NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1979

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

15

ON WOMEN’S ISSUES

PAULINE JEWETT SCORES
RON ATKEY’S “SNOW JOB”

Pauline Jewett, NDP
women’s critic accused Em-
ployment Minister Ron Atkey
of doing a ‘‘snow job’ on
women’s employment issues.

Ina speech Atkey gave to the
Canadian Advisory Council on
the Status of Women, Jewett
said, ‘“‘he offered no concrete
action on the Conservatives’
election promises. Instead, he
recycled those promises into
new promises, or he blanketed
them in study or else he
completely ignored them.”

“J had expected something
more from this fresh new
government than simply a
continuation of the Liberals’
empty-rhetoric policy towards
women,” Jewett said.

“T’m particularly disap-
pointed given the timing of Mr.
Atkey’s comments,” Jewett
said. ‘‘There’s little cause for
celebrating the 50th an-
niversary of the Person’s Case
when women were
recognized as persons — when
the government of the day is
prepared to do solittle in a con-
crete way to help women
become equal persons.”’

Rather than assuring his
audience that the government
would honour its election
promise that changes in
unemployment insurance
eligibility will not hurt women,
“he merely said that he’s
studying the situation,” Jewett
scoffed.

“He said that women’s Out-
reach programs will have a
higher priority in the 1980-81
budget allocations. But what
about the Conservatives’
election promise of priority to
women’s Outreach programs
now? They promised to restore
the $3 million slashed by the
Liberal government for this
year. But they’ve only pro-
vided $300,000.”

He also ignored the Con-
servatives’ election promise
that reductions in the civil
service would not affect
women disproportionately,
Jewett said. “But from in-
formation I have received, the
‘number of women being laid
off in the public service is
continuing at a rate much
greater than the rate of their
participation in the civil ser-
vice.”

Recent figures indicate that
while women represent only 36
per cent of the federal civil
service, 56 per cent of the civil
servants laid off in 1978 were
women. As well in job status
only .04 per cent of female
public servants are in execu-
tive positions while 60 per cent
are in administrative support
jobs.

Jewett recalled that the
Conservatives cafne to power
promising active leadership in
promoting equality for women.
“That leadership is_ sorely
needed,”’ she said.

Jewett referred to current
figures on the economic status
of women that indicated
among other things that 16 per
cent of adult Canadian women
live below the poverty line
compared to 11 per cent of
men. The figures also indicate
that 68 per cent of single-
parent women under the age of
35 and 16 per cent of elderly
widows live below the poverty
line.

“Action is needed now’’
Jewett said.

representing
striking employees at a Radio
Shack warehouse in Barrie,
Ont., asked the Ontario solici-
tor general recently to launch a

The union

criminal investigation of
Tandy Electronics Ltd., the
parent firm of Radio Shack.
The request came for
Stewart Cooke, the United
Steelworkers of America
director. The workers are

seeking a first contract with
the company. Cooke made the
request after hearing of spying
against the union in Barrie.

The allegation was made by
a former policeman in tes-
timony before a hearing of the
Ontario Labour Relations
Board investigating charges of
bad faith bargaining laid
against Radio Shack by the
union.

ann Ss

Editor’s note:

The following is the address
by Hugh Robinson, Regional
Trades Training and Appren-
ticeship Programme _ Co-
ordinator, to the CLC Eco-
nomic Conference held Oc-
tober 29-31, at Parksville, Van-
couver Island.

Much has been discussed and
debated in recent years on the
subject of manpower training.
It is no exaggeration to state
that we in Canada today are
faced with a serious situation
in terms of lost opportunities
for our people in the past and
also for the younger people
presently entering the job
market. In addition there is
concern for those presently in
our school system, who in the
future will be entering the
work place. A few examples
that highlight the situation at
present should be pointed out,
especially in the skilled trades.

Recent studies in the indus-
trial area of Ontario have
brought forth some rather
alarming facts which in all
probability can be applied to
British Columbia as well.
These studies show that some
73’e of our skilled workers
were trained in other lands. In
addition to this approximately
87> of these skilled workers
are in the forty year and over
bracket.

In regards to the number of
foreign trained workers it
should be pointed out that this
is not a condemnation of the
principle of immigration as
such. We all know that
Canada could never have de-
veloped to its present state
without immigrants and _ in-
deed it would be safe to say
that few if any of us would be

t in this room if there

id never been provisions for

immigration.

This however does not de-
tract from the fact that the
first obligation of any country
is to its own people. We have
witnessed over the years up
until recently at least, man-
agement acquiring through the
immigration process, skilled
workers while our own people
have had to watch opportuni-
ties which should have been
theirs, slip away forever. In
short, what has occurred has
been a callous disregard for
the future of thousands in order
that employers could escape
their responsibilities.

The solution to this very
serious problem will take the
concerted effort of all of us and
labour must be prepared to do
its utmost toward correcting
what has become a problem of
national dimensions.

It has been stated on count-
less occasions that planning for
the future needs of this country
as far aS manpower is con-
cerned is of paramount im-
portance. The need for this
cannot be over-estimated. Re-
search in this field has been
conducted and must continue
to be conducted on an ongoing
basis. Training both in the
semi-skilled and skilled fields
must be accelerated not only to
take care of present needs but
for the years ahead. At present
there is a very real shortange
of industrial tradesmen in
British Columbia. while it
would be unfair to say that all
employers fail to live up to
their responsibilities in terms
of manpower training, many
do. It is for this reason that it is
essential that legislation must
be proclaimed to provide for an
assessment of all employers
and a rebate for those who do

an adequate amount of
training.
It is futile to rely on manage-

ment as a whole to train a
sufficient number of people on
a voluntary basis as past ex-
perience has shown. There are
those who are more than
willing to let others carry the
load.

Another approach is through
our collective bargaining pro-
cess. A number of unions have
been successful in negotiating
job training programs and
apprenticeship training pro-
grams. There should be a con-
certed effort made by all of us
to get these provisions em-
bodied in future agreements
where they don’t exist today.
In line with this point perhaps a
brief outline of the training
provisions provided for in the
I.W.A. agreements can be
mentioned.

On a local union basis there
are job training agreements in
effect. While there are some
slight differences in the separ-
ate agreements they all have
been successful in providing a
great number of people with
the opportunity to train for
more skillful positions at
higher pay. Also in effect is the
apprenticeship training pro-
gram which has resulted in
people becoming tradesmen
who would have otherwise
never had the opportunity.
This is not to say that enough
have been trained. In the out-
lying areas there now is a ratio
of about one apprentice to four
journeymen — but in the urban
areas where journeymen are
easier to acquire the ratio
changes to one to fifteen, which
is far from adequate. This
brings up an interesting point,
where management cannot get
sufficient journeymen they are
willing to indenture even
though a first year apprentice
receives approximately 82% of
a journeyman’s rate.

The selection of apprentices
is through the job posting
method and based on seniority.
The principle of seniority has
been a point of contention in
some areas but is one we
strongly defend. We feel that
the right to upgrade and to
learn a trade is as much the
right of the senior employee as
longer vacations or any other
conditions usually associated
with this concept. The ability to
learn is not confined to the
young as extensive research
has shown. On the subject of
ratio between apprentices to
journeymen the steelworkers
in one of their contracts at
least, have negotiated a ratio
with built in safeguards
against abuse. This is a condi-
tion that we should all be striv-
ing for.

This brings us back to the
person not presently employed
and seeking work. If the people
already in the work place were
being trained as skilled work-
ers as they should be, openings
have to occur at the basic
levels, everything else being
equal. This may appear to be
an over simplification of a very
complex problem but we sug-
gest that it is approaching the
ridiculous to train the unem-
ployed in forms of pre-appren-
ticeship when we all know full
well that only a small percen-
tage will be able to complete
their training as we in this
industrial union at least are
firm in our position that senior-
ity must prevail, for the rea-
sons outlined previously.

Finally, insofar as the
student in our school system is
concerned we suggest that the
curriculum provide a back-
ground which would form a
base from which the graduate
will be prepared to enter either
the academic or vocational

field. He must be made aware
however, that in all probability
if he chooses to follow the voca-
tional that he should be pre-
pared to take his place in line.
To mislead him into thinking
that he can enter the industrial
field and bypass others to a
skilled job would be heartless
and cruel. In any case, we feel
that exposure to the realities of
the work place, be it a sawmill,
mine, or elsewhere is a form of
education in itself and provides
an environment in which he
can best make a decision of
choice. :

After all, in all probability it
will be a decision that he will
live with for the rest of his life.

The United Church of
Canada has sold its shares in
Falconbridge Nickel Mines
Ltd. at a loss in protest against
the company’s investments in
South Africa, Chile and the
Dominican Republic, a church
official said.

The Falconbridge shares,
part of a $140 million United
Church portfolio, had been
bought over 10 or 15 years for
about $500,000 and were sold
last week for $375,000.

“It was not only the com-
pany’s parnership with the
South African government in
Namibia which led to the sale.
It was the conviction that we
differed on so many issues .. .
investment in Chile and the
relationship with unions and
workers in the Dominican
Republic,’’ the church’s
treasurer said.