manner.

It is felt by management and
by many of the workers in
this industry that owing to
the sudden nature of the slump
and the fact that there are pos-
Sibilities that things may pick
up next spring, there should
be some effort on the part of
the union to attempt to keep
as many men as possible at
work, through the process of
the three-week work month
and one week’s Unemployment
Insurance benefits.

This new feature of ‘the
problem of layoffs is in no
way settied; but the workers,

with the mutual consent of
management, are ‘attempting
to see what success there will
be in the matter of some form
of continual employment.

At the moment men with
many years of seniority are
sharing these years of service

with shopmates who may have
only one, two or three years
of service with the company.

The workers in this indus-
try feel that there is some-
thing to be said for this tem-
porary arrangement in the
matter of layoffs in that it
leaves the industry in the po-
sition that if a large order
should be forthcoming the
plant personnel will be on
hand to handle it, thus keep-
ing jobs and the market for the
industry.

A serious matter that con-
fronts the workers, too, is
that negotiations for the com-
ing contract year are due. In
a period of heavy layoffs and
a short work week, it can be
seen how serious the problems
are that the union will have
to face this fall and winter.

Miedical schemes

BOILERMAKER, Vancouver,
B.C.: In an article on prepaid
medical schemes in your last
issue you mentioned that some
doctors hand patients a form
to sign, which is often signed
without being read. Later the
patient finds he has let him-
self in for extra costs which
he thought would be covered,
under whatever medical
schema he belong to. ;

Here is the actual wording
of a form that one doctor asks
his patients to sign:

-and practise of extra-billing in
relation to the prepaid medi-
eal plan in which I am en-
titled to participate. Plan

“T understand and hereby
agrees that: jon = .
who is my or my dependent’s
physician may charge me fees
additional to and above those
allowed to him by the afore-
mentioned prepaid medical
plan.

“J hereby agree that such
extra fees may be charged
for surgical, laboratory, inves-
tigational, and routine office
procedures. I understand that
the cost of medicines used for
treatment will be borne sole-
by me as is customary.

“Concerning these extra
fees, I hereby signify my un-
derstanding of their nature
and my complete acceptance,
without any reservations what-*
soever, of such liability should
it arise.”

Prizewinning letters

Each week the Paci-
fic Tribune will present
a book to the writer of
the most interesting, en-
tertaining and _ topical
letter published on this
page. Contributors are
urged to keep their let-
ters to a _ reasonable
length.

The prize-winning let-
ter in our last issue was
written by Construction

Worker, Vancouver, B.C.

Thanks for donatoins

A&S.K., $5; G.K., Mount
Sheer , $6.25; P.H., Indian
River, $6; °S.B., Vancouver, -
$10; N.C. Campbell River,

$2; J.H., Campbell River, $8.20;
R.P., Vancouver, $5; Friends,

Cumberland, $14; C., Vancou-
ver, $2; G.S., Hillers, $1; °

W.S.,. Vancouver, $1; R.K.,
Prince Rupert, $2; C.Z., Van-
couver, $5; Granview, $1; J.M.,
Fruitvale, $1; L.C., Chilliwack,
$1; J.I., Okanagan MisSion, $1;

A. S., South Burnaby, © $1;
Friends, Victoria, $4; North
Burnaby, $1; |

J.D., Vancouver, $2; J.F.,
Vancouver, $6.50; O.R., Ful-
ford «Harbor, -$1.50;- SS. N.
Chamiss Bay, $10.

Investment study. sh
biggest specul

i hace United States is becom-
ing the world’s biggest
speculator in colonialism.

That is the real significance
of a new study of American
investment in foreign countries
which has recently been com-
pleted by the U.S. Commerce
Department.

_ Foreign investment holdings,

private and government, total-
led $45 billion in 1955—four
times the 1939 total.

Direct investment of U.S.
corporations totalled $19 bil-
lions. These are the most im-
portant investors, as they re-
ceive 84 percent of all foreign
investment profits. Their hold-

ings were increasing steadily

through 1956.

The propaganda in favor of
U.S. investment abroad is. that
the U.S. provides the capital
and the “know-how” to en-
able the “backward” countries
to build up their industrial
strength — provided their gov-
ernments create a “favorable

climate for private invest-
ment.”
This “favorable climate”

means simply that the investor
‘must be guaranteed a huge
profit on his investment, and
safety for his capital, other-
wise he is not interested.

In 1955, profits on U.S. for-
eign investments totalled a re-
cord $3,380 million—six times
the 1940 figure. These profits
are rising at the rate of 15
percent yearly.

The direct investment profits
in 1955 were almost double

the amount by which the USS. ,

corporations increased. their
foreign holdings. So these
corporations took out of the
“backward countries” more
than they put in, making them
poorer rather than richer.
The full scope of this profit-
eerihng is barely hinted at in
the published figures, which

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omit large sums in hidden and
indirect profits from foreign
investments. ¢

at be bes

Foreign investment profits are

becoming, more and more vital
to the continued existence of
the big U.S. corporations. Be-
tween 1950 and 1955 profits
of U.S. corporations from
abroad increased by 61 per-
cent. By now foreign invest-
ment accounts for more than
half the profits of Standard
Oil companies, and 15 to 25
percent of the total profits of
some of the biggest manufac-
turing companies.

Talk of U.S. foreign invest-
ment building up the industrial
strength of the “backward
countries” is also a lot of
eyewash,

bes at $e 3

The highest profits, never-
theless, come from raw mater-
ial investments. Oil and min-
ing investment alone accounted
for 54 percent of total profits
from abroad in 1954. And
this has brought about a fun-
damental change in the pat-
tern of the U.S. economy.

Before the Second World
War the U.S. was self-suffi-
cient in most basic industrial
raw materials, and even had
surpluses of copper, petroleum,
etc., to “export to the rest of
the world. Now the U.S. im-
ports part of its supply of al-
most every industrial raw
material and the share is ris-
ing rapidly.

In 1955, imports into the
U.S. of a selected list of raw
materials totalled $4,664 mil-
lion, of which 58 percent was
brought in by U.S. companies

- from their foreign properties.

Canada, Latin America, Asia
and Africa are paying an in-
creasing tribute in labor and
natural resources to a handful
of U.S. corporations. And the

ows UL. 1S
ator incolonialism

living standards of the Amey
can people are becoming ee
creasingly dependent oF ie
exploitation of the natural ré
sources of foreign countries: es

Already. U.S. foreign inves A
ments place in the: shade th
of the old European ool
powers. The trend is for th
U.S. to act to protect tho
investments in foreign coU®
tries, and to back the effo
of its corporations to supPFe Zs
the world-wide movements for
modern living standards, b@S”
ed on nationalization of 1
sources and their use for #
ternal development. d

The U.S. government play&
a major part in unseating \”
Mosadeq government and té
versing nationalization of 3
oi: industry in Iran. It inter
vened to defend the profits ©
the United Fruit Company 2?
to halt social welfare policies
in Guatemala by engineering
the overthrow of the populat
front government.

More recently it tried to
stop Nasser’s experiments
Egypt and helped King Hu®
sein overthrow the anti-im®
perialist government in J?
dan.

Everywhere in the world the
most reactionary elements LiKE
Chiang Kai - shek, Syngma?
Rhee, Ngo Dinh Diem i
kept in power by. U.S. bayone
with the aim of protecting U. és
strategic and economic intet
ets, - This is the new-sty
chromium-plated. .colonialis®
sponsored by Wall Street. .

The more this trend conti
ues, the more unstable will bé
the foundation of U.S. livin’
standards, and the greater e
danger to the American ae
ple being drawn into coloni#
wars, instigated by the bié
corporations guarding thelr
to 100 percent profit rates.

Oc‘ober 4, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE §