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With oth— Countries and reduction in the Ss
=, a-adbility of benefits to force workers to Pr O es S a S g f Ou
Move or work for elss were key factors in

the UI changes.

The issue is bringi nemploy- 7 d 7] ht t Car
Ment insurance program ih life with ether den i e rig O ap p

Countries in the western world,” council

President Jim Matkin told the committee. The parliamentary committee hearings “The government doesn’t want to hear
€ council’s brief commended the into the Tory government’s proposed from ordinary Canadians and it doesn’t
8overnment for the proposed changes, changes to unemployment are a “sham,” want these hearings to focus attention on
Claiming that they would “provide some with dozens of groups denied the right to _ this major social issue,” he said. “This isn’t
incentive for mobility and job search. express their views before the committee, democracy — it’s the Tory steamroller
‘Increased entrance requirements and B.C. Communist Party leader Fred Wil- flattening everything in its way.”
reduced benefit duration will, we believe, son charged in a protest outside the hotel Behind Wilson was a banner with the
encourage labour force adjustment through where the hearings were being held Sept. _ words “Stop the Attack on U & I” — the
Telocation to where the jobs are and offers WE slogan for the campaign the party has
Steater Opportunity for the reduction of Flanked by CP members and suppor- _ launched against the proposed UI changes
Tepetitious unemployment,” it stated. ters, Wilson told a news conference out- and other pro-corporate features of the
The brief Suggested that entrance side the Meridien Hotel in downtown Tory government’s budget. :
Tequirements “could be reduced even Vancouver that the party was only one of With the CP leader was long-time unio- 2
turther and benefit periods could be made a number of groups which had been told nist and: Communist Party activist Bob z
shorter to further encourage job mobility,” by the parliamentary committee studying Jackson who, together with his son Larry, z
Indicating that the proposed cuts are only the UI changes that they could notappear is the focus of a pamphlet issued as part of #
€ beginning of the changes the corporate to present their submissions. the CP campaign. The elder Jackson was a 2
Sector and government may have in mind The list of those frozen out of the hear- participant in the 1935 On-To-Ottawa 3
for UI. ings included three anti-poverty ee in i which raised the oe ‘ unem- w
aoe inland whose members are oyment insurance and later took part in 3
i ee comes the sutane ob ae pnenistee ohe will be most affected by : 1940 delegation to the federal govern- & _

£0 job re-training, calling for “input from

‘the busi » ini the changes outlined in Bill C-21, the ment which led to the enactment of the FRED WILSON...atnewsconference

Programs Sek Sere naan teat sinesnienes to the UI Act. . first unemployment insurance legislation. _ 9utside gov't hearings.

‘that business requires.” Wilson noted that the committee was “I was part of the fight to win that : ‘Sfaee oe :
But that privatization Gisobirainine and scheduled to hear only 28 briefs during its _ legislation 50 years ago — and that’swhy nation of rules which discriminate against

the use of UI funds for ein seb A two days of hearings in Vancouver and I’m here today,” Jackson said. women and part-time workers and the

drew sharp o once ie P 2 ihe planned no hearings outside the city, des- The CP campaign is calling for the restoration of federal funding to the pro-

hearings P Opposition from others 1 pite the impact that the changes will have _ scrapping of Bill C-21 and the strengthen- gram. It is also urging expansion of com-
Va sap : in other high unemployment areas of the ing of the UI program to provide for munity college-based job training, funded

Neouver and District Labour Council province. increased benefits to claimants, the elimi- by an employer payroll tax.

pestetary Frank Kennedy told the commit-
© that the labour movement had been “in

the forefront of d i ini = : :
Slams that will Sqrice ieee Sis Ina brief which the committee refused to _ that since 1966, each peak of the ““boomand bia, which according to business analysts
Jobs,

hear, the Communist Party underscored _ bust” business cycle has left a higher unem- __ has been in economic recovery for the last
that danger and presented statistics showing _ ployment rate in its wake. British Colum- two years, and is again facing a downturn,
has not seen the unemployment rate for the
last eight years go below 9.8 per
cent — well above the 6.7 per cent rate of
unemployment that preceded the last reces-
sion in 1981-82.

“It is not accidental that the right wing
thrust to slash unemployment insurance
benefits comes on the eve of an expected
downturn in the economy,” the CP brief
stated. “The Mulroney government and its
business supporters are hopeful that the
double whammy of higher unemployment
and reduced UI benefits will increase the
‘flexibility’ and ‘productivity’ of labour.”

' “But the money for them shouldn’t come
fom the UI program,” he said.

Ray S€cretary-business manager Sean
Re ynn charged that the government’s

alms that they were making a new com-
mitment to re-training in Bill C-21 were “a

8TOSs distortion of history.

Fae a = Tories to say that they have a
Dry hh Or training is a denial of their his-
he ay € said, citing statistics that show that

centage of Gross Domestic Product

ie job training has declined under

Now, instead of making the corpora-

ee Pay, they’re making workers pay
push their UI premiums,” he charged.
at's Tory justice,”

ane anger which the cuts to UI have
yletated spilled over into the hearings
Bey as a delegation of some 60 farm-
ths €fs, carrying placards, marched up
E Ugh the hotel lobby and into the hear-
Re They came to support the sub-
ie 10n of Canadian Farmworkers Union
».-5dent Sarwan Boal, but committee chair

il kK :
etsy ne demanded that they be

In fact, that was the thrust of the Business
Council brief in its call for reduced benefits
to increase labour mobility. And it promp-
ted a passionate address from Carpenters
president Bill Zander as the parliamentary
committee’s session wound up Monday,

“Matkin calls for lab»-—ne told the
maybe he w--~
~Over the last five years, he said, “our
members did go — they went across the
country to find work and they lived in tents
and in the backs of their cars.

“To Suggest that people have to be
whipped into working or into going some-
where else to work is disgusting and
unconscionable,” he charged.

Zander also told committee members
that he hoped that the hearing process “isn’t
Just a sham.”

If the committee is to reflect the senti-
ment that has come overwhelmingly from
groups across the country, it should
recommend the government drop the pro-
posed changes. But although the four Lib-
eral members and the two New Democrats
on the committee oppose the changes, few
see any chance that the Tory majority will
challenge Employment Minister Barbara |

& The Burlington, Ont. Tory MP was sub-
i Wently overruled by Gus Mitges, the
pies for the session, but not before Jen

bike Tory MP Jean-PierpaeRibers, said

bi eee ‘4eutd “create an army of
5, if €cause most farmworkers are Sea-_
os nee confined by a short pt COMIDE
hae €y would virtually all be denied
vie Under the proposed changes. And
Suld be even more tightly bound to

, “| :
se Our contractor” system, he said.
Omino ;
vernme’. In the background of the
tang €nt’s program are growing signs
ther €conomic slump is coming and
hger, if the bill goes through, that

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEA

fe BS OF Werke cil face HieMEr sent Statements that the bill will
hoe cyMent with reduced benefits or not be changed.

The committee is to report to parliament

Out any benefi
Nefits at all. Oct. 10.

Delegation of farmworkers marches into hearing room Monday.

Pacific Tribune, September 18, 1989 ¢ 7