LLL UII

Unions can win big gains

through unity and action

Tens of thousands of workers in B.C.’s industries are faced
with contract negotiations in the next few months. Faced with
rising prices, huge profits and increased economic activity, labor
can win substantial gains — provided correct fighting policies are
adopted and pressed for by the rank and file.

““Unions should have at the core of their demands for 1964
Proposals for substantial wage increases, shorter hours, short-
term agreements and... protection against lay-offs due to mech-
anization...’’ says this important article.

By LABOR COMMITTEE,

B.C. COMMUNIST PARTY
Jose to one million Cana-
‘dian workers will renew

their collective agreements in

1964, Great gains can be made

Provided there is a correct es-

timation of the period we live in
and provided the rank and file
are mobilized for a positive pro-

Sram of action and unity.

More than 210 major agree-
ments—exclusive of the building
trades and those in plants under
500 employees—come up for re-
newal, Approximately 375,000
Workers are involved. An addi-
tional 100,000 non-operating
Yailway workers have already
Started their negotiations, By
June, the running trades will be
into battle,

Workers in pace-setting indus~
tries like steel, auto and lumber
will be after new contracts. There
will be national negotiations in
Meat packing, regional bargain-
ing in textiles and the first ne-
Sotiations for the maritime
Unions under trusteeship, Thou-
Sands of municipal and hospital
employees, utility workers,
Service workers and miscellan-
€ous groups across the country
will be hammering out new con-
tracts,

In British Columbia, important
Sections ofthe building trades are
either in negotiations or will be
Soon. One section (mainly Team
Sters, Operating Engineers and
Laborers) have another year to
80 on a three-year contract that
Will give them 10 cents inthe last
year. The Plumbers have just
accepted a five-year deal that will
Sive them 75 cents in extra pay
and 31 cents in fringes. Carpen-
ters, Electrical Workers, Iron

orkers, Painters andothers are
due to bargain soon and are
Pposing a five-year pact,

Also due for new agreements
in B,C, are woodworkers, tele-
Phone workers, mining and smel-
ter workers in Trail, shipyard
Workers in Vancouver and Vic-
toria, municipal and hospital

employees, pulp and paper wor-
kers and street railwaymen.

Favorable conditions

These negotiations must be
seen against a backdrop of rising
profits for big business. Accord-
ing to the FINANCIAL POST of
December 14, 1963, corporation
profits in 1963 were 8 per cent
above 1962 and 19 per cent above
1961. The corporations seem to
have confidence in their pros-
pects for the next few years. The
same journal, in its issue of Dec-
ember 21, 1963, informs us that
‘the biggest capital spending
splurge in Canada’s history—
bigger than the big boom of the
mid-1950s—is poised for takeoff
in 1964.’’ (See accompanying pro-
fit table),

Several factors are con-
tributing to the expected boom.
@ Firstly, the tremendous in-
crease in our trade with the
Soviet Union and other socialist
countries. According to all in-
dications, we have just begun to
scratch the surface of this mar-
ket. Given peace and a continua-
tion of the thaw in the cold war,
Canada’s prospects for trade with
the socialist world staggers the
imagination. It appears there will
be a big demand for fertilizer
plants, mining equipment, saw-
mill equipment and paper making
machinery,

@ Secondly, and in the long run
this will prove to be a negative
feature, there is an acceleration
in the take-over of our resources
by. foreign interests, mainly from
the USA. While this will provide
jobs immediately in construction,
and in the production of raw and
semi-processed materials, it
will frustrate the future growth
of industry in Canada and
increase unemployment.

The plot to divert the Columbia
power, and the power from other
rivers across the country, south-
ward to build up U.S. industry at
our expense should be vigorously
opposed by the labor movement.
We should build and exploit our
power resources to the maxi-

Payments for 196
Ubon dollars, |

USinegs.
Company
Macmillan-Bloedel-
Owell River
-C. Forest Products
olumbia Cellulose
Town-Zellerbach
Ons. Mining and Smelt.
can Aluminum
BG: Packers
Marwell Construction
ae oe Ltd.
tans-Mountain Pipeline
B.C. Telephone

B.C. companies
make huge profits

C ANADIAN and B.C. companies have made the biggest
Profits in their history in 1963. Although figures are not
yet at hand for individual firms the Financial Post re-
Rerved that profits were 8 percent above 1962. Recently

€ Montreal Stock Exchange announced that dividend
broke an all-time record, exceeding one

B In the following chart the PT gives the profits for 11
ae companies for 1962 as compared to 1961.These give
8raphic illustration of the profits being raked in by big

1962 Profit 1961 Profit

$69,825,000 $56,591,000
8,412,000 7,333,000.
4,705,000 1,908,000
27,426,000 20,206,000
37,627,000 35,435,000
46,625,000 — 38,509,000
2,394,000 2,053,000
340,000 242,000
7,510,000 6,121,000
15,919,000 12,370,000
18,166,000

17,061,000

mum, with a view to developing
our own industry to the greatest
possible degree. Surplus power
could then be exported, consistent
with the interests of the nation,
@ Thirdly, important segments of
the economy will be re-investing
a good part of their profits in
expansion and modernization,
mechanization and automation, in
order to be more competitive at
home and abroad, This is another
means by which the foreign domi-
nation of our economy is to be
extended,

According to all reports, the
lumber bosses of B,C. never had
it so good as in 1963——and they
expect even bigger dividends in
1964, That explains their willing-
ness to invest huge sums inplant
expansion,

Construction activity in B.C, is
expected to hit an all-time high
in 1964, in line with the overall
national pattern, An upward surge
is anticipated with an even
steeper growth, from 1964 to at
least 1970. There is expected to
be, in addition to plant expansion,
and hydro projects, anincrease in
the construction of high-rise
apartments, shopping centers,
hotels and homes,

This is why employers are
anxious to tie unions to long
term agreements such as the
Plumbers 5-year pact.

Long-term

agreements harmful

The best thing that can be said
about the Plumbers’ settlement
is that it will stimulaté many
unions to set their sights higher
in respect to wage increases, to
get above the ceiling of five to
ten-cent wage increases the em-
ployers have generally esta-
blished in the past year.

More than cancelling this ad-
vantage is however, the effect it

has of putting the problem of the-

shorter work week in deep freeze,
In view of the tremendous dis-
placement of labor that mechani-
zation and automation must in-
evitably bring, the trend to longer
collective agreements must be
discouraged.

The shorter the agreement, the
easier it will be to mobilize the
workers to meet the many prob-
lems they will be confronted with
in the period ahead. All expert
opinion points to an upswing in
the economy during the immedi-
ate future, in terms of overall
production and profit. If that is
the case, then only the employers
stand to gain by long-term agree-
ments.

Standing as we are onthe brink
of the sweeping introduction of
automative processes inindustry
and to some extent the service
trades, the working class must
adopt new policies to meet new
problems.

From this standpoint the re-
cent pact signed by the Long-
shoremen’s Union in B.C, offers
a contrast to the Plumbers
settlement and is a step in the
right direction. This precedent-
making agreement takes account
of the impact of automation and
mechanization on the waterfront
and provides for company contri-
butions into a mechanization fund
guaranteeing the present work

f

force protection against loss of
earning power,

Unions must

look ahead

It is a pity that up to now the
leadership of the Canadian Labor
Congress nationally, andtheB.C,
Federation of Labor (CLC) pro-
vincially, have failed to give the
type of leadership and co-oper-
ation required at this time,

The April convention of the
Congress should bring a strong
demand for a reversal of this
policy, a policy of doing nothing
to lead, under the pretext of
non-interference with the bar-
gaining autonomy of each affili-
ate, to the point where the
concentrated unity of the em-
ployers is met with disunity,
confusion and unpreparedness on
the part of labor.

Because of the lack of social
planning in our capitalist econo-
my, greatly aggravated by U.S.
domination, the upswing must,
sooner or later be followed by
a downswing and unless the labor
movement and its allies are able
to unite and win the adoption of
new economic policies for
Canada, the consequences will be
disastrous for labor,

Such policies must include the
repatriation of our industries and
resources controlled in the USA,
a Canadian power policy, the de-
velopment of manufacturing, sec-
ondary and processing industries
‘to the fullest extent possible, in-
centives to Canadian - owned
industry and a major drive for
maximum trade with the soci-
alist world and with the newly
emerging nations of Asia, Africa
and Latin America,

It is against this background
that we should set our sights for
the coming round of negotiations
in B.C.

Unions in B,C. should have at
the core of their demands for
1964 proposals for substantial
wage increases, shorter hours
of work, short term agreements
and clauses protecting them
against lay-offs due to automation
and mechanization and against
speed-up,

Particularly heavy responsi-
bility rests on the unions in the
building trades and wood indus-
tries, Ifthe building trades unions
and the IWA take up the fight
around these demands they can
win the support of all organized
labor and at the same time at-
tract to their banner the un-
organized workers and un-

employed who will see in such
demands evidence that organized
labor is fighting for their inter-
ests while at the same time for
its own immediate interests.

In this connection it is grati-
fying to see that the proposals
for a new agreement submitted by
IWA Local 1-71 (loggers local)
to the annual meeting, contain
25 resolutions calling for shorter
hours, 15 resolutions calling for
a wage increase ranging from 20¢
to 40¢, 12 resolutions calling for
travel time and a host of reso-
lutions dealing with important
demands such as speed-up and
lay-offs.

The word is out also that
workers in the plywood industry
in Vancouver, in answer to a
questionnaire circulated by the
local union asking the member-
ship’s opinion on bargaining de-
mands, voted one-two-three for
shorter hours, a big boost in
wages and protection against
speed-up and lay-offs,

' These are welcome signs but
much more is required of the
leadership of the labor movement
if substantial progress is to be
made against the big corporations
in this year’s negotiations,

Labor needs unity

The capitalist class, despite
its divisions from time to time
on inner-class and national
issues, is fairly well united when
it comes to facing the demands
of organized labor for more pay,
shorter hours and better condi-
tions, No major strike can be
won without the mobilization of
the labor movement as a whole,
because of the concentrated
power of monopoly capital, the
use of the courts against labor
and the role of a government
Obedient to the wishes of big
business,

The answer to unity of the
bosses is more rank and file
participation and more labor
unity, based on a well-rounded
program of economic and social
advance,

Big business in Canada is
thinking politically when they set
their sights on long-term agree-~
ments, They are showing a com-
mendable degree of astuteness
and class consciousness, in the
interest of higher dividends, The
labor movement must counter
with the unity of its members, in
the interest of all who create
the wealth of our great country,
and in the interests of the nation
as a whole,

January 24, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7