Montreal unionists SOUND OFF On cowardly leaders and greedy doctors By CHARLES-HENRI LUTZ Trade unionists at the Mon- treal Labor Council’s meeting, held in the Carpenters’ Union Hall, on Sept. 15, condemned in strongest terms the position taken by the railway workers’ leadership at the end of the re- cent strike. “They’re all cowards,” shout- ed-one delegate, “They didn’t have the courage to stand up like men!” “They are guilty of double- dealing and complicity with the government,” cried. another. In a much calmer tone, an- other delegate remarked: “Ob- viously errors have been made at the leadership level in the railway strike; grave errors. However, we must take care to preserve the unity and not open our ranks to raiding on the part of the rival organization.” He was referring to the Confedera- tion of National Trade Unions. Among the resolutions that were adopted was one in which the council asks the Canadian Labor Congress to protest against the federal government's a BN decision to postpone the medi- care plan as being unfair to the workers and the poor. “Sharp is an ignoramus,” de- clared a delegate during the de- bate on this resolution. ‘‘Medi- care has nothing to do with in- flation. Only medicare would bring about a contro] of the earnings of these well-dressed gangsters who call themselves physicians. These types learned their profession in universities built with the wealth created by the workers! I once had the good ~fortune to attend a ceremony at the Université of Montréal, dur- ing which a rector told the medi- cal students that he could guar- antee them a minimum revenue of $15,000 a year. The whole room burst into laughter! They knew very well they would be earning high above this ridicu- lous sum. I'll say it again: No doctor is worth $25,000! They’re a bunch of crooks!” Another resolution that was unanimously .adopted condemn- .ed the federal government’s policy which uses the threat of inflation to mobilize public opi- nion against workers who are fighting for wage increases in order to maintain their purchas- ing power. The resolution asks the fede- ral and provincial governments, within the limits of their juris- diction, to adopt a policy of con- trolling prices, profits, dividends and capital gains so that the purchasing power of the work- ers will not be further reduced. “We-must change the econo- mic system,” said a delegate during the debate on this reso- lution. “Capitalism has lived its time but too often trade union- ists are scared to come out and say so. The capitalist machine was invented a 100 years ago and it has outrun its usefulness!” “Nobody up there likes the working man!” said an English- speaking delegate. “A general strike will pretty soon be a necessity.” “It’s all very well to pass such nice resolutions,” declared an- other delegate, “but we'll have to act much more strongly in the - near future. Even if we have to pass for Communists, we must take things into our hands.” PRECARIOUS PERCH These men aren't training for space flights, though their wo! might be considered just as dangerous. They are repainting the © water tower at Stratford, Ontario... Wages, productivity: and profits ne “7 EER:.wages down and up the “productivity. Prices and taxes are zooming upward. Profits are registering an all-time high. But never mind the profit# Keep the spotlight on wages::Wages and wage in- creases are the inflationary fac- tor. Too high wages are the source of all our problems.” How much of this malarkey will stick in the minds of those who read our daily press and listen to the radio and TV com- mentators? The Canadian Labor Congress has declared that between 1961 and 1965 in Canada, corporation profits, after taxes, rose 67 per- cent, while in the same period average weekly wages and sala- ries went up 16 percent. But Prime Minister Pearson claimed that the wage increases asked by underpaid Canadian tailway workers will result in “dangerous inflationary pres- sures and rising prices.” How is the average person to understand this? With the propa- ganda mills producing undocu- mented statistics in great profu- gion, it gets a bit confusing at time. For example, take the Sep- _ tember issue of The Independent Businessman, published at 1139 Bay ~St., Toronto. Under the heading of “Parity Not Possible” an editorial article goes on to give two sets of figures on pro- ductivity. One paragraph says that (from 1947 to 1964) ‘“Cana- dian productivity rose by 79.0 percent, while American output per worker rose by 83.2 per- cent.” Later-in the same column _it says that, “using the year 1949 as 100, productivity per man in 1964 was 183.3 in Can- ada compared with 188.3 in the USS The editorial goes on to say that ‘‘a detailed analysis of this trend, as penetrating as it is dis- turbing, has been made by Pro- fessor Robert Olely of the Uni- versity of Saskatchewan. His conclusion is that economic reasons for wage parity can only be advanced realistically when Canada and the- United States are identical in every way.” The-claim is also made that “if every above average in- dustry raised its wages to the parity level, they would price themselves right out of the mar- _ ket.” The “Independent Business- man” finds it disturbing that Canadian _ productivity rose “only” by 83.3 percent in 15 years while U.S. productivity in a like period allegedly rose by 88.3 percent, a matter of a 5 percent differential. The paper then flaunts a cartoon which claims that ignorance makes steel workers seek wage parity. The $64 question here seems LABOR SCENE hy BRUCE MAGNUSON to be who is ignorant about what? On Sept. 13, Vincent Egan wrote in the Globe .and Mail that the steel industry in Canada faces a bright future. He spoke of the industry as “capital- intensive,” and listed profit per worker at “between $2,000 and $3,000” as of last year. This compares with “about $500 in the machinery industry or the textile business.’ Mr. Egan might have added that oil pipe- lines earn as much as $40,000 per worker in clear profit. U.S. Commerce Secretary Hodges has said that in steel the highest figure for added value per employee was $30,470, against $11,860 for the average, and $5,650 for the lowest. This would appear to put the U.S. steel industry much ahead of the Canadian in productivity per worker as far as profits are concerned, unless Canadian sta- tistics are doctored up on the conservative side. But Vincent Egan goes on to state. “In terms of efficiency, the Canadian steel industry is far ahead of the U.S. industry. Hamilton’s Dominion Foundries and Steel Ltd., in particular, has been a world leader in techno- logical innovation. The two big- gest Canadian producers, Stelco ‘and Algoma, have invested 214 times as much per worker as have, for example, U.S. Steel Corp. and Republic Steel Corp. Overhead costs at Algoma are equal to about 2 percent of sales compared with about 4.6 per-. cent for leading U.S. producers.” These and similar efficiencies are reflected in financial results. Profits of the three Ontario steel companies in 1965 averaged 9.73 percent of sales, while for the 35 Jargest U.S. steel producers, the average was 5.98 percent. The Ontario companies earned ‘This applies to a return of 10.36 percent % their capital last year, compa! with 7.91 percent in the case © the 35 biggest companies in ! U.S. steel industry. : Productivity per worker an profits per worker will nevel_ identical as between the varl@ industries. But for capital, which operates on ® ever larger scale, the return © capital is based on ‘averages ® not on particular industré Capital flows in the direwion ® the biggest profits to be m4 and in Canada this presently in the steel industry. Include@ these profits must be the billion capital investment in © 1960's. : ; Consequently Finance Mini ‘ter Mitchell Sharp had little ternative but to tell Stelco fra? ly that it could finance rece wage increases and other ¢0® out of increased productivil industry ane business generally today in ! country. The minister of finan’ as the old saying goes, has the cat out of the bag.” 1! should take note of this — should the Canadian pe%% generally — in order to st monopoly from using Jabot - the scapegoat for seeking hig profits through increasing pr September 30, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pag?