By WILLI
A
HE CURR Mey ONEY

| ENT
rae year has
ved to be an important

One in th
BS in € struggle of work-
Mandara ORS of their living
Rents in, Hundreds of agree-
Listing 2 wide variety of in-
“Untry u Most parts of the
Sire “VE or are about to

Eve
tenia here labor-management
|S e are in progress.
Mes, oth Tesulted in settle-
Btege. aS are still in pro-
Mikes lle in some cases
pe taking place.

tige <2Ce has shown that in
: te ca Periods of o hi
Ditalist ¢ ur history
a ad Jea ass has brought
NOMics aay professors of
Xnts and Usy research assis-
tanbers august presidents of
Peach and of Commerce to
ss of eae about the dan-
Re incteases © the workers

semaine

Me 4;
‘Bien ne ago the favorite
mal Sut higher wages

iit; Ine our export
as When this argu-
tes ele low they changed

One NE, although not a

wt argume i

Bielitases can" only be

: Se 4 undermine pros the
eerie

Pe
“direct way of placing

HEN the Canadian work-
are able to control
“stiny €ir own unions and
lg Y? Only then will a solu-
tha pound to the divisions
tig, 7 St between the Can-
Wi thee Ot, Congress (CLC)
ation : Confederation of
‘tong Trade Unions and
se the affiliates of the
tdi peed: Jean Paré, Can-
itonop Ce-President of the
Xatig Mous United Electrical,
Bane! Machine Workers

tica,

Balas:
Myo eating the newspapers
eo the effect that the
Lon a the Quebec Federa-
Hang Labor (QFL) have
bon th take away members
b tetals, CNTU presumably
ng “Jation for the same
‘Np, ° activities by the
‘ve,’ Jean Paré stated, “it
Neri Clear that once again,
tion hu Paid Canadian
€aders who dominate
Viney have succeeded in
‘ng some Canadian

When the bosses “tell you:

don't always take their words

the question appeared in the re-
cent report of the Canadian Im-
perial Bank of Commerce on the
Canadian economy in 1964.
Under the heading “incomes,”
it deals with the increase in
labor and farm incomes 1n
1963. But interestingly enough,
it does not mention profits. Per-

haps this modesty stems from

the fact that their own profits
have risen considerably.

The question was put more
directly in an article in Industry,
a publication of the Canadian
Manufacturers Association. The
article deals with the _profit
situation of the corporation in
Canada. It bemoans the fact that
corporation profits are low, very
low indeed, and ‘that they are
still in the doldrums.

Then, by inference, they

point out that the culprit is
wages. And, of course, it stands

at face

to reason that if further wage
increases are granted to the
workers, the corporations may
go broke.

Those who read the financial
pages of the daily press (a
“pleasure” denied us the last
few weeks in Toronto) will be
astounded. Day after day there
are reports that the automobile
corporations, the mining corpor-
ations, the banks, trust com-
panies, etc., have had an un-
precedented year profit-wise.

Perhaps, because of this, the
writer of the article in Industry
does not discuss this aspect, but
asks us to look at the picture

as a whole.

Let us do so.

Recently, in the ‘Canadian
Tribune, William Kashtan quot-
ed some facts and figures which
have a bearing on this question.

union leaders, that further
division of the Canadian
trade-union movement is the
correct path to follow.

“Canada is the only coun-
try in the world without a
truly independent trade union
movement” Paré stated, “the
majority of Canadian union
leaders are paid by their
head offices in the United-
States and it is therefore
easy to understand why they
would, in too many instances,
follow policies that may be
suitable to the American
trade-union leadership but
not in the interest of the
Canadian workers.

“The time has come” Paré
continued, “for the American
trade-union movement to re-
cognize and understand that
we are in 1964, that the time
is past gone for foreign in-
tervention in the affairs of
the Canadian union move-
-ment.”” :

—Frele Welt (Berlin)

“The refusal of the Amer-
ican’ dominated CLC leader-
ship, to grant full autonomy
and respect for the sovereign-
ty of the CNTU, during the
unity negotiations for the af-
filiation of the latter to the
CLC between 1956 and 1958,

‘ resulted in the divisions that

exist today,” he added.

“The CNTU could not in
1958, nor could it today,
agree that 125,000 French
Canadian workers who have
been struggling for many
years for autonomy, inde-
pendence and the right to self
determination, should fall un-
der the domination of Amer-
ican trade union leaders.”

Paré went on to explain,
“that the CLC had asked, in
1958, that all affiliates of the
CNTU merge with the af-
filiates of the CLC, which
would have meant enlarging
the scope of control of Can-
adian workers by the Amer-

will ruin us. .

value!

7

e

His article pointed out that since
1959 wage increases have been
falling in relation to production.

In 1959 wage increases were.
2.5 percent per unit of produc-’

tion. fhey have steadily declin-
ed so that in the first 10 months
of 1963 they were only 1.4 per-
cent.

From these figures it is clear
that “the real output per person
employed during that period has
been rising faster than labor
costs per unit of output, that
productivity in manufacturing
has been advancing faster than
wages.”

Coupling this fact with the:

continual increase in prices of
consumer goods, with the in-
crease in the cost of living, with
the continued rise in income
taxes for the working class, we
can see that in the wage-price
struggle it is not true that the
workers have made the greatest
gains.

Another set of figures throws
some additional light on this
subject. The Marxist Study
Centre in Toronto is engaged in

aa study of trends in income dis-

tribution in Canada.

The preliminary study shows
that in the last seven years the
total income of wage and salary
earners has remained steady at
around 57 percent, while that of
the owning class has remained
steady at about 31 percent.

ican trade union Jeaders.”

‘It is therefore easy for
anyone to understand,” Paré
added, “that what the Amer-
ican CLC leaders were un-
able to do through negotia-
tions, they are now trying to
do through other methods.” -

Jean Paré concluded by
stating that “he was in favor
of unity of all Canadian work-
ers and opposed to raiding
activities.”

“But,” he added, “I am also
against those American trade
union leaders who have and
are still refusing to recog-
nize the sovereignty of Can-
adians in the trade union
field and the growing demand
for autonomy by Canadians.”

“Raiding and counter-raid-
ing,” Paré said, “to try to
silence the legitimate aspira-
tions of Canadian workers
will not solve their problems.”

“I repeat,” he said, “the

But during this period the pro-
portion of employees in the
population has been steadily in-
creasing. Since the war it has
increased from 69 percent to 83
percent of the population. In
other words, the 57 percent has
to be divided among a bigger
percentage of the people of
Canada.

This again shows that the
profit-taking section.of the popu-
lation has not suffered, been
discriminated against, or depriv-
ed of anything in the last period
of time.

One must conclude, therefore,
that the situation for the capital-
ist class is not as catastrophic
as the writer in Industry wishes
us to believe. All indicators
point to the fact that there is a
need for and possibility of
granting wage increases out of
the swelling profits of corpora-
tions, and that this will not de-
terioriate but improve our econ-
omy.

Lessons we would draw from
the spate of articles on this
subject in the capitalist press
would include the following:

e High wages are justified
and necessary.

© The Canadian capitalist
class is doing very well.
@ One should not believe

everything one reads in the
capitalist press.

~ Quebec unionist hits raiding

solution will be found by
Canadians when they are free
to run their own union af-
fairs, their own political and
economic life, free from for-
eign or outside intervention.”

The United Electrical Work-
ers (UE) represents some
20,000 Canadian workers in
the electrical and machine
industry.

This Canadian union main-
tains fraternal relations with
its founding counterpart in
the U.S., is controlled by the
Canadian workers only and
governed by its Canadian con-
stitution.

The UE is not affiliated to’
the Canadian Labor Congress
because of the refusal of the.
CLC to recognize the auton-

. omy of the UE and its right

to self-determination. In fact
some 350,000 organized work-
ers are not affiliated to the
CLG:

September 11, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5