Ry 18

40°

Friday, July 2, 1982

Vol. 44, No. 27

‘Callous’ MacEachen budget

is a recipe f

_ The federal government, fac-
ig mounting demands that it
alter its disastrous monetarist
Policies, brought in a budget
- Monday night that futher entren-
ched monetarism and ensured
that Reaganomics, far from being
thrown out, has been made more
at home than ever in Ottawa.
Finance minister Allan
MacBachen told. a .country
Waiting for relief that there would
Norespite from soaring interest
fates which have put homes out of
the reach of working people and
have crippled small business.
_Instead, he urged ‘‘all Cana-
dians”’ to help share the burden of
the recession —\ while he in-
troduced tax increases that heavi-
ly favor high-income earners but
Impose an excessive burden on
those on low incomes. The in-
creases are coupled with new ex-
€mptions for interest earned on
Mvestment and exemptions for
Capital gains, both favoring the
Wealthy.
Pensioners will also bear the
Tunt of MacEachen’s depression
Reames with the introduction
de-indexing of federal pension
benefits which will rise only
> Percent regardless of increases
In the cost of living.
aun the same time, he announc-
~~ We government’s intention to
IMpose wage controls on half a
aa On public sector workers,
a Nicting them to six percent in-
a this year and five percent
Sai) € second year. Increases on
5 €ctive agreements already
Sned scheduled to come into ef-
oa this year will similarly be
aoe to the government con-

ioe that controls program,

a Liberals threw down the

s Untlet to the trade union move-
€nt (See story opposite).

re € estimated savings from the

ee controls — money taken
Tectly from public sector

fa ey
callous,

JIM KINNAIRD
budget is ‘cruel,
discriminatory.’

employees — will provide the

cash for what few, largely ineffec- |

tive, programs were advanced by

the government.
Although claimed to produce

thousands of new jobs, the new -

$3,000 first home grant has been
seen as far too little, and way off
the mark since it does nothing to
offset the major obstacle to
home-buying, the excessive in-
terest rates and huge mortgage
payments which are the conse-
quence.

And the new job creation pro-
grams, set up with some $750
million, will hardly begin to make
a dent in the vast numbers of men
and women put out of work by
the government’s economic
policies. Moreover, they may well
be offset by new increases in
unemployment that will be the in-
evitable result of the cuts in pur-
chashing power imposed by the
budget on those who are still

working.

~ not

Genocide
waged in
Lebanon

invasion
— page 6 —

or depression

banks
as

BILL KASHTAN ...
‘in the same boat’
workers.

“‘The economy needed
stimulation and it got strangula-
tion,” B.C. Federation of Labor

president Jim Kinnaird charged _

in a statement Tuesday. “‘It is a
cruel, callous and discriminatory
budget that continues the fiscal
and monetary policies that got us
into this mess in the first place.
“Tt is cruel because it does
nothing to put the 1.2 million
unemployed Canadians back to
work. It is cruel because it makes
people think that it will do
something to help them buy a
house when $3,000 doesn’t even
put a dent in house prices in B.C.
“Tt is discriminatory because it
singles out public employees to

¢ carry the burden of wage controls

when the finance minister has ad-
mitted that public sector workers
have nothng to do with increased
inflation,”’ he said.

“Tt is callous because it offers
no hope to Canadians . . . The
prime minister said Canadians

EMIL
MacEachen
depression worse.’

BJARNASON ...
‘will make the

have to suffer more and his
finance minister has guaranteed
that we will.”’

Kinnaird said that the federa-
tion’s officers would be meeting
Wednesday and that the budget
would be ‘‘a major part’’ of the
agenda.

Economist Emil Bjarnason,
director’ of the Trade Union
Reasearch Bureau, warned that
the MacEachen budget ‘‘will
make the depression worse’’.

The budget compounds the
problem, both by omission and
commission, he said.

First, it does nothing to curtail
the high interest rates which are
“squeezing working people and
business. :

“*And it cuts down on the de-
mand for goods by slashing in-
comes,’’ he emphasized.

By imposing controls to hold in-
comes to six percent, ‘‘workers are
in effect getting a reduction in their

See NEW page 8

Angry public sector union
representatives descended on prime
minister Pierre Trudeau’s
residence at 24 Sussex Drive at
noon Wednesday to demonstrate
their opposition to the new budget
which will chop public sector
workers’ wages by at least six per-
cent short of the inflation rate for
the next two years.

It was the first hint of what may
become a massive national protest
involving public and private sector
unions.

OPSEU pledge, page 4

Public sector union leaders met
with Canadian Labor Congress of-
ficials in Ottawa Tuesday to discuss
strategy, which, due to the recent
decision taken at the CLC national
convention in Winnipeg last
month, may include a national,
general strike.

No final decision was reached at
that meeting, however, as the
union leaders await the results of
the first ministers meeting Wednes-
day, during which Trudeau was to
urge the provincial premiers to im-
pose similar wage-cutting measures
on their civil servants. The public
sector unions will meet again on
Monday.

See McDERMOTT page 8

< | “—

DENNIS McDERMOTT..

- gov-
ernment has a fight on its
hands.

- BCGEU holding province-wide strike vote

— page 8