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Friday, November 11, 1977

Vol. 39, No. 44

| __ There will be misery rather than
| festivities for thousands of
_. Canadians this holiday season
When layoffs across the country
Teach their peak at Christmas.

Already the steady stream of
layoffs has reached an “epidemic”
level according to a survey by the

18 business weekly Financial
Post. The Post survey found the
much publicized 3,450 layoffs at
INCO in Sudbury and Thompson,
Manitoba to be only a part of the
Picture that has seen 5,000 jobs lost
m the clothing industry, 12,000 jobs
in the textile industry, 3,800 jobs in
the shoe industry and thousands

expected in a couple of months.

morein pulp and paper, steel, auto
and the electrical industries.

In September of this year, says
the Post, there were 25 percent
more workers laid off than in the
same month a year before. There
were 19 percent more unemployed
than in the previous September.

In a sharp contrast to the
predictions of economic recovery
voiced by numerous big business
spokesmen, the Post frankly ad-
mitted. “Cyclical difficulties, such
as the low level of business activity
and the ending of
vestment projects, mix with the
long-term structural problems of
competitiveness and foreign

major in- ~

control of Canadian investment to
make up the bleak overall pic-
ture.”

As bad as the situation may be, it
will be. worse by Christmas. In
B.C., Weyerhauser Canada Ltd.,
will shut down its 19 pulp and paper
mills for an “extended period” at
Christmas. The company’s
Kamloops mill is already shut
down. The reason for the layoffs:
Weyerhauser wants to ‘reduce
inventories.”

In Alberta, 1,500 construction
workers have lost their jobs since
summer, while unemployment in
_the Manitoba construction industry

Dr. Andrew Thompson announced this week that the West Coast Oil Port Inquiry has been indefinitely
POstponed, leaving in some doubt the oil companies’ plans to build a supertanker oil port on the west coast.
Oil port Opponents used the Inquiry to shatter the arguments of the companies, and Thompson admitted
that “no compelling need” for a port was shown. An interim report based on the evidence submitted so far is

x

TORONTO — “We believe the
€vidence we have heard is part of a
Pattern of gross violation of
Chilean citizens by the junta and
its repressive state apparatus. . .”
-_ With those words, Elspeth Munro
Gardiner summed up the report of
the Commission of Canadian
Inquiry into Human Rights in Chile
which she chaired during its two
days of deliberations October 29
and 30.

and president of the Vancouver-
ased Canadians for Democracy in
Chile, headed a team of 10 com-
Missioners who heard evidence
Presented to the inquiry by six
Chilean citizens who have recently
IMmigrated to Canada, as well as

ree women who had taken part in
the heroic occupation of the UN
Office in Sanitago in June.

With Gardiner on the com-
Mission were Larry Brown,
executive secretary: of the

Labor; Ken Dillon, former NDP
A for Thompson, Manitoba;
Richard Gathercole, University of
Toronto law faculty; C. S. Jackson,
President, United Electrical
: Workers; James _— Lockyer,
Secretary Amnesty International;

’. Bruce McLeod, commissioner,

Vancouver lawyer heads c

Gardiner, a Vancouver lawyer '

Saskatchewan Federation of.

Ontario Human Rights Com-
mission and member of the United

Church’s international affairs.

committee; James_ Steele,
member of the World Peace
Council; Jacquelin Telemaque,
Carrefour International, Latin
American Liaison Officer with the
Union of Haitian Democratic
Forces; and Louis Wilson,
president of the Canadian Council

- of Churches.

ommission of 10

In its concluding report the
commission stated, ‘‘Over a period
of six hours we heard submissions.
. . giving us details of experiences
concerning consistent violations of
human rights in Chile. . .

“The warmth and dignity of the
presentations of these witnesses,
and the obvious pain which they
feel for themselves and for their
children brought to all members a

see CHILEAN pg. 12

Fed will defy Bill 92.

With a standing ovation and a
verse of ‘‘Solidarity Forever,”’ last
week’s B.C. Federation of Labor
convention voted unanimously to
adopt a policy statement on Social
Credit antilabor~ legislation that,
grants authority to the Federation
leadership to boycott and, if
necessary, defy the provincial
government’s “‘essential services”
legislation.

The militant statement brought
unity to the convention when it was
introduced last Wednesday as
representatives of union after
union called the legislation aimed
at public employees an attack on

all labor and pledged their support

to the eight point program ad-
vanced to fight the Essential
Services Disputes Act, Bill 92.

“Attacks against the rights of
public sector workers are attacks
on the rights of all workers,” the
executive statement declared, ‘‘It
is clear that these attacks against
‘the public sector are designed to
test the labor ‘movement and that
this legislation will be expanded to
the private sector if it is not
defeated now.”

The policy statement called on
the Federation executive to
establish an ongoing “Emergency
Services Advisory Council” that

see BILL pg. 12

is expected to hit 35 percent this
winter.

In Toronto, Quasar Electronics
has announced that they will close
their Markham plant and shift
production to the United States.
More than 2,000 Canadian General
Electric employees are laid off in
Toronto, with another 900 CGE
unemployed in Barrie.

St. John, New Brunswick has lost
4,000 construction jobs and 1,500
mining jobs have been lost at
nearby Bathurst. A Bathrust
construction firm with 300 workers
has just stopped production, af-
fecting another 200 workers in
supporting industries and causing

two used car dealerships to go
under witha further loss of 60 jobs.

In Quebec, Noranda mines will
invoke five week layoffs over
Christmas and Iron Ore of Canada
have laid off 300 workers at
Shefferville till March.

The list goes on, seemingly
endlessly, reaching staggering
proportions in Newfoundland and
Nova Scotia.

Of course, the Financial Posthas
no solution to the crisis, néither
does finance minister Chretien

whose ‘‘mini budget’’ held out the

possibility of creating jobs for only
one tenth of the - unemployed.

Repeal Manifesto
convention urges

PENTICTON — The Canadian
Labor Congress program for
tripartism encountered yet
another vote of rejection last
Thursday as delegates to the
convention of the B.C. Federation
of Labor gave overwhelming
assent to an officers’ statement
declaring “that the goals of the
labor movement (cannot) be
achieved through negotiations with
the big business Liberal or Con-
servative parties.” —

Although phased so as to reflect
that fact that Labor’s Manifesto for
Canada, the CLC’s outline of
tripartism, continues to be
Congress policy, the Federation
statement stated clearly that the
Manifesto should be “‘repealed or
substantially amended at the next
Congress convention.”

As with various other documents
of the convention, the statement
called on trade unionists to con-
centrate instead on building
strength through the New
Democratic Party.

In outlining their stand on
tripartism, the Federation officers
rejected the premise that business,
labor and government represent
three distinct interests and stated,
“We believe the nature of the
economic system in Canada is such
that there are two, not three, basic
economic interest groups. “Our
Federation. . . stands with other
working class organizations in
representing the great majority of
Canadians whose lives are spent
working for someone else to earn
their livmg,’’ the statement said.

“The other economic interest
group is those who own, or control
the Canadian economy. This
group, throughout Canadian
history, has dominated the
country;-they have managed the
economy in their interests at the
expense of the interests of
workers; and it is this group that
the governments of Liberal and
Conservative parties represent.

“Tt is therefore impossible for
the labor movement to achieve a
‘full partnership’ status in a
tripartite structure where two of
the three so-called interest groups
are in reality one and the same.”

International Woodworkers of.

America _ delegate George
McKnight gave added impact to
the statement when he told
delegates that it was ‘“hogwash’’
that workers could have any
equality in sitting down with big
business and government. /

~]@ UNEMPLOYMENT: The

“We talk about workers being on
the boards of directors,” he said.
“But why shouldn’t we be the
board of directors? That’s what
we’ve got to work towards.”

Art Kube, regional education
director of the CLC, expressed
opposition to the statement and
sought to equate the participation
by the United Fishermen and
Allied Workers’ Union in fisheries
talks with tripartism.

UFAWU president Jack Nichol

see CEASE pg. 12

Oil inquiry
shuts down

The West Coast Oil Ports Inquiry
has been cancelled, commissioner
Andrew Thompson announced
Wednesday, until such time as
there is a definite proposal for an
oil port on the west coast.

With U.S. laws preventing an oil
port at Cherry Point, Washington,
and oil companies holding back on
applications for ports at Port
Angeles, Washington and Kitimat,
Thompson says there is really
nothing to investigate.

In spite of Thompson’s pledge to
re-open the Unquiry in the event of
a formal application for an oil port,
there is still widespread suspicion
that the federal government or-
dered the Inquiry closed in order to
expedite approval of an oil port at
Kitimat.

Sey
~

INSIDE — )

}e GOTH ANNIVERSARY: |
| The Soviet Union marks 60 |
momentous years of |
socialism, pages 4, 5, 8, 9.

E

Communist Party outlines
its fightback program, pages
6-7.

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