Canadian labor wants oil giants charged

TORONTO — The recent multi-billion dollar oil
price rip off by the main U.S. oil giants has been
answered by angry calls from the Canadian Labor Con-
gress (CLC). and the United Electrical workers union
(UE), for nationalizing the bandits.

In a sharply-worded message to Prime Minister
Trudeau, March 6, the 20,000-member UE, urged him to
take strong punitive action against the ‘‘price-fixing and
mammoth profit rip-off of the Canadian public by the
foreign oil monopolies.”’

- In a telegram to Trudeau, UE Secretary- Treasurer
Val Bjarnason said his union holds the Liberal govern-
ment, which has held office for most of the period since
1958, “totally responsible for this robbery by rejecting
demands for regulating ... (and) nationalizing energy
resources” in Canada.

It is estimated that since 1958, U.S. oil firms operating
in Canada, led by the Big Four — Imperial Oil Ltd., Shell
Canada Ltd., Gulf Canada Ltd. and Texaco Canada Inc.
— have bilked Canadian consumers for an incredible
$89-billion.

Commenting on the fact that the Trudeau government
has opted for a public inquiry into the price-fixing allega-
tions, instead of launching legal action, Bjarnason said

‘the last thing Canada needs is another two years of
hearings.

‘We insist you immediately introduce legislation to
ensure effective prosecution of the oil companies for
their reprehensible conduct . .. and we demand you act
now to take over (bring under ees ownership) Impe-
rial, Gulf, Shell and Texaco .

The union statement Spied out that in view of the
alleged $89-billion rip-off, none of the Big Four should be
paid compensation for the takeover. The figure of $89-
billion is based on the retum at current rates of interest,
investors would have realized if the $12-billion gouged
out of the public at the gas pumps had been left in
people’s hands to be invested. “‘Instead,’’ Bjamason
said, “these giant transnationals should be forced to
rebate to the public the full amount of the overcharges.”

In Ottawa, March 5, CLC president Dennis McDer-
mott urged the federal government to take steps toven-
sure the oil conglomerates named in the government’s
special investigation into unfair business practices be
made to pay back the $12-billion it is estimated the

‘corporations gouged from the public through price-fixing
and over charging.
‘*Through their market dominance and the ineffec-
tiveness of our Combines Investigation Act, ‘multi-
nationals have been able to bilk Canadians to the tune of

$2,500 for every man, woman and child since 1958,”
McDermott noted. ‘Considering that their net profit
increases over 1980 will once again be considerable,
these oil giants shouldn’t be too troubled at the thought
of. having to effect such a minor refund to Canadian
consumers, and. the federal government should take
steps to enforce such a move.”’

McDermott said the report “‘strengthens labor's case
for Canadianization and eventual total nationalization of
the oil industry. The federal government has taken the

first steps in this direction, we encourage it to pursue its
positive action in this regard.”

He also suggested that the Canadian Combines
Investigation act be strengthened immediately so that
proper steps against the oil companies can be imple- ;
mented without delay. He also repeated the Congress’
assertion that further development of Petro-Canada in a
direction of leadership in the Canadian energy field is
sorely needed if canadidns are to get a better deal in
energy over the Jong term.

Ford now forcing wage cuts

WINDSOR — Taking the lead
from Chrysler Ltd., the Ford Motor
Co. of Canada, has joined the auto
monopolies’ latest scheme — getting
workers to buy back their own jobs.

This idea was made popular by
Chrysler Ltd., who forced their
Canadian and U. S. workers to ac-
cept wage and benefits cuts with
threats of. plant closures and bank-
ruptcy. Unfortunately the inter-
national executive of the United
Auto Workers, (UAW) submitted to
this blackmail.

Sensing this apparent weakness,
_ Ford has launched a campaign of its
‘ own. Starting in the Rouge manufac-
turing plant in Detroit, Ford de-
manded and received pay cuts of
$1.75 an hour for each of the 5,200
employees in return for not closing
the Rouge doors on April 1.

This takes over $18-million out of
the workers’ pockets and the local
economy each year. Seeing this
profit, and a submissive attitude in
the local UAW leadership, Ford
started looking for another player in
their scheme.

Ford Windsor is that player and
with a new twist. Instead of the
threat of closing down an existing
plant the threat is not to re-open a
new one unless concessions are
made. 3 :

The plant is the foundry and what

From Windsor

: Gerard O'Neill | *

are at stake are 1,200 jobs in a local
that has 3,000 members on layoff.
The $68-million of taxpayers’
money that Ford received in
Windsor last year didn’t guarantee

any jobs. Ford .wants even more

from people who can least afford to
give — the unemployed. —

_So far, no’ hard demands have
been set down. The company is talk-
ing about an 11-point program but
calls them only “‘points for discus-
sion’’. They include such ‘“‘items”’
as: six, nine-hour days; tag-relief
coffee breaks; the end of environ-
mental relief; three-month shift rota-
tion; and, a new, regressive system
of job postings.

These and other items are what
the union has been fighting against
since the UAW came into being. To
surrender to Ford’s take-aways is to
set back the trade union movement
and further open the door to con-
tinued cutbacks.

- If the corporation can bully one of
the largest Bnions in North America

into buying jobs with concessions,

where will it end?

In a large and heated meeting 2
few weeks ago, Ford workers e€X-
pressed their concern that their local
leadership had entered into discus-
sions with the company on give
aways.

stating that no decisions could be
made without their direct approval.
The: feeling expressed by Ford

_ workers is that somewhere a S 4
‘must be taken: The auto corpora-

tions, finding this new way of attack-
ing ‘the living standards of auto
workers and rolling back their de-

mands will use it until they are stop- _

ped. .
The strong stand against conces-

sions made by the UAW’s Canadian —

region must be put into action to

mean anything. Auto workers can’t —

afford another Chrysler deal.
Many Ford workers are saying

that the Ford foundry is an opportun- a |

ity to draw the line.

~ Quebec labor fights plant closures _

MONTREAL —— Jacqueline Cournival used to work in
a modem, women’s clothing factory in Drummondville.
She was thrown out of work last fall along with 80: other
workers, mostly women. ;

They had to wait more than a month before receiving
their first unemployment insurance cheques. ‘‘The cre-
ditors weren't waiting, though ... they weren’t waiting
for me to get the UIC’’, the militant union activist recall-
ed.

A conference organized by the Quebec Federation of
Labor, (QFL) Feb. 15-17 sought to project proposals
against plant closures and mass layoffs which are plagu-
ing working people in Quebec.

The simple but poignant testimony of the unemployed
workers revealed the many human dramas people are
caught up in daily while companies are discarding them
like old brooms.

Jacqueline was the local union president at the De-
srosiers Co., in Drummondville which has been in busi-
ness since 1976. Today she’s on the black list, ‘‘a public
enemy’’, in the words of QFL president Louis Laberge.
She no longer has any prospects for work.

Desrosiers Co., had another, non-union shop, where it
transferred its operations. Only five workers, laid off at-
the first plant were given jobs at the new location, but all
five were anti-union.

Most of those laid off in the first place provided the
families’ only source of income. They lost two weeks of
unemployment insurance and two weeks of holidays. ’

*‘We want to work’’, Jacqueline Cournival stressed,
“but we don’t want to start all over at the bottom of the
ladder like government-social assistance plans tell us,
and which only helps the companies to reap greater
profits."”

Francine. Jarry used to work for the LaSalle stores,

‘From Montreal
Claire Demers

which closed down more than a year ago. “The company

took legal steps which disgusted the workers’’, she said.

Four hundred workers were originally working for
LaSalle, most of them women. The company first closed
the warehouses, then the offices and finally the stores.
They accused the store workers of not watching custom-
ers who were. shoplifting. LaSalle also invoked the
Quebec referendum as one of the reasons for its prob-
lems.

The company was not ty: either, about threatening to

lay off workers with more than 20 years service unless -

they were more servile in their service to customers.

Today 35% of the LaSalle workers are unemployed.
They're also on the black list. Meanwhile the company
continues to do business under other names such as ‘‘flea
markets”’ in non-union environments. _

“Bell: Canada raises its rates, cuts workers’ jobs,
raises rates and makes profits’’, Odette Lemay, a Bell
operator said of her experiences with the big.telephone
monopoly.

There used to be 27 telephone operators at Thetford
Mines until Bell closed down the department and re-
placed the workers with electronic equipment.

“‘It was either the door, or a transfer to Montreal’’, she
said of the choice Bell gave her. ‘‘When you’ re married it
isn't easy. The company only gave us one day to move!
In our system it’s only profits that count. Well, working

isn’t a privilege, it’s a right!’

Many other workers came to testify at the conference.
There were workers from the Iron Ore Co., ITT-
Rayonnier, Wayagamack, Beauchemin, ‘Simon Bed,
miners from Abitibi and many others. They understood

that the plant closurés and layoffs in general are part of |

big-business efforts to load the-costs of the economic
crisis on the backs of the workers...

Excellent analyses were prepared by the QFL in the
documents discussed by the 450 delegates who partici-
pated.

The QFL recone that a political solution is needed
and that new legislation is required to at least confront
the effects of the closures. Trade unionists are demand-
ing that companies should be forced to open their books
to the public and to justify their layoffs to the communi-
ty. They also want better financial help for the victims of
closures. ‘‘Mobilization’’ was the theme of the QFL-
sponsored conference, and it is absolutely critical during.
this crisis. But the QFL still relies too much on the
political will of the ruling. Parti-Québécois government to
tackle the large corporations who have neither morals
nor allegiance to any country. ~

Meanwhile at the current stage in the economic ciris
and the growing monopolization of the economy, relying
only on government to act is like putting a mustard
plaster on a wooden leg, many workers noted.

Among the recommendations coming from the con-
ference, there weren’t any proposals for nationalizing
industry, nor were there any real suggestions to chal-
lenge, then break monopoly’s grip on our economy and
its power.

Undoubtedly, here lies the key to a real solution, in the
long run, to plant closures and layoffs, not to ea! the
actual economic crisis itself.

The members passed a motion :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 27, 1981—Page 6