The coming storm in auto

Pact - parity - pro fits

ne
before the pact amounlet

By RAE MURPHY

HE UNITED Automobile

Workers and the auto

monopolies may not be
marching to Armageddon this
year, but a real hair-pull is shap-
ing up.

During the next several
months, negotiations in_ this
vital sector of the North Ameri-
can economy are bound to
dominate the news.

For the Canadian workers the
problems are extremely compli-
cated. In the first place their
interests are tied closely with
the problems of their American
brothers whose contracts expire
in a summer of unprecedented
crisis for the industry. An indi-
cation of this crisis can be seen
in the almost two million un-
sold cars in the United States,
this in spite of the cutbacks and
turbulence that has shaken the

industry over the past few
months.
Forgetting the profit- and

sales-busting years that are im-
mediately behind, the companies
are making no bones about us-
ing the 67 slump as a Club over
the worker’s head, and this pres-
sure will no doubt mount with
further production cutbacks and

company provocations aimed at
forcing wildcat strikes.

These general problems of the
industry are naturally deeply felt
in. Canada. Moreover, there are
particular problems which cen-
tre around the festering sores
of the auto pact, and the whole
uncertainty of the industry in
Canada.

Interestingly enough, in Can-
ada, where negotiations are
several months away, the open-
ing shot has been fired by the
federal government. Industry
Minister C. M. Drury has thrown
the first pitch for the companies
by denouncing the idea of wage
parity, the crucial demand of
the UAW this year.

Thus with the prospect of the
government running interference
for the auto companies on wage
parity and the waffling that is
taking place in Parliament about
what is actually happening to
the Canadian automobile indus-
try with the free-trade pact, the

field conditions for the coming

struggle are going to be muddy.

Any discussion on the auto
pact usually involves the .toss-
ing about of grand figures, so
many millions of dollars here
and so many millions there, in-
ternational balances of payments

"Sooner or later
the generalities
of the industry
boil down to jobs,
wages and work-
Ing conditions.”

—deficits and surpluses, tax de-

ferments and every other sort

of financial jargonese. All the
conflicting statistics and ver-
biage that is brought into play
again bears out the old adage
that while figures can’t lie, liars
can figure. It is also becoming
clear that nobody, except for
some computers in the head of-
fices of the auto monopolies,

seems to know what actually is |

happening to the industry with
the pact.

There are several reasons for
this, not the least of which is
the vast complexity of the pact
itself. The pact was devised in
a setting of deep-going changes
in the auto industry throughout
the capitalist world.

There is a fantastic concen-
tration in the industry, and the
Big Three manufacturers are
extending their tentacles every-
where.

General Motors, Ford and
Chrysler now control over 50
percent of the British industry,
and are moving into France and
German at an accelerated pace,
Next year GM. wil invest 1.5
billion dollars abroad, while the
foreign investment of Ford will
be just under a billion dollars
and Chrysler half a billion. This
internationalization of the Big
Three is reflected in production
figures which show that where-
asin the immediate post-war
period almost all auto produc-
tion was centred in North Amer-
ica, now less than half of the
world’s automobiles are produc-
ed on this continent.

If the world is seen as one big
pie, with the auto monopolies
jostling among themselves for
a larger slice, it naturally fol-
lows that the national interests
of any country fall under mis-
cellaneous considerations. The
computers in Detroit are not
programmed to tell the differ-
ence between the north and
south bank of the Detroit river
or for that matter the east and
west shores of the Atlantic or
Pacific.

The auto pact reflects the tre-
mendous rationalization of the
industry made possible by the
technical revolution and the re-
sultant growth in productive
capacity and has to be seen in
this context. For the workers: it
creates a whole set of new prob-
lems as well as exaggerating a
number of old ones. Because
sooner or later the generalities
of the whole industry boil down
to jobs, wages and working con-
ditions.

There are many opportunities
implicit in the pact to split work-
ers along national lines. When
one strips away some of the
words used to buttress the argu-
ment against wage parity they
boil down to an ‘appeal for Can-
adian workers to accept a sub-
standard living to subsidize
the auto monopolies which ac-

tually is a form of international
scabbery.

While it is the auto workers
themselves who must cope im-
mediately with the industry, and
the auto pact will no doubt be
a large factor in the coming.
negotiations, the wider issues
involve and effect every Cana-
dian. The demand for a public
inquiry into the workings of the
pact should be the business of
us all. There are many impor-
tant questions to be asked
which need answering.

For example: The pact was
supposed to equalize both the
price of autos as well as wages
between Canada and the U.S.
Why hasn’t it?

What has happened to the
Canadian parts industry, which

percent of the total im v8

Why is it that the a
market accounts for 8
cent of the automobile
of North America yet?

duces four percent of ff

tax evasion the man

get away with—and W
(In this regard, the

tor-general’s report

ufac!
A

1966, Studebaker ow® 4
lion, American Motors ty
and an unnamed compe
million in unpaid duty: 4
haven't they paid it, they

hen

And, above all—W ich

auto monopolies get
the gravy train?

“WE WILL NOT SIGN a contract with the auto
we get a guaranteed annual income for our members }
said United Automobile Workers President Walter Re
said this is the single, “most important historic issue he
going into this year’s negotiations. We intend to abolis? i1¢
Jete and indefensible wage system that pays a worker .j
or by the 10th of the hour. The hourly wage,’ he added Z
patible with the modern technological society.” oi

Meanwhile results of a survey of workers at Det
Local 600 showed that of the 26 items as to what WOU) ig

n {hist

(i

=

~ preference for the 1967 negotiations, a substantial Waa

was Ist and salary status for workers was 26th.

* * x onda

ONTARIO FARMERS will stage a milk strike in Mh

the federal government guarantees a $5-a hundredweig wel

factured milk. At present farmers receive 4.33 a hundre $3

milk that is used for manufacturing. This is made up 9 |

the manufacturer, 75 cents from the federal governmel
cents from the province. : P

Manufacturing milk is used for powder and condens i

well as. cheese and related products. :

* * * iv

i
What is the full extet!
jast

ment stated that as igh

even been billed!) ri

——

ee a re ene ee

indus!
het ’

0 4
GENERAL MOTORS has announced that it will drOP ee

‘models from production in Canada at the end of 190/: {i

with the 1968 model year the Acadian and the Chevy Ke
manufactured in the United States for the Canadian maf
has said that the switch will not ‘‘automatically” mea
lay-off but wouldn’t predict what would happen.

x * * a if
THE CANADIAN PACIFIC Railway has announc®”
come of $86,924,089 for 1966. This is almost $7-million ad
its income in 1965. The CPR’s income from its railway. eof
laneous sources totalled more than $48 million, a 24 rly
$7-million over 1965..A far cry from their plea of pov@
the Jast rail negotiations.

s “! ae
WITH ALL THE TALK about the rising cost of living,

ting cheaper.all the time for companies to violate safely, gi! |

In Port Arthur, the Marathon Corporation was fou} i
failing to insure the safety of an employee working ne? ip
material. A worker was crushed when 100 tons of 16
poured on him, The company was fined $250.

E7
March 23, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBU™