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13 pickets arrested

at Sandra

OSHAWA Thirteen members of United Auto Workers Local

22 Were arrested and held for up to four hours by Durham Regional Police, Oct. 26, for supporting 59 Striking bakery workers at Sandra Instant Coffee Ltd., in Ajax.

“They came in two paddy wa- 80ns’’, one of those arrested told the Tribune, ‘‘We were just walk- Ing in front of the plant with our Pickets, when the bus loaded with

Scabs tried to push through the

line. All of a sudden there were Cops everywhere picking guys out at random and throwing them in the wagons.”

The strikers, most of whom are

Women, Have seen nearly half of

their members and a large number of supporters arrested on the line

‘and barred from going near the

Picket line or the plant.

No women were arrested from the crowd of about 120 picketters Oct. 26, and strikers estimated the Police numbered more than 70.

The Sandra coffee workers, Members of Local 264 Bakery and

Onfectionary Workers Union

_have been picketting the Mother

Parkers Ltd., subsidiary since “une 17. Union security, and a One dollar an hour wage increase Over two years were the union demands the company refused to Iscuss, forcing the workers to take strike action.

Many of the labor movement here see the Sandra Coffee strike aS a test case for other employers I the community with small bar- 8aining units, and an attempt to Severely injure the trade union Movement, if the company suc- ceeds in breaking the union.

Police have been a common

ut a

plant in Ajax.

sight on the Sandra Coffee picket line from the beginning of the strike. At least one striker has been injured by scabs trying to bust the picket line, and many of those. arrested last Wednesday told of how one of the strikers was beaten by the police.

Another told of how the police had grabbed him by the hair when throwing him into the wagon.

The workers were mostly charged with obstructing police, and creating a disturbance. The magistrate also banned any of the arrested from going near the street where the plant is located or to the plant itself.

The 13 UAW members were part of a group of auto workers and Oshawa labor people repre- senting the union and the Oshawa Labor Council. The Sandra strike has won Canada-wide attention with the recent decision of the Canadian Labor Congress to launch a boycott of Mother Par- kers products. The strike has also

Coffee strike

An earlier Tribune photo shows scabs at strikebound Sandra Coffee

gained the support of the Metro

‘Toronto and Oshawa Labor

Councils.

The strikers say they ap- preciate the solidarity expressed by their fellow unionists in the community, but they stress that more help is needed to stop the scabs from crossing the line.

Russ Rak, Local 222 member, and federal Communist Party candidate told the Tribune, ‘‘if we would have had 300-400 people on that line this morning the cops wouldn’t have been able to get that busload of scabs through the line.”

‘Another auto worker said, *“‘maybe we ought to shut down General Motors for a day and see what kind of pressure can be brought to bear on Mother. Parkers?”’

A massive demonstration was being planned for Oct. 28 by the UAW calling on all of Oshawa labor to join the Bakery workers picket as the Tribune went to press.

OTTAWA — ‘Mr. Chretien ‘old Canadians (in his mini- budget) there are no miracle solu- 10ns to unemployment and in- ation and that we will have to Work harder and be more produc- tive. How can we work harder and be more productive when there are no jobs?”’

This was the response Oct. 20 ‘0 the Chretien statement the day €fore, by Joe Morris, president

Of the 2.3 million-member Cana-

dian Labor Congress (CLC). Morris singled out the federal 80vernment’s controls program a8 the main drag on the economy OVer the last two years, and noted

_ Chretien’s proposals actually

Ughtened, rather than eased wage Controls. b “It is amazing that wages are . “Ing restricted to 6% when the 'nflation rate is running well ahead of that figure, and despite what thi, Sovernment might like to unk, is not likely to moderate ‘Ignificantly in the near’future’’, ners said. “‘It is abundantly “lear that the continuing controls € directed at wages and that the new. restrictions are designed to a Uce real incomes and cut the tandard of living of Canadian orkers.”’ th The CLC blasted Chretien for © 2% reduction in what would ve been an allowable wage in- €ase-under the old controls law

CLC president Joe Morris.

and estimated the cut would rob .

the economy of $2-billion in lost wages.

The April phasing out date for the controls program, the CLC noted was actually an extension as many thousands of workers will remain under the program’s affects well after the original Dec. 31, 1978 termination date.

Modest stimulative proposals such as the so-called income tax cuts were seen by Morris as too little too late. He noted the an- nounced income tax cuts and the 1978 indexation factor amounted to about $2-billion, almost equal to what the controls will rob from

workers’ wages.

- Budget no help to workers says CLC

At best the CLC predicts, the federal government’s economic proposals: may create an addi- tional 50,000 jobs — a start con- trast to the more than 1.5 million unemployed in Canada.

Noting the government’s prop- osals “‘will be of little comfort to the 3.450 INCO workers who learned they are about to lose their jobs’’, the day after the budget came down, the CLC pres- ident attacked the federal Liber- als’ tax concessions to big busi- ness and multi-national corpora- tions. ‘‘It has already been shown

that these tax concessions have.

not created jobs. The economy is already operating at 82% capaci- ty. How can the government pos-

WEST GERMAN SOLDIERS WRITE TO CARTER

DORTMUND — Braving official retaliation, 15 Bundeswehr sol- diers of the Federal Republic of Germany senta letter to U.S. president Carter protesting the development of the neutron bomb. ‘‘The N-bomb will be deployed in our country”’, the letter says, “‘ ... we will be ordered to fire this bomb in case of war. We cannot take this respon- sibility ... ’? The letter urges Carter to stop the production of the bomb and take steps to end the arms race.

GREEK CP HITS GREECE’S NATO PARTICIPATION

ATHENS — The Communist Party of Greece (KKE), campaign for the Nov. 20 national elections, has called fora non-aligned Greece, free from imperialist ties. Harilaos Florakis, KKE First Secretary, criticized the government for subjecting Greece to growing domination by U.S. imperialism, a policy directly opposed to Greek national interests. ‘The participation of Greece in the recent NATO and 6th Fleet exercises,”’ he said, ‘‘is part of the plan to return Greece to NATO ranks...”

ISRAEL PROFESSOR AIDS SOUTH AFRICAN REGIME

JOHANNESBURG — Growing ties between South Africa and is

rael were spotlighted recently when Prof. Zeev Hirsch, an Israeli economist, addressed-a seminar here on trade and manufacturing cooperation between the two countries. Hirsch said he believed the West would not impose trade sanctions against the South Africa regime

and that Israel would not support sanctions if théy were enacted. The South African ‘government has plunged into a desperate public

relations campaign to attract foreign investment and tourism. Numer- ous seminars have been held in Johannesburg and Pretoria to attract foreign investors, stressing high profits, the protection of investments (low possibility of nationalization), and a cheap labor force.

PANAMA COMMUNISTS LAUD CANAL TREATY

PANAMA CITY — Ruben Souza, general secretary of the Panama- nian People’s Party (PPP), called the new U.S.-Panama treaties ‘‘a legitimate triumph of the people and of the patriotic determination of Gen. Omar Torrijos.”’

Souza made these remarks in a speech before 600 people gathered at the headquarters of the Panama Journalists’ Association in Panama City. The PPP is Panama’s Marxist-Leninist party.

Souza attacked the Panamanian opponents of the treaties who, he said, are mainly the old Panamanian oligarchy and their friends who are using this issue to cloak their real objective of eliminating the progres- sive, anti-colonialist government of Gen: Torrijos.

SOVIET WOMEN PILOTS SET WORLD RECORD

MOSCOW — Six Soviet women jet pilots broke the world record for non-stop straight-line jetliner flight Oct. 22.

The flight was between Sofia, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Pacific port city of Vladivostok, a distance of 6,260 miles, which was covered in 13 hours and one minute.

Iraida Vertiprakhova, flight commander, and five other women pilots for Aeroflot, the Soviet airline, used an II-62-M jetliner for the flight.

IRAN HOLDS 100,000 POLITICAL PRISONERS TEHRAN — The Shah of Iran has ordered the release of 131 political prisoners from jail to mark his Oct. 26 birthday. That leaves an estimated 99,869 political prisoners still inside the Shah’s many con- centration camps and prisons.

sibly think that more plant capac- ia

ity will overcome the problem of unused capacity in what already exists.

Morris said the $150-million set aside by Chretien for make-work schemes in high unemployment areas, could be better applied in the building of affordable housing which would stimulate manufac- turing sectors of the economy and create jobs.

He also reiterated the CLC’s demand for a $50 a month in- crease in.the old age security pen- sion to protect some of their shrinking purchasing power, in

_ the face of uncontrolled inflation

and price gouging by big business.

Mansi ae

KENT, Ohio — Club-weilding police pursu

a

ie demonstrators who rallied

-at Kent State University to protest the building of a gymnasium on the site where anti-war students were killed in 1970. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 4, 1977—Page 5

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