Members of the Iranian Students Association in Montreal staged a

hunger strike to demand that two international observers now in Iran
be permitted to investigate the conditions of the 100,000 political
prisoners reported held there. They are shown here on the eighth day of
their hunger strike. Students were masked to protect their identity
from Iranian secret service agents known to be operating in North

America.

Morgan urges program

to meet jobless crisis

Cont'd from pg. 1
provide affordable,

B.C. lumber and_ creating
thousands of jobs in the hard-hit
construction industry; _

e Arollback of rate increases for
_ electricity, natural gas, medical
and hospital insurance and other
vital services. An end to cutbacks
in housing, education and other
public services;

e Establishment of a debt
moratorium for unemployed
workers to ensure that homes and
possessions will not be lost because
of unemployment;

e Policies to provide earlier
retirement with establishment of a
guaranteed annual _ income.
Elimination of ‘income taxes on
incomes of $10,000 or less;

e Establishment of the 30-hour
week with no reduction in take-
home pay.

e Policies to stimulate develop-
ment of processing industries,
including smelters, in the
province;

e Adoption of emergency
measures to prevent plant
closures, requiring all companies
to show cause.

CAVC sends
more goods

Canadian Aid for Vietnam
Civilians announced this week that
it had despatched its 47th con-
signment of goods to Vietnam on
the vessel Alisher Navoi from
Vancouver. The shipment consists
of 14 crates of warm clothing and
blankets and $3,750 worth of long-
acting penicillin. .

Total value of the latest ship-
ment is $10,250. This brings the
total value of the 47 shipments to
date to over $282,000 since the first
shipment in August, 1966. As well,
CAVC has sent cash contributions
of $261,000, making a total of
$543,000 in aid sent to Vietnam
since the committee was formed in
February, 1966.

CAVC also announced this week
that $18,000 is already available for
the Canada-Vietnam hospital
project toward the objective of
$50,000 which the committee plans
to raise toequip a 100-bed hospital
near Hanoi.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 25, 1977—Page 12._-

low-cost:
housing, caused a vast market for:

Morgan’s call for an emergency

jobs program followed earlier

statements by Bill Kashtan,
general secretary of the Com-
munist Party who called on federal
finance minister Donald Mac-
Donald to “scrap his prepared
budget speech and write a new one.
geared to a full employment policy
that will put Canada back to
work.” ;

Kashtan, in Regina as part of a
cross-country tour, called the
increases in unemployment ‘“‘the
direct result of the government’s
anti-inflation program by which it
stimulated unemployment to fight
inflation. .

“We have both now,” he said,
“and the government must be
compelled to change its economic
policy which is leading this country
to disaster.

The Communist Party leader

emphasized the need for united’

action by the trade union
movement, the Communist Party
and the New Democratic Party to
compel the government to adopt
measures to expand the economy,
establish control over monopoly,
and redistribute the income in
favor of working people and those
on pensions.

He also pointed to the Com-
munist Party’s programmatic
demands for action on the
economic crisis, chief among
which is the demand for a 50 per
cent reduction in the arms budget.

Peace workers
mourn activist

Peace workers are mourning the
loss of one of their most active
members with the passing of Ann
Engle in Vancouver last Saturday
at the age of 68 after a long illness.

Born in Winnipeg, she came to
Vancouver in 1943. Deeply devoted
to the cause of peace, she has been
an active member of various peace
groups since 1956. A founding
member of the Peace Action
League, Ann Engle was a member
of the Canadian Committee for
Nuclear Disarmament, Voice of
Women, and in recent years both
she and her husband Ely actively
supported the campaign for
medical aid to Vietnam.

The Tribune joins in expressing
condolences to her husband, Ely,
her son and stepson.

‘

Reports from Victoria tell us that
the university there is planning
seminars on co-determination and

has attempted to get the Victoria.

Labor Council as one of the
sponsors.

On June 7, 1968 Fernand Daoust,
general secretary of the Quebec
Federation of Labor, gave a bit of
advice on co-determination which
is worth repeating:

“Participation, if it is not to be
merely a farce and a hoax, sup-
poses a profound transformation of
our trade union movement and of
our whole society. If workers are to
realize their aspirations of real
power (in decision making) they.

will first have to exercise political:

power.”

This quotation brings to mind the
Co-Determination Law of 1976 of
the Federal Republic of Germany.
It extended co-determination from
the coal, steel and iron industry to
all corporations with more than
2,000 employees. Under this
legislation, a corporation has three

governing bodies: (1)
stockholders; (2) board of
supervisors; (3) board of

management. German law clearly
defines the tasks and
sponsibilities of each body.

Depending upon the number of
employees, the board of super-
visors (directors) will have 12, 16
or 20 members, divided equally
between the employees and the
shareholders. Trade unions repre-

senting the employees are entitled

to two members on the board in
firms with up to 20,000 employees,
with the remaining seats allocated
to blue collar, white collar and

‘senior management employees on

a proportional basis, with each
category guaranteed one seat.

Thus, on a 16- or 20-member

board, the union would elect only

two directors. The remaining
employee representatives are
elected by ballots outside the union
structure and in many cases they
are not union members. It is not
uncommon in West Germany to
find that only 60, 50 or 40 per cent of
the workers in a plant belong to the
recognized unions. ;

Decisions by the board of
supervisors require a simple
majority, with a second vote in the
event of a tie. But if the second vote
fails to produce a majority, the
chairman casts the deciding vote
to break the tie. As the chairman is
elected by the stockholders’ repre-
sentatives, the stockholders are
thus given a predominant position.
The vice-chairman is always
elected by the employee repre-
sentatives, but he has no right to
cast a second vote.

An important task of the
supervisory board is the selection
of the management board for a
term of five years, with no
supervisor being eligible to serve
at both levels. The management

board in turn must name a labor

director to deal with matters
relating to personnel and human
relations. However, the 1976 Co-
Determination Law does _ not
contain specific instructions for
selecting such a member and this
has caused much controversy. The
unions feel that the labor director
must represent the recom-
mendations of the employees and

_their representatives on the super-

visory board. The stockholder rep-
resentatives reject this concept.

The management board is
responsible for day-to-day
operations, subject to review by
the supervisors. It is required to
keep the supervisors continually

informed of the current state of —

re-_

operations and projected ac-
tivities. The supervisory board is
also authorized to investigate the
activities of the corporation, to
have access to its files and-to order
the management board to submit
special reports and answers to
inquiries.

Superficially, what is described
above would appear to make a
strong case in favor of co-
determination, but only super-
ficially. Certain business ac-
tivities, and substantial in-
vestments in particular, can be
transacted only with the approval
of the board of supervisors. Should
this approval be withheld, the
management board can proceed
only after obtaining a three-fourths
majority of all authorized stock-
holders’. votes at a _ general
meeting.

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

It should also be noted that firms.
with headquarters outside of West
Germany are not covered by the
law. Thus, what we have is
something different than the
picture of co-determination which
has been painted for us by its
Canadian boosters. The employers
have the substance of power and
decision making. The workers live .
in the shadow of that substance.

By 1978, it is estimated, more
than five million West German

~ employees in some 600 companies

will be involved in_ co-

‘determination. It will affect 23 per

cent of all employees in industry
and more than 50 per cent of the
gross national product.

Neither the unions nor the em-
ployers are satisfied with the 1976
law. Each side maintains that the
law concedes too much to the
other. However, the report on
industrial democracy presented to
the February wage and contract
conference of the IWA points to the
fundamental weakness of co-
determination in West Germany. It
exposes the contradictions of the
whole structure in terms of lack of
real power for the workers. This
structure has its base in the
existence of works councils at the
plant level.

These plant councils have
greatly weakened the unions.
Although the majority of council
chairmen are union members, the
councils have had the effect of

-means that they and the wor

LABoR-MANAGEMENT CO-OPERATION? GREAT! ~-AS LONG AS
=a eesg eee a

es |

replacing the unions and keeping
union membership down. It is thé
plant council, not the union in thé
plant, which negotiates on such
matters as rest periods, wash-up
time, job classifications, meril
ratings, bonuses and incentive pay:
Union negotiations are conduct

mainly at the national, provincial
or regional level, leaving malty
vital issues to be negotiated by thé
plant councils. These councils have
tended to be ingrown, to identify
with management rather than th
workers. This tendency goes all thé
way up the line, to the board

supervisors and the managemé

board. It is no accident, becausell
was planned that way from tit
beginning. 2

In Canada, as distinct from West
Germany, the trade unions pla
more of an adversary role
relation to the employers. Thé
meet at the bargaining table #
opponents, not as partners. T
West German system is based
what some union leaders refer
as ‘‘Betriobsegoismus.”’

Ss

they represent are said to have
common interest with their pa
ticular employers, rather t
with the working class as a who
This loyalty transcends all ot
considerations and generates pla
egotism.

Helga Grebing, in The History
the German Labor Movemé
(London: D. Wolff, 1969) put it th?
way:

“The workers’ representati
identified themselves to a S$
prising extent with the fate of thi
factory or concern; nowhere doe
the employer find greater ul
derstanding than among the wor
councils concerned with
determination. There is too lit
readiness to take on real
sponsibility and too little militan
on behalf of the workers’ interes
the employees lack adequa
training for the tasks which th@
should discharge in this context.

As the facts about C®
determination in West Germall
and its variants in other countri@
become known, it will be molt
difficult for its sponsors in Cana@
to get a hearing in our ab
movement. Put simply, C2
determination is a structured for!
of class collaboration against
interest of the workers. What thé
times call for is class struggle @
restrict the power of i
monopolies and, ultimately, the
nationalization of all the ke
sectors of the economy. This wou!
open the door to socialism, whi
would give the workers the su”
stance of power, and not mer
the shadow. :