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Determination to win at Inco

Special to the Tribune

SUDBURY — Determination by the 11,700 Inco strikers con- tinues $o grow as the struggle by Local 6500 United Steelworkers enters its seventh month. The miners and smelter workers hit the bricks Sept. 15, 1978. -

In most recent developments ‘Local 6500 president Dave Pat- terson, March 12, turned thumbs down on a Labor Ministry offer to appoint a disputes advisory commission to recommend an end to the strike.

Patterson said accepting Minis- ter Robert Elgie’s March 12 prop-

From time to time we read ut various projections by e0iS et ite out ts ut inflation and -un- fore‘oyment to the minutest frac- tion of one per cent. : These forecasts go on and on despite the fact that they have mn proven wrong over and over

and over again. But they never -

m to give up. Now, if it were

possible under our adversary capitalist profit-system to make such precise economic forecasts and criteria, how come that we are now in a worse mess than ever before? Why have not these ex- perts been able to get the ear of those in charge of our economic affairs to greater success?

The Big Business magazine, Fortune, has raised this question in a very frank way about “‘the fading away of past illusions about the. abilities of economists to manage the economy, fine-tune it, and make it behave according to their desires — or the desires of the politicians they serve.”

There is an air of pessimism taking a hold in ruling circles. For example, experts of the Organiza- tion for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which combines 24 industrial capitalist countries says:

«The year 1979 will see a drop “in domestic demand in the -member countries of the OECD.

Unemployment will rise, while the rate of inflation will fall to an average of 6.5%. A relatively high level of utilization of production facilities and unfavorable pros- pects for the growth of export will not lead to a boom for private cap- ital investment. This is going to affect all members of the OECD as the next few months will see a slump in the United States which

osal would make a mockery of the. ‘15-months of contract talks the

union has engaged in with Inco. “Obviously we have more con- fidence in the. collective bargain- ing process and in Robert Elgie’s own mediators than Robert El- gie’’, the Inco strike leader said, adding, “‘our members know it was Elgie who told us to accept the four-cent offer back in September.”

’ Ontario’s Tory government seems fond of these commissions, having appointed them in the con- tinuing Boise-Cascade strike in Kenora and Fort Frances and the epic battle at Fleck Manufactur- ing at Centralia, Ontario. In both

_cases the commission’s influence

in the final outcome was nil. The

Fleck strikers and the massive .

public response behind them forced the company to recognize the union which was the main strike issue.

The Lumber and Sawmill Workers local at Boise-Cascade overwhelmingly rejected the commission’s recommendation for binding arbitration. Former’ NDP Ontario leader Stephen Lewis was one of the two-men

el to make the recommenda-

‘tion which the workers rejected.

Earlier in the week Patterson

will be followed by a slump in

West Germany and Japan in the

second half of the year.’’ Chronic Stagnation

All of which goes to show that the capitalist world economy has entered into a situation where the actual state of affairs is chronic instability at best, and chronic stagnation at its worst.

But big capitalists and their politicians are not about to change their ways. The name of the game is maximum profits at the expense of the working class. For this pur- pose big business and the capitalist state work as a team re- gardless of consequences for the people and the best interests of the country concerned. At the same time each branch of the economy pulls in various direc- tions to advance its own particu- lar interests.

The Canadian Construction Association, for example, is out to win more say in national policy decisions coming out of Ottawa. To make sure that the policy makers at the federal level know what the CCA wants, the as- sociation has paired two of its members to each Member of Par- liament.

The message which.the associ- ation wants captive politicians to hear is for government to keep its hands off monopolies in business and industry, and to ward off any pressure to put a curb on monopoly and profiteering.

The CCA wants long term economic planning the private sector can depend on, but does not want Canadians to put their hopes on the creation of ‘‘one great glorious plan’’ for an indust- rial strategy that would deliver the Cariadian economy to the prom- ised land. Being in favor of gov-

Business aims to Keep status quo

responded forcefully to com- ments in Parliament by the prime minister running down the Inco strikers. Patterson blasted Trudeau for his ‘‘arrogant stand’’ in saying the Local 6500 negotiat-

ing committee should bargain © with good sense. ‘‘If Trudeau had

used good sense in 1977 we might not be faced with a strike right now’, Patterson said. Referring to the massive layoff in 1978, the Inco strike leader said the government at that time wasn’t ““too worried about bringing nic- kel in from Japan . . . We will deal with Mr. Trudeau this year at the ballot box. Maybe Ill send him a letter and request he come to Sudbury and sit down and have a talk about the strike.”’

Public hatred for Inco is so Strong in the community, that even Sudbury mayor Jim Gordon, March 13, charged the multi- national with ‘playing Russian roulette with the community.’’

Calling on-Inco to make the workers a decent offer they can accept with dignity, Gordon said, “the strike is driving an economic stake through the heart of Sud- bury and for what? A stockpile? A few bucks here and there? An at- tempt to teach the workers in this community a lesson?’’ ~

emment restraint on spending, the CCA does not ask for more goverhment spending on con- struction projects.

Preserve Status Quo

“We are not pushing the gov- ernment for new projects.and we haven’t been for some time. We prefer tax incentives to encourage risk-taking in private industry,”’ says Ian MacInnes, newe CCA chairman.

The position is one of mainte- nance of the status quo. No change in social policy. - This means a free hand for monopoly Capital to do as it pleases, when it pleases and how it pleases. It Means a taboo on even the slightest effort to put a curb on land speculators, real property price gouging and loan sharking. It means ever rising rents, interest and taxes for ordinary working people. It means tax. loopholes and tax deferrals and exemptions for the wealthy. It means less and less housing available for ordi- nary working people that they can afford. It means continued and growing unemployment for con- struction labor. ;

- This is a time to unite the forces

of labor and fight back. As the.

1976 Labor Manifesto of the Canadian Labor Congress stated:

‘Labor: must not willingly enter any+ arrangement where only one-half of the income equa- tion, i.e. wages, is determined. To enter into a tripartite agreement under such adverse cir- cumstances would ‘indeed be using the union organization as an arm of both business and gov- ernment to restrain the workers.”

It is well to remember and, take steps to reverse course before it is too late.

HAMILTON — Six weeks of frustration on the picket lines

gel at Kent Stee!

Products led to a fight with police, March 12 after a management em- ployee drove through the line knocking several strikers down with his car. When the cops tried to arrest two of the strikers knocked down by

the car, the fights erupted.

SCOTTISH MINERS

REJECT OFFER GLASGOW — The Scottish executive of the National Union of Mineworkers, representing 23,000 miners, unanimously rejected the latest national pay offer from the National Coal Board of Britain; March 5. Mick McGahey, presi- dent of the Scottish union and na- tional vice-president, estimated the offer, accepted by the national executive by 15 votes to 10, to- be worth only 6 on basic rates, com- pared with the union’s original demand for about 33%.s for their

SIDBEC WORKERS HIT THE BRICKS

producer, went on strike March 5, after voting by more than 70% to feject Sidbec contract offers.

PROTECT OHIP

OFL DEMANDS TORONTO — The executive board of the Ontario Federation of Labor called on the Tory On- tario government March 14, to force doctors who have dropped out of the Ontario Health Insur- ance Plan (OHIP) to get back in.

‘OFL president Cliff Pilkey said

the federation plans to ask the health minister for a meeting on the issue and warned the principal of universal accessibility to health care, and OHIP’s very existence

MONTREAL — Some 3,500 Could be destroyed by the large workers at Sidbec-Dosco, the "Umber of doctors leaving the ‘Quebec Government-owned stee] Plan.

Ottawa pulls out rug from shipbuilding

- OTTAWA — The secretary of the 2.3-million-member Canadian Labor Congress has charged the federal government with a ‘‘calcu- lated policy”’ . .. to send the ship- building industry down the drain.” : ’ Donald .Montgomery, a

spokesman for the CLC’s

Maritime Committee, was com-

menting March 2 on Ottawa’s re- -

sponse to a bi-partite, manage- ment labor task force studying the Canadian Shipbuilding and Re- pair Industry. His charge that the

: federal government was abandon--

ing the industry was supported,

he said, by Ottawa’s rejection of repeated requests by shipbuilding

industries and maritime . unions

for the creation of a Canadian-flag

deep-sea fleet.

_ The CLC attacked Ottawa’s

current assistance program to the

industry as “‘completely ineffec-

tual’ and useless in stopping the

loss of jobs in the shipbuilding in-

dustry. The congress also slam-

med the federal government’s

stalling on the decision to limit

coastal trade to Canadian-

registered vessels.

* All vessels intended for explo-

ration and ‘transportation of natural resources in the Arctic

should be built in Canada, -the

Task Force Report recom-

mended. “‘It is absolutely crimi-

nal that the government has re-

fused to accept the recommenda-

tion that Canadian shipyards.

build ships for the Arctic,’’ the report declared.

It charged the federal Liberals with preferring empty rhetoric about ‘*Canadian participation in northern development”’ to action “which could mean jobs in ship- building and on-site development and exploration. Thus foreign shipyards will benefit from this trade’’, the CLC predicted.

“Canada is unique, among na- tions with shipbuilding capacity in its failure to provide substantial assistance and protection to this industry,’’ he said. In the U.S. all intercoastal trade must be carried in U.S. ships.”

He noted that in other countries construction subsidies ranged from 30-50%, while Canada plans this year to end its 20% construc- tion subsidy.

The CLC argued that restoring the merchant fleet would give the shipbuilding industry a shot in the arm and reverse the current layoffs trend. By refusing to do this, and by failing to take positive action in the Arctic, Canada could be losing “‘billions of dollars to the economy in terms of foreign ex- change and tax revenue,’’ Montgomery pointed out.

“Yet, as too often before’, the CLC leader said, ‘‘the govern- ment seems determined to pursue short-sighted goals, destructive to Canadian ‘sovereignty and the economy as-a whole.”’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 23, 1979—Page 9