‘Continued from page 4

man of the Regina Labor Council;
Opened the meeting by declaring
that the Trudeau government had
evoked laws won in hundreds of
years of struggle. ‘‘I have been 35
Years in the trade union move-
| ent,” he said, ‘‘and have never
negotiated a living wage. Workers
ate the victims, not the cause.”
See Labor as Unhappy

He introduced Tony Merchant,
jLiberal MLA, as the first speaker.
}-"¢ New Democratic Party, Lib-
rals and Tories were asked to
Peak to the meeting. The Tories
idn't Show. Tony Merchant, glib
F d ambitious, faced a constant
Datrage of heckling which quickly
threw him off his usual polished

PeTtLOrmance.

He said that the Liberals know
Hat labor is unhappy. “We can
M ¢ that,’ he said. Pandemonium
tOke loose. He tried to turn the
Ser against the Saskatchewan
i. government. Up to now, he
pd, the NDP has been consi-
“ered by labor as the least of all
NI Negatives. The Saskatchewan

DP has now ‘exploded that
Myth.

a He described wage controls as
Necessary, temporary expe-
pocnt brought about by a rising
fide of resentment against labor
E Which you can feel.’’ Perhaps,
Inadvertently, he put his finger on

ly Premier Blakeney has been
| 8oing along with the controls.

~ Explain Actions

_ Then Chairman George Smith
troduced Walter Smishek, NDP
ee of finance and ex-trade
i 1Onist with, ‘‘Walter Smishek
ised to be a good worker. Now he
Jas to explain his government’s
Ctions.”’
: Walter Smishek, . clearly sha-
‘en by the mood of the meeting,
\ Obviously misjudged the
Orkers. He launched into a pre-
sted speech which began with a
© *Scription of all of the general
Problems created for the capitalist
-~Snomy by inflation.
€ said that the Blakeney gov-
ment had declared itself as be-
as Ee a system of selective price
re Tols. He said that the basic

Son for labor’s discontent was

at Trudeau had imposed con-
“With Over wages and salaries

‘Nout establishing equally ef-
“tive measures to control prices
Profits’’.

Be . called for no increases in the
With of essential commodities
revi Out prior approval of a price

€w board, a strengthened ex-

\

minimum for exemptions.
THooPerating with Ottawa —
<5 Tough some heavy heckling
% Xpressed the Blakeney Gov-
of ae S approval of thé actions
Baia. Trudeau government. He
ae Despite our misgivings ab-
the effectiveness of the fed-
Drofe ols on prices, profits and
we onals, Saskatchewan has
Pring; qualified support to the
I aoe of the Federal Anti-
— Program. We said we are
tawa Ted to cooperate with Ot-
oe winile continuing to express
ae I have already men-

Natlired Moore, a director of the
Bee Farmers Union, was
ies with applause. He said:

© support your fight because

free collective bargaining must be
maintained. Inflation affects both
farmers and workers drastically.”
He said he had attended Trudeau
briefing sessions which indicated
a bleak future for low income ear-
ners, farmers and pensioners.

He pointed out that farm prices
were exempt and that Bill C-73
proposed to control prices at the
processing and retail level. This is
nonsense, he said. These power-
ful concerns will pass any cuts
along to the farmers, regardless of
rising costs of production for the
farmers. ‘“‘They’re the ones who
want the. free market,’ Moore
said. .

No Controls on Multi-nationals

He warned the meeting about
the power of the multi-national
corporations. He said that farm
marketing boards had come under
controls and that Pepin and
Plumptre were attacking orderly
marketing. “‘We do not live in a
free country,”” he said, ‘“‘we do
not live in a free market system.
As long as we pretend we believe
in a free market system we will
continue to be victims.”’

He told cheering workers that
the NFU convention recently
held had rejected control mea-
sures. Inflation, he said, is really
caused by the operations of the
multi-nationals, over whom the
government has no controls at all.
(Who are the government, he
might have added).

Grace Hartman, president of

‘CUPE, then took the floor to de-

liver a courageous and inspiring
appeal, backed by solid
working-class partisanship.

She said that Bill C-73 was very
similar to the War Measures Act
that the Trudeau government had
‘forced on this country years
ago.”’ She said that most Cana-
dians had come to realize that the
War Measures Act was unneces-
sary and had caused untold dam-
age to national unity. But, she said,
there was massive public support
for the WMA, and only 16 NDP
MPs had the courage to. vote
against it in the House of Com-
mons.

She said even Robert

that

S: °
S profits tax, and a raised ©

Sask gov’t urged
to reconsider
support of controls

REGINA — Saskatchewan’s
Young New Democrats, at their
annual meeting, held the first
weekend in February, called on
the province’s NDP Govern-
ment to reconsider its support of
the federal anti-inflation prog-
ram.

The meeting- passed the fol-
lowing resolution:

“The federal government’s
so-called anti-inflation program
discriminates against poor
people, women, native people
and working people by trying to
shift the blame for the present
economic crisis from the basic
contradictions of capitalism to
such things as government
spending that helps disadvan-
taged people and the legitimate
attempts of working people to
catch up with inflation. ”’

ight-back — Hartman

Stanfield had said in a recent in-
terview regarding one mistake he
had made, was that he wished he
had had the courage to oppose the
War Measures Act at that time.

Purchasing Power Declined

She said many Canadians are
making a similar mistake today.
The trade union movement is ac-
cused of being unpatriotic be-
cause we don’t support Bill C-73.
The same forces — the media
spewing out the false information
that high wages cause inflation —
are the reasons why Canadians
think that way, she said.

She provided statistics to prove
her point: between 1973 and 1974
the average weekly wages and
salaries rose by 21.8% whereas
the-cost of living went up in the
same time by 22.7%. Therefore,
the purchasing power of the dollar
declined for the workers, and the
slice of the economic pie for the
wage earners shrank so much be-
tween 1971 and 1974 that it is no
higher today than it was in 1969.

“The real danger we now
face,’’ she said, ‘‘is the loss of our
democratic rights. The right of
free collective bargaining has
been taken away and one man has
been given the power to set our
rates of pay.”’

She pointed out that there is no
right of appeal to the decisions of
the AIB, unless the law is broken,
and that only the employer can
break the law by paying too much
wages: It is the only law in
Canada that can’t be appealed,
she said.

Dangers in Bill C-73

Grace Hartman said it is sad to
see that the Saskatchewan NDP
government doesn’t have the
same courage as the federal NDP
which opposes Bill C-73. How-
ever, she said, the Saskatchewan
government hasn’t signed. the
federal-provincial agreement, and
we must continue to press them to
avoid making this grave mistake.

She called on everyone at the
meeting to go everywhere and
point out the dangers in Bill C-73,
so that the government will see a
great groundswell taking place.

She received a_ prolonged,
standing ovation from the crowd.

George Semeniuk, president of
the SFL, wound it up. He de-
clared Bill C-73 to be an attack on
the victims of inflation, and refer-
red to what he called the *“‘new
arithmetic’’ being used by gov-
ernment economists. He read a
headline from the press, ‘Un-
employment rises, but rate de-
creases.”

He said the Saskatchewan gov-
ernment has all the power it needs

- to keep its employees out of the

hands of the AIB. Why, then, he
asked, is it taking them in? Is it
pressure from the federal gov-
ernment, a threat to cut off
equalization grants, or is it a
behind-the-scenes deal of some
sort. If this is the case, he said,
they ought to be honest and tell us
sO.

“We aren’t going along. We are
preparing for the biggest fight this
country has ever seen. We say to
the politicians: quit using us as
scapegoats for your errors. The
MLA’s who came to this meeting

- will go away with a bit of an edu-

cation,” he said.

RYGUS EXPECTS
THOUSANDS TO CLC
- MARCH 22 DEMO

TORONTO — Mike Rygus,
Canadian director of the 50,000-
member International Association
of Machinists and Aerospace
workers predicted March 3 that
thousands of workers would re-
spond to the Canadian Labor Con-
gress call for a mass rally on Parli-
ament Hill March 22, protesting
the wage-cutting ‘‘anti-inflation”’
program of the federal govern-
ment.

Saying that the leaders of the
union movement in Canada were
not so naive as to support the goy-
ernment wage controls, Rygus
termed the government’s prog-
ram, three years of regulated mis-
ery for wage earners.

Also in Windsor. March 2, Un-
ited Auto Workers spokesmen said
the union plans to charter a train to
take 1,100 members to the rally.

POSTAL WORKERS
CHARGE
GOVERNMENT
DECEPTION

OTTAWA — The Canadian
Union of Postal Workers has pro-
tested that it was deceived in job
protection negotiations last fall
when a strike ended. CUPW says
between 1,000 and 1,700 of the
10,000 postal workers in the To-
ronto area could be laid off in the
next two years as new automated
equipment comes into use. In Ot-
tawa, union - president
Claude Parrot said March 2, a
protest is being lodged with the
Public Service Staff Relations
Board, charging the Post Office
with bad faith.

QUE. COMMON FRONT
FLEXES MUSCLES

MONTREAL — The 180,000-
member common front of Quebec
public service unions, frustrated
by lagging contract talks with the
Quebec government, flexed its

muscles Feb. 26 for the first time
since the current negotiations be-
gan in what was described as a
dress rehearsal for a possible gen-
eral strike next month.

The half-day walkout involving

Jean-.

about 110,000 workers, was seen
as a major test of support from
members before a key common
front strategy meeting March -7
when union leaders may call for a
strike vote.

LAST OF PAPER TALKS
BREAKS OFF

CORNWALL — Talks involv-
ing 1,400 striking paperworkers at
Domtar Fine Paper at Cornwall
and St. Catharines and 265 at On-
tario Minnesota at Fort Francis
and Kenora, the last two remain-
ing Ontario paper strikes, have
broken off, says the Canadian
Paperworkers Union.

CPU vice-president Tom. Cur-
ley said talks broke off Feb. 29
with Domtar because the com-
pany wants to change layoff and
seniority terms in the present
pact, and at Ontario Minnesota
because the company is refusing
to grant special wage adjustments
for skilled papermakers.

B.C.R. SHUT DOWN
BY TEAMSTERS

VANCOUVER — About 290
members of the Teamsters union
employed by British Columbia
Railway of Vancouver went on
strike March 2, after a breakdown
in contract talks. The strike
brought all operations of the rail-
~~ to a halt, and shipments of
Jer~ber and other products from
‘ize Interior of the province have
been affected.

The Teamsters union, which is
one of five unions negotiating with
the railway for new contracts to
replace those expired last July 31,
said the railway is unwilling to
budge on any of 21 unresolved con-
tract issues.

1,000 POWER WORKERS
DEFY INJUNCTIONS

FREDERICTON, N.B.
Safety was the issue as 1,000 New
Brunswick Electric Power Com-
mission employees defied an in-
junction issued Feb. 23 and an ex-
tension Feb. 26 ordering them
back to work after a walkout Feb.
23 to protest a fellow worker’s
suspension.

MONTREAL — Hundreds of French as well as English-
teachers demonstrated and picketted outside the auntie
of the Montreal Catholic Schools Commission, Feb. 26 as part of the
Quebec public service workers’ Common Front “day of action” which
brought 110,000 workers out on the streets.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 12, 1976—Page 9