LABOR

Boeing takeover condemned

The $1-billion giveawa

MALTON — For about the
price of a jumbo 747 airliner the
federal Tory government drove a
stake in the hert of Canada’s
aerospace industry, Dec. 2 by
selling off deHavilland Aircraft
Ltd., to the U.S. transnational
Boeing Co.

The sell-out was condemned by
nearly everyone in the country
with the exception of a small
group of industry analysts and the
federal Tories. Opposition leader
John Turner called the deal a $1-
billion giveaway and demanded a
parliamentary review of the sale.

The New Democrats moved a
motion of non-confidence in the
government which the Liberals
supported.

In Toronto, the Communist
Party in a joint statement by the
central, Ontario and Metro To-
ronto party leaders, demanded
the deal be cancelled. Noting
that contrary to the Tories’ pre-
election promises of ‘‘jobs, jobs,
jobs,’’ Boeing hasn’t put for-
ward any firm guarantees that the
4,800 jobs at deHavilland will be
maintained.

Comparing the Tories’ move
to the Diefenbaker government’s
scrapping of the Avro Arrow in
the late 1950s, the party statement
declared: “‘It is not too late to
stop this shameful sell-out.

“The Canadian taxpayers have
given away the last Canadian
company with the ability to de-
sign, develop and build airframes
in Canada’, the president of the
union local representing de Havil-
land workers said in a press
statement.

John Bettes, head of Auto-
workers Local 112, said attempts
by the union to meet with both
representatives from the CDIC
and the Ministry of Regional In-
dustrial Expansion to discuss the
sale were brushed off.

“Tories have always adhered
to the philosophy that private in-
dustry can manufacture and pro-

duce more efficiently than in-

dustry owned by the general pub-
lic. The de Havilland giveaway
will inevitably haunt the Con-

servative government as Black
Friday haunted Diefenbaker’s
Tories decades ago,”’ he warned.

Bob White, president of the
United Auto Workers-Canada,
called the sale a “‘giveaway”’ of
both the taxpayers’ money and
the aerospace industry.

The UAW represents some 400
deHavilland office workers and
2,100 in the plant.

White protested the federal
government’s total failure to con-
sult with the workers on this im-
portant development in a letter
Dec. 2 to Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney.

The government sell-out will
turn deHavilland over to Boeing
for $90-million in cash with
another $65-million to be paid
over the next 15 years. Canadians
through their taxes have pumped
in more than $700-million to keep
deHavilland in business since the
government bought it from
British-owned Hawker-Siddeley
in 1974 for $40.5-million.

The company manufactures
commuter planes and small jets,
particularly the short takeoff and
landing, (STOL) aircraft known
as the Dash-8.

In a press conference the same
day as the sell-out was an-
nounced, White called the sale,
‘ta serious threat to the future of
an independent aerospace in-
dustry in this country’, and
noted, ‘‘when you think that Boe-
ing will have to pay only $63-mil-
lion of its (U.S.) currency up front
for a $700-million world-com-
petitive product, this sale is no-
thing less than a giveaway.”

Speaking to the media again on
Dec. 4, White said he didn’t see
any short term jeopardy for jobs
at deHavilland, but that in the
long term the aerospace industry
could be reduced to a supplier of
parts for the U.S.

He described the impact of sell-
ing off one quarter of the Cana-
dian aerospace industry in terms
of lost training opportunities and
the development of a skilled
workforce; the undermining and
disappearance of reserch and

development; and the eventual
disappearance of jobs and an in-
dustrial sector whose existence is
vital to the economic health of
Canada.

“*The aerospace industry is an
important one to this country and
we've just given it away to Boe-
ing, in my judgement’, he said.

The sell-out came at a time
when orders were high for the
Dash-8, with 117 firm orders and
about 60 more sales pending.

In addition to the land attached
to deHavilland valued at about
$20-million, Boeing could reap
millions more in tax and other de-
ferments.

If Boeing gets the tax breaks |

it’s asking from the government,
it will be able to write off about
$198-million in losses incurred by
deHavilland, and another $221-
million in‘depreciation allowance,

and deferred research and 4
development expenses from its 3

income taxes.

In a joint statement, December
3, Communist Party leaders de-
manded cancellation of the sell-
out by the Mulroney government
of the Crown corporation, de
Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd.
William Kashtan, leader of the
Communist Party of Canada,
along with Gordon Massie, On-
tario leader and Geoff Da Silva,
Metro Toronto leader issued the
following statement in Toronto.

+ a oe

The sale of de Havilland to Boe-
ing Aircraft is one more step int he
Mulroney government’s plans to
betray Canada and its working
people. Hell bent on integrating
Canada economically and militar-
ily with the U.S., the Tory
government is selling a key sector
of our economy at rock-bottom
prices, regardless of the threat to
jobs and our economic future.

de Havilland is being sold to
Boeing ostensibly for $155-mil-
lion, but $65-million of that may
not be paid due to scaled reduc-
tions on Canadian orders, another
$30-million may be recouped by
Boeing through tax write-offs on
inherited debt. The land alone is
worth more than $20 million!

The Canadian people had in-
vested close to $700-million over
the past number of years to keep
the aerospace industry going. All
this is now going down the drain.
This is proof positive that Mul-
roney is in the pocket of the
transnational corporations.

What has been sold is not only
de Havilland. The aerospace
industry has been scuttled. En-
gineers, technicians, skilled
workers may lose their jobs.
Canadian-developed -high tech-
nology will be turned over to Boe-
ing. This by a government which

Cancel de Ha villand sell-out

promised jobs, jobs, jobs to
Canadians. There are no firm
guarantees that present jobs will
be maintained.

Prime Minister Diefenbaker in
his day closed down the Avro Ar-
row. Prime Minister Mulroney is
doing the same with de Havilland:

By this action the Tories show
they see no future for Canada ex-
cept.-as..a. satellite of U.S:
imperialism.

It is not too late to stop this

shameful sell-out. The Canadian —

people ought to demand that the —

agreement with Boeing be can- —
celled and de Havilland main- ~
tained as a Crown Corporation as ~

part of a publicly owned and in- q
tegrated Canadian aerospace ©

industry. The aerospace industry

is too important to Canada’s fu-
ture and its economic develop-
ment, to be handed over to U.S. —
corporations. It’s time to Put —
Canada First. 4

Quebec labor pushes leadership for action

By MARIANNE ROY

QUEBEC — The Quebec Federation
of Labor, now called la Federation des
Travailleurs and Travailleuse de
Quebec, held its 19th biennial conven-
tion here Nov. 25-29.

Neither the ambiguous theme of the
convention, ‘‘Prendre notre place,”
(Let’s take our place), nor the twelve and
a half page opening speech of president
Louis Laberge provided much hope for
real change or for an alternative
economic policy for the 1,003 delegates
present.

In fact the most pressing questions fac-
ing the trade union movement, and
workers in general, (i.e. the questions of
peace, free trade and Canadian inde-
pendence), weren’t even mentioned in
his speech.

This, however, didn’t daunt the mood
of the delegates. The vast majority of
contributions from the floor made it clear
that they were looking for real solutions,
for action and direction, in other words,
for real leadership.

In every workshop held on the presi-
dent’s report, the main focus was on free
trade. Other major concerns were de-
regulation, privatization and the new tac-
tics of the bosses, particularly so-called
Quality of Working Life programs.

The dominant thrust of these interven-
tions was clearly against free trade with
the U.S., against deregulation and
privatization, and against QWL. .

As a result, the convention also de-
cided to hold two conferences, in
1986 on QWL programs with the objec-
tive of preparing a coherent trade union
policy, and another, before the next con-
vention, on privatization, deregulation
and sub-contracting.

On all these issues, delegates wanted
the QFL to return to its militant roots:
that it be more forceful in its demands,
that it mobilize more militant action and
put less energy into behind-closed-door
lobbying with government and the
employers.

Several delegates were critical of the
QFL president because of his cozying up

Backgrounder

to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, say-
ing that ‘‘since Mulroney has gotten in,
the situation (in Canada) has gotten
worse’’, or that, ‘‘after turning Sheffer-
ville into a ghost town he seems to be
doing the same thing to Ottawa.”’

One delegate told the convention, “‘it
makes me sick to see the president of this
federation eating sandwiches at Power
Corporation headquarters with MPs and
bosses’’, and added that it’s ‘‘time once
again that the QFL took its place along-
side the workers’’.

Unfortunately, the dominant tendency
of the federation leadership is still one of
tripartism. The delegates’ demands for
action were not taken up by the execu-
tive in their responses.

Nevertheless, some good general pol-
icy statements were adopted by the con-
vention on important issues such as af-

firmative action programs for women,
and tech change. Regrettably most of
them fell just short of being action-
oriented.

A good peace policy statement was
referred to the in-coming executive be-
cause the convention ran out of time. It
reaffirmed the QFL’s wish that all coun-
tries adopt policies of peace and that the
pursuit of peace take priority over all
political objectives.

The statement calls on the federal
government to develop an independent
national security policy, refuse Canadian
participation in the Star Wars program
and that the federation lend its support to
the activities of organizations pursuing
the same objectives.

There were no major changes in the
make-up of the executive as a result of
the elections. That executive now in-
cludes two women, and two new posi-
tions were added. One was taken by the
Public Service Alliance of Canada and
the other by the United Food and Com-
mercial Workers.

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 18, 1985