Strikers’ wives give total help in union’s fight for survival. By MIKE PHILLIPS FORT FRANCES — “We ave burned with rage’, say the Wives of the striking bush work- €rs at Boise Cascade here and in enora. . The rage, ‘‘sadness, disgust and frustration” is the result of eight months of watching their husbands jailed, given criminal Tecords, and attacked by the On- tario Provincial Police for defend- ing their union from the com- Pany’s destructive plans. The strike formally began last October, but Local 2693 Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union had €n on the picket line as early as uly to protest Boise’s plan to ¢liminate hourly-paid union. log- 8€rs and replace them with non- Union ‘‘owner-operators’”” who Would work on a piece rate sys- tem and provide their own Wood-cutting equipment. ‘he strikers’ wives, showing their deep-rooted support of 2693 recently issued a At the recent Congress of the Socialist International held in ancouver, Willy Brandt, in re- ference to the subject of human Tights, stated: ‘‘We will be making 4 mistake on this question’ if we = Judge them by European and North American standards be- Cause then, in waging a legitimate and necessary struggle for indi- vidual freedoms, we would be ig- horing just as important a prob- lem >— social rights. A person liv- ing in poverty is not going to be Vety interested in other social Nights.”’ Asked what he thought about the above statement, Anatoly Ovchan, LLD, Deputy Director Of the Institute of State and Law Of the USSR Academy of Sci- €nces, and a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee replied: ‘*Well, I think IS approach here is right. Willy Srandt is one of the West’s lead- Ing ideologists and his concepts On the whole are at odds with Ours, but here he came rather close to the Soviet idea of human rights. “I would. amend his words SOmewhat. He says that social Tights are ‘just as important’ as dividual freedoms. I would say they are more important’. Please Understand me correctly. I am not belittling the importance of man rights. In eliminating the System of exploitation, the 1917 October } Revolution established a SOcialist state where democracy has been allowed to flourish. As Viet society has developed, the Tange of political and individual Tights and freedoms has broadened parallel to it. This is Why the Soviet concept of human: Nights and freedoms is based on the idea that there can be no free- dom in society if a person is not Suaranteed the right to work ... When bourgeois ideologists deal With this theme, they don’t say a Word about economic and social Nights — the rights that determine &8n individual’s position in socie- ty. The way we here in the USSR statement eloquently expressing their feelings and those of the communities involved, about this vicious attack on _ labor’s economic and democratic rights by a U.S.-owned multi-national. Quoting the federal. govern- ment about the need for Cana- dians to restrain their economic demands and ‘‘tighten their belts’’, the wives contrasted this attitude to the $400-million gift re- cently granted the pulp and paper industry. . “You state this will help pre- serve the industry and create employment. Will we benefit?”’ the wives ask. ‘‘We who face life- time debt and multiple lay-offs if the ‘owner-operator’ issue goes through? Meetings with government ministers at the provincial and federal levels have yielded no- thing. With the give-aways, and the massive despatch of more than 100 OPPs to help the com- pany break the strike both ‘pany, governments have clearly shown which side they’re on. “Are you afraid to incur the wrath of Boise Cascade”, the wives ask the politicians? ‘‘Is this multi-million dollar corporation more powerful than our govern- ment and more important than our people?”’ The wives answer the com- pany’s tireless efforts to smash the union with a blunt, deter- mined message to Boise: “‘We in- tend to stay and work in north- western Ontario, by choice, not necessity; to build it into a better place to live for ourselves and our children.” They know that without their union they would be totally at the company’s mercy. “‘To this com- who- cares more about profit than its employees, and which is steadily reaping its wealth from our country, we are nothing more than numbers on their payroll, as dispensible as toilet tissue.” see it, social and economic rights — to work; leisure, social main- tenance, education, health, etc., come first.” Mr. Movchan went on to point out that being assured the right to: a job is bound up intimately with individual freedom. He also pointed out that the Soviet Union was the first of the great powers to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that was adopted by the United Na- tions in 1956. Where, then, does Canada fit into this picture? People Pushed Around Layoffs, cutbacks, attacks on workers’ -living standards and rights to organize, ‘to collective bargaining and to strike are everyday occurances here. There are more than enough reasons for workers to get angry, real angry at the way working people are being pushed around by coupon clip- pers, spéculators, landlords, capitalist politicians and other servants of the huge and bloated corporate hierarchy. What stands out plain and clear is the fantastic drive for corporate profits through mergers and growth of monopoly. An example of this is -analysts’ projections of more than $7 a share for 1979 to investors in Noranda Mines Ltd., as con- ceded to the press by its presi- dent, Alfred. Powis. It is another story when work- ers’ wages are concemed. De- spite the inflationary cuts in take-home pay the penny- pinching continues for those who actually produce all the wealth in- cluding the monopoly profits. A good example of this is the rail- way workers’ so-called settle- ment proposals for three years which will give them a cut in real pay if accepted, while the rail- ways have an open door for con- tinued layoffs and speed-up as a result of technological advances and rationalization at the work- _ers’ expense. Yet, even the CNR, without counting the interest of Human rights real & illusory = $55-million saved as a result of re-capitalization, ended up with a net profit of $77-million in 1978, which was 2!/2 times that of 1977. . = Workers in Parliament “That the monopoly offensive against the working class and the trade union movement is being stepped up is indicated by the fact that the federal government re- fused for 18 months to negotiate in good faith with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.. When the union then proceeded to strike action last October, as it had a legal right to do, the government called the parliament together to change the rules and force the postal workers back to work. It is now prosecuting the. president of the CUPW under the Criminal Code because his members did not immediately succumb to this dictate of a parliament which con- tradicted its earlier decision con- cerning postal workers’ right to strike. This, then, is human rights as practiced in Canada in this year of 1979. The leader of a national trade union is to be sentenced on May 7. At the same time it is not STRIKERS FORCE SAFETY MEASURE BRANTFORD — The 1,400 Local 458 United Auto Workers members who struck Massey Fer- guson Ltd., over speed-up and un- safe working conditions, were suc- cessful in.forcing the company to install proper equipment in the area where UAW member Michael ae had his hand cut off, April 8. The workers began returning to their jobs April 24 after the com- pany, which had denied unsafe conditions existed, announced they would install the appropriate safety equipment to prevent a recurrence of the tragic accident. HYDRO WORKERS PROTEST LAYOFF CHURCHILL FALLS, Nfid. — Workers at the Churchill Falls Hydro Corp. generating plant struck April 24 to protest the provincially-owned company’s announced plans to fire two ap- prentices in June. ’ A spokesman for Local 2351 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said the union found out the apprentices were to be laid off while eight to 10 tem- porary employees were going to be hired for the summer. NEWS STRIKE CONTINUES VANCOUVER — The “Ex- press”, the only newspaper pub- lishing in this city, and the only paper in the country produced by striking newspaper workers, will go on publishing. Pacific Press Ltd., the owners of Vancouver’s two dailies still refuse to negotiate © unreasonable ‘to assume that if re-elected to power on May 22, the same capitalist politicians that pursue these anti-labor policies on behalf of monopoly would not. hesitate one moment to reimpose wage controls, while permitting prices and profits to soar. _What we need is real change following election day May 22. To bring about that situation and to change the status quo in parlia- ment means to replace some of the capitalist politiciafls with some true voices of the working class in the new parliament. This calls for the election of Com- munists to parliament as part of a progressive majority prepared to of democracy, peace and prog- ress. BEAUHARNOIS, Que. — Job here that five company employees an agreement with six newspaper and printing trades unions. The number of pressmen and mail room workers on a given shift, with management trying to reduce the number and speed up the work, is the main issue in the fight. The Sun, and Vancouver’s morning papér, the Province have been shut down over this issue since Nov. 1 when the employer forced two unions on strike, and then locked out the other four. 1,175 TURFED OUT AT BUDD CANADA KITCHENER — _ Budd Canada Ltd., is going ahead with the layoff of 1,175 workers scheduled for May 4 company of- ficials said last week. Budd told the United Auto Workers members last January the company. would be turfing them out for four months because Ford Motor Co., in Oakville was. cancelling its frame production at Budd for full-sized and _ inter- mediate cars. Last January’s an- nouncement followed the news of © the $80-million give-away to Ford by the Ontario Tory government. BELL WORKERS WALKOUT MONTREAL — Some 600-700 technical workers at Bell Canada walked off the job in Montreal, Quebec City and St. Jean, April 24 in another of a series of one-day strikes by the Communications Workers of Canada to demand a decent contract offer from the phone monopoly. The workers have been without an agreement since Nov. 30. The union represents 16,000 craft and service workers. ea a ae ee ee rhe : strike Steelworkers against the U.S. multi-national Union work for and institute progressive Carbide. Th company Is trying to reduce the number of workers re- reforms and to alter the direction quired for each process operation. Inthe manganese furnace area the of national policy in the interests company wants to reduce the crews from six to four, per furnace. It was —_ recently killed in an explosion PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 4, 1979—Page 5 TT