Unemployment insurance cuts are bound to be part of Liberal agenda.

Liberal review to touch
upon all social programs

A review of social programs was
never mentioned in the Liberal Party's
election Red Book. But that’s exactly
what the federal government pro-
posed in its first months in office. The
review goes to the heart of Canada’s
social safety net and will affect almost
every Canadian.

It will touch on all aspects of
income support, including Unem-
ployment Insurance, social assistance,
child care, training, and funding for
post-secondary education.

The first Liberal budget, delivered
last March, showed that the review is
intended as a cost-cutting exercise,
not an attempt to improve programs.
The budget reduced UI benefits, and
funding for post-secondary education
and social assistance - all programs
under the review.

During the eight days of public
hearings around the review last
spring, a government committee
received presentations from over 100
individuals and organizations. Most of
them, including unions, recommended
the following principles.

e ending attempts to reduce the
deficit at the expense of social pro-
grams or the poor

e federal government action to put
people back to work doing good jobs
for decent pay, in free and fair condi-
tions

© defence of the social security sys-
tem to include affordable childcare

Hearings on an action plan to set
out options for changing the social
safety system will take place in
August and September. This timetable
makes it impossible for many organi-
zations to participate. Legislation is
scheduled to be tabled in December.

The social policy review has
already lost credibility. The govern-
ment must start a process where
everyone has the time and resources
to participate. It must also show that.
the purpose of the review is to
improve social programs, not to trash
them.

-CUPE Leader/CALM

¢ Wooden path offers sight of second growth forest in Seymour Demonstration
Forest.

Demo forest

Continued from page 9

Approximately 50 professional and
technical tours were conducted in
1993 by Watershed Management staff.
Groups toured included Pacific
Salmon Foundation, Ministry of
Forests District Silviculturists,
Canfor, Fletcher Challenge, COFI

organized professional tours, and vis-
iting resource managers from all over
the world including Japan, Denmark
and Germany.

The SDF is a great example of inte-
grated resource management and
should be considered for simple fami-
ly outings and group tours. If you have
a group you wish to arrange a tour for
call 432-6286,

Jim Parker is a business agent
with Local 1-217.

e Almost every camp has shut down in the local union.

Logging camps

Continued from page 8

During the rash of camp closures
the only thing that the union could
sometimes negotiate was a temporary

living allowance. But those
allowances were often too small and
only lasted for a brief period.

When workers moved to small
towns, says Brother Szkaley, often 30-
40% of their cheques were eaten up in
room and board payments.

“The companies have taken and are
trying to take away every advantage

from workers that they can,” says
Brother Szkaley. “In the old days they
wouldn’t have done this but now with
high unemployment in the industry
they will try anything.”

In addition to CPFP, both Great
Lakes Forest Products and Abitibi
have shut camps down.

“Basically Abitibi rakes northwest-
ern Ontario for the past 60-80 years
and now have shut the camps down,”
adds Brother Szkaley. “They not only
shut the bunkhouses down, but they
don’t want to pay travel time as well.
They think that how you get to the job
site, even if it’s way out in the weeds,
is your problem.”

Carpenters fight against
open shop union campaign

The B.C. Provincial Council of
Carpenters is mounting a strong cam-
paign against the abuses of the “Open
Shop” movement.

IWA members who went through
the 1986 “contracting out strike” will
understanding why. Remember the
falling “Contractor” who, armed with
a pick-up and power saw, got 6 or 7
“sub-contractors”, similiary equipped,
to do the falling? Remember the mill
maintenance “contractors”?

The building trades are facing simi-

lar tactics, with on-the-job conse-
quences that are at least as bad.

The carpenters issued a special
booklet titled “A Case for the
Regulation of the ‘Open Shop’ con-
struction industry,” detailing some of
the worst cases of unpaid wages,
intimidated employees, flouting of
provincial laws, and so on.

Copies of the booklet are available
from the Carpenters Union, #305 -
2806 Kingsway, Vancouver, B.C. V5R
5T5.

Phone number 437-0471.

Labour day celebrates
its 100th anniversary

This year is the 100th anniversary of
Labour Day in Canada. Throughout
the country the labour movement will
be marching for jobs, and in opposi-
tion to cuts in Unemployment
Insurance and social programs.

Here’s how Labour Day came to be:

e In 1894 the Dominion Gov-
ermment of Canada declared the first
Monday in September a legal public
holiday, to be known as Labour Day.

This event was preceded for many
years by a Toronto labour tradition of
holding an annual parade and picnic.

¢ In 1882, Toronto unionists invited
Peter J. McGuire, founder of the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters in
New York, to speak at their annual
picnic. Later that same year, McGuire
called for a new American public holi-
day to be known as Labour Day.

e In 1872, the labour movement in
Toronto organized a parade of four
marching bands and 3,000 workers
from 13 unions. Their aim was to
secure the freedom of members of the
typographical union, who had been
charged with belonging to a union.
Organizing a union finally became a
legal activity on June 14 of that year.

e One of the first labour parades
occurred in London, England in 1834,
to protest against the conviction of
the Tolpuddle Martyrs, six farm
labourers who attempted to form a
union. Fifty-thousand protesters
walked in a show of support for the
labourers. After their release from
prison, five of the six Tolpuddle vic-
tims emigrated to the area around
London, Ontario.

-CALM

12/LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1994