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Al

AUTO — FIGHTING THE CRISIS

j UAW heads reach tentative

~ agreement with GM in U.S. |

~ By WILLIAM ALLAN

__ DETROIT — General Motors

— impre

Corporation, which in the first
half of 1979 made more than $2-
billion in after-taxes profits, or a
‘Profit of $5 an hour from each of

~ Its 460,000 workers, has reached a
_ tentative agreement with the
hited Auto Workers on a new
-year pact yielding a re-
hike 6l-cents an hour wage

Along with other portions of
the agreement still to be ratified
bya membership vote, the pac-

age is reportedly worth an in-
_Sease of 15% over three years.
__ To sweeten the package, GM
Convinced the UAW to try to
Sell to its members a ‘‘free stock
OWnership program’’. The
multi-national will: allegedly give
away free stock to certain of the

/ . &Mployees, which will be put into

4 trust fund with dividends ac-

_ Cumulating and the stock given to
workers when they retire.

Meanwhile, looking at what the

New contract reportedly will give

On wages shows a continuation of

the traditional 3% ‘‘productivity”’

_ crease which is in the old con-

‘act, a 24-cent hourly increase

A confidential federal docu-
Ment reveals that the Ottawa

,°'Y government plans more

| drastic cuts in jobless benefits.

‘ot only is it continuing where
i Liberals left off, but the whole
; Ncept of universal ‘coverage is

ot attack. The Conservative

for York-Scarborough, Paul
E Crossan, has been assigned by
to Poyment Minister Ron Atke

Ting in a report.
the; orkers who voluntarily quit
s I jobs or are fired will be a
oH target for the fall session of
lament. Seasonal workers —

su :
_ SUch as construction workers and

Shermen — may be i

a ~ may be declared in-
eligible for benefits, along with
Se who are out of work due to

si
y Ickness or pregnancy.

the qerossan, an actuary, says

Ory government wants to
TOve the insurance features of
Whe but contradicts himself
“ina; © says: *‘Unemployment

Be Which is a social program

insy will never be run on strict
ing once principles, but our feel-
th ay that for some time now
nored Principles have been ig-

- bal and it’s time to redress the
Biving Maybe we shouldn’t be
& everyone the same

t. What’s. adequate for

 8Ome é
| tied with a family is over-

Mate for a single person.”

At win be a crime to quit a job,

i. .
a frg tet what. Obviously, this is

“divi ey attack on a worker's in-
tights Tights and on human
repo i general. McCrossan is
Ted as having said: ‘‘We’re

ra

from the hold-over COLA in the
old contract due auto workers.
from June-August of this year,
and any cost of living increase
generated by rises in the cost of
living in the next 12 months.

Pensions for retirees were in-
creased though the cost of the in-
crease will be borne by one cent
of the first eight quarterly cost of
living adjustments, and two cents
will be siphoned from each of the
last three COLA payments in the
last year of the contract.

‘Taking money from COLA due
the workers to pay for pensions
isn’t new for UAW negotiations.
In 1976, the union agreed to divert
one cent from six quarterly
adjustments of COLA to. pay a

$600 bonus to pensioners in the~

big three — GM, Ford and
Chrysler Corp.

Anew COLA formula has been
agreed to. Workers will receive a
one cent raise for each .26 of a
point in the U.S. federal con-
sumer price index. This means
that each price index jump of one
full point will produce a raise of
3.85 cents. The old COLA for-
mula between GM and the UAW
was one cent for each rise in the

paying out about $500-million a
year to people who quit their jobs.
Giving them full benefits is like
paying an arsonist to burn down
his own house’.
Among the questions raised in
the federal document are the fol-
lowing: ‘‘whether the concept of
nearly universal coverage under

the unemployment insurance.

program should be considered;
whether séasonal employment

should be insured; whether indi- ~

vidual or family earnings should
be the basic insurance unit;
whether workers unemployed
due to sickness or pregnancy
should continue to receive bene-
fits: and how the federal scheme
can be better harmonized with

_ private insurance and provincial
-welfare programs.

“Following 1971"’, the docu-
ment states, ‘‘a series-of legisla-
tive amendments were intro-
duced to contain expansion of the
program, to redress the balance
between insurance principles and
the income transfer considera-
tions, and to ensure a more pos!
tive effect on the labor market.

“Despite these amendments,

fundamental concerns remain _

about the objectives and design of

the program and the context of

dramatically changing conditions
in society, economy and the labor
market.” (emphasis added)

As was indeed the case with the
former Liberal government's
amendments to the UIC program,
any new and extended attack on

_ UIC faces new
Cuts by Tories

cost of living index of .3 ofa point.
This formula continues in effect
for the first two years of the con-
tract. :
Over the past three years the
workers got $1.32 an hour in-
crease to meet a cost of living that
averaged 15% each year. This
year it’s expected to soar to 20%.
The average GM wage is given
now as $9.07 an hour and the new

economic package is supposed to

go over $10 an hour.

GM, to sell the package, agreed
to 26 paid holidays over the three
years. Nothing has been-reported
of steps to gain a 35-hour work
week with no cut in pay. Obvi-
ously UAW negotiators didn’t
give any support to this rank and
file demand, also, COLA at-
tached to pensions of GM’s

’ 301,000 retirees was abandoned

for the raise.

The UAW GM council met in -

Detroit, Sept. 18 to review the
tentative pact, and ratification by
the members of the 151 GM locals
in the U.S. begins after Sept. 22.

Contract talks between the
UAW and GM management in
Canada were slated to resume fol-
lowing the GM council meeting.

~

benefits would hit women and
young workers the hardest. It
would be ruthless and arbitrary to
make family earnings rather than
individual earnings the basic in-

surance unit since this would -

introduce a discriminatory means
test against workers, whilst ignor-
ing number of dependents and
other family income. Low wage

earners would face greater cuts

than higher income groups.

The administrative costs and.
problems will be colossal in de-

-termination of who is single and
who has dependents, in. checking -
out and confirming claims, and, in _

calculating benefits.

The aim of the plan is said to be
a benefit structure providing for
662/3% of insurable earnings for
people'with dependents, and only
one-half of insurable earnings for

‘people without dependents.
._Asstudy conducted by the Fed- .

eral Employment . Department
last winter for the former Liberal
government is reported to- say
that nearly three-quarters of un-
employment insurance claimants
would get reduced benefits under

‘a Conservative government

proposal for a two-tiered payment
system. The study also says that
95% of all women and young
people claiming benefits would
get lower payments.

(For basic reasons as to
government-employer objectives
and how to defeat these aims, see
statement at right. — BM)

Create jobs — stop
victimizing the jobless
The amendments to the Unemployment Insurance :

Act which, according to a confidential leak to the

media, are presently contemplated by the Clark gov- —
ernment, will only mean a further victimization of the

unemployed instead of the creation of more jobs. Its
purpose is to build up a large reserve of cheap labor to
be used against the working people on the wages

The expectations are that half-starved and desper-

_ ate people will jump at any job regardless of pay and
‘conditions. The hope is to create a favorable climate

for strike-breaking and an unfavorable climate for

the organization of the unorganized. This will serve

the selfish interests of monopoly, whose aim it is to’
maintain super-profits by reducing the real income of

the working class and all working people.

The trade union movement, all democratic forces
in Canada, must categorically reject this attack on
one of the most important pieces of social legislation
won by the working people. With growing un-
employment now a permanent fea of capitalism,

the need for further improvements in unemployment

insurance and social legislation becomes more urgent
than ever. These improvements must include cover-
age for the full period of unemployment and the

~ elimination of the waiting period, unemployment in-
surance for workers on strike, compensation for

young people looking for work, an increase in un-
employment insurance payments to 90% of earnings,
the maintenance of maternity benefits and their ex-
tension as part of unemployment insurance.

Above all the trade union movement and the New
Democratic Party in parliament must press ever
more vigorously for a policy of full employment. This
calls for radically new measures and the defeat of the

crisis breeding policies of Toryism and the monopoly _

forces which back them. Their aim is to reduce the
living standards of the working people and maximize
monopoly profits. United action all down the line can
defeat these aims and set Canada on a new course,
one leading to jobs for all, and rising living standards.
Demand action now for jobs! End the victimization

_ of the jobless!

Central Executive Committee
The Communist Party of Canada

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 28, 1979— Page 9

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