EMPLOYERS’ COUNCIL HIT LABOR FIGHTS BOSSES ATTACKS | By MABEL RICHARDS Close to 3,000 cheering, determined men and women gave their answer to the Big Business-Government campaign against them on Thursday night at a near capacity meeting in the PNE Gardens. They agreed unanimously to make a call for organized labor from all industries to unite against the Employers’ Council’s increasing use of lockouts and court injunctions against the trade union movement. They called for unity, unity of trade unionists who must ‘‘move and work like an. army’’, according to one union leader. The mass rally, sponsored by several locals affiliated to the District Council of Carpenters, was the first of a series planned to inform and keep united the thousand of workers who today face lockouts; refusals to negotiate on the part of the em- ployers, and dozens~ of injunctions brought against them by employers. On the speakers platform was secretary of the B.C. Federation of Labor Haynes: Vancouver Labor Council secretary Paddy Neale. who chaired the rally: Lorne Robson, secretary of the Provincial Council of Carpenters: Captain Cecil Rhodes, secretary of the Canadian Merchant Service Guild. and Syd Thompson. head of the largest IWA local in thé Lower Mainland. Ray Haynes told the audience that the Federal government had ‘‘taken on’’ the labor movement in Canada. in conjunction with employers who are this year more unreasonable than ever before. The employers are -keeping judges busy making out injunctions against the unions. but one could not blame the judges; they are. merely interpreting labor legislation which is the worst in Canada. He pledged the support of all unions within the Federation to the tugboat men who were forced- out on strike to- gain safety measures on tugs. Haynes said that the use of wholesale injunctions against the Guild will not succeed, for the owners can’t sail their towboats with injunctions. > Lorne Robson of _ the Carpenter’s Union said that the Employers’ Council. ‘‘the biggest of big business”’ in B.C.., . and FIR, the forest industry - bosses. were directing the ‘campaign against labor. and it is directly tied in with Prime Minister Trudeau’s austerity program. Men laid off as long-ago as April 10 are still waiting for unemployment insurance, Robson said. He predicted that there would be a ‘‘welcoming committee” from the building trades unions to meet Labor Minister Mackasey when he visits Vancouver. Merchant Guild men have been fighting for better safety measures on tugboats since the early 1950’s. Captain Cecil Rhodes told the rally. The possibility for the deplorable situation on the boats must rest on the shoulders of the Federal Department of Transport. for they have done nothing to see that the owners’ improved conditions. There are 26 writs and 11 injunctions against the Guild now. said Rhodes. The purpose behind the injunctions is to destroy the militancy of their union. “Our policy’. he said. “‘is. to defy any injunction’ that threatens the survival of the Guild. and we are pledged to carry it out. Injunctions as they are used by the bosses are a gross misuse of the courts.”’ Rhodes said the union would continue to picket the towboats until ‘‘we -get safety and manning clauses either through collective agreement or federal laws.” The cause of the tugboat men is Our cause as much as theirs, IWA head Syd Thompson said. “We will not be used by the bosses to break the strike of Merchant seamen; we will not tell our people to cross picket lines or handle hot goods. We’ have nothing but contempt for the people who are responsible PROFITS A recent statement issued by MacMillan-Bloedel for 1969 declared a net profit of more than $42 million. This is NOT the total amount of profit made by the company from the work of its labor force. To the $42 million you would have to add money deducted for . depreciation. depletion. interest on borrowed money. and taxes. This total comes to $151.8 million. This is an increase of $22.1 million (approximately 17 percent) and almost three times the percentage of the last wage increase. for the mess this province is getting into.” Thompson said that forestry makes up 50 percent of the industry in this province. -He gave astonishing profit figures for the past year enjoyed by the major woods industries in B.C., — from MacMillan-Bloedel’s $42 million-odd. to Dominion Tar and Chemical’s 64 percent increase in one year. “Imagine’’. he said. ‘what a howl there would be if the workers were to ask for a 64 percent increase!”’ ae NTE _ urgency today than ever before. STAMP OUT INJUNCTIONS This bumper card was part of the B.C. Federation of Labor campaign against injunctions some months ago. It has more - PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 22, 1970—Page 12 Late tee _continued to decline “When you’re at war with the boss. there can be no difference in the labor movement. The forest industry runs_ this province: the campaign against labor is masterminded by them. All unions from the longshore to tugboat to construction are involved basically in the struggle. against it.” But the employers are not having it all their own way, he said. He pointed out that the unions had won a major victory in the Sun and Province strike, and that very recently the railwaymen had also won a signal victory over the CPR. ‘‘We can show them we are a match for the dirtiest. rottenest bosses on earth together. Collectively we can _gain some of the things we want, earn, and are entitled to’, Thompson concluded. Unions The B.C. Federation of Labor has mounted a campaign to combat the ‘‘Big Lie’? — the myth that labor is responsible for inflation. : In a comprehensive coverage ~ drawn from authorative sources, the Federation has combined the information in kits which are being distributed: to union staff members and interested groups throughout B.C. In the course of a press conference last week, Ray Haynes, secretary of the Federa- tion, said that the purpose of the campaign is to reach not only trade unionists with the facts, but the public as well. He inferred that the only time organized labor makes the headlines of the munications media is when it is on strike. The real causes of inflation. as labor views it. have never been dealt with by press, radio or T.V. (Indeed. it will be interesting to observe just how much of the material handed out by Mr. Haynes will be used by the Establishment media.) ~ PROFITS The B.C. Federation of Labor makes full use of Establishment authorities for their campaign, however. A quote from the Wall Street Journal states: ‘‘In the past 20 years there have been three distinct periods in which factory prices climbed substantially over a prolonged period. : In each instance, labor costs per unit of factory output were declining when the price climb began — and these costs forga considerable period after the price rise was under way. In each case . corporate profits began to increase sharply well before the price rise started.”’ Further. they quote the Journal: “Any attempt to fix blame for today’s inflation shouldn't be limited. to a if we hold. com-. NOW DONT BF GREEDV--- ("it's expose ‘big lie’ consideration of labor costs. A major culprit may be corporate profits.” A leading investment counsellor: ‘‘Instead of labor costs pushing prices up, what we see instead is a sort of profit push. Profits are already well on their way up before prices begin to rise, and prices are well on their way up before wages begin to rise faster than output.”’ A few examples of profits of B.C. firms in 1969 are given in the leaflets. Pacific Coast lumbermen increased their profits by an average of 61 per cent in three months. In 1968 B.C. Telephone profits increased 17 percent. The major part of our economy on the North American continent is dominated by some 500 giant corporations — virtual monopolies which set their own prices, generate their own capital and influence consumer buying patterns. A classic example is the George Weston, Ltd., food empire which owns, controls and operates or has interest in some 58 companies in Canada and the USA. INFLATION The Federation quotes the Toronto Star: ‘‘We have very little to say about inflation in our - own country. Its level is determined almost entirely by. price performance in the U.S.A. and is transmitted to Canada through imports.” A Bank of B.C. president: . . . “the root of U.S. inflation is the conflict in Vietnam, and that the consequences of the inflation in the U.S. has spread around the world. When monetary pressure became increasingly effective, American banks began to go overseas in search for funds.”’ The Federation points out that wages have little to do with prices in the case of B.€. Hydro, as one example ... “‘if labor costs were the only costs for B.C. Hydro, the householder B.C. would have enjoyed steadily decreasing rates since 1964 Increased productivity has reduced the total Hydro labor costs for all divisions from $4! per thousand kilowatt hours 1 the year ending March 1963 $4.31 per thousand kilowatt hours in the year ending March 9» 1969. Therefore, we repeat that labor costs for the electricity sold to B.C. consumers has declined during the last 7 years: Why the big lie? B.C. Hydro }§ in financial difficulties, but nd because of wages paid thell employees. The Wall Street Journal admits that the public generally believes that union demands for higher wages are the chief causes of inflation. But it quicklY adds, ‘‘many economic analyist® say that the biggest price increases are coming where unions are weak and where labo! costs’ are not even a majo consideration.” Ere In highly unionized industries the Wall Street Journal reports: ‘some ‘prices have gone down 7? — the past 10 years. On the whole output per manhour 1/2 manufacturing has increased more than one-third in 10 years. Unfortunately, nowhere in the- B.C. Federation of Labor material is there informatio? linking up Trudeau’s austerity program and the present driv — by big business to crush unions and drive-down wages. The blame: for inflation is placed where it rightly belongs — on the war economy.of the USA, and 0? the profits of the big companies which dominate our economy: but it must be tied in wil reactionary government polciies. For surely it is obvious that the Prime Minister’s drive “‘beat inflation’’ and the current Employers’ Council drive “beat the unions” is not 4 coincidence.