LABOR
SCENE

By BRUCE MAGNUSON

Canadian manufacturing out-
put as measured by Statistics
Canada increased by 3% in the
month of July, making it the
biggest monthly gain since Au-
gust 1971. Yet, .in the same
month, seasonally adjusted labor
income declined by 0.5%. If we
allow for inflation, including the
drastic drop in the value of the
Canadian dollar, the drop in

- workers’ buying power is much

More serious than statistics indi-
Cate.

Today in Canada, as indeed in
all other capitalist countries,

~ Wage increases are being con-

Stantly wiped out by a chronic
price and profit inflation. All in-
creases won in basic wage rates,
unless protected by guaranteed
Cost-of-living adjustments
through systematic indexing, be-

- come a mere statistical illusion.

It is well to remember this cold
fact when we read about another
bureaucratic report issued by a

New watchdog committee estab-
lished by the federal government
to monitor inflation and produc-
tivity. Called the Centre for the
Study of Inflation and Productivi-
ty, this new committee is an ad-
junct of the Economic Council of
Canada, a body well known for its
numerous cockeyed analytical
reports and prognostications

~ about our crisis-prone capitalist

economy.

This latest report is another ef-
fort to brainwash the public with
the same old lie about a so-called
‘“‘wage bubble.” To claim that
wage increases to maintain work-
ers’ buying power, and COLA
clauses to protect that buying
power ‘‘will bring another round
of spiralling inflation’’, is an ad-
mission that government and the
private corporate sector are both
out to rob every working man and
woman in this country.

Real Earnings Attacked —

The reason for this latest agita-
tion along these lines is the grow-
ing labor fightback against efforts
to drive down workers’ living
standards so as to maintain and
increase monopoly profits. Not
only are the working people wil-
ling to suffer the consequences of
long and costly strikes to win
basic wage increases conforming
more closely to the needs of the
moment. They are also insisting
upon cost-of-living adjustment
clauses in contracts to protect
their real earnings from future
erosion due to inflation.

It is this indexing that is now
under attack, since the indexing
of wages in this way makes it
much more difficult for the ruling
class to pass on the price and
profit inflation to the working
people so as to maintain their own
profits at labor’s expense.

500 in Winnipeg hear
unions blast Bill C-28

By B. NORMAN ;

WINNIPEG — Some 500
people gathered at the Winnipeg
Union Centre, Sept. 28, to protest
Bill C-28.

Local representatives of the
public service unions, in conjunc-
tion with the Winnipeg Labor
Council organized the meeting.
Jean Claude Parrot, president of
the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers (CUPW) and Andy
Stewart president of the Public
Service Alliance of Canada

- (PSAC) were the featured

speakers.
In a heated atmosphere work-

_ ers were told of the government’s

attack on the public service
unions.

Parrot asked, ‘‘if public sector
unions are destroyed, is it likely
that private sector unions will be
left alone?”’

If passed, Bill C-28 will be a
major set back for public service
workers. The bill would deprive
unions of the right to set bargain-
ing objectives on their own. Em-

ployees would be given the right
to lock out employees, assign new
duties and classifications to em-
ployees and lay them off. Strikes
would be banned in ‘“‘essential
services.”

Stewart called this legislation
“the most repressive in recent
memory’’, and said that if passed,
it could go as far as to eliminate
the need for unions in the public
sector.

The need for union solidarity
was stressed. The speakers em-
phasized that the present struggle
of public service workers was not
an isolated one, but one which
will affect all unions in both the
public and private sectors.

Resolutions. were passed call-
ing for concerted efforts to iden-
tify and campaign for the defeat of
Members of Parliament support-
ing Bill C-28 or any legislation of
its kind. Another resolution was
passed which left open the possi-

blity of the total withdrawal of -

services by unions if necessary.

~ H’s time to take
a stand, fight back

Agitating for a so-called ‘‘fair
pay guideline’ on September 28,
the Toronto Star says editorially:
‘The benefit of a pay guideline,
tied to improvements in produc-
tivity in the economy, is that it
gives everyone some kind of idea
of what’s reasonable. Some
workers would still get a little
‘more and others a little less, de-
pending on their bargaining
strength. But on average wage in-
creases would be expected to stay
in step.”

In the same issue of this
mouthpiece of our corporate and
banking fraternity we read that
the Canadian price of western
crude oil, presently selling at
$12.75 a barrel, has risen 235% in
the past four years. This price can
be expected to continue upwards
as it heads toward parity with the
international price, presently at
$16 a barrel.

Staying in Step

Also in that issue we read about
an average increase of $307 per
car announced by the Ford Motor
Co. on its 1979 models. ‘Meat
packer’s profit up’’, says another
headline. Same thing with in-
terest, rents, taxes, you name it.
Everything is going up. All of it
eminently ‘“‘fair and reasonable”’
in the eyes of the bourgeois press
editors, except when it comes to
wages, the euphemistic term for
the price of labor power. All other
prices.are.allowed_.to..rise.un-
checked and uncontrolled along
with continuous increases in rent,
interest and profit. But the price
of labor power — the only vari-
able factor in the cost of produc-
tion — must “‘stay in step’’ on the
average to guarantee that the
capitalists, as a class, maintain
and increase their average profits.

Let us be clear about one thing
here. The truth is that some
workers may get little more and
others a little less, depending on
their bargaining strength, as the
Toronto Star editor points out.
But the average level of wages —
i.e. the price of labor power — the
only variable factor in the cost of
production, can be raised provid-
ing that the workers, as a class,

“unite to bring about substantial

wage increases at the expense of
profits, while seeing to it that
monopoly capital is prevented
from raising prices.

The overall lesson is cl=ar.
Without a struggle workers will
be forced to retreat from one posi-
tion to another until everything,
including their basic right to
strike, is taken away. The answer

must be to say ‘‘thus far and no 8

further!” It’s time to take a stand.
Fight back!

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WHELAN’S
IVORY TOWER

TORONTO — The Ontario
Federation of Labor has re-
sponded to Agriculture Minister
Eugene’s Whelan’s comments, in
the press, that Canada has no seri-
ous unemployment or poverty, by
demanding that the minister
“leave his cabinet ivory tower’’
and see the real world. ‘‘The real-
ity is that one Canadian in four

lives in poverty. The reality is that _

we have the worst unemployment

‘rate in the industrialized West’’

stated Cliff Pilkey, OFL president.

UNION MEMBERSHIP
INCREASES

OTTAWA — As, of January
1978, union membership in
Canada stood at 3,277,968, which
is an increase of 4.1% over
January 1977. The increase be-
tween 1976 and 1977 had been
3.5%. Union members _repre-
sented 31.3% of the total labor
force and 39% of non-agricultural
workers. Union with head-
quarters in the United States ac-
counted for 47.4% of total Cana-
dian membership, compared with
49.6% in 1976.

STRIKE MOVEMENT
GROWS IN CANADA

OTTAWA — Direct time loss
from work stoppages due to strikes
and lockouts amounted to 698,020
man-days in June 1978, Labor
Canada reported last week. ‘The
number of work stoppages was 200°
and the number of workers in-
volved was 102,132. The compara-
tive figures for May were 1979
stoppages, 41,316 workers and
507,510 man-days. In relation to
total estimated working time, time
lost represented 35 man-days per
10,000 man-days worked, as com-
pared to 26 in May.

WAGE CONTROLS
REJECTED

LONDON — The Labor Par-
ty’s annual conference has re-
jected the governments wage
guidelines policy which limits
wage increases to 5%. The con-
ference, in another major setback
for Prime Minister Callaghan,
also rejected the governments
overall economic strategy. Cal-
laghan responded to this over-
whelming rejection by threaten-
ing to use other fiscal means to
reduce living standards, including
increasing income tax. _

in convention Sept. 28-Oct. 3.

LABOR " BRIEF

Delegates representing the 73,000 members affiliated to the MFL met

SFL ENTERS
ELECTION FIGHT

REGINA — The Saskatche-
wan Federation of Labor has pub-
lished two leaflets for use in the
forthcoming provincial election.
The first leaflet focuses on the
immediate legislative proposals of
the SFL. The leafiet is non-
partisan in nature and focuses on
the SFL’s own platform. The
second leaflet compares the posi-
tion of all parties in areas of con-
cern to labor. Issues in the first
leaflet range from a call to opposi-
tion to all forms of wage controls
to a call for public ownership of
major resources.

WORKERS DEMAND
BETTER DEAL

MONTREAL — Over 600
workers at the Bombardier Ltd.
assembly plant in La Pocatiere are
on strike for a new contract. The
workers, members of the Confed-
eration of National Trade Unions,
voted to reject management’s last
offer which would have given them
an hourly increase of 70 cents in the
first year and 50 cents in the second
year of the contract, with no cost of
living protection clause. The aver-
age wage under the old contract
was $5.40 an hour.

WOMEN WORKERS
WIN EQUAL PAY

REGINA — A four-year fight

for equal pay has ended in victory
for housekeeping aides at the
Wascana Hospital. About 30
women, members of the National
Union of Provincial Employees,
will receive retroactive pay to
Jan. 1, 1975. The amount the dif-
ference between their wage and
that of male caretakers perform-
ing similar work.

SOLIDARITY WITH
FORD WORKERS

HELSINKI — The Interna-
tional Metalworkers Federation
has declared its support for strik-
ing British Ford workers by ban-
ning overtime in Fords other
European plants who produce veh-
icles or parts for the British mar-
ket. The World Auto Council of
the IMF stated: ‘‘We draw the at-
tention of all Ford workers
throughout the world to this strike,
and ask them to prepare for
further solidarity actions should
the need arise.”’

i

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 13, 1978—Page 5