CANADA Labor Briefs CWC warns of rate hikes OTTAWA — The Communiciations Workers of Canada, has launched a half million dollar campaign to alert Canadians to serious dangers facing the country’s telephone system. New government rule changes are being considerd that would allow competing companies to provide long distance services. CNCP Telecommunications has already applied to the Cana- dian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, (CRTC), for the right to compete with Bell in providing long distance service. Should CNCP succeed, the CWC warns that long distance services curently provided would deteriorate possibly eliminat- ing service to Canada’s more remote areas, boost individual subscriber rates as the companies try to recoup their losses on long distance, and produce massive lay offs for the 40,000 members of the CWC. Half of the CWC’s ad budget will be spent in Ontario and the rest cross Canada in a two-week series of TV commercials. Teamsters refuse to drop wage hike HAMILTON — Some 3,300 truck drivers, members of the Teamsters’ union swept aside employer threats last month of massive layoffs and stuck to their guns demanding their bosses at nine Ontario trucking firms deliver the $1-an-hour wage increase promised Oct. 1 in the current agreement. The trucking companies came to the union, last month threatening bankruptcies, closed terminals and massive lay- offs unless the workers agree to their request to forgo the Oct. 1 wage hike. Hamilton Teamsters local president Joe Contardi said the workers weren’t prepared to give up the wage hike, after having conducted a seven-week strike, two years ago, to win the increase. “‘Until my people tell me they don’t want the increase, I expect the employers to live up to the collective agreement,’ Contardi said. Union busting foiled at Dominion TORONTO — In a precedent-setting decision the Ontario Labor Relations Board ruled Sept. 27, that Dominion Stores. Ltd., can’t evade the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union by converting its stores into franchising operations. Since 1983 Dominion, owned by tycoon Conrad Black and his brother, has closed some 50 of its 290 stores and plans to convert 100 altogether into franchise operations under the Mr. Grocer, and Best For Less labels. Of the 50 Ontario stores closed since early 1983, 22 were re-opened as Mr. Grocer franchises. Some 800 full-time and the same number of part-time workers have been laid off by Dominion in the process. Of the 600 workers who’ve been hired by the Mr. Grocer franchises, 400 are former Dominion Store workers. The aim of the Dominion shuffle is to drastically cut wages, by-pass the union and this is precisely the selling point Domin- ion and Willet management have used to sell the franchises. Talks between Dominion and the RWDSU for a new prov- ince-wide. contract have bogged down over the company’s refusal to include the Mr. Grocer stores in the pact. In January 1983, Deminion asked the union to accept re- duced starting rates in the’ franchises from $6.86 an hour currently earned by Dominion clerks to $4.37, and from $11.49 to $5.75 for meat cutters. In its decision, the board ruled that Dominion, Willet Foods, and Mr. Grocer were, for the purposes of the act, one em- ployer, and as such were bound to the RWDSU contract. The board found that the franchisee’s independence was nominal | after hearing that in the franchising agreement, the operators are bound to maximum selling prices, they have to buy all of their products from Willets at prices set by Mr. Grocer head office, which also binds the operators to reporting their weekly financial picture to them, comply to their standards of opera- tion and take part in the parent company’s advertising cam- paigns. Rail talks aimed at job security OTTAWA — Canada’s 13 associated rail unions, represent- ing 55,000 Canadian National, Canadian Pacific and other railway workers placed job security as a top contract demand when they came to the bargaining table, Oct. 1. It’s the first time in about 10 years that the shopcrafts and non-operating unions have bargained together with the rail- ways. Ten years ago their combined representation included some 12,000 more workers. But tech change and the consoli- dations of the railway system have decimated the workforce. CN management admits that since April 1982, some 8,000 jobs have been eliminated. Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers president Jim Hunter, who heads up the joint bar- gaining committee has said that the companies have a moral obligation to ensure the workers’ job security. Indexed pen- sions, maternity leave, early retirement and wages are also expected to be high profile bargaining demands. somebody had to say it... Ugliest of ugly Americans For bad taste, unbridled interference in Canadian affairs, and rank offensiveness? who but the man who behaves like a U.S. governor of Canada could better represent U.S. im- perialism? In his presence ‘‘ugly American’’ sounds like a compliment. The ultra-reactionary Paul Robinson, un- fortunately still U.S. Ambassador to Canada, -periodically uses his diplomatic position to sound off, often without benefit of facts, to in- sult Canadians and the Canadian Government with directives they should jump to. In the case of the Trudeau government Robinson’s unwanted advice apparently bounced off and ran away in the sewers, leaving only a bad smell. But the man with the enlarged ego sees in Mulroney a think-alike reactionary and, metaphorically, has moved his desk right into the prime minister’s office. Having appointed himself the final judge in Canadian affairs, Robinson appeared in Toronto recently to lecture law students and reporters on what this country should and should not be do- ing. Always a hawk in international affairs, Robinson directed Canada to add a brigade to its force in Europe, deploy six more frigates, and ignore the 52 per cent of Canadians who oppose Cruise testing ‘‘because the majority of Cana- dians don’t agree.”’ He bragged that the USA paid no attention to the masses of Candaians who protest Cruise testing here. And, by extension if the USA pays no attention té them that should be instruction | enough for the new government in Ottawa. He told the law students how they should think about the U.S. threat to Nicaragua by | hiding Washington’s full responsibility for armed mercenary attacks behind gross rhetoric: “*... totalitarian Communist state ... feeds arms ... to destroy a’freely elected govern- | ment,’’ etc. The man evidently believes the ad- vice that if you tell the same lie often enough it will be believed. That’s the Reagan propaganda line and Robinson is a willing receptacle for it. But he never misuses his position in Canada simply for the purpose of explaining U.S. policy, he mis- uses it to try to direct the governments and | people of Canada in how to think, act and formu- late policies. To give weight to his demand that Canada spend more on war supplies, he engages in the same weary distortions that Soviet military readiness exceeds its self-defence needs. Ipso facto, Canada, instead of seeking dialogue with the Soviet Union should be jumping through | Robinson’s hoops and arming to the teeth. To help achieve world peace and dis- armament, according to this front man for U.S. domination, Canada should ‘‘get closer to us and advise us more . - We want to know what Canadians are thinking.” You’ve got installment one, Mr. Ama bassador. OTTAWA CALE NDAR With the new Tory federal “Tories push sales tax The Mulroney government will go ahead with introduction of an increase in federal sales tax, which the Tories opposed when in opposition, Finance Minister Michael Wilson an- nounced Sept. 28. The hidden tax, applied at the manufactur- ing level, was to rise by one percentage point starting Oct. 1. It is added to almost every- thing manufactured except food and clothing. One of the industries hardest hit will be construction with a jump from 5 to 6 per cent in the federal tax on building materials. “ee gies Prime Minister Brian Mul- roney, in a Telex Sept. 28 to the annual provincial premiers’ conference in Charlottetown, invited the premiers to meet him in Ottawa, Nov. 23, for a federal-provincial meeting on the economy. (Parliament opens on Nov. 5.) The PM in- tends that the federal-pro- vincial gathering be followed by an economic summit of bus- iness, labor and government. eee ee There will be no referendum on capital punishment, the prime minister said Sept. 28. He left open the possibility of a free vote in the House of Commons (i.e. not bound by party positions), but said the Cabinet had ‘‘not decided’’ to make it a priority. * * * J. Duncan Edmonds, an Ot- tawa business consultant and strong advocate of continental- ism (including the integration: © of Canadian and U.S. armed forces), was named senior de- fence policy advisor to. Defence Minister Robert Coates, Sept. 28, and will take over on Oct. 1. With Mulroney’s disbanding of the committee on External Affairs and Defence under a secretary of state, Defence gains new independence and influence. ee ee Te Throwing Canada’s borders open to U.S. corporate exploitation is Prime Minister Mulroney’s answer to mass unemployment in Canada, he indicated, Sept. 28, at his first news conference since assum- ing office. He said not only that Canada hasn’t enough money to create two million jobs, but made the incredible suggestion that ‘‘our friends from abroad’ would take care of this for us. Even more incredible was his assurance that, ‘‘This will not have any affect on our integrity.”’ * * * Unwittingly the prime minis- ter has given an insight into an attitude of disdain for Canada. (Not enough like the USA?) As reported in the Toronto Star, Sept. 29, Mulroney responded to a reporter’s suggestion that he was trying to sell out Canada to the USA, with: ‘‘Who would buy it?” * * Xx government hedging on - its election promises, using the line — ‘‘we didn’t know how } bad things were’’ — it remains to. be seen how long the op- timism of Transport Minister Donald Mazankowski will stand up. He promised Sept. 29 that a new transportation act will restore and preserve necessary Via Rail Canada passenger service, and that the Tories will impose a morator- ium on branch line abandon- ment while all options are studied. Almost at the same time as’ the reassurances came from Mazankowski two. influential think tanks — the Business Council on National Issues, and the C.D. How Institute — were offering advice on cutting expenditures and reducing the ' deficit. Areas selected for cuts _in subsidies are: agriculture, regional development, trans- portation, and energy. * oe Saying — tors of crown corporations, boards and commissions ap- pointed by the Liberals. There would be ‘‘substantial”’ changes in the senior public ser- vice, he said, including some | firings (but only for in- | competence). He invited any who wished to, to leave’ ‘‘at this point in time’’. He said that new deputy ministers will not have Tory connections be- cause appointing political de- puties is ‘“‘highly improper’’. He did not say what would be _ the punishment for an outburst _ of laughter at that point. “Tm not going on | any witch hunt,”’ — Prime Min- | ister Mulroney, on October 2, | launched a modified witch hunt | designed to clear out all direc- | 6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 10, 1984