ist Issue v
Nov., 1965

10 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

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Top labour leader to ad-
dress the B.C. Federation of
Labour Convention, Joe Mor-
ris, CLC Executive Vice-
President, exploded the em-
ployers’ myth that excessive
wage demands at the bargain-
ing table would bring on in-
flation when he cited figures
on the labour cost per unit of
production in Canada.

PROVE

He stated contrary to what
“big business” reported; the
CLC research department
had figures to prove that la-
bour cost per unit of produc-
tion in Canada was the low-
est in the world.

These figures showed, he
said, that in the last seven
years, the labour cost per unit
of production in Canada in-
creased approximately 3% as
compared to 5% in the US.,
42% in France, 16% in Swe-
den and the United Kingdom,
26% in the Netherlands, and
23% in Germany.

LOWEST COST

“Canadian labour,” he
stated, “is fulfilling its re-
sponsibility by producing
goods at the lowest possible
labour cost. We have always
said that we have a very ef-
ficient labour force in Canada
and the costs show this to be
true.” :

Dealing with the twin prob-
lems of mechanization and
automation, Morris suggested
that some consideration might
have to be given to setting up
an entirely new avenue of
approach to solve them.

He speculated that one an-
swer could be removing the
discussions and _ decisions
away from the area of collec-
tive bargaining.

AGREEMENT

He stated, “I think that the
main agreement regarding the
formula for dealing with this
matter should be part of gen-
eral negotiations. But the ac-
tual long-term settlement

should be discussed outside of

the area of annual or biennial

negotiations, because in many
cases the introduction of new
processes and new technology
will be a long-range pro-
gram.

He added that the Congress
was concerned with the prob-
lems arising in. this age of
new technology and had set
up a special committee on
Labour-Management Rela-
tions and Economic Planning
to study the matter.

Morris also dealt with the

growth of the labour move-
ment in Canada. He reported
that the CLC had increased
its membership by over 100,-
000 members in the past two
years, bringing its total mem-

bership in affiliates to ap-

proximately 1,200,000.

ACTIVITY

He stated that with the in-
creased organizational activ-
ity in the white collar field,
the Congress confidently ex-
pected a still greater increase
in its membership total, in
the near future.

He went on to say that the
CLC Executive Council had
noted the marked interest in
Canada in acquiring a degree
of labour-management co-op-
eration already in force in the
highly developed countries of
Western Europe. —

TREND

The Congress, he stated,
believes this trend should be
encouraged and that ways
and means should be sought
of effecting greater contact
between the two groups to
solve some of the apparent
problems in the country, pro-
vided the independence and
integrity of the labour move-
ment was preserved.

He concluded by saying,
“However, even though we
must try to establish mean-
ingful contacts with manage-
ment, we must not blind our-
selves to the fact that the ma-
jor task of trade unions is to
achieve the greatest possible
rewards for tthe people we
represent, while the major
objective of the employer is
to secure the services of la-
bour at the lowest possible
cost.”

“I am not preaching the
class struggle theory, but I

bca®

‘FLY B.C. AIR LINES’ |

am reminding you of the fact
of life which exists and is
likely to exist until our
economy is so planned that
the economic welfare of the
whole nation and its people
take precedence over the
profit motivations of the few.”

This one, the famous PARIS “Light Cruiser", has
been made for over half a century by the same
family of craftsmen right in B.C.

. - - AND HAS BEEN THE UNDISPUTED LEADER EVER SINCE

PIERRE PARIS & SONS

FORMER IWA REGIONAL PRESIDENT and now CLC
Executive Vice-President Joe Morris, left, chats with Earl
Local 1-85, centre, and Harry Jack, Education

Foxcroft,
Director, CBRT.

51 West Hastings Street
Vancouver 3, B.C.

Family Teamwork in Craftsmanship since 1907

some are made