LABOR SCENE

by Bruce Magnuson

There is no use denying that
there is a conspiracy to break
labor unions and to push labor
against the wall. There is defin-
itely such a conspiracy to force
a reduction in real wages while
prices and profits continue to
soar.

Just look at the evidence. La-
bor contracts negotiated in the
first quarter of this year as re-
ported in the capitalist press
provided for an annual increase
in base wage rates of 9.7% as
an average. We do not know
how correct these figures are,
but we let that go for a moment.

Next thing they tell us that
farm income jumped by almost
25% last year, according to Sta-
tistics Canada. —

But the first-quarter profits of
Canadian corporations have in-
creased from $439.2 million re-
gistered a year ago by 180
companies sampled, to $614.2
million, up 39.8%.

Yet every time some workers
gain an increase in pay to catch
up with rising living costs, this
is used as an excuse to push up
prices still further, so that the
buying power of the supposed
increase is not what it is antici-
pated to be. Not that monopoly
corporations would not raise.
prices anyway—they would and
they do, since they are free to-
day from competitive pressures
and are more and more the com-
plete masters of the markets
and of prices. Today’s monopol-
istic capitalist system pushes up
prices without any built-in check
on competition that was operat-
ing more widely in the past.

‘Trudeau’s Argument
The trade union movement
must challenge this process all

the time. But in doing so it meets.

with arguments such as: wages
Must be limited ‘to stop infla-
tion’; wages must be geared to
productivity; incomes and pro-
duction must be kept in step,
etc.; Trudeau’s main argument.

. But how do you keep a steady
flow of goods and services in
step with incomes and spending
under a monopoly capitalist sys-
tem, where even the old capital-
ist law of ‘supply and demand’
does not operate any more?
Sure, under a socialist system it
can be done because there they
have planned economies. The re-
sult is full employment, a steady

Only all-Canada solidarity
can break this conspiracy!

rise in the level of production
and of living standards, at the
same time as prices remain rela-
tively stable. But this is not so
under a monopolistic private
profit system, such as we have
in Canada. Here, almost any and
all increases in productivity re-
sult in less production.

If workers under our system
work harder to produce more
they simply increase the profits
for the boss, while working
themselves out of a job. Look at
all the layoffs sweeping across
the country. Redundancies
everywhere. Fewer people are
employed on the same job,
prices continue to go up, and

the only thing that is booming -

is the Stock Exchange trading
and tax exempt profits, or heav-
ily under-taxed profits — only
one-half of the tax paid on
wages, are to be paid by stock
speculators under the new capi-
tal gains tax law.

When unemployment increas-
es, and one-half to three-quar-
ters of the population get less
income, they obviously spend
less. This is particularly true of
workers whose whole income
has to be spent on life’s neces-
sities.

Need Buying Power

The only way to increase
production is to put the unem-
ployed back to work. Build more
factories and provide more goods
and services, along with much
more buying power in the hands
of the people to buy and pay for
those increased goods and ser-
vices.

To gear wages to productivity

under capitalism means to guar- .

antee profits. It in no way guar-
antees more production, secur-
ity of jobs or lower prices.

To stop inflation it is expand-
ed production that is required,
coupled ‘with falling prices. It is
therefore, excessive profits and
prices that must be restricted,

and that is what calls for work-.

ing class struggle — the only
way by which this can be done
under our capitalist system.

At the same time the working
people are robbed through the
tax system. In the past decade
personal incomes and profits
have doubled, speaking roughly
about the comparative position
over the 1960’s. The corporate
taxes too, has roughly doubled
in the same period. But now

that is to be reduced by the
latest government budget, pro-
viding feather-bedding for big
business. At the same time,
taxes paid by ordinary people
have more than ‘quadrupled in
the last decade. Working people
now pay twice as much taxes
to Ottawa as corporations do.
Counting provincial and munici-
pal taxes, and sales taxes on
everything we buy, plus licenc-
ing and fees, etc., we pay 80%
of the taxes collected in this
country. For instance, Shell Can-
ada Limited paid not a cent in
taxes to the Federal government
during the last five years. Nei-
ther did Dickenson Mines Ltd.,
which since 1948 has taken $57
million worth of gold from its

property in Northern Ontario. A

development company in Toron-
to increased the value of its pro-
perties by over 500% between
1964-69, its profits increased by
1400% in that period of time. It
has never paid federal income
tax.

Expose Real Inflation Source

The employer-government con-
spiracy to impose a wage freeze
is now at a showdown stage in
B.C., after the Federal govern-
ment set the stage some time
ago. The remedy is country-wide
solidarity of labor, which alone
can put a stop this this manipu-

lation of the people by profiteers -

and opportunist politicians.

.At its recent Convention in
Ottawa, the CLC was pledged to
a campaign to expose the real
causes of inflation and its con-
sequences.

This would be the propitious
moment for the CLC to speak up
on the latest developments now
reaching a showdown stage in
B.C. and Quebec, and in pro-
cess of developing in many other
areas.

In fact, from where this writer
views the country-wide develop-
ments in new contract negotia-
tions at this moment, it would
appear than an immediate con-
sultative emergency conference
between labor leaders from all
areas of the country and initiat-
ed by the CLC, may be a way
to work out a program to deal
with the situation, and a com-
mon strategy and tactics to cope
with the increasing problems
which loom ahead for summer
and early fall.

Has the CBC news a pro-U.S.
bias? Some listeners are con-
vinced it’s so; and David Gehl of
Regina, a leading member of the
Young Communist League, wrote
the CBC his views.

He had a reply from Herbert
Cowan, Supervising Editor, Ra-
dio News, English Services Divi-
sion, Toronto, who said he could
not agree that CBC news sounds
like the Voice of America.

He admitted that “we use
many reports. distributed by
United States news agencies
from American reporters in
Vietnam,” but defended U.S. re-
porters as “experienced, profes-
sional and objective newsmen
who tend to look with consider-
able detachment on their own
country’s activities.”

In a second letter, Gehl chided
the CBC spokesman for having
“deliberately skirted around the
essential point.” While question-

ing the objectivity and detach-
ment of U.S. newsmen, he went
on: :
“However, the main problem
is. that these newsmen refer to
the North Vietnamese and the
South Vietnamese, who are
fighting against American ag-
gression as ‘the enemy.’

“They refer to them as ‘ag-
gressors.’ My impression of
CBC newscasts is that the CBC
news commentators also refer
to them exactly as do their
American counterparts: as ene-
mies and aggressors.

“To my knowledge Canada
has never declared war on
Hanoi, nor on South Vietnam.
Canada has no troops in Viet-
nam. To refer to them as ‘the
enemy’ identifies Canada, with-
out even the pretense of a par-
liamentary debate, as an ally of
the United States against the
Vietnamese.

PACIFIC IRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1972—PAGE 8

“Now I have no doubt that the
CBC news staff does what it
thinks people in high places
want it to do. To declare our-
selves as an ally of the United
States in its war against Viet-
nam is a studied effort to line up
Canadian public opinion behind
the U.S. war effort. That is far
from being ‘objective,’ although
obviously it does have an objec-
tive.

“The majority of people in
Canada think of U.S. imperial-
ism as an aggressor, which cer-
tainly gives the CBC news de-
partment a ‘puppet’ role in its
own country.

“Insofar as to who is winning
and losing in Vietnam,” Gehl
said, referring to a CBC news
report quoting a U.S. general as
Saying the ‘North Vietnamese
forces were -being chased like
mice in a haystack,’ we can let
history and the Vietnamese de-
cide that.”

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By RICHARD ORLANDINI

“Dunnville is in Canada’ and
not in the U.S. We have to re-
mind the company of this fact
whenever we try to negotiate
with them,” were the words of
a ‘Lanark striker when describ-
ing their conflict with the com-
pany. “We don’t have to accept
Nixon’s 514% wage freeze here.”

Dunnville is indeed in Canada.
It is a quiet little town on the
north shore of Lake Erie about
40 miles south of Hamilton. Like
many small towns on the Nia-
gara Peninsula its industries are
all small secondary firms taking
advantage of a rural work force
and low wages. And like many
other small towns in the area,
Dunnville has had its economic
ups and downs.

In 1961 after the Sylvania
Television plant had closed in
Dunnville a new company, Lan-
ark Manufacturing, a subsidiary
of the’ U.S.-owned Essex Wire
and Cable, moved in. Although
the people of Dunnville didn’t
know it at the time, they were
to be plagued by a company
whose only conception of indus-
trial relations was: smash the
union and keep the wages ‘ow.
Lanark came to Dunnville as a
runaway plant trying to avoid
union demands in Windsor. The
workers hired on at that time
were not told what they were
manufacturing, but it was ru-
mored that the company pro-
duced wires for electric blank-
ets. But as one striker hired by
Lanark in 1961 told the Tribune,
“The wires were too heavy for
electric blankets and it wasn’t
until we saw the blueprints that
we knew we were producing the
electrical components for Ford
automobiles and trucks.”

Several unions tried to become
the bargaining agents for the
workers in Lanark. In 1961, the
International Association of Ma-
chinists tried and were beaten
in efforts to get a five-year con-
tract, in 1964 the United Elec-
trical workers failed to get certi-
fication, and again in 1965 nei-
ther the Teamsters nor the Steel-
workers could win representa-
tion. Finally in 1966 the United
Auto Workers got it.

Now the UAW contract with
Lanark has expired and the com-
pany does not appear willing to
negotiate beyond Nixon’s 514%
wage guidelines. Rather than
meet the demands of the work-
ers or even negotiate in good

_only one stays:

Rh

faith the company has
ed to pack up and leave:
its Dunnville plant >
United States. “ h
using blackmail,”
told the Tribune, “bU
rather see the plant
go back to work Wi
conditions and wages ‘it
Trucks have bee? ce.
crossing the picke mill
posedly to pick up uM
to deliver to the U->: “yuh
resentative William ot
summed the situatiO? i
he reported that th? ai)
is like a bunch i)
They should pu
wheels.”
Most of the §
the company is jv US.
an effort to impOs® ~ ¢
on them. But none %
ers are happy wit in te
the company uses a
“We have to havé this op
protect us from — 4 ite
thing,” . Bea Jones:
veteran of the °
tion lines, told
“and note ip
has done has he 5
they have screens Y the
sell-out of plants ye!
but what do they ne
which threaten
The wre. st Wg
reed that e dit
scribe the working oo
the plant was “tert
85% of the worker f)
are women and m0S) ji.

erikels

US: 9)

income. “And
knows it, so they th
fight for our’
Moody, one of the a
ers said. “The ©
speedups which Ne
sible to keep pace. “sii!
off sick, your unit oust
same quota eve? And
short one person: * oth
no relief if your
caught up.
simply said,
many nervous P
Jones noted,
thick skin, but
the restroom t0 i.
ally.” !
“Things were e the
plant that some ond
power people in ™
unofficial policy °®
people to work 7 og
tions are open,” °
“and there are
open, because for ©