4 pepe reds

“IAN SINCLAIR . .
_ Canadian Pacific's interests.

Continued trom pg. 1

’. Bennett to become involved with

his widely publicized criticism of
the deal and his pronouncement
that ‘‘B.C. is not for sale.’’
“‘This statement is pure,
deceit,’”? Communist Party leader
Rush responded, “‘The present and
previous Socred administrations
have, in fact, put B.C. up for sale.
Under their administration the
forest industry has in large part
passed under foreign ownership, as
have the mining and fishing in-
dustries.’” Crown Zellerbach is 89
percent U.S. owned, B.C. Forest
products 42 percent U.S. owned,

~Weldwood 74 percent U.S. owned

and Rayonier 96 percent U.S.
owned, he said.

Neither did Rush put any stock
in Bennett’s apparent deter-
mination to stop a takeover of
MacMillan by Canadian Pacific.
‘Although the premier made vague

. representing

promises that the government
would act, he was immediately
contradicted by his own minister of
forests, Tom Waterland, who said
that the government has no in-
tention of using any change in

ownership to withdraw some of °

MacBlo’s timber licenses.

“The premier’s statement is
political aimed at hoodwinking the
public into believing that the
province’s interests will be
protected, while Waterland’s
statements are an assurance to the
forest monopolies that the
government will not act to take
away their forest licences. The
Socreds are involved in a double
dealing game, talking out of both
sides of its mouth at the same

‘time,’’ Rush declared.

Cancellation of the licenses is
the only way to ensure that the
publicly owned forest lands,
presently held by MacMillan under
license, do not become the prize for
the winner of the corporate battle
between the multinationals, he said.

Rush said that Bennett should
follow up an announcement that
timber rights will be cancelled in the
event of a takeover with the calling
of a special session of the legislature
to nationalize MacMillan Bloedel.
“‘The Socred government has
shown no hesitancy in the past to
call special sessions of the
legislature to attack organized labor
and to impose _ anti-labor
legislation,’’ he said, ‘‘The
monopoly takeover of Mac-Blo is
by far one of the most serious issues
facing B.C. for many years and if
ever there was a need for a special
session to protect essential public
interests, this is it.’’ .

If MacMillan was taken over

by the government it would ‘‘open
the way for new policies to turn
B.C.’s forest industry towards
manufacturing and processing
instead of remaining raw material
and semi-processed based,’’ the
Communist leader said, ‘‘It would
also halt the export of capital which
Mac Blo has been doing to the tune
of hundreds of millions of dollars
and ensure that capital remains in
B.C. and is used for the
development of wood manufac-
turing and processing.”

The Canadian Pacific move on
MacMillan has made monopoly
control of B.C.’s economy and
resources a major political issue,
Rush said, with the danger of
ownership of the province’s largest
company passing to corporate
boardrooms in Montreal, which
would’ strenghten absentee
ownership of B.C.’s forest in-
dustry, contrary to B.C.’s best
interests.

“B.C. now has an opportunity
to reverse the trend towards
monopoly domination of the
province,’ he said, ‘‘The public
takeover of the largest company in
the B.C. would reverse that trend
and would start the process of
returning control of B. C.’ s
resources to the people.’

If the. government fails to take
strong action to prevent a merger,
the drive towards increased cor-
porate concentration in the forest
industry may be overpowering.
Canadian Pacific’s move is only
one of several corporate takeovers
and mergers that have rocked the
Canadian financial establishment
recently, and with the blessing of
the federal government. s

_,Millan-Domtar

Gov't takeover of MacBio presse .

CALVERT KNUDSEN
maneuvering for MacBlo.

As a Financial Post analyst put
it, December 30, ‘‘The case for
bigger groupings in the forest
products industry is strong. The
industry is operating in a North
American, not a Canadian market.
And in this market, MacMillan, our
largest, ranks tenth with $1.7
billion sales. A combined Mac-
Millan-Domtar would rank fifth
with $2.7 billion, above the big
Boise Cascade and after Georgia
Pacific, International,
Weyerhaeuser and Champion.’

Canadian Pacific, with its
assets of $7.35 billion, and a senior
representative of Canadian capital,
would itself grow considerably by
consolidating within its ranks a
giant forest monopoly like Mac-
which would

dominate the Canadian
industry and rank among
world’s largest forest pro
firms. Canadian Pacific
dominates Canada’s transpor
and telecommunications indi \
and has large interests im '
western oil, gas, mining and
industries, which accounted (
78.8 percent of its net incol
1977.

Canadian Pacific peneti
of MacMillan Bloedel has also!
underway for some years.
represented on the Mach
board of directors by Cail
Pacific chairman Ian Sif
Cominco boss Gerald Hobbs
former finance minister
Turner. Sinclair and his asso
were obviously well aware of-
likely key movers in — the
Millan decision to attem|
takeover of Domtar. Cané
Pacific then turned to MacW
and offered shareholders $2

share for enough MacMillan
to raise its holdings to 51 pé

ee ag” ae! ep ad eS ae

ee me” a” ae

Following Benné
statements last week that thes
MacMillan Bloedel woul
“unacceptable’’ to the pro
government, both MacMillal
Domtar released statements |
that each had suspended th
to buy each other, pendit
meeting Thursday with Be
But significantly, Canadian
said that it would not withdr
offer to buy MacMillan, af
stead would send chairma
Sinclair to meet with Bennett
the offer. The last statement
the MacMillan board 0
Canadian Pacific offer was
was considering it.

Figures show potential for

The trade union movement in
British Columbia has come a long
way in 30 years, in absolute
numbers. The B.C. Directory of
Labor for 1978 reports a total
membership of 450,802, as com-
pared with 135,326 in 1948. This
means it has grown by more than
233 percent. However, without
belittling the-significance of these
figures, it must be pointed out that
the number of organized workers as

_ apercentage of the total labor force

has not risen significantly in the
past 30 years. In 1948, it stood at 40
percent. In 1978, the figure was
44.9 percent, down from 45.1
percent in 1977.

Some interesting facts emerge
from.a study of union membership
figures going back to 1942, the
earliest complete set of figures
given in the 1978 Labor Directory.
For example, 28.8 percent of all
paid workers were organized in
1942, as compared with 44.9
percent in 1978. While this
represents a significant gain, there
has been a drop and a flattening out
since 1961. In the eleven-year
period 1951 - 61, the percentage of
paid workers organized in unions
went as high aS 55.4 percent in
1958, from a low of 46 percent in
1951. In the last year of that eleven-
year period, the percentage stood at
Be a plateau never reached again.

is proves the need to direct more

energy to the organizing of

unorganized workers.

While the Tribune has con-
sistently criticized Socred govern-
ment policies under Bill Bennett
senior and Bill Bennett junior, it
has also hammered on the point
that an NDP government under
right-wing leadership is unable to

. advance an affective alternative to

the policies of big business. Union
membership statistics tend to
support that contention.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 5, 1979—Page 8

When the Barrett government
took over in 1972, 42.4 percent of:
the paid workers were organized. In
1975, the year that government was
defeated, the figure stood at 43.7
percent. It rose to 44.9 percent in
1978, under the Socreds.

While, it would be wrong to
draw the superficial conclusion that
the trade union movement grows
faster under a Socred government,
it would be equally wrong to say

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

that all of labor’s problems are
solved by the election of an NDP
government. :

An analysis of the composition
of the trade union movement in
B.C. brings out some very useful
information.

The International Wood-

workers of America is still number

one in size, with 47,536 members.
However, the next four are unions
for public service employees: B.C.
Government Employees Union with
38,323 members; B.C. Teachers’
Federation with 29,329 members;
Canadian Union of Public Em-
ployees with 24,850 members and
the Hospital Employees Union with
21,060 members.

The Teamsters is number six
with 21,016 members; the Car-
penters number seven with 14,973
members; the Public Service
Alliance number eight with 13,788
members; the Registered Nurses
number nine with 13,516 members
and the Operating Engineers with
12,449 is in number ten spot.

The combined membership of

these ten unions and associations is
236,850, which constitutes 52.5
percent of the total union mem-
bership in the province.

Six of these ten are exclusively
in the public service field. Three of
the six, the Teachers, Hospital
Employees and Nurses are in-
dependent organizations not af-
filiated to the Canadian Labor
Congress or the B.C. Federation of
Labor.

The industrial distribution of
union membership in B.C. presents
an interesting picture. Manufac-
turing accounts for 26.4 percent of
the overall membership, for a total
of 118,941 members, of whom
64,336 are in wood and paper
products. Eleven percent are in
construction and 18.4 percent are in
mining, transportation, com-
munications and other utilities.

Thus, 55.8 percent can be
described as industrial workers in
the classical sense (as producers of
commodities for sale) as distinct
from. trade and public services
employees..

The largest single category of
organized workers listed in the 1978
directory comes under the heading
of trade and service, for a total of
199,168 members, which is 44.2
percent of the total. This category

includes __ trade, education,
municipal services and
miscellaneous’ services.

Miscellaneous services includes a
substantial proportion of federal
and provincial employees.

The majority of union
members in B.C. — 319,673 —
belong to unions affiliated to the
Canadian Labor Congress,
comprising 70.9 percent of the
total. Of these, 129,530 belong to
purely Canadian unions.

union movemen

Unaffiliated unions have a
total membership of 113,012,
comprising 25.1 percent of the
overall membership.

The Confederation of
Canadian Unions, with 15,131
members, has 3.4 percent of the
overall membership.

It is obvious from these facts
that the B.C. Federation of Labor,
the provincial body representing the
CLC in this province, is the only
center that can give the trade union
movement the dynamic leadership
the times call for, representing as it
does more than 70 percent of all
organized workers. That should
help explain the importance of the
fight for policy and leadership in
Federation conventions and why
political parties and the news media

observe those conventions so

closely.

' The Federation includes in its
ranks the majority of organized
workers in basic industries and also
a majority of organized workers in
public service and trade. It has the
power to make Bill 46 inoperative
and to compel the government to
repeal it at the next session of the
leet What is required is a

mobilization of the whole
bership — around the pina
an injury to one is an injury
Section 11, if proclaimed, |}
effectively take away the rj
strike from municipal, §
board, college, universitYp
regional district employees. —
It is obvious that one 0)
reasons why the Socred gover
introduced Bill 46 was to te
new and so-called ° ‘‘modé
leadership of the Federation
next few months will brim
results of that test. Active
members, local unions and
councils can decide the outco
the test by pressing the Fedé
leadership to mobilize the
labor movement, including
affiliates, in opposition to BD.
and the threat of right-to
legislation, and for a deny
labor code. ;
The trade union movem¢
the numbers to change the dif
of politics in B.C. What is reg
is unity of purpose and
around progressive and m
policies, cies that will reach ©
broad, democratic circles ¢
the trade union movement.j

'

x

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