Only 9.5% of agreement have Cost of living clauses An examination of 2,400 col- lective agreements on file with the Canada Department of Labor show that 9.5% of these agreements have some form of Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) provision, according to a Research bulletin released by the Department. The bulletin reports a variety of COLA clauses, among the agreements including them, most providing for a specific formula to determine how and when an increase is to be granted. The vast majority of the COLA provisions utilize as the basis of measurement the Con- sumer Price Index (CPI) pub- lished by Statistics Canada. The formula for calculating increases in the allowance may range from a cents-per-hour in- crease per point increase in the CPI to a percentage increase in allowance based upon a percent- age increase in the Index. Among the most common characteristics of 190 contracts which provide a cents-per-hour COLA increase based upon a Last week this column dealt with big business attempts to make labor bear the brunt of the erosion of the wage dollar and other grave social problems flowing from inflation induced by monopoly profiteering. While prices, interest rates and taxes press down the buying power of wages and salaries of working people, corporate profits con- tinue to climb to astronomical heights. The only weapon in the hands of the working people to fight for a reversal of this asi- nine policy of insatiable greed for profits and to relieve the mounting pressure is the strike weapon. The rapidly growing confron- tation between big business and organized labor betrays a deter- mination on the part of employ- ers to stand pat and resist con- cessions. This determination is not confined to the purely econo- mic arena of struggle but ex- tends to the continuous effort to drive politics to the right, to in- fluence government policy to give still more concessions to the monopolies and the rich: Im- mediately following the election of a majority Liberal govern- ment last July 8, the corporate sector launched a country-wide campaign — illustrated by the huge advertising by oi] and min- ing companies — to gather pub- lic sympathy and force more concessions from the Trudeau administration. The responsibility of organized labor to the working class and democratic movement in the face of this big business cam- paign to hoodwink and mislead potential allies of the working people in the growing anti- must initiate its own public-cam- paign to expose the ; of the advanced the BY BRUCE MAGNUSON per-point increase in the CIP are the following: : —The vast majority (124) of the agreements provide for quar- terly adjustments. —The most common range of compensation provided. is one cent per every .40 increase in the CPI to one cent per .60 in- crease. : —Ninety-one agreements pro- vide for a maximum payment and of these, 65 provide that the maximum be applied annually. —The maximum payment ranges from three cents per hour per contract year to 30 cents per contract year. —tThirty-nine agreements pro- vide a minimum or guaranteed COLA and in 29 of these, the minimum or guarantee is applied on an annual basis. — Fourteen agreements pro- vided a COLA guarantee of 12.5 cents per contract year. —Fifty-seven agreements con- tain a provision that the CPI must increase by a minimum amount before the COLA in- crease formula is applied. : The collective agreements examined in the bulletin in- cluded all those under federal jurisdiction and all those cover- ing 200 or more employees un- der the various provincial juris- dictions. The bulletin reports 233 con- tracts with a COLA provision. Of this number, 119 (or 51%) were in agreements covering 500 or more employees and the re- maining 114 were in agreements covering less than 500 em- ployees. The 223 contracts with a COLA provision over 385,269 employees, or 20% of the 1,917,690 employees governed by all the contracts examined. Of the total number of work- ers covered by a COLA provi- sion, 93% are subject to con- tracts covering 500 or more em- ployees. The largest group of collective agreements, 67.8% of those with a COLA provision, are in the manufacturing industries. Copies of the bulletin are available on request from the Collective Bargaining Division, Economics and Research, Can- ada Department of Labor, .Ot- tawa. Wn ksra a lt s time for labor to show its strength domestic monopolies who are out to rob us all in every way they can. a * oe Presently the UAW is in a battle with United Aircraft, a United States corporation, for nearly eight months over de- mands for wage increases, a cost-of-living escalator clause, and Rand formula dues check- off from both members and non- members as a form of union security. Likewise, Rubbler Workers in Hamilton, Toronto _and Bowmanville Ontario, are in strikes for several months. Steel- workers at John Inglis Co. in Toronto have been on strike for four months. The United Steel Workers are also engaged in.a showdown battle with Cominco at Trail and Kimberley in B.C. Steel workers at Sydney, N.S. have voted in favor of strike action for a wage increase of $1.75 an hour over two years. In public services; hospital workers and airline pilots are threatening to take strike action if their demands are ignored. Marine Engineers and people servicing ships on the Great Lakes are on strike. In Toronto all public transportation for nearly a million people has come toa stop with a strike of Toron- to Transit Commission workers and employees of subsidiary bus lines. A big factor in the last mentioned strike is no doubt a TTC effort to increase fares and put the blame on labor. In Vancouver four grain com- panies have rejected contract proposals made by Dr. Neil Perry, appointed: as conciliation commissioner by the Federal Labor Minister last February, while the union has accepted the commissioner’s recommendations for a settlement. Otto Lang, minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board, has stated it is in the interest of PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1974—PAGE 6 western farmers and the country as a whole that this dispute be settled immediately through ac- ceptance of the Perry report by the companies involved. In this case the situation could result in a lockout, a strike, or govern- ment legislation to force a settlement. Whichever may be the case, the settlement will have to be on the basis of the Perry report. * * * It would seem to be essential, in the face of all this defiance on the part of big business, that this would be the time for the Canadian Labor. Congress to convene an emergency confer- ence of union representatives from coast to coast to work out a practical economic program for submission to the Trudeau government on behalf of labor and the people of this country. Such a program must direct the main edge against the mono- polies and for new policies to meet the economic crisis brought about by the inflationary rise in prices, interest rates and taxes, and for a redistribution of the national income in favor of bet- ter living standards for the work- ing people. The failure to work out such a program at the recent CLC Vancouver Conven- tion, and the election results ~ which brought about a majority Liberal government in Ottawa, make such a step doubly neces- sary at this time. If labor is to make progress in the situation now developing, old _business-as-usual proceed- ures simply are not good enough. New and bold actions must be developed by ‘the trade union movement to -bring the truth to the people and to win allies in the struggle for work- ing class and democratic unity against monopoly, and for gov- ernment action to curb the. moncpolies. UNION MEMBERSHIP IN CANADA GROWS OTTAWA — Union member- ship in Canada last year grew to just over 2.5 million workers, a record 35.6% of the non-farm labor force — up from 34.4% in 1972 — the labor department reported. The proportion of workers in unions has been growing steadi- ly since 1964, “the department said. The majority of Canadian union members still belong to U.S.-based unions, although the labor department said the pro- portion declined from 59.6% in 1972 to 56.5% last year. The United Steelworkers of ~America was still the iargest single union in Canada last year with 173,662 members, but the - Canadian Union of Public Em- ployees,-a Canadian-based union was catching up with 167,470 members. MONTREAL'S SUBWAYS HIT BY STRIKES MONTREAL—The city’s sub- way system was closed in a labor dispute between 1,600 mairttenance workers and the Montreal Urban Community Transit Commission (MUCTC). Bus service was normal. The workers remained off the job despite a Quebec Superior Court injunction granted Aug. 7 ordering them back to work. COURTS BREAK FIREMEN'S STRIKE VANCOUVER — Firemen at four Vancouver-area municipa- lities were working this week, but not without complaints about the British Columbia gov- ‘ernment legislation that forced them back to work last week. “A supervisor with 20 years experience gets almost as much as a carpenter,” said a spokes- man for the North Vancouver firemen who joined firefighters from Delta, Coquitlam and Rich- mond in a two-day strike. The spokesman called the legislation disastrous and said the firemen were very depressed. Members of the Legislature were summoned from their homes last week to debate the Emergency Services ‘Continua- tion Act, which imposed a col- lective agreement worked out between Vancouver firefighters and the city. CLERICAL WORKERS’ SALARIES RISE OTTAWA — Salaries for cle- vical workers rose 16.4% over the last year to a national aver- age, in February, of $128. This put Canadians within $3 a week of their counterparts in i 4 nS ® i ne | Bs it - community colleges, ' which manufacture - C the U.S., where wage and pHe guidelines were still in most of last year and, as 2 sult, salaries rose only 6. The findings are contained the 28th annual internationé: salary survey of the Adm trative Management Society: Data also showed that 0 salaries in Canada (Mont fd Toronto and St. John’s, N were purposely omitted the survey) ranged in Febru a from $90 for a mail clerk ri $160 a week for a top accoun” ing clerk and $155 for @ va tary to a high-level execu « NURSES WIN HIGHER WAGES SUDBURY, Ont. — Nuts accepted a wage from more than $100 monthly administrations at Sudbury oa eral and St. Joseph’s ius and Sudbury-Algoma sanitor Aug. 7. This gives the 400 statt es parity with Torontos wit ing salary of $850 a 1,020 increments raising that to? cals after six years. Starters to ries had ranged from $720. CSAO REFUSES ARBITRATION TORONTO — The CH rio: vice Association Of - 490 (CSAO), representing thé / 9g. teachers in the provine ject any attempt to have its near tion impasse with t med Council of Regents return arbitration. Andrew Todd, aw ief negotiator, sal pets oe eSsctiation will poyeott is ‘private attempt by the P= pj to have the three-mem to tration board reconvene . nt. pose an interim settlem® VOLKSWAGEN PUTS 14g WORKERS ON PART“ WOLFSBURG, Germany og: The Volkswagen Motor gales at ny, suffering from low home and abroad, Al 19 900 it will put 49,000 of it oe workers in domestic P st wee part-time shifts in the 1a5° of August. The part-time shifts 9,000 workers more inally planned. . The new hours wore at all six domestic fact” cept the main Wolfsburt ry where the new “G0 is rolling off the assem and the Emden eae The cutbacks by Volkswagen and othe to makers also sprenig io KITCHENER, ONT. — Workers at the Budd Automotive: ' ada, stopped all production and staged what has “well organized wildcat strike.” The workers, members © of the UAW said that wages were the primary reason for ;