When the new Federal Labor Code was first introduced for Consideration prior to its adop- tion by Parliament, one of the Provisions having to do with technological changes came un- €r fire from employers’ organi- Zations. The very idea of prior Notice of such changes, with the Subsequent possibility of having © reopen and renegotiate con- tracts, and with the possibility Of unions being granted the pe to strike to obtain satis- actory collective agreement, ld not appeal to the corporate Structure within our private Profit society. As is customary M such situations, the govern- ment complied by making some anges. Whatever real teeth Nad found their way into the a Were systematically and , tefully removed and replaced H false teeth. Thus the virtu- Y toothless Canada Labor ode passed Parliament and be- ame law last June. ‘However, the same month er Minister Martin O’Con- appointed Harris Johnstone pene Labor Department as a een Commission to inquire What changes may still ave to be made in the Canada por Code. The problem now oat. attack is that before the a penment as an employer, and af €d private companies, can sy a the 40- or 37!4-hour mith into four days or less ‘ Out’ paying any overtime, . federal government will ve to change the law. Rae it now stands, the Labor i's decrees that time worked = ie of 40 hours per week ° ight hours a day within fed- ie ep coction must be consi- want Overtime. Companies that irs to fit in a‘four- or even eri “day week, or even to ex- ment with it, will have to any the overtime rate of time- a-half or cut weekly hours Maximum of 32 or less. Air Canada wants to try out a Work patterns with its of- Staff in Ottawa. The St. eee Seaway — Authority AN try the four-day week Staff Operators and maintenance - Defense Construction Ltd. ee BY BRUCE MAGNUSON is thinking of a four-day week being made optional for its em- ployees. Those, like the Seaway, that runs 24 hours a day and can operate three eight-hour shifts, have to work out a more complicated shift system for a longer day, perhaps two 12-hour shifts. None of these companies wants to test the altered work- week and at the same time have to pay overtime rates. Conse- quently they have asked for changes in the law. % * * Now package freight opera- tions of Canada Steamship Lines Ltd. of Montreal is faced with a strike of 460 freight handlers in six ports. The strike by four locals of the Brotherhood of Railway, Steamship and Airline Clerks, Freight Handlers, Ex- press and Station Employees, also known as BRAC for short, is over wages and hours of work. The union wants to match rates negotiated by the Interna- tional Longshoremen’s Associa- ‘tion with other employers, but the CSL maintains the opera- tions are not comparable and re- fuses to budge on the issue. At the same time the CSL, which in previous years has had permits to exceed the 48-hour work-week, and has worked as much as 20 hours a week at over- time rates is now faced with the Canada Labor Standards Code and has to base its operations on a 48-hour week. The CSL is now seeking to institute a two-shift system that would sharply reduce or eliminate overtime pay, a PO- sition which has now been made qa strike issue by the union. ok * % Some union leaders have ex- pressed misgivings : altered work week. The main thrust of the unions has always been, and ought to be now more than ever, a reduction of work- ing hours. If the four-day or even three-day work-week, with the same number of hours or more, is allowed scope for deve- lopment, the goal of shorter hours will be lost and more than a century of trade union strug- fe PAT GREATHOUSE | _ LEONARD WOODCOCK KEN BANNON ‘Three top leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW) have re- turned from a trip to the Soviet Union and Poland as guests of the Metalworkers Union in both socialist countries. In an_inter- view, UAW president Leonard Woodcock, vice president Ken Bannon and Pat Greathouse said it was an exciting, educa- tional experience and_ invited Soviet and Polish shop workers to make a visit to the U.S. as . » guests ‘of the UAW, (vicicilie about the © gle for shorter hours and les- sened exploitation will be put into reverse. In this technological age, when the benefit of increased productivity ought to provide a higher living standard and less arduous work for more people, we stand in danger of being robbed of its benefits by a re- duced buying power of the dollar and more ardous work for less people, expressed in mass un- employment and inflation. Ob- viously this is not the way to reduce and control, much less abolish, poverty. The hard line approach to labor by government and em- ployers will have to be chal- lenged as never before, par- ticularly around the battle for the shorter hours of work. It behooves organized labor to be- come much more vociferous on this issue than ever before in its ‘entire history. The struggle on the economic front must ‘be supplemented now by more action on the political front to elect spokes- men of labor, both working men andn working women, to Cana- » da’s next Parliament on Octo- ber 30. By JIM BRIDGEWOOD HAMILTON — The Hamilton and District Labor Day parade was the largest ever held. More than 30 locals and labor coun- cils marched. The parade route in the east end of Hamilton was more than one mile long and many of the marchers were en- tering the park before the end had started out. -The official count was more than _ 2,000 marchers with 14 floats. Some locals had over 250 marchers. Two floats deserve special mention. Local 525, UAW displayed Aerovox, a com- - "NOW SEE IF YOU CAN READ THIS!” QUEBEC TODAY : How the election sizes up By SAM WALSH How should Qhebecois res- pond to the election call by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau setting the date for October 30? Mr. Trudeau emphasizes that the main issue is: the “integrity of Canada”. But his conception of “integrity” was revealed in all its brutality with the sending of the army of occupation into Quebec, with the proclamation and the implementation of the War Measures Act, in his re- fusal to respect the normal rights of Quebecois. This “integ- rity” is based on coercion, on the refusal to recognize even the existence of the French-Cana- dian nation much less its right to self-determination. Such “integ- rity” is inevitably destined to be- come disintegration. The Conservatives also are wedded to “integrity”, and their new star performer, Claude Wagner, rightly says that Que- bec has never been so separated from Canada as now, because of the policy of Trudeau. But isn’t this the same Claude Wagner, former Minister of Justice in the Lesage Liberal Quebec gov- ernment, who ordered the brutal clubbing without provocation of peaceful demonstrators during the visit of Queen Elizabeth? “Integrity” police bludgeon style was the precursor of “integrity” Trudeau style. Social Crediters are also “in- tegralists” — which was only too apparent during the October crisis when Real Caouette de- manded_ wholesale condemna- tions without trial. Unfortunately, the NDP, in its last convention, also rejected the right to self-determination for Quebec, later purging them- selves of the Waffle group in English Canada which had sup- “ported the right to self-deter-. . mination, and forbidding the NDP-Quebec from using this slogan in the federal elections. But the Communist Party of Canada, and not only the Com- munist Party of Quebec, has demanded the right to national self-determination of the two nations of Canada for 37 years. -This is the sole basis for a Canada united without coercion, voluntarily, and which can lead to genuine equality of the two nations. The “integrity” of Mr. Trudeau et all is that of the wolf “integrating” the lamb. It is quite obvious that Mr. Trudeau chose the issue of “in- tegrity of Canada” in an effort to make English-Canadians (and also French-Canadians) forget the economic problems which are gnawing away at the living standards of the working people of town and country. He wants to cover up his policy of “fight- ing inflation” through provoking a disastrous increase in unem- ployment. We are presently the victims of galloping inflation especially in food prices, and unemployment continues to grow ominously. But that’s not all that’s rising. Statistics Can- ada reports that net profits after taxes of Canadian industrial cor- porations totalled $1.18 billion in the first quarter of 1972, up 36.1% from $869 million in the same period of 1971. This is the fruit of the economic policy of Trudeau. But according to him benefits should have “trickled down” to the working people in the form of more jobs. Every-. thing indicates that only one side of this equation has been realized — the side favoring the rich . The Communist Party of Can- ada demands a plan to create 2% million jobs in the next 10. years, among other measures, by nationalizing energy and natural ee OE) LABOR SCENE Bosses are determined | Labor Day placar ds told to destroy 8-hour day Hamilton workers’ aims pany which closed up after it received a large grant from the federal government and moved to the east coast. Phase one on the float showed production 100% and a Help Wanted sign. The next step was grant dis- closed, plant closure, produc- tion 50%, No Help Wanted. Fol- lowing that was plant shutdown and production ‘0.” The last phase was the sign “Manpower Center.” Local 707, UAW had a float calling for “Full Employment For All Canadians,” “A Pro- gram for Full Employment,” which said, “Stop Plant Closures and Layoffs,” “Provide New Jobs For One Million Cana- dians, Build 250,000 Low-Cost Housing Units Per Year,” and “Protect Farmers and Small Businesses.” Some of the placards carried by the workers reflected the political feelings of many: “End Foreign Takeovers” and “Full Employment — the Workers’ Right.” Parade marshal Bob Jaggard, who is the Communist candidate in Hamilton West, said the march was an all-round success. on them, by building secondary industries under public owner- ship and democratic control to process our raw materials in Canada, and using this to eli- minate regional disparities. Que- becois should put an end to the policy of Jean Marchand, who, for example, plays a cat-and- mouse game with the jobs of the people of Cabano, while grant- ing millions to great U.S. mono- polies in the name of “eliminat- ing regional disparities.” All the (verbal) gestures of Mr. Trudeau aimed at winning more economic independence from the vise of U.S. imperial- ism were translated into meas- ures which were so feeble, so laughable, that even his sup- porters are embarrassed. Not to speak of his shameless support of the frightful escalation of American bombing in North Vietnam, in return for the conti- nuation of lucrative American orders for war materials. The interests of Quebecois are involved in these federal elec- tion as much as those of all other Canadians, like it or not. The policy of boycott, proposed by the Parti Québécois some weeks ago, is thus really narrow and harmful. For a job or an adequate in- come for every Canadian as a right; for equality and the right to self-determination of the two nations; for genuine Canadian independence, Quebecois, like all Canadians, should elect the biggest possible bloc of ‘Com- munists and NDPers to the House of Commons. Those ‘of our readers who live in the con- Stituencies of Montreal-Laurier Montreal-St.: Jacques and of La- belle are fortunate to be able to vote for a Communist: in the same order, Jeannette Walsh, Claire Demers and Claude De- mers. Take advantage of it.