—— ETE.

“= ee

Neale’ SFE Ax

LABOR
Continued from page 6

be done wi
With i :
ly Bay. out cutting week

Fourteen years ago, when
© forty-ho

by the i ur week was won
ieee ade union movement,
Plaineq Ployers bitterly com-
" Product; that it would reduce
ost th ‘on, raise costs and
Se deen their markets. Sub-
ter history shows how ut-
Y wrong they were.

Go

Bh Vernment figures show

J€ average worker is
ete as much in 24 hours
1 vise he was in 40 hours
continue ago. That trend will
E that we aoe does not mean
i ing hbk: lave to reduce work-
| f the *S by the full amount
in Mecqe in labour time
oc. by those figures. But
f five Mean that a reduction
realistic ours now is perfectly
ion a Ig terms of produc-
consider, Ss, and can make a
nempt able difference to .the
°yment situation.

What About Those
High Labor Costs?

MPLOYERS never tire of
E telling the world that
practically all its troubles
come from too high workers’
wages. In Canada, big busi-
ness has tried hard to blame
the decline in economic activ-
ity in general and foreign
trade difficulties in particular
on relatively higher wages
here than abroad. We do not
agree at all that costs (let
alone wages) determine prices
under present-day monopoly

conditions. But we think it is
interesting to see what has
been happening to wages,
fringes and labor costs abroad.
It looks as though whatever
differential in wages Canadian
workers may have had in the
past is rapidly being narrow-
ed.

Were p
€xamples:

Grain Workers
Ongshoremen

—__ Plumbers

Unions Can Make Gains

he record of the past year shows that unions that
repared to fight for gains won them.

Some

25¢

Here is a round-up of news
on this front taken from
“Business Week” for Decem-
ber 31, 1960, which makes the
statement — ‘Wages are ris-
ing and hours are falling
everywhere in Europe.”

Britain — manufacturing
wages (male) up 2 percent to
3 percent since April, 1960.

West Germany — wages up
71% percent in 1960—doubled
since 1950. 1961 increase ex-
pected to be 7 percent to 8 per-
cent. Work week reduced
from 48 hours in 1953 to 43
last year, expected to be 40
by 1965.

France — wages up 30 per-
cent since 1953, mostly prior
to 1957.

Fringe costs (non-wage el-
ements as percentage of total
reported labor costs):

United States 12%
Britain 13%
Belgium To
West Germany 27%
France 33%
Italy 42%

ROUND-UP ON NEGOTIATIONS

By WILLIAM STEWART

Here is the way things shape
up at the moment:

@® LUMBER: I.W.A.
and policy conference

wage

(see story elsewhere in this
issue) but it was made clear
by a statement of a leading
timber official that a stiff bat-
tle looms in this industry. He
warned that any demand by
lumber workers for a wage
increase this year would lead
to a strike. Meanwhile at least
three of the big sawmill locals
have passed resolutions set-
ting their goal as pay hoists
in ’61.. Loggers local 1-71 for-
warded a demand to the wage
conference calling for a sev-
en-hour day with the same
take home pay. This was the
recommendation of the last
district convention of the
IWA to the wage conference.
Also in the hopper are de-
mands for pensions and im-
proved welfare coverage.

@ CONSTRUCTION: : Main
negotiations here under two
headings! (2) A group of 15
building trades unions headed
by the carpenters, electricians,
plumbers and painters, seek-
ing joint negotiations on the
35-hour week; (2) the ‘Three
Way Pact’ incorporating Oper-
ating Engineers Local 213,
Teamsters and the Laborers,
Tunnel and Rock Workers
Union, seeking some contrac-
tual improvements and ea ru-
mored 15c hour wage _ in-
crease.

Keen interest is centered on
the construction unions press-
ing the 35-hour week demand.
This is thought to be the most
serious approach to the short-
er hours fight in Canada to
date in a major industry.
Some idea of how the sled-
ding will be is provided by
the fact that R. K. Gervin, for
the builders exchange, has
stated at a meeting of the
Correlating Committee of the
Vancouver Building Trades,
that “management would not
consider negotiating on the 7-
hour day.”

Tempers are running high

in the construction industry
where companies have been
using the sharp unemploy-

ment situation to chip away
at conditions and push up pro-
ductivity. Workers are hot on
the shorter hours question
having packed home short pay
cheques for almost three years
now. Management, under the
advice of R. K. Gervin, ap-

the same style as a gangster,
and unless there is much more
of a spirit of genuine negotia-
tions in this industry the
whole works could blow up

(From UE Research Bulletin) |

this year.
The Three Way Pact

are

Labor faces fight |
on wages, hours

,confronted by a brand

met |
after this article went to press |

proaches negotiations in much |

new
| contract, written by the com-
panies, designed to tear the
heart out of their agreements.
Until this hurdle has been cov-

ered the question of wages
cannot even be _ broached.
|The old agreements expire

March 1, and it appears that
some time will be required to
| conclude a new one.

@ FISHING: Crisis is the
word that describes the fish-
ing industry, and this is show-
}ing up in the contract talks.
|In the herring industry a one-
|year shut-down was _ resolved!
only when. the workers ac-
| cepted cut backs in condi-
|tions. The whaling industry
lremains idle while B.C. Pack-
lers are trying to cook up a
;deal for B.C. fishermen to
| subsidize, by reduced wages
and working conditions, Jap-
anese entry into B.C. coastat
whaling.

Halibut. negotiations are
close to the strike stage with*
the union and the fish com-
panies divided on the funda-
mental issue of a guaranteed'
price. Salmon is the next ma-
jor negotiation and if it runs:
to form with the others the
industry will indeed be ‘‘fish-
ing in troubled waters this
year.”

@ CIVIC: Most civic unions
are into contract talks this
year. Vancouver Civic Em-
ployees and Outside Workers
Union who are the pace set-
ters in this field, are being
confronted with a massive
| propaganda bombardment by
| Vancouver City Council to
the effect that civic workers
should subsidize the munici-
pal crisis. The whole matter
exploded last week in a series
of public exchanges between
Mayor Alsbury and the union.
The Civic’ Workers are de-
manding a 12c wige increase.

@ RAILROAD: _Diefenbak-
er’s no strike, no wage in-
| crease legislation expires on
|May 15th. This faces the
|country with the immediate
| possibility of a nationwide rail
|tie-up. There are no indica-
tions that the Non-Operating
Rail Unions feel any more
| disposed to forgo the wage in-
lcrease recommended by a
Federal conciliation board—
now, than they did last fall
when the legislation was ram-
med through. In addition to
this the operating trades of
the railways enter into nego-
tions this year and there is
every indication that they will
press for higher way.

e

All in all it shapes up as a
crucial year. For some indi-
|cation of the likely outcome a
|glance at the results of the
| preliminary bouts is interest-
| ing.

March 3, 1961—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7