N MONOP

Bi.

the price predicted soon.

Unity key in rotating strikes

By RICHARD ORLANDINI

TORONTO — “It’s been
a long time since we have
had this kind of unity in a
railway strike,” Jim Hun-
ter, the regional vice-
president of the Canadian Broth-
erhood of Railway Transport and
General Workers and the re-
gional coordinator for the strik-
ing railway workers, told the
Canadian Tribune on the eve of
the second phase of the two
week old strike.

“The picket lines of the 56,000

associated. non-operating work- .

ers in their rotating strikes
against CP and CN railways
have been respected by the
workers in the running trades
and by the shopcraft unions.”
Hunter said. —

The second phase of the rail-
way workers strike began after
negotiations broke off between
the unions and the companies
after the companies refused to
budge from their original bar-
gaining position of a paltry 7%
wage increase for each of the
two years of the next contract.
The renewed negotiations, which
were called for by the unions
last weekend, ended after only
four hours, when it became ap-
parent to the union negotiators
that the companies were not
serious about improving their
offer and were only waiting for
government intervention to break
the strike.

After the brief negotiations,
the non-operating unions in-
formed their memberships that
the second phase of the strike
would be “intensified” rotating
strikes. It is thought that the
“intensified” strikes will mean a
continuation of the rotating
strikes of Phase I, but the unions
will probably begin to overlap
the rotating strikes so that two
Or more regions will be struck
at the same time.

“The morale of the strikers is
high,” Hunter said, “and many.
of the various union officers
were surprised at the discipline
the workers had shown in return-
ing to work after their phase of
the rotating strike was over.”

The companies had evidently
expected the discipline to fall
apart as soon as the rotating
strikes were called because. in
one report to the Tribune a
striking worker said “the com-
panies had spent considerable
time and money in closing down
the railway operations; they just
didn’t expect us to come back
when the union asked us to.”

© Cont'd. on pg. 5

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Members of the striking Associated non-operating railway unions stand before Toronto’s Union Station
last week as they took their turn in a series of rotating strikes against CNR and CPR. The Communist
Party of Canada has issued a statement demanding that the companies settle on the union's terms.
See article on page 5 entitled “Demand Railways Settle Now on Union Terms.”

RICES HIT THE SKY
OLY PROFIT GRA

August promises to be the most expensive month in history for Canadian @
sumers. Prices are going up, up and up, with seemingly no end in sight.

Food prices, as usual, head the list::In banner stories spread across the fri
pages of most daily newspapers, we are told that everything will hit record hig

Globe and Mail, August 3: Price shocks: Bread up six cents, pasta by 150}
cent, canned meat, margarine, baby food rising. The Toronto Star, August 1: Pa
of beef keeps rising, pork, eggs too. From the same paper August 2: Steaks at t

In statistics carried by the Toronto Star, estimations are made, based on |
maintenance of existing market prices of live steers, of beef and pork prices throll
to September. Accordingly, hamburger will be $1.25, sirloin $2.50, bacon $1.70, p

shoulder $1.07, pork butt $1.20 and loin pork chops $1.89 by September.

By MARK SYDNEY

Meat Prices Soar 7

Some of the estimated
September meat prices hav! ‘
ready been met. Several aa
in Toronto are at
charging $1.89 for centre
pork chops, and’ $2.49 fot pf
terhouse and other steak ©

Bread to go up ‘it

All staples will see a
rise, especially bread, whit
expected to go up 6 cents “of
by the end of this month, #
with dairy products.

Reasons for the bread pt
rise are given by the fact!
wheat prices are steadily rie
With reduced federal subd
to the Wheat Board, af
policy now requires mil bi
pay approximately 50 °
more per bushel of wheal: i

Other articles in this oo
show that these goverl ig
regulations in -wheat Prt
will be passed along to co? yf
ers in the form of highe? f
fits for the millers and “4
monopolies. Even given ‘ret
cent increase for a loaf or’ ptt
says one letter, bakeries v
fits will be increased bY we
per hundred and _ fifty ie thi!
Another article points 0¥ 4s dt
per every hundred poum | a4
flour, the added cost of. a8
would only be $1.15.
100 pounds of flour is on i
for 150 loaves of bread, id
crease in cost per loaf WO" iii
less than one cent, eve?

@ Cont'd. on pg: >

=

PHOTO — BRIAN WILLNER

(EDITORIAL

Food profiteering calls for fight

While food prices are rocketing out of reach
of the Canadian people, the monopolies, already
fat on plunder, enjoy an orgy of profit-grabbing
unparalleled in history.

Federal government policy is to give them free
rein to send prices sky-high, to hit workers with
a hard line on wages and, unwittingly to expose
monopoly-capitalism in all its anti-human squalor.

Those who have no future because their system
has no future are intent on suckin everything
they can from society right now, before they are
swept from the serious councils of mankind.

The one effective response to the assault on
workers’ living standards is to fight back. Un-
breakable unity of all sections of the working
people is essential in the battle for decent family
lving standards, for government policies to curb
the monopolies, to stop the food price spiral and
roll prices back!

The fight for food is inseparably related to the
wage-front fights of the trade unions against the
giants of industry. It calls for a sharp campaign

\ in parliament by New Democratic Party members,

to the

whose whole party should commit itself liey)

grassroots struggle to change government p0
to put the brakes on monopoly. ted

The Communist Party of Canada, June 12, |
a three-fold attack on the inflationary prices SP!" +0
spelling out steps. the government must, take
protect Canadian living standards. Working We
all who are ready to battle the price gougers; the
Communist program demands more powers oe rol
prices board, investigation of monopoly’s con

of industry and agriculture and the effect ie
prices, and for democratically controlled PY is

ownership, to ensure that they serve the inter
of the Canadian people. Serving the inters!® |
the people is one thing the profiteering food m°
polies do not do. ee
The conspiracy of the monopolies and their a
ernment in Ottawa to soak the workers, the me ile
poly-wide campaign to crush wage demands W 19
hoisting prices of food to luxury levels, is ™ gle
than cold-blooded greed — it is the class strué'

in action. GEA
® continued on PA

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1973 PAGE 4