| PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

| w

“The Unemployed Man
Is Now Forgotten”

By JACK MOORE, IWA Regional President

UR basic woes have not been removed by the so-called aus-

terity program of the federal government. The plain truth is
that austerity will bear most heavily on the wage-earners.

The only proper test of the measures now being placed into effect

is whether they will

put the Canadian economy on the path to

progress. When viewed in this light, “austerity” is only a stop-gap
measure.

The Diefenbaker
plan for austerity
presents the danger
that a policy of re-

straint on wage
increases “may
emerge. Plans in

_ the making have
) all the earmarks of
__ the infamous “pay

a. pause” attempted

by the Conservative Government in
Britain. The civil servants have
sounded the alarm. The British plan
was not as far-reaching in its effect
on trade, and proved to be more
flexible than the Diefenbaker-Flem-
ing plan. The British trade unions
demanded and secured the necessary
degree of flexibility in that country.

The need to deal adequately with
Canada’s mass unemployment seems
to have been forgotten. All the em-
phasis is now placed on incentives
for investment and profit-making.
The unemployed man is now the
“forgotten man”.

Trade unionists should take a
careful look at the tariff changes.
The box score shows:

Fifty-three items get a 15% sur-
charge.

One hundred and three tariff items
get a 10% surcharge.

Four hundred and ninety-nine
items get a 5% surcharge.

But that doesn’t mean that only
654 products are affected. The new
government schedule ranges all the
way from the single word “candles”
to long and complicated lists of
specialized machinery.

In truth, Canada has been pre-
sented with a new tariff schedule
without the approval of Parliament.

Still worse, the new schedule may
be regarded as violating Canada’s
international trade agreements. It
will be interesting to discover the
views of other countries, our part-
ners in the GATT trade agreements.

It is nonsense for the Vancouver
Province to pretend that the “Cana-
dian dollar is worth as much to
Canadians as it ever was”. For in-

stance, note the boosted prices on

liquor and motor cars.

Even without the boost in tariffs,
the devalued dollar adds almost ten
per cent to every item of imports.
It is not within the realm of possi-
bility that importers will buy goods
abroad for $1.10 and sell to us for
$1.00.

More than twenty per cent of the
goods commonly regarded as neces-
sities are imported. Automatically,
approximately ten per cent is added
because of devaluation.

Now, in addifion, consumers must
pay the price for protective tariffs.
To make matters worse, exporters
are planning to sell to domestic con-
sumers at the higher prices which
they may now secure in markets
abroad.

For a period the Canadian price
level appeared to be stabilized. Now,
the inevitable effect of the austerity
program is spreading throughout the
economy, with dire effects on the
standards of wage-earning consum-
ers.

“We must tighten our belts,” says
Mr. Diefenbaker. This is all very
well if it becomes necessary for the
common good. If belts are to be
tightened, everyone should share
alike. The worst possible conse-
quences will follow a national “belt-
tightening” process, which allows
runaway profits, and imposes lower
living standards on the wage-earners.
The workers form the bulk of the
consumers, one of the important
foundations for a sound economy.

Export trade will not flourish if
the nations with which we trade feel
obliged to take retaliatory measures
against increased tariffs and the de-
valued dollar.

The austerity program bears no

resemblance to the type of genuine
economic planning so urgently re-
quired. It protects only weak Cana-
dian industries, and those controlled
from the United States. It is phony
because almost the entire emphasis
is placed on greater profits at the
expense of living standards.

U.S. Spent 18 Billion
Fighting Korean War

By MORDEN LAZARUS

Under the title “Success Costs Less than Failure,” SATURDAY

REVIEW compares the cost of fighting the Korean War with the
cost of the preventive operation in the Congo.

SR publishes this analysis during
a time when the value, cost and
existence of the United Nations is
being called into question from
many sides—by the Circhites in the
U.S., to some extent, by the Mac-
Millan government as well as by the

USSR.
Korean War

During the Korean War 56,000
UN and 415,000 Korean troops were
killed while 800,000 Koreans were
made homeless. The U.S. alone
spent $18 billion on the war effort,
and has been spending over $100
million a year ever since in main-
taining armed forces in Korea.

Around 1950 people were saying
that the Korean War might have
been prevented if the UN had its
forces stationed along the dividing
line between north and south Korea.
They asked why should the UN wait
for war to break out before taking

action?
Congo Operation
But that’s exactly what the UN

done in the Congo operation.
bas became an in-

At that point the UN “sent troops
to restore order and reduce the dan-
ger that the vacuum in the Congo
would be filled by the Soviet Union
or any other nation, large or small.”
And the U.S. supported the UN.

Canadian Forces

Along with 20,000 troops, the UN
sent in teachers, doctors, engineers,
lawyers, business, agricultural and
trade specialists, road builders and
so on. The Canadian forces pro-
vided most of the communications
systems,

The UN had (and still has) a very
tough assignment which it carried
out with impartiality and courage.
It has probably averted a much
more serious situation, a much more
serious war. It has done all this at
a cost of only $10 million a month.

Small Cost

This is a small fraction of the
cost of the Korean War. The after-
math of the Congo operation might
also be much less costly.

But it is this Congo operation and
the policing of the Gaza strip that
has run the UN into a substantial
deficit, estimated at $200 million by
the end of the year. Yet this total,
as big as it looks, is less than it cost
to fight the Korean War for one

week,
If UN Fails
SATURDAY REVIEW says,

Labour Board
Scores
Company

Officers of Local 1-417, IWA re-
port that the Labour Relations
Board has ordered the Fadear Creek
Lumber Company to cease and de-
sist from interfering with the forma-
tion and administration of a trade
union.

The Local Union laid the charge
with the Board following the Com-
pany’s attempts to intimidate the
crew.

It was alleged during the Board
hearing that an employee, with the
Company’s knowledge, took a peti-
tion around the plant during work-
ing hours which stated that the em-
ployees did not want the Union to
act as their bargaining agent.

Further evidence showed the
Company had told one employee
that if he joined the Union, the
Company would take away his buy-
ing privileges and cancel an order
that had been made to purchase
some plywood.

In another instance, the Union
claimed that the Foreman had inti-
midated a group of employees who
were talking to two Union officials
by driving up on the road and park-
ing across from where the group
were talking.

Temporary
Post

Robert Schlosser is the acting
Business Agent of Local 1-417, TWA,
during the absence of Cliff Michael
who was awarded a scholarship by
the National Institute of Labour
Education and is now studying at
the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor.

Elmer Atwood, the Business Agent
at Nelson has replaced Schlosser in
the Golden area and Jack Munro

has taken over for Atwood at Nel-
son.

- strikers and

Supreme Court Upholds

Right To Strike

OTTAWA—The Supreme Court of Canada in a unanimous
judgment has upheld the right of striking employees to retain
their jobs. By this ruling, the nine-member court, in effect, re-
affirmed the right to strike—a right which was placed in jeopardy

by a magistrate’s decision.

Magistrate T. S. Elmore origin-
ally had dismissed two charges of
violating the labour act brought
against the railway-owned hotel by
the striking union, Local 299,
Hotel and Restaurant Employees
Union. Toronto Magistrate Elmore
found that the labour code con-
tained no specific section provid-
ing the right to strike. He suggest-
ed no employee could strike —
even though he had followed the
act’s conciliation procedures—until
he had terminated his individual
contract of employment by notice
under the ancient Master and Serv-
ant law.

Argument Torpedoed

The Supreme Court’s ruling tor-
pedoed this line of argument and
the court ordered Magistrate El-
more to convict the hotel. In Tor-
onto, the magistrate complied by
fining the Royal York a total of
$500 on twin charges of firing
threatening to fire
strikers. David Lewis, counsel for
the union at all stages of the pro-
ceedings, had said the penalty im-
posed should be such that working
people could see that the law ap-
plies as rigorously to big corpora-
tions.

In the Supreme Court decision,
Mr. Justice J. R. Cartwright said
the Royal York strike was lawful.
He noted that the labour act pro-
vided that while a strike was in
progress, employees on strike re-
mained employees. The act, he

said, prevented the hotel from fir-

ing strikers by reason only of the
employee ceasing to work as a
result of the strike.

Ultimatum Issued

The case arose when the hotel
sent letters to all employees still
on strike two months after the
walkout began in April, 1961. Con-
tained in each letter was an ulti-
matum threatening discharge for
those who failed_either to resign or
return to work by mid-July. Those
who did not reply were dismissed
July 16.

When the strike was settled in
April of this year, the hotel agreed
to take back all but two of the 449
remaining strikers. The cases of
two employees went to arbitration.
Close to 400 have been recalled and
the remainder are expected to be
back well before the agreed August
31 deadline.

Onofrio Zambri, business agent
for the union, hailed the Supreme
Court’s decision as a victory for
all organized labour. “This has al-
ways been labour’s interpretation of
the act,” he commented. “But if the
acquittal of Magistrate Elmore had
been sustained, it would have meant
that the act does not mean what it
seems to mean.”

David Archer, president of the
Ontario Federation of Labour, de-
clared the province should go on to
enact legislation barring employers
from hiring strike-breakers.

Unemployment Hard Core

According to the Hamilton Spectator, “The hard core of the unemploy-
ment problem and its most discouraging aspect lies in the 20 per cent of
unemployed made of workers of all ages who have no training or skills.
Their opportunities for employment are fading with the pick and shovel.”

ees

SHOE MANUFACTURING
CO. (B.C.) LTD.

2248-50 East Hastings St.
Vancouver, B.C.

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