LABORCONDEMNS VOTE FAVORS _UIC CHANGES _ OTTAWA — The CLC and the i) UAW called on the federal gov- ernment to scrap changes in the Unemployment Insurance Act _ Which punish thousands of jobless - Canadians. Presented by Julien _ Major, CLC executive vice- _ President, the CLC brief said the s make scapegoats of the j Unemployed, divert attention from the real economic, problems, and Create more unemployment. Par- liamentary Manpower Committee ‘Member, and Tory MP James McGrath agreed he couldn’t find any good in the bill but added, ‘‘the People want blood and we must 4 _ Sive it to them.” Major compared this attitude to ancient Rome when they threw innocents to the lions as _8 diversion. WAGE CONTROLS _ BUSTED AT FORD ~ LONDON — Workers at Ford Plants in Britain have voted to end a nine week strike. The unions Won a settlement giving them a Wage increase of 16.5% busting the 5% wage controls policy of the Labor government. The striking Workers were given solid support from workers in Ford plants throughout Europe. CLERKS WIN NEW CONTRACT - KITCHENER — About 250 - Workers at Hiway Market Ltd. of Kitchener have ratified a 30 month contract that increases their pay by $1.50 an hour. The workers are Members of the Retail Clerks In- ternational Union. Full time Cashiers will earn $7.30 an hour by the end of the contract and clerks _ will be paid $7.90 an hour. “ STRIKE ACTION FREDERICTON New Brunswick’s 800 employees of Dominion Stores Ltd. have voted 92% in favor of strike action in order to win a new contract. The workers want parity, over two years with Toronto employees who make about $60.a week more as a result of a new contract. Dominion has offered its New Brunswick employees a $27. a week increase over two years. ASBESTOS CO’S COVER UP WASHINGTON — Documents that have come to light through a series of recent lawsuits show that U.S. asbestos companies and their Canadian subsidiaries may have withheld evidence of the poten- tially deadly effects of asbestos ex- posure. The documents include a 1949 report by a medical officer for Johns-Manville Canada Inc. in Asbestos, Quebec. Lawyers in pos- session of the documents say they show clearly that the company maintained a policy of not telling workers they were suffering from asbestos related diseases. ALCAN STRIKE OVER .- TORONTO — A 13 week strike by members of Local 662 of the United Steelworkers against Alcan Canada Products Ltd. ended with.the signing of a 25 month contract. The settlement provides for a 47 cents an hour increase in the first year, plus im- proved shift premiums. In the second year workers will get a further 40 cents an hour, plus a company paid dental plan. u NINGF UL, The Halifax Coalition for Full Employment during a jobs demonstrati ion last September. Halifax jobless group exposes Ul Act changes as harassment HALIFAX — While forcing the victims of Canada’s un- employment crisis to bear its heaviest burdens, the federal government is stepping up its harassment of UIC claimants, and its propaganda war against the jobless. ad This is how the Halifax Coali- tion for Full Employment re- sponded to the introduction, Oct. 30, in the House of Commons of legislation drastically altering the federal Unemployment Insurance Program. The coalition, in a series of statements issued Nov. 14, analyzed the proposed leg- islation and the well-orchestrated media campaign accompanying it, designed to create the impres- sion in the public’s mind of large scale abuse by recpients and in- efficiency in the implementation of the program. The coalition notes that on Oct. 28, the Fraser Institute, a big- business research agency financed to the tune of at least $450,000 a year, released a study which claims that up to 90% of Unemployment Jnsurance reci- pients don’t need the money, and that cutting these people off UIC wouldn’t place undue strain on Special to the Tribune HALIFAX — More than 50 Messages of support for the strug- gle by Canada’s postal union for justice from the federal govern- Ment were read to delegates at the Halifax and District Labor Coun- cil, at its regular meeting Nov. 9. The solidarity messages in- cluded offerings from the Nova Scotia Federation of Labor, the Public Service Alliance of Cana- da, and the Nova Scotia Highway Workers. Delegates from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), thanked council dele- gates and the various unions who joined their picket lines during the strike. Among these supporters of CUPW were representatives of the Marine Workers Federation, the Bakery and Confectionary _ Workers Union, and the Interna- tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Letters of protest were sent from the labor council to Canada Post denouncing the contemptible actions of the post office depart- Ment and the federal government in suspending, subject to dis- _ missal, a Nova Scotia local shop Steward, and the local president in Halifax. CUPW Protest letters were also sent to the federal government and the RCMP condemning the govern- ment’s policy of legislating public service disputes to an end, rather than negotiating seriously. The RCMP was. condemned for its raid on the local CUPW office in Halifax, acting as the repressive arm of the government. : Delegate after delegate rose to blast the federal government for - its obvious desire to destroy the entire labor movement. Some re- called the disturbing parallels with the anti-labor actions of gov- ernments in Europe during the 30s which later slid into fascism. The day will come, said one © Halifax labor demands Ottawa drop all charges against CUPW repeated, mythical threat of anar- chy conjured up by reactionary politicians to frighten people, will be met with a united and militant fightback of the working people against big-business’ declaration of war against workers’ civil liber- ties, human rights, and their plea for justice. The same delegate was applauded when he declared, “the postal workers’ struggle is the struggle of all workers.” The council also unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for the organization of a public rally in support of the postal workers in their just struggle and to condemn the government and the RCMP local welfare rolls. On the same day, the federal Auditor General’s Report alleging some $142-million in Un- employment Insurance over- payments for 1977 was released to the public. The UIC announced “‘adminis- trative changes”’ in its economic regions on Oct. 31, and charges of wide-scale UIC fraud were level- led in the House of Commons. The coalition says the timing of these events isn’t coincidental. The UIC’s administrative changes, which became effective Nov. 12, divided the country into 48 regions, instead of the previous 16. Nova Scotia was divided into five regions, where it had consti- tuted one region before. The changes lengthen benefit periods for rural claimants, but shorten them for UIC claimants in cities. The coalition says the changes are nothing more than another form of UIC cutbacks, and mean that less UIC money will be coming into the province than before. a Other aspects of the UIC changes hit out at women, sea- sonal workers, part-time employees, and those laid off from jobs where they earned the minimum wage. Part-time workers who are hourly paid or salaried will need at least 20 hours’ a week employ- ment to count as insurable weeks for UIC benefits. Commission and piece-rate workers will have to make 30% of the maximum weekly insurable earnings, ($160), in order to qualify. Seasonal workers (fishermen, students, tourist industry work- ers, and some contruction), will be cut off. As repeat claimants they will need 10-14 weeks, de- pending on the region they’re in, plus one week for every week of UIC benefits previously received up to a six-week maximum. Claimants collecting benefits based on the minimum wage, will be hit very hard as the rate of benefit drops from 66.6% of weekly earnings to 60%. This means most of the UIC claimants, the coalition points out, because 75% live on benefits below the — delegate, when the much- for their union busting efforts. minimum wage. For many, the MORNING, MILLIONS UNE pLoveD - : ANOTHER DAY so THE GOSS PUS .. OVER-TIME 72 AND I'M BEAT US ON .-+s+ s Vi TOAST a changes will mean having to live on as little as $66 a'week. For claimants on job creation programs, like Job Experience ‘Training, (JET), all money re- ceived from these positions will be deducted from their UIC be- nefits. This, the coalition charged is an outright gift by the govern- ment from the UIC fund to private industry. Women, Youth, Cut Off The 20-week qualifying period for new entrants into the labor force, and those who have been out for more than two years, such as youth, and women who have stayed at home, will effectively cut them off. The findings of the big-business ‘think tank’? known as the Frawer Institute, the coalition says are ‘‘callous distortions.” They quote the labor minister of Prince Edward Island on Oct. 23 who warmed the UIC changes would boost PEI’s welfare costs by as much as $1-million, and cause as many as 20% of current © UIC recipients to go on welfare. Welfare rolls in Halifax passed the 1,000 mark last April with the largest increased in recipients among the able-bodied un- employed. Fully 25% of the 1,100 laid off Halifax Shipyards workers in 1977, have had to leave the region looking for work. The Institute’s callous view of the unemployed is explained by its blue chip representatives. Affiliates include: Imperial Oil, MacMillan Bloedel’ and Kelly Douglas, (part of the Weston Em- pire). Next to these examples of the largest corporations in Canada, sit members who are on the top 10 list of industrial corporations in the country, such giants as Bell Canada, Canadian Pacific, Alcan, Noranda Mines, and a number of financial institutions. As for the tempest over over payments in the UIC fund, the coalition points out that the government has three years to collect the $142-million it didn’t pick up in 1977, and that this figure itself is in doubt because of the way it was calculated. ‘‘This figure is a projection from a sam- ple of 1,000 of which 100 people had received over payments. Multiply this by the 2.5 million UIC recipients in Canada, and you have a headline’’, the coali- . tion says. ‘‘Something, in short, is fishy ~ If the UIC really wanted to save money the coalition noted, they could have cut the $3-million ad- vertising campaign they con- ducted to go after what they even. admitted themselves we a ‘“‘tiny minority’ ofso-called*‘cheaters”’. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 1, 1978—Page 5 a yr