WINNIPEG—Organized labor will not accept a
for a bigger share of the wealth created by rising pro
sary Congress of the Canadian Labor Congress meetin

DON CURRIE

fight for curbs on price profiteers and rejected the charge

prices.

A statement on economic pol-
icy declared flatly, “The Can-
adian Labor Congress will attack
such ¢ overnment policies and will
not heed pleas for wage restraint
under the economic trends now
in evidence.” The sharpest at-
tack on the profiteers camefrom
NDP National Leader T.C. Doug-
las who called for a campaign to
compel “greedy profiteers to roll
prices back “and to turn public
opinion against those who are
profiteering. The government
should set up guide lines to make
monopoly conform,” he said.

A re-affirmed and strength-
ened policy on peace put organ-

ized Canadian labor firmly at .

odds with official and reaction-
ary AFL-CIO policy on inter-
national affairs, Claude Jodoin
in his keynote address urged the
Canadian government to exert
“all her influence in bringing
about an immediate cessation of
hostilities in Vietnam, to halt
mass bombing raids, for the
eventual removal of all foreign
troops and for the self-deter-
mination and independence of
their people free from outside
interference,”

Fifteen resolutions were re-
eeived on Vietnam, all in one
way or another calling for a nego-
tiated settlement or critical of
U.S, policy.

Congress re-stated its posi-
tion on disarmament and for a ban
on allnuclear tests, underground,
on the ground or in the atmos-
phere, A proposal to take Canada
into the OAS ran into sharp
opposition from delegates on the
floor before final approval to the
report which called for the
abandonment of the’nuclear role
for Canada’s armed forces and
removal of nuclear weapons from
Canada,

Little headway was made in
overcoming the divisions between
Quebec workers in the CNTU and
the Quebec Federation of Labor.
While demanding that the Can-
adian Labor Relations Board not
break up national bargaining units
to accommodate the CNTU, little
was said that would recognize the
national rights of the French Can-
adian workers within the organ-
ized labor movement, as the first
step to unity,

Donald McDonald, CLC trea-
surer and executive member, was
sharply criticized by French-
speaking delegates for not pro-
viding enough simultaneous tran-
sistor sets for translations, Only
800 sets were available for the
1,600 delegates and observers,
Doug Tomlinson of the Hotel
and Restaurant Workers Union
of Edmonton, criticized Presi-
dent Jodoin’s statement on unity
for not being positive. “In order

to build unity we mustfaceavery.

basic fact that Canada is a two-
nation state, Unless we recognize
that Quebec is in a unique posi-
tion we will be in a difficult
position,”

Weakly-worded resolutions on
court injunctions and the crossing

of picket lines aroused demands
from the floor for a stronger
stance by the CLC on these mat-
ters, Recommendations from the
Legislative committee urging all
affiliated trade unions to use
every ‘‘legitimate means, legis-
lative and otherwise,” to elim-
inate the use of injunctions were
tossed back to the committee by
angry delegates, Robert Bou-
chard (United Steel Workers of
America) of Montreal called on
the CLC to adopt a policy of
«massive civil disobedience,”
and Murry Tate, vice-president
of the Toronto and District Labor
Council said union leaders should
have sufficient courage to go to
jail on the issue if necessary,

ny wage restraint policy and will fight
ductivity.
g here made it clear that they will

Delegates to the 10th Anniver-

that rising wages cause rising

sures on the CLC executive for
a stronger line against raiding
and for organizing the unorgan-
ized,

While the CLC executive con-
trol was dominant it was under
constant pressure throughout the
proceedings from delegates, to
deal positively with contentious
issues. In follow-up remarks
after the address by S, Abel,
National President of the United
Steelworkers of America, Claude
Jodoin remarked, ‘‘we are two
autonomous trade union centres
and at times have problems on
minor issues withthe AFL-CIO,”

This bit of understatement

CLC delegates listening to NDP leader Tommy Douglas.

A resolution from the B.C,
Federation of Labor aimed at
strengthening sanctions against
unions~ who .engage in strike-
breaking and scabbing was re-
ferred back after a sharp debate,
Wm, Stewart, secretary-trea-
surer of the Marine Workers
and Boilermakers Union and
Executive Member of the Van-
couver Trades and Labor Coun-
cil, said what was required was
a declaration of principle that
anyone who crosses picket lines
or scabs should not be sanctioned
by the trade union movement,
Donald McDonald was sharply
rebuked by delegates for his
statements that the backers of the
resolution were resorting to
demogoguery. Chas, Stewart of
B.C. said McDonald had no call
to make such remarks which in-
terferred “with free and un-
fettered debate.”

A resolution from the B.C,
Federation of Labor to review
the whole structure and organ-
ization of the CLC was approved
by delegates. Thenew committee
will make a study of structure
mergers: affiliations and unity,
and will submit its findings to the
1968 Montreal Convention.

Many delegates feel that the
committee will make it possible
to get at questions such as Can-
adian autonomy, all-in trade un-
ion unity, and reflects the pres-

points up the divergence in views
that is developing between the
hierarchy of the two federations,

Some delegates, veterans of many
trade union conventions, feel that
the CLC is facing a situation
of transition that confronts the
Congress with the question of fur-
ther breaks with American con-
trol over the Canadian trade un-
ion movement,

SIU re-admittance to the CLC
aroused a sharp clash between
pro and anti-SIU groups, The
executive pleaded that it only
wanted the right to decide whether
or not the SIU was to be re-
admitted, This right was given
to the convention at the last CLC
Congress. Delegates opposed to
the move viewed it as a back
door attempt to admit the SIU
without any guarantees that Hal
Bank’s lieutenants were cleaned
out and the violent anti-union
practices were eliminated,

No mention was made of the
executive responsibility in bring-
ing Hal Banks to Canada in the
first place, Many delegates
voiced the opinion that everybody
was being considered in the case
except the seamen.

Veteran militant observers
summed up the convention by
commenting ‘‘that the positive
outweighs the negative.”

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TOUGTAS TELLS ae
‘Let's have

on war against poverty’

Tommy Douglas told CLC dele-
gates that according to the latest
polls the NDP is within three per-
cent of replacing the Tories as
Canada’s second political party.

‘He claimed that 56% of the Can-

adians polled were now ready to
vote NDP, Douglas said that the
polls were taken before “ sin,
sex, and security scandals”
rocked Ottawa and felt that more
Canadians were turning away in
disgust from the old-line parties
than ever before,

This turn-away from the old-
line parties was due to the fact
that the Liberals and Tories had
not realized that Canada had en-
tered a new age of technology
and automation which demanded
a revolution in education and
guide lines to govern the intro-
duction of new automated tech-
niques,

Douglas said that the average
per capita income for Canadians
over the last 50 years was 25%
lower than that of the United
States because Canadians had
less training and skills, He called
for free education at all levels
and called for more of the na-
tional income to be invested in
re-training and education to cor-
rect the situation where 5,116,-
000 Canadians in the labor force
have grade eight education or
less,

Turning to the problem of pov-
erty Douglas said that behind the
facade of the affluent society,
one-third of all Canadians livein
poverty, 23% of Canadian families
have incomes of less than $3,000.

Douglas called for more action

and less talk about poverty and
called for a re-distribution of the
national income,

Douglas attacked Finance Min-

Labor to fight wage restraint

CLC Congress marks important gains

more action

ister Sharp’s *Ban the Boom”
budget, He charged the Minister
with taking money out of circula-
tion by taking it out of the work-
ers’ pockets, A 10% increase in
income taxes represents $10 mil-

lion from the wage and salaries :

of the workers, The $250 million
the government will take from
the corporations is only a loan
that will be returned to them after
18 months at 5% interest, “If
anyone doesn’t think there is one
law for the rich and another
for the poor they should read

~ Mitchell Sharp’s budget,’’ said

Douglas,

The NDP leader’s sharpest
words were aimed at the “greedy
profiteers” who are causing the
cost of living to rise at the rate
of over 3% per year. In spite of
increased labor productivity and
reduced costs to the manufac-
turers’ wages were down and
prices were up, Citing the exam-
ple of the food processors, Doug-
las said their profits were up
43% in the period of 1961-65.
The farmers and food workers
hadn’t got any of this profit —
it had all gone to those who are
profiteering.

The NDP received slightly
more than 1,300,000 votes or
17.4% of the popular vote in the
1965 election, CLC affiliates to

the NDP number slightly over —

200,000. The Congress went on
record early in the convention
endorsing the NDP and calling for
more affiliates to join its ranks.
The resolution also called on the
CLC to meet with the AFL-CIO
to discuss amendments to the

constitutions of international un- —

ions to permit their Canadian

members to participate in politi- ©

cal action to the point of affil-
iation.

unions to:

granted;

CLC to fight injunctions

A resolution adopted by the CLC convention instructed
officers of the Congress, provincial federations and affiliated

e“Fngage in a strong and militant campaign to eliminate
the use of the injunction in labor disputes;

«Challenge injunctions wherever and whenever they are

®«Organize systems of mutual aid for trade unions and

members affected by the use of injunctions; and

*@#Promote legislative, political and other activities in
opposition to the use of injunctions in labor disputes.”

This resolution came before the Congress after delegates
rejecting an earlier weak resolution.

May 6, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE--Page 8