=e

By JA
Now y JAMES LEECH

that the federal 2

The : ral govern
hen introduced its “anti-
Den tp we. Dill, what will hap-
ing the enormous profits
ee by corporations?
Sumerg h happen to prices con-
Meedg> yve to pay for their
Wages What will happen: to
pulich have‘ consistently
oehind prices and profits?
CUseq if therotes may be ex-
Cone.” found on question-
Herp cot Affairs Minister
Of the Tay, that the contents

Pre ill were still “fuzzy.”

said an Inister Trudeau had
Mot iq :Pril 24 that this bill “is
bil, Wy itself an anti-inflation
Other ah dealt with that in
Nofiteer :.. This is an anti-
Pressed "2 anti-gouging bill.”
Profiteer; Or an explanation of
out 8; the PM weaseled

Th : :
Wage oN Is that pressure from
un aes. Tight across the
have Be nose living standards
© pri N Constantly eroded by
to implement this
it will be enforc-

lic pressure.
‘he ay, interest rates were
0 that 5 to a 10.5% minimum
ha pane buying is out of
Wort, sn for millions of
ate dy © Cattadians — and rents
Fin Nisin
there's c® Minister Turner says
Com * sy €ven bigger squeeze
al rae 's department’s annu-
Cast i » Unveiled April 29, fore-
for Ntinuing Soaring prices
Dei “mers, and “some tem-
Bowe) “averse effects on the
*endittre © real income and

of Canadian house-

UTU local hits at |

"profits up by 79%

Cw te Torgy gate ooo

more man 7 1
stan. eat, ympe*

a,
snelt ny

arto, re Compe

“ \ report t —|

ws

a
as

Datelin S Urrespung be
Th; © Business dou e «« Plumptre sets meetings “i:
o GM Cxecuty sees On higher food: costs «siz
Paid Sala want oe zach

~ eee ae
areca

. oil uae

wy
We

i
—— line
x VINgS Plan ang ami

'ag@3 of g

Way
Plan for Se the tax

Profit
®™Ploye9s LECTED Advan.

Paxprofitting |

holds.” The review admitted

_ that: “Labor income was a dis-

tinctly smaller share of the total
in 1973.”

Agriculture Minister Whelan,
pointing out that Canadians
“don’t know how lucky they
are,’ warned us to be prepared
for higher prices for food.

Working people might ask:
What good is the “anti-profiteer-
ing” bill if inflation is going to
-be allowed to continue to run
wild?

Just in recent days we were
threatened with a 20-30% in-
crease in the price of. canned
food. While the Food Prices Re-
view Board hid from the press

hints of arbitration

a

ae Ss

of

ie
Tang Orta; Sue -of the United
fda ., On Union News car-
MeGrepet@tement by W. C. Y.
Chadian Chairman of the
: in alway Labor Asso-
“Cog Which he noted that
wttary ot had to be taken at
yokers, Thitration for railway
meu. eae € executive of the
wiel® Mog al 343 in Hamilton
doit the Tegor to let him know
thee The pought of the pro-
‘ir letter: Ollowing is part of
ag 8
a amas! Union is shocked
laineg 3° @t the suggestion

Sy
Al that the v the Feb.-March is-

taj, Ven - News (Canada)
torent jg Pe _ Slightest enter-

tions of arbit: €ing given to any

Athi
haben.
rkes en 1S arbitration and
wets tn mf the membership’s
Bointt® ab “ide our conditions.
hg do Solutely Opposed to

With, that road. -

tye? chan t Interference
ME proce, We Heed in nego-
sitite the eaure is clear. We
tone? wit 4ninhibited right to
" Interference by
teh Y or for any other outside

Me, Unt} . ce: We need that
we can? Satisfactory agree-
the’ e arrived at. If the
Molar Panies understand
Dat Singers en We will have
, On _~ argaining on their
{np . COondig;

de® Way euitions still have a

10)
Nga’ the «;, 8° to catch up; in-
“for narcation demands the

Yargaining to re-

Tation of our condi-

cover lost ground as recom-
mended by the CLC in its recent
brief to the federal cabinet .. -

this local suggests that opening °

the present agreement around
the question of the soaring cost
of living would be more in order,
in our opinion, instead of those
headlines of voluntary arbitra-
tion in the U.T.U. News.
Unity on Issues

Under present conditions the
worker is being forced to fight
back, not only to increase his

~ standard of living or maintain

what he has, but to regain what
he has _ lost. Objectively, this
means that the situation is bet-

‘

ter for uniting workers around

-bread and butter issues. This is

clearly shown by the statements
of leading Hamilton trade
unionists at a recent press con-
ference on prices, where all of
them spoke of the need for
shorter term contracts and effec-
tive cost of living clauses as
well as increased wages to 1m-
prove the standard of living for
all workers. :

Price gouging and profiteer-
ing also means that all our bene-

-fits are undermined and pension-

ers suffer as well because of

their fixed incomes.

‘We suggest to you that what
is required now is more muscle
not less, and we recommend im-
mediate meetings of all locals to
place before the employers _ a
demand for immediate relief

from the cost of living, which -

is eroding our living standards,

wages and benefits.

to discuss: whether a 20 cent
beef price rise ovef four days,
was due to a shortage, Mr. Whe-
‘lan was declaring: “We have all
kinds of meat in Canada right.
now.”
Cooling. Discontent
_ If there appears no rhyme or
reason to the government minis-
ters’ pronouncements and the
pill they claim is to chastise the
very corporations who keep
them where they are — there is
certainly consistency in the
ever-growing corporation profits.
Despite harsh penalties pro-
vided in the bill, one might wait
a long time to see a prosecution.
The “anti-gouging” bill ap-
pears to be the Liberals’ method
of cooling the discontent over

the endless assault on living ©

standards. The Tory method is
less subtle; Bob. Stanfield would
simply freeze wages where they
are — well below prices — and
allow the profits to. keep rolling
ins 32

Everyone knows there are
profits; but how many realize
the millions that are taken out
of working people’s— income
every week to create this hoard?
The montage on this page gives
a sampling of why prices are
flying high.

-OFL brie

TORONTO—tThe Ontario Fed-
eration of Labor will present its
annual brief to the government
of Ontario as the Canadian Trib-

ne goes to press.

: ie anne synopsis of the.
prief- indicates" that the Federa-
tion will concern itself heavily
with inflation and measures that
should be taken to stop it. In
its “State of the Economy” the
brief notes “Obviously our first
concern is the rate of inflation
and what is happening to our
real wages, and the continued
high rate of unemplovment. It
is interesting to note that some
industrialists have recognized
the truth of our repeated asser-
tion that wages rather than caus-
ing inflation are indeed chasinZ
prices. As a result they have
given wage increases outside the
terms of the agreement to en-
deavor to alleviate some of the
hardships caused by rising

prices.”

As a means of combatting -

inflation the OFL recommends
eight steps that should be taken
by the provincial government, in-
cluding: a provincial prices Te

While increased costs of food
are among the first to hit family
income, banks and giant basic
industries other than food ini-
tiate many of the profits climbs
which then fan out and affect
the whole economy. -

We are told frequently that
the corporations must have in-
centive. If they could not make
millions of dollars a month all
that syrup about serving Cana-
dians would ‘go down the drain.
In 1973 after-tax profits (for
manufacturing companies alone).
took a one-year jump of 42%.
Dividends paid out in the first
three months of 1974 rose by
35% over last year’s first quar-
ter, and doubling and tripling of
profits was not unusual.

When Is It a Crime?

Is this what the government’s
anti-gouging bill is going to
stop? When Imperial Oil tucks
away profit of $92.7-million
from Jan. to March is that goug-
ing? When it’s up from $46-mil
lion in the same period. last
year? What about Alcan’s $38.9-
million or Ford’s $47-million, or

. Shell Canada’s $34-million — all
in three months?

Steel is basic to the econo-
my, but when does profit turn
into the criminal acts described

challenges

view board, public hearings by
such a board, strengthening the
Department of Consumers’ Af-
fairs, strengthening of the com-
petition act, curbs on unneces-
sary, wasteful and sometimes
“untrue advertising, the proper
labelling of- containers, urging
the federal government to revise
the Consumer Price Index, and
adoption of measures to en-
courage increased food produc-
tion. :

Employment Standards Act
_ The Federation also launched
an attack on the Employment
Standards Act and said, “The
Employment Standards Act has
not given in practice what was
expected”. _ ;

It proposed that in cases of
mass layoff, termination of em-
ployment and plant shutdowns
the following measures be insti-
tuted: The workers shoud have

the right to re-open negotiations .

to resolve the issues and protect
the workers’ rights; if the enter-
prise is economically viable and
the company persists with its
decision to shut down, the gov-
ernment should take over to

'Profiteering costs Canadians billions

in the government bill? Algoma
Steel netted nearly $12-million
and Steel Co. of Canada close
to $22-million from Jan. 1 to
March 31. Dome Mines, Toron-
to, Dome Petroleum, Calgary,
and Union Carbide each grabbed
more than $5-million in the same
period, while TransCanada Pipe-
lines raked in $9.7-million and
Brunswick Mining and Smelting

got $7.8-million.: That’s a lot of

dollars out ofthe pockets of
Canadians in a_ three-month
period.. The list could be con
tinued endlessly: Block Bros. —
$4-million, Cadillac Development
— $6-million, Falconbridge Cop-
per — $6-million, Royal Trust —
$3-million, etcetera.

Public Ownership

. The question one wants an-
swered, and might put to his or
her Member of Parliament, is: Is
this the gouging that’s going to
stop, now that we have an
“anti-gouging” bill? Are these
millions of dollars paid for out
of the sweat of Canadian work-
ers going to be used to benéfit
those who do the work? Or is it
going to continue to be siphon-
ed off to be wielded by the rich?

The only way,to be sure that
the wealth and the work of Can-
ada benefits its people, as “the
Communist Party of Canada has
maintained, is to put major in-
dustries, banks, transportation,
the food industry, as well as
land, under public ownership,
democratically controlled. As

- long as a handful of powerful

directorships manoeuvre our
lives, the working people will be
squeezed in the vice of inflation
on the one side and anti-labor
bosses and governments on the
other.

The Coalition to Roll Back
Prices, the trade unions (though
still on too small a-.scale) are
stepping up anti-inflation activi-
ties along with other groups.
The Communist Party has re-
peatedly urged joint extra-par-
liamentary efforts by Commun-
ists and NDP to bring greater
pressure to bear. Such pressure,
flowing: from working-class and
democratic organizations will be
needed to see that anti-profit-
eering legislation is indeed pass-
ed and enforced—to put an end
to price gouging and protect
Canadian living standards.

inflation

- protect the jobs of the workers.

Futher: Any layoffs or termi-
nations involving 15 or more
workers should constitute a
group for the purposes of legis-.

—lation;-employees should get six

months notice of termination or
pay in lieu of; notice of termi-
nation legislation should apply
in all cases whether there is a
strike or lockokut or because
of technological change or due
to environmental considerations;
it should be mandatory for man-
agement to meet with govern-

Ment and labor representatives

to resolve the problems; cost of
change must be initially paid
for by the industry, this applies
to retraining, earlier retirement,
and so on; notice of termina-
tion or payment in lieu of
should be mandatory and sepa-
rate from severance pay as such
and in bankruptcy cases and
plant shutdown, for whatever
reason, the recovery of workers’
wages should have top priority.

A more comprehensive report
of. the Federation’s meeting with
the government on May 1, will
appear next week.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 3,. 1974—PAGE 7