'

powell epeiceiii

logy, speed-up and, with the

€lp of the government, by
Maintaining a wage level in the
Industry that lags behind the
high levels in other industries,
the government remains silent
about the recommendations of
the Freedman Commission.

What did Mr. Justice Freed-
Man say that won the support
Of the railway workers?

Mr. Freedman said, “Concern-
ing the theory of residual rights,
4 doctrine which holds that
Whatever has not been bargain-
ed away by the collective agree-
Ment remains within manage-
Ment’s exclusive control, the
Commission confesses certain
doubts and misgivings.

‘On the basis of the law as it
exists today the, company does
have the right to institute run-
throughs.

“Should it continue to have

right? The question here
Taised lies at the heart of this
quiry. The Commission is sat-
Sfied that it must be answered
Only in one way. The institution
Of run-throughs should be a mat-
ter of negotiations.”

That’s all the Mr. Freedman
Said, but it was enough. And if
Tun-throughs should be negotia-

_'€d so should centralization of
Services, so. should a 10 percent
eduction of clerks, so should
Pensions, so should rail line
abandonment, so should reduc-
tion of passenger service—for
What is involved here is a bigger

Question of bringing the giant
Tailway monopolies under pub-
lic control—under the control of

© government and in the inter-
€sts of the people.

Railworkers and
the challenge of
the seventies

By A RAILWAY WORKER

If one is to judge by the 1969
8Pplications to the Canadian
Tansport Commission by the
N and CP to abandon over 30
branch lines involving thousands
Of miles of track, and the fur-
€r application of the CPR to
Cut back its operation on the
Ontreal - Toronto - Vancouver

run, rail workers’ problems re-
main what they were since the
war, only more so.

This was demonstrated by the
callous dismissal by the CPR of
500 cjerks early in 1970 after
the. clerks’ union had put up a
long, bitter fight for upgrading
salaries to bring them in line
with other industries. Rail un-
ion leaders have estimated that
if the CPR is allowed to ration-
alize its operation on the “Cana-
dian,” its transcontinental pas-
senger train, another 500 rail
jobs will disappear. —

Job security is a number one
issue with railway workers. The
total number of CN employees
has declined from a peak of
131,297 in 1952 to slightly more
than 85,000 today. A_ similar
trend exists on the CP.

The rail unions are taking up
the fight. The Canadian Railway
Labor Association has begun to
mount an effective campaign to
expose the “profits first” policy
of the CPR and the connivance
of the Canadian Transportation
Commission and the Govern-
ment. The.CRLA. and four rail

unions combined efforts to
launch a public campaign called
STOP (Sane Transportation
Policy).

The STOP campaign has won
wide support among the public:
The rail unions were joined by
city councils and spokesmen of
the Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta governments to oppose
the application of the CPR to
curtail operation of the “Cana-
dian.’ Faced with. widespread
public opposition, CP’s applica-
tion has been temporarily held
up.
The Canadian Transportation
Commission, faced with a deluge
of protests, denied the CP’s
application and ordered public
hearings. The hearings in the
west produced solid public oppo-
sition to the CP’s request. No
doubt hearings scheduled in the
East for September will pro-
duce the same result.

Faced with the CTC denial
and the public outcry, the Cana-
dian Pacific arrogantly made
application to cut back services
on both its Montreal-Ottawa
and Montreal-Quebec runs. The
Canadian Transportation Com-

mission has ordered the CP to

maintain its present operation
between Montreal and Quebec

but it would appear that it will
allow the 60% reduction on the
Montreal-Ottawa route.

The role of Transport Com-
mission chairman J. Pickersgill
is openly on the side of the rail-
ways. So barefaced is’ Pickers-
gill’s support for the CP that he
was served with an injunction
by the rail unions declaring him
to be unfit to hear presentations
on CP’s application. The courts
did not uphold the unions’ de-
mand, but the action served to
fully expose Pickersgill as a big
business and monopoly spokes-
man completely in the pocket of
the CPR brass.

The hand of: the federal gov-
ernment in this business is evi-
dent. Pickersgill was picked by
the Liberal Party to head up the
newly organized CTC as the
transportation industry’s chief
executive. The role of the CTC
is to coordinate and facilitate
with the assistance of the gov-
ernment the transportation in-
dustry’s drive for profit. The
Canadian Pacific Railway is the
deciding influence on all CTC
policy questions. _

It’s the job of the CTC to as-
sure the Railways that if they
are ordered to maintain opera-
tions on so-called “unprofitable
runs,” the railways will be sub-

‘sidized out of the public purse

for up to 80% of such “‘losses.”

The big rail monopolies are
not getting away with their
“profits-first | and-the-public-be-
damned” policies. The CPR top
brass, angered by having its pet
schemes: stalled by public oppo-
sition , has reacted savagely
against the workers by ordering
lay-offs right across Canada and
by cutting back passenger serv-
ices. The lay-offs are over and
above what the reduction in per-
sonnel would have been if its
plans to rationalize the Cana-
dian had been allowed. The CP
is having its revenge at the ex-
pense of railway workers’ jobs.

The struggle for job security
will be solved when the big rail
monopolies are brought under
full public control, and when
transportation policy is based on
the interests of the country and
not the “profits-first” policy of

‘the bond holders and boards of

directors of the CP and CN.
The demand of the rail unions

during the recent CTC hearings

in the west for the nationaliza-

tion of the CPR is a step in that .

direction. To make it stick, the
good beginnings of the CRLA
and its STOP campaign must be
joined by the whole labor move-
ment in a mass struggle for a
new transportation policy to ex-
pand job opportunities on the
railways, institute the Freedman
recommendations, nationalize
the CPR; halt all plans to reduce
service and abandon lines, and
get on with the job of meeting
the new demands for rail ser-

vice.

EXCLUSIVE

Why Dubcek was expelled
from the Communist Party

of Czechoslovakia

Full text of a Rude Pravo article analyzing for
the first: time the detailed role played by Dubcek
in the summer of 1968. Appears in the INFORMATION
BULLETIN Nos. 15-16—available as a free supple-

READ

communist
viewpoint

September-October issue —
e Ultra-left in Canada
e Black Panther Party
e Trudeau's Foreign Policy
78 cents' 3.48%

aay

ment with regular subscription to

REVIEW, $3.50 a year.

Subscribe now and receive this important issue
FREE. Limited number of copies on sale—10 cents
each. Order from Progress Books, 487 Adelaide W.,
Toronto, or your local bookstore.

ENC, $...

‘wees

WORLD MARXIST

———————————————————

i tp