y oe

le for an i

independent and sovereign

.

trade

thion movement on the Canadian railways has t6 be won

By trivats ;
Pftabitity "vestment and monopoly
Nail
ey transportation as a public
theip eoeential to the people and
Nadian munities, not to mention the
een = €conomy as a whole, has
ly Benictely abandoned.
Wag Pott Minister Jean Marchand

“ona

the tee heavy fire of questioning
Min pooutly held Liberal Conven-

Tg awa, concerning the dete-

Mice tg pene ending of passenger ser-
Sha eae, communities. Mr. Mar-
adian Ae the issue by saying the
the Tespon ‘Tansport Commission had
*8ulatin Sibility for that area and was
R toa 196 € rail companies accord-
8 Com 37 law which recommended
sig, Panies Operate on a profitable

MASSIVE LAYOFFS—
ORE TO COME

n 1952 and 1962 the ruthless
% cut mum profits resulted in
© then m the railway labor force.
quued, peeasive layoffs have con-
“T° the «Stated objective is to re-
a, both fork force to some 80,000
Tin 5 that» NR and the CPR. This
ty the ing another 25-30,000 workers

“tims. ““Stry are potential layoff

| tty, ‘Wee

ROR
Ts.
| Beas THE HIGHEST EVER
' Ca and heavier equipment,
a raised and computer techniques,
5 fits to ; Productivity and company
Yethmen: precedented peaks. Heavy
au bsidies, lowering of the
She Tising freight rates have
1onalization and boosted
Capital accumulation at
» Public expense. .
the CNR had revenues

O One e illi
fits and one-half billion.

a
a”
a
Zs
<
i)
4
oT
af
©
xz
Oo
n
a

c ¥
of ee of its revenue in
RN u €t-growing interest pay-

Same time the govern-

t Rundreds of millions of
j Ught to have been set
Teven
iz “ue to fund the CNR:
: B Pension plan.
i To SUBSIDIES ADD
The a THE TAKE

Of the Canadian Pacific

Railway rose by 27% in 1972, and by
53% during the first six months of this
year. Last year the €PR paid out $28
million in taxes and received $30 mil-
lion in cash subsidies from the govern-
ment. On top of this, the company has
been allowed $142.5 million in deferred
tax payments. Its subsidiary, the Can-
adian Pacific Investments Limited, a
conglomerate involved in many direc-
tions, made a profit of nearly $40 mil-
lion during the first six months of this
year. Here is where much of CPR pro-
fits are re-invested, including funds
which should be earmarked to fund
employees’. pension and retirement
plans.

EVERYTHING FOR THE
RAILWAY COMPANIES
During all of the postwar years, the

collaboration between the railway
companies and the government found

its clearest expression in the drive to.

gear services performed to company
profitability. This was done by putting
the greatest possible economic pres-
sure on the workers in the industry,
and by economies achieved through
reducing services.

One of the instruments used to ac-
complish this was the MacPherson re-
port, which aimed at giving the rail-
ways a free hand to order things as
they wished in the search for more
profits, and regardless of the overall
social and economic consequences of
their actions.

Strong pressure from the railway
workers in the early Sixties, forced the
government to set up a one man Royal
Commission to deal with collective
bargaining as it related to consequenc-
es of the rationalization program
planned by the railways at the work-
ers’. and public expense.

THE WORKERS' NEEDS
IGNORED

But when the Freedman report was
brought down, it was immediately’ at-
tacked by the railway companies as
giving too much scope to labor and col-
lective bargaining. The government ob-
liged by passing on Mr. Justice Freed-
man’s findings to yet another inquiry
into existing laws governing collective
bargaining. In other words, because
the Freedman Report had some favor-
able points of reference to the plight
of railway workers and some ‘re-
comendations bearing on new ap-

.

within the framework of an organizational policy and pro-
gram of all-inclusive unity . .

proaches to labor-management rela-
tions in this period of technological
change, the findings and recommenda-
tions were pigeon-holed and forgotten.

This was in marked contrast to the
attitude to the MacPherson Report,
which has been scrupulously and sys-
tematically implemented by both the
railways and the government.

When the railway workers came out
on strike after nine months of fruit-
less negotiations for a new contract in
1966, the government promptly called
parliament to legislate a return to
work and forced arbitration, the same
as in 1950, and now for the third time
in 1973.

A NEW TRANSPORTATION
SYSTEM

What is urgently needed, and in fact
long overdue, is a publicly owned and
fully integrated transportation system.
Such a system will depend on the rail-
ways as it base and include all other
forms of public transport on an. all-
Canada scale. The first step that has

‘to be taken to bring about and to sig-

nalize a complete about-turn in gov-
ernment policy, is to nationalize the

CPR.

The overall interests of Canada, the
balanced growth and diversification
of its economy, demand that priority
be given to the public interest and to
community needs rather than to the
profitability of a privately owned rail-
way and related monopoly interests.
Railway transport is a necessary pub-
lic service, a vital part of Canada’s
écononiy. As long as this is privately
owned and controlled, and dependent
upon private profitability, only the
most profitable parts of such a ser-
vice will be maintained. Unprofitable
segments will be dropped, even though
the people pay for them through pub-
lic subsidies, which go to swell mono-
poly profits.

That is why the Communist Party,
the party of the working class of
Canada, gives priority to public owner-
ship and democratic control of all
transport facilities. A publicly owned,
fully integrated, completely modern
and democratically. managed all-Can-
ada transportation system has to in-
clude all land, air and water transport.
It calls for a Canadian merchant ma-
rine, along with publicly owned ter-
minal facilities and pipelines.

LABOR UNITY IS VITAL
TO WIN NEW POLICIES

The effectiveness of organized work-
ers would be increased tens and hun-
dreds of times if labor were united.
The situation on the railways, with 17
unions involved, illustrates the prob-
lem. During past years. groups of
unions have come together in collec-
tive bargaining in the railway industry
in three main areas. These are the non-
cperating unions, the shopcrafts, and
the running trades who operate the
trains. ;

There is no way in a country-wide
industry such as the railways that
‘workers’ interests, in this day and age,
can be defended by bargaining separ-
ately along craft, regional or other
fragmentary lines. Furthermore, this is
a Canadian industry where indepen-
dence, sovereignty and unity ought to
be the aim within the shortest pos-
sible time. How can this be done?

Well, for one thing, the great pen-
sion struggle of 1971-72 brought out a
few lessons. One lesson was that the
union is as strong as the unity and
awareness of its membership. An-
other lesson was that leadership must
represent and fight for the interests of
the membership, and that the mem-
bers constitute the union and its
power. Secondly, the recent strike tac-
tic of selective walkouts, was a great
success and may have brought about
a breakthrough at some point if allow-
ed to go on without government inter-
vention on the company’s side. The
main lesson here. was the need for
good organization, good leadership and
discipline. The membership of the non-
ops scored good points on. all counts.

The bargaining solidarity advanced
in the industry should be maintained
and extended. This may be done any
number of ways, through mergers,
federations and solidarity committee
movements such as local railway coun-
cils. The main thing is’ that union
members develop their own programs
and policies, independent of the com-
panies and their exploiting class ideas.
This class independence is as import-
ant as the national side of indepen-
dence, which has to do with sovereign
rights of Canadian members of interna-
tional unions to run their own affairs
as Canadians.

But the most important thing of all
is to realize that all this has to be

e Continued on Page 8

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1973 — PAGE 7

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