MAY DAY MESSAGE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

Fellow Workers:

May Day is the day of united_action
and of international solidarity. United
action is particularly essential today:

¢ to beat back the monopoly offensive
on living standards, on jobs and on
trade union rights;’

e to ensure that the fruits of techno-
logical change, including job security,
Accrue to the working people; —

.° to ensure redistribution. of the na-
tional income for the working people
at the expense of the multi-national cor-
Porations and the wealthy. :

he growing and militant: strike
Movement shows that the workers, if
United, can defeat the monopoly offen-
Slve and make some gains.

However, these gains could be lost
Unless monopoly is curbed and the bal-

ance of political forces changed in favor
of the working people.

United economic action must be com-
bined with united political action based
on cooperation between the NDP and
Communist Party. Such united political
action must be directed to curb mono-
poly through nationalization of natural
resources, energy and the multi-national
corporations. This is the path which
can help advance the political aims of
the working class.

With a federal election in the offing:
such a new course, based on new na-
tional policies directed to win genuine
Canadian independence, can achieve a
further strengthening of the democra-
tic and working-class forces in Parlia-
ment:

Alongside united action, international

solidarity must be high on the agenda
of the working class.

If for no other reason, the role of
the multi-national corporations in Can-
ada as elsewhere in the capitalist world,
impels the working class to interna-
tional solidarity in order to defend its
interests. For the same reason an inde-
pendent, sovereign, and united trade
union movement must become a reality
in Canada.

International solidarity is particular-
ly essential today when the forces of
the cold war want to undermine de-
tente and revert to stepped up arma-
ments, This will not only place an addi-
tional burden ‘on working people but
also undermine peace and security in
the world.

The working people must insist that

Continued on page 10

1th hour settlement reached

‘By Oliphant

‘Smile! You Are Dancing Because You Are Now a Democracy!’

—

| Left parties legal
in Portuguese coup

te :

| ayn” Military coup staged at the prime minister and Presi-

| ‘hg the, n April 25, troops call- dent Americo Thomaz are said
a the “Selves “the movement to have been exiled to the
Genera) 2tmed forces,” under island of Madeira.

| oe Tagatntonio Spinola, ousted For the first time in more
|p tetang dictator Marcello than 40 years the Portuguese
ints, Were e according to re- head of government held talks
"Bin the sterected with rejoic- with the Left. Eighteen leaders,

i prets. representing the Communist

five aa military command, in Party (illegal for 48 years), So-
the f ent rule, has: ordered cialist, and Anti-Fascist Parties,

‘thers 28 Of all litical pri- now organized as the Portu-
ares lifte political pri if

New pay package may
avert hospital strike

By RICHARD ORLANDINI

TORONTO — The threat of a strike .

by Metro Toronto's 6,000 hospital
workers was narrowly averted with a
tentative agreement that was described
by union officials as “a major victory.
Shortly following the Deputy Minis-
ter of Labor William Dickie’s announce-
ment that “a tentative agreement has
‘been reached between the Canadian
Union of Public Employees and the
eleven Toronto hospitals, ’ Tom Ed-
wards, CUPE coordinator for hospitals

and homes for the aged said, “It was a
victory for the hospital workers and it
will set a precedent for the hospital
workers in Ontario.”

The 11th-hour negotiations ended
April 30 at 3 a.m. with a wage increase
that will shatter the government’s re-
actionary ceilings on health expendi-
tures. Although complete details of the
agreement had not been released at
Tribune press time, union sources said
that the immediate increase would be
66 cents-an-hour with 44 cents of

Events in

this retroactive to Jan. 1, 1974.
Another 34 cents-an-hour in-
crease is due Jan. 1, 1975; a
further 30 cents-an-hour on July
1; 1975 and a final 20 cents-an-
hour on Sept. 1, 1975 — for a
total wage package of $1.50-an-
hour during the course of the
two-year agreement.

The union also won in non-mo-
netary items: protection against
contracting cut and a pledge
from the mediator for regional
bargaining.

The total wage package
amounts to a 50% increase for
a cleaner in Toronto hospitals.
The “Catch-up” program, based

Portugal will have far-reaching effects not only for that on a cleaner previously earning

—Ee

5 Press censorship,
of the iy thousands of members
fascist ISt secret police, oust-

RV sto yeeecials, Opened the
va Uni Kers to form their
a holiday. and declared May

ands of students,
€ads who func-
f the fascist re-
=o dismissed, While
in, » cautious about
: Predictions, the actions
jag the regime so far, in-
Ope” Politic Telease of long-
Pen Cal prisoners and the
me _of political
¢ e immeasurable
he ae the nearly half-
’ar the 4scism first under

aetano. Caetano

guese Democratic Movement,
made proposals to the govern-
ment for the ridding of the
country of corruption, and oust-
ing officials of the Caetano re-
gime. The proposals were ac-
cepted, a spokesman said,

At this meeting they did not
make proposals on Portugal’s
war against the peoples of An-
gola, Mozambique and Guinea
Bissau, but reported that Gen-
eral Spinola considered these
countries unready for indepen-
dence. The general was dis-
missed by the former govern-
ment on March 14 for opposi-
tion to the wars in Africa on
which Portugal, backed by
NATO, spends $1.2 million a
day.

country but also fo
of former fascist po
is of troops of the A
since 1961.

r the future of its African colonies. Above, photo
lice beating demonstrator in Lisbon. Photo below
ngolan Liberation Army who have been fighting

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1974—PAGE 5

$3-an-hour, will bring that work-
er within 46 cents-an-hour of a
cleaner doing the same job for
the Toronto Board of Education.
In some cases, workers at the St.
Jchn’s Convalescent Hospital
were earning only $2.10-an-hour
prior to the settlement. The new
agreement will provide up to $4-
an-hour for these workers or al-
most a 100% increase in wages
over the life of the contract.

At Tribune press time, the set-
tlement is still tentative, and
awaits ratification by the mem-
bership from the 11 Toronto hos-
pitals. While union negotiators
called the tentative agreement a
substantial victory, they were
not ruling out the possibility
that the months of frustration

-un Page 10