Richard Milhaus
Nixon’s friendly visit to the

President

AFL-CIO Executive Council
meeting at Miami Beach in
February, 1973, was a cool and
calculated, and well planned
trip to seek U.S. labor leaders’
support for continued wage con-
trols, a drive for higher produc-
tivity and, organized labor’s
acquiescense in a no strike
compulsory arbitration plan.

The number one question now
facing both United States work-
ers — five million of whom are

seeking new contracts this year
—and Canadian workers, one
million of whom are negotiating
new contracts in 1973, is the fol-
lowing: Should they permit the
scrapping of provisions in union
contracts which employers reg-
ard as “interference” in their
prerogatives and ability to do as
they please, in order to give the
bosses a free hand for speed-up,
higher productivity, less wages,
fewer workers and larger pro-
fits, all in the name of meeting
“stiff” foreign competition and
“cheap” foreign imports?

The cry against foreign im-
ports is phoney: The corpora-
tions who scream the loudest
against foreign competition are
the same companies who invest
abroad, produce cheap, import
commodities to America, and
raise the prices to U.S. and
Canadian consumers for all that
the traffic will bear.

Price Fixing Cited

The AFL-CIO cites examples:
the landed price of a portable
radio made in Japan, $13.81, re-
tail price, $39.95; tuner-ampli-
fier, landed price, $38.80, retail
price, $179.95; tape recorder,
landed price, $90, selling price,
$219.95. The real problem is
monopoly control and price fix-
ing.

Moreover, the AFL-CIO says
the U.S. Government provides
the U.S. corporations with more
than $3-billion in tax subsidies
for their foreign operations.
Clearly this is robbery of work-
ers both as producers and as
consumers. It is also a joint
operation by the State as well as
the big corporations, which is
what is called State-Monopoly
Capitalism.

The AFL-CIO says American
industry will go to any length to
find the most under-paid, over-
exploited people in the world in
order to deprive American work-
ers of their jobs. But here the
AFL-CIO is only partly right,
and partly wrong. The corpora-
tions do not care a hoot-in-hell
about workers and their jobs —
they are out to make super pro-
fits. For the same reason they
plan speed-up and moderniza-
tion of plant capacity at home
in the U.S., ostensibly to meet
foreign competition, but, in fact,

BY BRUCE MAGNUSON

LABOR SCENE AFL-ClO policies no good

for Canadian labor

to eliminate jobs, reduce costs
and make bigger profits.

Hatchet Job

The AFL-CIO leaders say one
way of dealing with export of
capital and of jobs is to get the
U.S. government to stop mak-
ing such exports the profitable
venture it is today. For this
reason they have sponsored the
Burke-Hartke bill to raise tariffs,
impose imports quotas, ban the
export of capital and techno-
logy, provide for income tax on
all overseas and foreign earn-
ings whether or not they return
the profits to the U.S.

This is like asking the capital-
ists of America to legislate
themselves out of business and

to voluntarily retire from impe- .

rialist ventures. Besides being
utopian and an exercise in futil-
ity for the U.S. trade union
movement, it serves as a smoke-
screen for the Nixon Adminis-
tration and the U.S. monopolies
to do a hatchet job on both
United States and foreign work-
ers.

The simple truth is that the

AFL-CIO leaders, with few if
any exceptions, are as usual
helping to pull the chestnuts out
of the fire for U.S. imperialism.
In fact they are an integral part
of the exploiter system, which
brings them into direct confron-
tation with the interests of the
working class both at home and
abroad. They support fully the
President’s Commission on Pro-
ductivity, the phoney Cost-of-
Living Council, and participate
in the so-called Labor-Manage-
ment Advisory Committee to
the Cost-of-Living Council.

Could Rob Canadians

The campaign of the AFL-CIO
and 11 powerful international
unions with hundreds of thous-
ands of members in Canada to
back up the Burke-Hartke bill
which could rob Canadians of
jobs, got under way soon after
President Nixon announced the
10% surtax on imports and the
DISC program on August 15,
1971. It caused leaders of inter-
national unions in Canada, like
National Director Wm. Mahoney
of the United Steel Workers to
come out over a year ago and
charge U.S. leaders of interna-
tional unions, including his own,
with “not taking into considera-
tion the interests of their Cana-
dian brothers.” Commenting on
the possibility of any split with
the U.S. sector of his union,
Mahoney said “If the United
Steelworkers tried to tell us that
we cannot have our own policy
on trade, we would have to con-
sider that possibility.”

Can Run Our Affairs

Now, that all the chickens are
coming home to roost at one
and the same time — the crash

Z

Excuse me waiter, but

there's a scab in my soup

Campbells Soup Company
Ltd. is following the lead of the
Ontario government and is hav-
ing work done in a strikebound
plant. Brookers Ltd. of Toronto,
has been struck by workers in
the Bookbinders’ Union for over
a year and in that time univer-
sity and community college
publications were bound by

scabs who were hired by the
company to break the union.

At last week’s Metro Toronto
Labor Council, Charles Buhler,
president of the Bookbinders
local, informed the delegates
that Campbells Soup is getting
into the act and is having its
Campbells Soup Recipe Book
bound at Brookers.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1973—PAGE 8

saa. FAV EF -

Cease RPS

RR CHL ES

of the “almighty” U.S. dollar,

the loss of U.S. hegemony over
the capitalist markets of the
world, the inability of Uncle Sam
to police the world, the defeat
in Vietnam, the assertion of the
right by people everywhere to
run their own affairs — it is of
course inevitable that the Cana-
dian trade union movement can
no longer go along with its head
in the sand, as Brother McDer-
mott of the UAW has so aptly
put it, dismissing nationalist —
and he might have said demo-
cratic — sentiment.

We also agree with Brother
McDermott when he says that
“someone has to give leader-
ship,” and we are happy that he
starts it off by “indulging in
painful self-criticism,” some-
thing that is long overdue and
may not have been so painful
had he thought of it much
earlier.

The “anemic. guidelines” for
Canadian autonomy will have to
be replaced by a demand for a
sovereign Canadian trade union
movement than can come to

- grips with workers’ problems

and keep AFL-CIO class colla-
borationist policies out of this
country. — But more on that
next week.

( Call mass protest

Local 173 of the United Brewery Workers in Waterloo, se,
has issued a call for a mass demonstration at Queen's Pal
Toronto on Wednesday, March 21 at 10 a.m. :
The call, which went to all labor councils affiliated with the
Ontario Federation of Labor, came as a result of the
experiences in the Dare Food Ltd. strike in Kitchener é
company has used injunctions, and strikebreakers (Grange
and his goons) to break the union. The demonstration °
the opening day of the Ontario Legislature, will deman i
legislation of laws concerning the use of strikebreakers:
use of injunctions against unions in.a legal strike an
failure of management to bargain in good faith.
The calls asks other unions to “have as many trade UM

jocal's

d the

members available for this demonstration, to prove oe hi
Tory government that the trade union movement in +
is concerned about our labor laws.” by

The Metro Toronto Labor Council endorsed the all Te
ee 173 unanimously. ees

al isi

jon | :
to this

ntario | hi

ar

di

“| need a ninth mortgage to pay for the eighth mortgo9
which paid for the seventh mortgage .. .” :

: CUPE local fights union-busting

By RICHARD ORLANDINI

In the last month, commis-
sions and committees of the
Metro and city governments
have been launching attacks
aimed at the destruction of trade

unions. Three weeks ago the

Toronto Transit Commission
voted unanimously to allow non-
union shops to bid on the print-
ing of TTC materials and for the
uniform worn by the transit
workers. This retrograde action
by the TTC was quickly counter-
ed by a representation of trade
unionists who met with the
TTC hierarchy and called for the
return to union materials.

Then, two weeks ago, the To-
ronto Streets Commissian added
its voice to the ever-growing
bray of anti-union sentiments.

The Toronto City Executive
voted unanimously to allow a
private, non-union fir.1- called
Superior Sanitation to collect
garbage in Toronto’s Forest Hill.
The vote, which was moved by
Toronto’s “reform” mayor Crom-
bie, followed a deputation by
Local 43 of the Canadian Union
of Public Employees which bid
to have the Toronto streets de-
partment pick up garbage in
Forest Hill.

The union’s arguments were
presented by Albert Syms,
CUPE Local 43’s business agent,
who said that the union could
do the job cheaper and easier
than the private firm. But Mr.
Atyeo, Toronto’s Commissioner
of Streets, who argued in fav-
or of the contract for Superior
Sanitation, appeared to have
more in mind than “just” mak-
ing the collection more efficient
and saving the taxpayer money.

_It has been argued that the
city’s Commissioner of Streets
is wary of continuing to do busi-
ness with the workers in CUPE
Local 43, after the members of
that union demonstrated their
militancy in the strike for bet-
ter wages and working condi-

tions last spring. Mr. Atyeo is
still smarting from the wage in-
crease won by the workers after
the case went to compulsory ar-
bitration, and now probably
feels that a non-union operation
would: be easier to deal with. If
Mr. Atyeo’s intentions are to
destroy the union,
threat of introducing non-union
firms to collect the city’s gar-

bage would be a step toward

that end.

And he has plenty of ‘support
Waiting in the wings. Private
firms have been eyeing Toronto’s
garbage for some time now.

Albert Syms, CUPE 43’s busi-
ness agent, told the Tribune in
a telephone interview that, “A
number of large firms are just
waiting and if it opens up they
will all come in. And these are
big outfits from the U.S., from
Texas and from Chicago. These
firms are non-union and we have
absolutely no. guarantee that
they would hire the present city
workers.

“In the case of Superior Sani-
tation (the firm that got the
contract), they presently have
the contract to pick up the
Loblaw’s garbage and this con-
tract amounts to millions of dol-
lars. Superior Sanitation uses
some of these profits to subsi-
dize the Forest Hill operations.
Then using the base in Forest
Hill, they could try to get all
the city’s contracts and once
they get the city, they will be
able to demand their own price.”

Whatever Atyeo’s intentions
were, they were partially block-
ed after the City Executive
meeting. Following the meeting,
members of the CUPE 43 execu-
tive were able to convince
Mayor Crombie to refer the mo-
tion back for further considera-
tion.

With Atyeo’s plot to destroy
CUPE 43 falling apart, several
questions come to mind. What
are Atyeo’s connections with

ec te at ae bt a a RE ANE Ae Oe NN Bo

then the -

ee ae

-——— -— -70 CO ASO TD

what
move
f the”

Superior Sanitation?
the steps the labor
can take to be rid °
of a Mr. Atyeo?
The first question
ably never be answer" oi
the answer to the sect 40 uj
be found through the Me
ronto Labor Council. i
The actions show?
Metro Toronto Labor Cc ne)
the recent dispute with tebe
were admirable. The U? a
tion by the Labor Cour st
cutive and by the rep te! yo
tives of the unions 4 eo
the TTC’s retrograde st MA
to the fact that only, wh A a
speaks as one can } A
fective voice heard abi
braying of reactionary # 5
union politicians. pes” i
After what seemed con,
of inaction by the 1abOF say’
on similar matters, th, 9d!
now clear for concert? 4 i
on the part of the Coun
resentatives of CU.
other working class
halt Mr. Atyeo’s atl?
union busting. Nor
efforts stop there.
also open to deman® ie %
nation of city officials ~ gis
Atyeo who continua
anti-union attitudes:

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Se pe oe Fee A PEN Se,

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ORDER OF FRIENDS!
The Presidium of tea i
Supreme Soviet institut pies
decoration, the Order © aki”
ship Among Peoples, t© Soy
50th anniversary of th
Union.

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The Order will be 2 ion J

individuals and institl™ (igs
services in strengthen! iggy
ship and co-operation 4 nate
socialist nations an | Com
ities and for substantl®” <0!
butions to the econom jaye .
political and cultura the r
ment of the USSR and
republics. spel
The Order is of a 29

includes an embross
five-point star.
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mie sea sien A toe