Labor Front

By WILLIAM KASHTAN

More than once in the recent period attention has been drawn
to the growing number of women inindustry. The extent to which this
is so, its significance, and the problems and responsibilities it
poses to the labor movement, are not always appreciated,

In one of the publications of the Dominion Bureau of Statis-
tics, there is a survey for the period 1946 to 1961. The statistics
show:

From the period of 1953 to 1961 the annual rate of increase in
the labor force was 4.8 percent for women as compared with 1.6
percent for men. In a total labor force averaging 6,518,000 in 1961,
there were 1,736,000 working women, and of these, 821,000 were
married.

Acco.ding to these statistics the increase in the female labor
force during the above period consisted largely of women who either
re-entered Or remained in the labor force
after marriage.

While only 12 percent ofall married women
were in the labor force in 1953, by 1961 it
had reached the figure of 20.8 percent. On the
other hand, the rate of single women declined
from 53.4 percent to 51.4 percent during the
same period.

Of significance is the fact that there are
more married than single women in the labor
force today. In 1961 the proportions were 47.3
percent married, 42.5 percent single and 10.2 percent either widowed
or divorced or separated.

* * *

Some obvious conclusions can be drawn from these figures,
For one thing, the increase in the number of women in the labor
force is not a temporary phenomenon, but a permanent feature of
our times, corresponding to and reflecting the changes taking place
in the economy. These changes, structural and otherwise, are
to be seen in the expansion of the service and office fields and types
of industry which employ women, alongside a relative decline in
blue-collar production workers.

This trend is of considerable consequence to the labor movement -

The fact that married women now constitute amajority of women
employed makes it, clear that two incomes are necessary for a
family to maintain a relatively decent standard of living.

Put the other way around, the income of a growing body of
male workers is totally inadequate to maintain an adequate standard.

This too indicates that the entry of married women into the
labor force on a large scale is not a temporary, but a permanent
feature of contemporary life.

‘ On the other hand, the increase in the number of married
women in the labor force creates more favorable objective possi-
bilities for their organization into trade unions and participation in
general political life. In previous periods, when single women
constituted the overwhelming majority of working women and were
largely concentrated in certain types of industry, it was not always
easy to organize them into trade unions.

In a large part it arose from the impermanence of their em-
ployment. As they married, they tended to withdraw in large numbers
from the labor force. This relatively large turnover hindered trade
union organization, ; ;
With the growth of married women in industry, more favorable
conditions exist not only to organize them into trade unions, but to
win them as active builders of the working-class movement.
This significant increase in the number of women, single
and married, in the labor force, places a challenge before all sec-
tions of the labor movement. The time is past, if it ever existed,
when the labor movement could ignore this section of the working
class,

The time is equally past to permit a narrow attitude which
sees women as competitors of men in industry. Working women con-
stitute an integral part of the working class and the task today is to
evolve those approaches, policies and demands which will help

to make them a powerful force in the labor movement.
* * *
In this connection, the propiem is twofold. Working women—

are both workers and women with specific problems. Therefore,
there is need for both a general and specific approach to this section
of the working class.

The general demands of the working class apply to them, but
as women, they are often super-exploited through inequality of
wages, even while doing comparable work. In the main, they are
cut off from acquiring those skills and in the majority of cases do
unskilled or semi-skilled work. :

: This general and specific approach is particularly necessary’
in view of the decision of the Canadian Labor Congress and many
of its affiliates to undertake a drive to organize the unorganized in
service and white collar fields, precisely that area where the large
body of women is employed.

But in addition, there is the needto advance hundreds and thous-
ands of working women as builders, organizers and spokesmen in
the trade union movement and labor movement in general.

It is an unfortunate fact that this is not yet the case, and while
here and there the trade union movement tips its hat in that direc-'
tion by electing a woman to its leadership, it is more formal than,
real, : * * *

The entire labor movement needs to make a sharp turn on
this issue which is not a matter of ‘‘women’s work’’ but one of win-
ning the working women and women generally for the cause of peace,
democracy and social advance.

For the trade union movement it boils down to whether it can
overcome its standstill and move forward as an increasingly
powerful factor in the life of the country. For the labor movement gen-"
erally it is a matter of ensuring that working women and women gen-
erally will comprise an important and constituent part of the growing
and many-sided struggle against monopoly and the forward-marchof
the working class.

The increasing numbers of women in industry will have pro-
found and far-reaching social and political consequences and there-
fore requires the greatest possible attention by all sections of the

- working class.

_& @901--= rt Vise +e Le.

The dollars of Canadian tax-
payers are being used to pave
the way for private industry to
develop what may be the great-
est known oil reserves in the
world in the Canadian Arctic.

The Canadian government is
paying for preliminary research
to discover the oil deposits —
research for companies that are
either foreign or foreign-con-
trolled.

Canadian scientists are now
winding up their fifth season of
mapping the polar shelf beneath
the frozen Arctic Ocean and mak-
ing detailed studies of the vast
archipelago.

The information they have
gleaned this summer has
increased the suspicion that pos-
sibly the world’s largest oil and
gas reservoir will soon be un-
covered there.

Private enterprise is taking
over the oil hunt from the gov-
ernment scientists again this
winter.

The story behind the news is
revealed in a recent survey by
the Research Bulletin of the Uni-

ted Electrical Workers Union.

The Canadian government
opened up the Arctic island for
private oil exploration in June,
1960, notes the bulletin. Within
three weeks claims were filed
on 42 million acres. Total area
now under permit is 543 million

+ acres—only slightly smallerthan
the total acreage of all field -

crops in Canada.

Presently-known oil reserves
in Canada are about 5 billion
barrels. On the basis of aerial
and surface surveys to date,
oilmen’s estimates of Canadian
Arctic oil reserves start at 25

‘Is big foreign steal shaping up
over our petroleum in Arctic?

million barrels and go on up out
of sight.

Is a similar steal shaping up for
B.C.’s oil resources, including off-
shore deposits? B.C. oil reserves,
on which U.S. monopolies already
have a grip, are sid to total 450
million barrels.

- sources of tremendous profits if

Exploration rights are now hel
by 41 companies and individuals
The two largest claims holders
each with permits covering fou
million acres, are groups headet
by Lobitos Oilfields Canada Ltd.,
and Dominion Explorers Ltd.

- Lobitos is a subsidiary of Lobi-
tos Oilfields Ltd., London, inturn
a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Ltd.
of Glasgow, and connected with
British Petroleum, Shell, and re
motely to Standard Oil of New
Jersey.

Dominion Explorers is con-
nected with Falconbridge Nické
Mines and the Thayer Lindsley
mining ventures. The group
interested in Arctic oil includes
Petropar Canada Ltd., controlled
by the French state-owned
Bureau de Recherches de
Petrole, and British Matachewall
Gold: Mines Ltd.

A third group headed by Dome
Petroleum is controlled by the
same U.S, interests as Dome
Mines.

Federal charges for drilling
rights per acre, beginning at five
cents now, go up to a possible —
maximum of 50 cents after the
sixth year of drilling.

Presently-estimated develop
ment cost of bringing in the
field is 10cents per barrel, which
compares with development costs
of five cents per barrel in the
Middle East, $1.10 in Western
Canada and $1.65 in the United
States,

All the latter areas have beet

the oil business. The comparative
figures give an indication of the
wealth available in the Arctic—
wealth obviously not for the Ca-
nadian people, but for private
and foreign enterprises.

LACK OF UNITY, PERSPECTIVE

IWA convention is marked
by some sharp struggles

By A LUMBER WORKER

The 26th annual convention of
Region 1 of the IWA was held
last week, Oct. 8-12, at the
Woodworkers House in Van- -
couver.

This convention was marked
by sharp struggles between the
established regional leadership
on the one hand and the leaders
of some of the big locals on the
other.

A resolution from the Alberni
local, calling for proportional
representation on the regional
executive board, was declared out:

of order and could only be dis-
cussed after two roll call votes
had ruled in favor of discussing
it,

The debate on the resolution
lasted for hours and saw dele-
gates charging domination and
block voting against the regional
leadership, and heard counter
charges of power play, etc.
against the big locals, The final
roll call vote saw theresolution
defeated by the narrow margin
of about 900 votes.

Another controversial reso-
lution, calling for an increase

DR. LINUS PAULING, distinguished scientist and peace advocate,
and Mrs. Pauling are shown waving goodbye on one of their
many journeys to further the cause of nuclear disarmament. Last

_ week Dr. Pauling was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1954

he won the Nobel Prize for chemistry.

October 18,

-in face of the employers’ offe?”

1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—P.

in per capita tax to the regiol
region (of 15¢ per member pe!
month) was defeated. This diS~
cussion, too, was a bitter one
and once again showed the sharP
differences existing in the uniol.
In this case, the roll call vote
went by almost 2,000 against
the recommendation.

Further on the positive side
a resolution was endorsed call-
ing for a Forest Industries Trad@
Union Council, whereby all union®
connected with the woodworkin&
industry would co-ordinate thei!
efforts in bargaining and othe?
other aspects of their work.

It was clearly evident that the
winds of change are bléwing in
the IWA Region 1, but that there
is a lack of perspective and unity
among the progressive element®

In the writer’s opinion, the P?& ~
sent leadership of the region 15
failing, not so much because ?
the reasons mentioned in the 0?”
vention, but because it fails ©
follow a policy of uniting the
union from the bottom to the toP

sive.

The local leaders who at oF
convention opposed it, failed ©
offer any clear cut alternative —

Therefore, thecrisis which Oe
pressed itself in all the ar8¥”
ment is really a crisis of lea! f
ership arising out of a lack % —
perspective and sound policy-

os, oe