ee a alle PM GT ROT MOT PS a PO” FF P| lhe a |) | — 128,000 autoworkers to go by’85 . By A Scarborough GM Worker TORONTO — It came as no surprise for GM workers in Scarborough to learn that the United Auto-Workers (UAW) estimates 128,000 workers will be elimi- nated from the auto industry by 1985. Jobs have been eliminated from nearly every line. There has been a dramatic increase in grievances, because foremen, scrambling to keep up with extra repairs - from already overloaded workers, have been working on the line. The company, in an effort to make this General Motors is hiring students to do weekend ances about foremen working on the lines. year’s speed-up easier to swallow, has hired students, (sons and daughters of foremen) to come in Friday nights and Saturdays. Workers, too tired from over- - loaded stations to come in that fifth or sixth day, are to be replaced by part- timers. Amalgamated UAW Local 303 has announced its opposition to part-time help. There is a general understanding — that hiring part-timers will only make ‘it easier for the company to discipline full- time workers for failing to meet the new TRIBUNE PHOTO — DANNY HEAP Fe causes ca ee overtime. Frequently there are griev- work standards, if GM knows there are ready replacements. Automakers and big business in gen- eral have one strategy in mind — make the workers pay for the economic crisis. UAW international president Doug Fraser cited this in an open letter of res- ignation to the U.S. labor management group, (later reprinted in the Tribune). He stated: “‘“GM ... has received responsibility, productivity, and co- operation from the UAW and its mem- bers. In return, GM has given us a south-. ern strategy designed to set up non-union network that threatens the hard-fought . gains. won by the UAW. We have given stability and have been rewarded with hostility Where industry once yearned for subservient unions, it now wants no unions at all;”’ Since 1957, production has increased 75% with only 14% more workers. This has been done through forced overtime and speed up. GM made $2-billion in the first half of 1978 alone. Scarborough GM workers have to fight this both on the shop floor and politically. - UAW president Fraser’s Labor Day message backs this point up. He cited the need for those on the “short end” to organize politically. Calling for a curb on “selfish capitalistic money power’’, Fraser pointed out, ‘‘the sheer force of. our majority holds the promise ofa de- cent society ...” DONE? decline some 4% to 10%.”’ While a debate continues to rage on Wall Street over the chances of a re- cession next year, Standards and Poor’s Corporation says its economists see only a moderation of the economic growth in 1979. Associated Press reported ina New York item, Oct. 10, that the corpora- tion’s specific reference to the auto industry, said: “Recent strong car sales_are be- lieved to have been. borrowing from future demand, and consumer credit extensions of debt outstanding are at historically high levels. Even if there is no recession in 1979, U.S. automo- bile production could be expected to in L( S55 & AA ANDi Le | a2) R OYME el While profits go up and up in auto and industri ploy goes steadily down for production workers. bots hed i suse Editorial Scrap the auto pact plants is almost twice that of global operations of the “major auto producers, while prices charged for cars _ and trucks in Canada are much higher than they are in Thirteen years after the coming into force of the free trade auto pact between Canada and the United States the deficit on the automotive parts trade is now well over $12-billion dollars, including a deficit of $1.87-billion for the first six months of this year, 1978. From the very first official announcement of this pact in 1965, the Communist Party of Canada took the position that any immediate short-term advantage would soon turn into disadvantage on the longer term. This prediction has now come to pass in the form of a disastrous decline in the auto parts manufacture in Canada, a situation that has brought an ever- increasing deficit in Canada’s balance of payments in auto trade with the United States. SCRAP THE AUTO PACT The time has arrived to scrap the worthless piece of paper, which this free trade auto pact has always been, before it can do more damage to stifle research and development. It is this which erodes an ever- shrinking base of Canadian manufacture in this area. The giant U.S. auto monopolies can no longer be allowed to exercise a veto over Canadian economic development and expanded manufacturing in the automotive and parts industry. Apparently some bourgeois circles have now. come to similar conclusions as did the Communist Party of Canada a few years ago: A report by J.J. Shepherd, vice-chairman of the Science Council of Canada, has been prepared for Simon Reisman, a former deputy minister and now a special consultant to the federal government on the auto industry. This report says that employment and new capital investment are only one-half of what they should and could be in the Canadian auto and auto parts industry. At the same time, return on investment from Canadian the United States. The report says it is a ‘‘stark reality’ that Canada has given up control of its automotive industry and is dependent upon whatever concessions it can wring from the big four auto companies. As the report points out: “The necessity of the federal and Ontario govern- ments to promise subsidies totalling $68-million to induce Ford to build the plant here rather than in the United States demonstrates the weakness of Cana- da’s bargaining position. “If the auto agreement was truly effective, Canada should automatically receive its fair share of new investments and it would be quite unnecessary to engage in such costly bribery.” THINGS CANNOT REMAIN AS THEY ARE But, while the report is critical of the results of the Canada-U.S. auto trade pact, its essence means to retain the status-quo ownership and control by the big auto companies, which is the real cause of the prob- lem. To allow this to continue means to condone a much greater exploitation of Canadian auto workers, higher car prices in Canada than in the U.S., increas- ing trade deficits with the U.S., while the auto com- panies continue to make super-profits at the expense of Canadian labor and the Canadian people. NEW POLICIES — A MUST FOR CANADA It is this that must become a subject of deep-going discussion by the Canadian people, and first and foremost the organized workers in the industry concerned. 2 Sooner or later Canadian auto workers will have to take up the battle for an independent Canadian policy -new policies needed ‘orientation in the industry. Such a policy must aim for Canadian sovereignty and Canadian democratic con- trol over the automotive industry in this country under public ownership. TOUGH STRUGGLE FF... - ABOR IN 1979 It is on this background that the preparations for the 1979 round of negotiations must be seen. Judging by present indications, these negotiations are going to be tougher than ever before and,'consequently, calls for a much tougher strategic and tactical approach. For one thing compulsory overtime work has got to go. The best would be if overtime could be done away with altogether. In any case, if.it is to remain in any form it must be on a purely voluntary basis. Instead of overtime there is an urgent need for a shorter work week of no more than 32 hours, without reduction in real take-home pay. This calls for a sub- stantial increase in basic wage rates plus indexing against inflation. There must be provisions for full labor participation in‘ operational planning, particularly in the areas of technological changes, working conditions, health and safety, and the indexing of pensions. Layoffs and plant closures must be made subject to negotiations, which include union representation. There must be provisions for the right to strike during the life of the contract on all matters, including those pertaining to managerial abuse, and against in- tolerable working conditions and inhuman speed-ups, to enforce health and safety on the job and against employers’ violations of contract provisions. There is an urgent need to re-institute an effective shop-steward system for the speedy handling of grie- vances on the job and, an end to the costly and pro- crastinating system of arbitration and other legalisms. which bring no results but only endless frustrations. a i RRR RR CORA SRL PACIFIC TRIBUNE—October 27, 1978—Page 8 Sei a es so i SS ie Oa a a