2nd Issue June, 1961.

WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

NICOLA VALLEY MEMBERS

yoting on the Conciliation Officer Report and

authority to strike, during the meeting held in the Canadian Legion Hall, Merritt.

Union That Owns Airline Now Is In Insurance

The Association of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Technic- ians, which recently startled the trade union world by buying an airline to gain representation on the Air Transport Licensing Board, has now started its own insurance company. eS It has gone into partnership with a

large firm of brokers in a company which is to handle all forms of insur- ance for the union’s 25,000 members and their dependants.

The original intention was to en- sure that all members had adequate pension schemes, but it has now been extended to give coverage over a wider field.

While the union will make a profit from its business activities it will give some benefit to its policy hold- ing members by giving them insur- ance at less than the normal com- mercial rate.

This union, which has the young- est General Secretary in Britain, 35- year-old Clive Jenkins, has also caus- ed many eyebrows to he raised by advertising for new members on tele- vision—and getting them.

It has been stated that the new members gained in this way have al- ready paid more in dues than the amount which was spent on the ads in Ulster and Newcastle-upon-Tyne areas.

ILO Survey Shows

Canada Lagging Badly In Social Security

How good is Canada’s spending on social security for those in need in relation to the other countries of the world? Not good according to the latest study made by the I.L.O. but if it’s any consolation we are well ahead of the Americans who are ranked with such countries as Portugal and Panama.

The study covers 41 countries and to even the casual reader, certain well- founded conclusions are immediately apparent:

@ Practically every country in the world has some form of social security. ® Most countries have medical care programs, the product of legislation. @ The countries spending the largest percentage of their income on social welfare programs are the highly industrialized, progressive states of western Europe.

It should be explained that the ILO study ranks as social security pro- grams such things as sickness and unemployment insurance, pensions, fam- ily allowances, public health services and so on.

To be considered for inclusion in the ILO study, the program must

- have been set up by legislation and administered by a public, semi-public or autonomous body. Only a few Iron Curtain countries are included, since the ILO did not consider the statistical data made available by them as sufficient.

Here are the top 33 countries listed, with the percentages of national in- come spent on social security expenditures:

West’ Germany spon 20.0 Switzerland ... 8.2 France ............ a ee 17.9 Wei Austria 7.6 Italy 6.6 New: Zealand #3225. es— 6.6 Sweden 5.7 Finland 5.7 Denmark 5.3 Netherlands ............ i 5.2 United Kingdom ... South Africa ccna 44 Ireland Ceylon 4.1 Guatemala ...... 2.9 Turkey 1.2 , Viet Nam 1.0 Australia 8.8 India 1.0 Canada 8.5 Taiwan oc 0.3 Chile 8.5

The ILO study is released at a time when the question of medical care through social security is developing into a major issue in this country.

For many of the nations in the world, this addition to social security would be considered relatively minor. Most of our allies, particularly in western Europe, have long since adopted programs of national health insurance which provide protection for all citizens. Countries such as the United Kingdom, West Germany, France and Italy are regarded as free democracies and yet they have found that freedom is better safeguarded when a high priority is placed on the health and well-being of their citizens.

In its article on the British program of national health insurance, Look magazine pointed this out by saying: “The crucial choice the British have made is to place health on the list of essential services—just as we do with education, sanitation, water supply, the police and the armed services. It’s a life-and-death matter, the British say, and they have acted accordingly.” .

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Progress with

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For over half a century the standard

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Pierre Paris & Cons

Japan Now Military Power

TOKYO—This may come as

a shock to greying veterans of World War II but Japan is again emerging as a major military power in Asia. Japan’s new military organization remains modest in size and defensive in nature. But military observers con- cede that the tightly organized, well- trained force, man-for-man, is rapidly gaining the status as one of the best in Asia.

It is considered as an increasingly significant counter-balance to Com- munist military power in the North- west Pacific-Russian, Red Chinese and North Korean,

Its leaders are experienced veterans of the Pacific war.

Ground forces chief of staff Ichiji Sugita is a son-in-law of former Premier General Hideki Tojo. He was on the staff of General Yamashita who planned the famed conquest of Singapore. He unsuccessfully attemp- ted hara-kiri at wars end but was aboard the battleship Missouri for the surrender.

Air Defence Chief of Staff is Gen- eral Minoru Genda, a member of Admiral Yamamoto’s staff at the start of the war. He was on the Japanese carrier “Akagi,” flagship of

.| the task force which carried out the

attack against Pearl Harbour.

The army reorganization, scheduled for completion by 1962, would of course, also allow for possible rapid expansion of strength in an emer- gency.

The Air Force, or “Air Self-De- fence Force” will obtain its first F-104-F fighter planes next year to replace some 460 F-86-F jetfighters, many of them produced in Japan,

The Navy (‘Maritime Self-Defence Force”) is already the largest all- Asian navy in the Far East.

It has two new submarines and two destroyers under construction to rein- force a fleet already totalling 104,408 tons. Already in service are 42 de- stroyers and escort-type vessels, 50 minesweepers and mine tenders and two submarines. s

New Canadian

Paris

Vancouver, B. C.

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