brief...

-Condemn city's use of scabs

‘oronto Hydro Electric Commission has hired scabs to re- mbers of Local 794 of the International Union of Operat- neers who are on strike against the Terauley and Pearl ating plants of the publicly owned utility.

ling to the Metro Toronto Labor Council, this is the first the history of Toronto that any publicly-owned authority ted to the practice of hiring strike breakers.

uncil condemned the Hydro Commission and called on the City Council to intervene in the situation to conclude a lective agreement and end the practice of operating with pers.

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Bookbinders fired

} Council of Printing Industries and Cooper and Beatty, a To- ased printing firm, has fired its entire staff, members of Local Internatonal Brotherhood of Bookbinders, and replaced with the infamous Anning Services Ltd. This is the same firm las engaged by Continental Can in its strike against the Can- on of Operating Engineers.

} action was taken during the life of the collective agreement OFL has been requestd to press for legislation which will t employees during the life of their agreement, and also legis- wing scab herding private employment agencies such as

Pressing forward

ham Press Ltd. Toronto showed a $1,062,000 profit boost . Its profits were $7,518,000 last year compared to $6,456,-

wenue was $78,483,000 against $73,843,000 the year previous. ham continued its expansion by the purchase of Gazette ig in Montreal (The Montreal Gazette) and Fleming Publish- Owen Sound.

Fight Poverty Conference

i Poverty” conference is to be sponsored by the Sas- van Federation of Labor, on March 15-16 at the Institute of , and Sciences in Saskatoon. The Canadian Labor Con- Mucational Department will assist in arrangements and in- will go out to about 225 trade unionists, farmers, teachers, letis, students and church leaders.

Posties to merge

8 two major postal unions have voted to merge into one a special convention in Calgary next Aug. 12.

, Carriers Union, 12,000 members and the 14,000 mem- Union of Postal Workers have completed referendum of their membership where the merger was approved.

t talks arose out of the dissatisfaction felt by postal work- lective bargaining with the government. They considered r to unite to confront the government with a solid front Next negotiations.

e : Union syrup time you pour Bee Hive Golden Corn Syrup on your pan- mile, St. Lawrence Starch, Pt. Credit, makers of Bee Hive other starch products, was recently organized by the sale and Department Store Union. agreement provides raises lifting the rates to a mini- $2 per hour ranging up to $3.58. Other benefits include any taking over 75 percent of the costs of hospitalization coverage.

ALA to meet

‘U.S. Alliance For Labor Action (ALA) has scheduled its na- nference for May 27-28 in Washington.

ance, which centres around the United Automobile Work- the Teamsters, both outside the AFL-CIO, will also be at- y the United Mine Workers Union and the Internarional emen and Warehouse Union.

attention will be given to organization of the unorganized,

bargaining and community action.

Housing action urged

Toronto Labor Council asked the Canadian Labor Con- Spell out in the strongest possible terms its opposition to Task Force Report on housing. cil urged the following actions by the Federal govern- money available for those seeking homes at reduced tes; curb speculators and high cost of land through im- ion of the Carter Tax Report; revoke the 11 percent tax materials; a great increase in subsidized public housing.

$1 an hour for farmers

ge farmer in Ontario receives less than $1 an hour for according to the Farm Income Committee of the Ontario

hace on Agriculture.

mmittee said about half the farmers in Ontario don’t

money to meet their basic needs and two thirds of

ort of what would be considered a decent standard of

Y urban standards.

Rectify wrongs to Indians

Omar Peters, Executive Direc- tor of the Union of Ontario In- dians, presented a paper to the human rights panel of the Ont- ario Federation of Labor’s An- nual Education Conference in Niagara Falls February 15-16, In it he expressed his views and solutions to the problems faced by his people.

There are 558 Indian Bands occupying 2,199 reserves in Canada numbering 243,000 peo- ple and an additional 250,000 non-Status Indians living on Crown land but whose ancestors gave up their treaty rights.

In addition to this there are about 15,000 Eskimos who have no special rights and are virtual squatters on their own land.

Forty percent of them are liv- ing on relief, 47 percent earn less than $1,000 per year and 75 percent less than $2,000.

Infant mortality, Peters goes on, is twice the national aver- age. The life expectancy of the Eskimo is 20.9 years and the Indian 34 years, while the Can- adian average is 62 years.

About 57 percent of Indian families live in houses of three rooms or less and only nine per- cent have indoor toilets. Forty- four percent have electricity.

In the area of education he blames poor housing where study is difficult; the image in education of the Indian as an inferior person and the fact that

40 percent of Indian children en- tering school cannot speak Eng- lish as factors in the low Indian education level.

Peters cites these figures on education: 50 percent of Indian students Won’t get beyond grade 6; 61 percent fail to reach grade 8; 97 percent fail to reach grade 9. Only 150 Status Indians are enrolled in credit courses at universities.

After dealing with the main areas of grievance of the Native Indians Mr. Peters put forward the following solutions:

e Action to rectify the wrongs done via abrogation of Indian treaty rights. The Indian Claims Commission should be estab- lished as soon as possible. The grievances and mistrust by de- laying the settlement of claims psychologically blocks develop- ment.

@ Give the native people greater opportunities to run their own affairs.

@ Give Registered Indians

direct access to all provincial and federal services without the intermediary function of the Department of Indian Affairs. In order to accelerate development and reverse present trend of deterioration, the Indian-Eskimo Association of Canada has pro- posed that a special native Can- adian Development Corporation be established, independent of the Department of Indian Af- fairs, to serve all native com-

Campaign for fair

The Ontario Federation of Labor reports more than 150,000 postcards calling for the imple- mentation of the proposals of the Carter Report on taxation, are in circulation in the prov- ince,

The post-card, which is part of the Canadian Labor Congress campaign for tax reform reads: “The present system does not afford fair treatment for all Canadians. Under the present tax system low income families pay a surprisingly high propor- tion of their income in taxes to all levels of government.”

The Hamilton and _ District Labor Council has opened up a public campaign backed by a half-page advertisement in the local daily paper and a leaflet for mass distribution through- out the city. It is urging all its afilliates to get into the battle.

The Hamilton leaflet says, in part: ‘“‘We must protest, because the working man gets hit for taxes first—and hardest; be- cause capital gains—profits on lands, stocks, are not taxed; be- cause the mining, forestry and industrial empires don’t pay their fair share—you have to pay it for them; because profiteers and speculators use existing tax laws and loopholes to profit at the workers expense.

“If we earn $6,000 a year, taxes take about $2,000 of it, leaving us only $4,000 to live on. If they (professionals and executives) make $50,000 a year taxes leave them with $26,000— and that’s a lot of meat, pota- toes and maybe even a little gravy-

“The Carter Tax Reform pro- posals to end the biased outdat- ed Canadian tax system are well documented. They must be made effective so we can share in the prosperity of our country as well as the wealthy and corpo- rate elite.

“A truly just society is well worth fighting for.”

The Metro Toronto Labor Council, whose member organ- izations are participating in the tax campaign protested strong- ly at its last meeting against Premier Roberts’ attack on me- dicare at the Dominion Provin-

icici Uitte eae SUPPORT THE CARTER REPORT

DEMAND A FAIR TAX DEAL

munities. The proposed agency would be a device through which services of Federal and Provincial agencies would be made available in a co-ordinat- ed way to the native communi- ties in response to community initigtives.

@ The development corpora- tion proposed would assume the development function of the In- dian Affairs Branch, leaving that agency with trustee respon- sibility concerning land and treaty rights, etc.

e As a preliminary measure, a task force should be set up to examine the proposal made by the Indian-Eskimo Association of Canada and other bodies, the National Indian Brotherhood of Canada, with regard to a new structure to enable accelerated development of the native com- munities. The task force should consult with the various Indian and Eskimo groups across Can- ada. It would be essential that this task force include in its membership appropriate repre- sentation of the native people themselves. This should have top priority.

“In conclusion,” said Peters, “the situation of native people will not improve until and un- less special measures are taken. Just letting it drift along and hoping that matters will im- prove is unrealistic and un- worthy of Canadians as a peo- ple.”

tax deal

cial Constitutional Conference. » It demanded instead immediate action by Ontario to become

part of the medicare scheme and assurance by the Federal gov- ernment that it had no inten- tion to back away from its medi- care commitment.

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Citizenship Month 1969

The Canadian Labor Congress has designated Citizenship Month, February, as a month of concentrated campaigning for Canadian Tax Reform. The above leaflet is being distributed widely across the

country as part of this campaign.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 28, 1969—Page5 .