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= LABOR COMMENT

By JACK PHILLIPS

Members of the coast division of
the International Woodworkers of
America will be voting on a new
settlement formula. This time the
negotiating committee is
unanimous in recommending
acceptance, which was not the case
with the earlier vote on the Hut-
cheon report.

Shortly before the Hutcheon
report was released, the Tribune
said in an article: “If the
mediator’s report is unacceptable
to the membership of either of the
three unions, there must be a
united resistance, with one,
agreed-upon course of action.”

All three unions involved in the
wood and pulp dispute rejected the

Fed charges Ottawa,

ae een mere op

Victoria conspiracy

Cont'd from pg. 1

The charge had earlier been
made by several delegates to the
Vancouver and District Labor
Council last week who suggested
that one of the motivating factors
behind Barrett’s Bill 146 was the
knowledge that a wage control
program was imminent.

Barrett has also gone against the
policy of the federal NDP in urging
support for Trudeau’s program
while federal NDP leader Ed
Broadbent pledged his opposition
to the controls.

The nature of the controls was
underscored by the’ BC.
Federation of Labor which em-
phasized, *‘A detailed study of the
Trudeau wage control program
shows clearly, as might be ex-
pected, that the rich will get richer
and the poor will get poorer.”

Secretary Len Guy noted that
businessmen, professionals and
other high income Canadians will
be allowed increases of up to $2,400
per year while the average wage
earner will only be allowed half
that amount and low income
earners will be limited to $600 per
year -or. $10 per week.
“Stockholders and others who
obtain their wealth from ownership
will, with few exceptions, enjoy a
bonanza as the high profit levels of
the last five years will form the
basis for the allowable price and
profit levels for the years ahead.”’
he said.

He emphasized that there will be
effective controls on interest rates
and no curbs on land speculation
all of which will result in in-
creasing costs for housing. :

Real reductions in interest rates
and curbs on land speculation were

JOE MORRIS...
CLC’s nine-point program ignored

central features of labor’s nine-
point program put before the
cabinet by the Canadian Labor
Congress earlier this year when
the CLC rejected the proposals for
a wage freeze outlined by the then
finance minister John Turner.
The federal government,

LEN GUY

however, ignored the CLC anti-
inflation program.

“The clear result,’’ Guy stated,
“for most working people, pen-
sioners and others on fixed in-
comes will be continued erosion of
living standards as the real cost of
living increases exceed the
allowable increases in income.”

Guy also noted the effect of the
legislation on strikes in progress,
particularly the pulp and food
unions who were legislated back to
work by Bill 146.

In both cases, he pointed out, the
employers have already offered
more than is allowable under the
new controls.

“The chaos which will result in
these industries if the controls are
applied will be the direct
responsibility of the Barrett
government, just as the chaos in
the Post Office will be the direct
responsibility of the federal
government,” he warned.

He said that the short term result
of the political expediency of both
governments would be “hardship
on those least able to cope with
inflation,” adding ‘‘it is inviting the
worst shop floor disruption of in-
dustry Canada has seen for years.

“A year from now, political
observers will debate whether
Tuesday October 7 — the date on
introduction of Bill 146 — or
Tuesday, October 14 is the most
deserving of the title ‘Black
Tuesday’.”’

Tribune said that
_ guarantee against back-to-work
‘legislation was to hammer out

Hutcheon report. In the case of the
two pulp unions, the majority was
nearly 85 per cent. In the case of
the IWA, the negotiating com-
mittee was split, with the majority
recommending acceptance. What
could have been an 85 per cent
rejection was reduced to 51 per
cent.

The two pulp unions were
already on strike and it was ‘ob-
vious that if the strike ,continued,
most IWA operations on the coast
would eventually be closed. There
was heavy pressure on the IWA
leadership to declare a strike, but
they refused to do so. With disunity
at the top and too little contact
between the members of the three
unions, the situation degenerated

_ inevitably.

On several ‘occasions, the

the best

; common demands for the three
unions and a common strategy. It

, took no great genius to advance
these ideas. All that was offered
was the A-B-Cof the class struggle.
However, our advice was not ac-
cepted.

If the three wood and pulp unions

had united around one set of
demands and a common strategy,
and if they had mobilized their
membership and taken their case
to the public, it would have created
a political climate in which back-
to-work legislation would have
been less attractive to the Barrett
government.

The B.C. Federation of Labor,

which could have played a key co-
ordinating role, found it very
difficult to devise such a role for
itself. What many people don’t
understand, including some union
members, is that Federation of-
ficers have no authority over the
decisions of any affiliate in the
case of a strike or lockout. They

BILL 146

Cont'd from pg. 1
Gruntman, of the Canadian
Paperworkers Union stated that,
“there can be no question but that
the people who work in the pulp
and paper industry have been dealt
a severe blow by the actions of the
government they actively helped
elect.”’

He said that government in-
terference lends ‘“‘great comfort
and assistance to large cor-
porations” and that the CPU will
have to ‘‘deal with that injustice at

- another time and another place.”’

Guy said that the major factor
influencing the decision to comply
with Bill 146 was the intimidation
that the penalties for defying the
legislation carried. The legislation
allows for fines of up to $1,000 per
day for any individual not obeying
the law. ‘“You can just imagine the
fears, the intimidation that places
on individual people,” he said.

Lessons to be learned
from IWA, pulp dispute

can offer moral support and give
advice, but where a union holds the
Federation at arm’s length, there
is little the Federation can do,
particularly when they are dealing
with a union as large and in-
fluential within the provincial body
as the IWA.

With that background, and
bearing in mind the wage control
legislation introduced by the
federal government, members of
the IWA, arenot likely to reject the
new offer.

Both pulp unions voted to comply
with the return-to-work legislation
enacted by Barrett. Their
spokesmen have made it clear that
at best they hope to get the revised
IWA package, plus a few extras
pertaining to specific conditions in
the pulp industry.

We have spoken to a number of
wood and pulp workers these past
few days and none of them expect
that this latest offer will be
rejected by the IWA. Some of them
told us they intend to go to their
union meetings and raise hell
about the misleadership and
divisions they have been saddled
with. Also, they intend to roast the
Barrett government for its strike-
breaking legislation.

The extras in the new settlement
package, over and above the
Hutcheon report, can be sum-
marized as follows:

e Wages: A guaranteed cost of
living bonus of 12 cents an hour in
the last six months of the two-year
agreement. This bonus will be
subject to negotiations after the
contract expires.

e Non-Occupational Sick Pay:
An increase from $125 to $175 a
week, in two stages.

e Dental Plan: Slight im-
provement.

e Pension Plan: An _ im-
provement for those already on
pension.

The Tribune has on numerous
occasions drawn attention to the
raiding, counter-raiding and ex-
change of abuse between the

unions in the wood and pulp i
dustry. Judging by some of tht
current development, there is?
real danger that some leaders W
try to use the current situation ©
heat up an inter-union war. Thos
who follow this course, irrespe”
tive of the plausible grounds the)
offer, will be playing the game 0!
big business’ and the anti-lab0!
politicians. 4

If there are any lessons to
drawn from the IWA-pulp situati0!
they can be summarized #
follows:

e If the IWA had given: strom
leadership, a better settlemé
could have been negotiated by thet
union and~the two pulp uniol
working together. The fact thé
small improvements were ma!
over and above the Hutched!
report under the most wf
favourable conditions proves ©
is so. It was the negotialll
committee that recommend?
acceptance of the Hutcheon rep?
and the membership that. reject
it.

e If living standards. are to be
improved and the monopolié
prevented from shifting the cost
their economic mismanagemée!
onto the backs of the workers,
the labor movement must ®
united around class strugé!
policies. f

e The trade union movemée?
must advance the independel
political position of the workille)
class in relation to all governme?
in Canada, including soci?
democratic governments.

Major economic struggles by #!
working class soon become nigh!)
political, involving governme?
and all political parti®)
Recognition of this fact
organized labor means to com
independent working elee
political action with econom
struggle. ;

If a substantial numbe
workers learn these lessons, all ;
am sure they will, the labe
movement will be the better for ™F

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